Oakland,

Please join me on Twitter , Facebook or YouTube for our second online Town Hall this Thursday, March 26, at 6 p.m. I’ll be joined by Dr. Erica Pan , Interim Health Officer at the Alameda County Public Health Department. Dr. Pan will give an update on the county’s response, the challenges ahead, strategies to stay healthy, and answer your questions about the “do’s and don’ts” of the public health order.

We will also be joined by Alexandria McBride , Oakland’s Chief Resilience Officer to discuss our city’s overall planning and response to the pandemic. We’ll have experts on hand to speak about worker’s benefits, housing concerns, and our assistance to unsheltered residents.

You can start submitting questions by clicking on this link: www.bit.ly/oakonlinetownhall

Please share this info with a friend and tune in Thursday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., on my Twitter , Facebook , or YouTube pages. You can also follow me on Instagram here .
On Monday I held a Zoom call with 145 local business owners to share resources and put them in touch with our Oakland Business Assistance Center – a one-stop shop for employers and workers. (You can watch and listen to the meeting by clicking here .)

We want all our business owners to fill out the business impact survey to be well positioned for the recovery process. Click here to fill it out.

Last week, I also held a Zoom chat with close to 100 Oakland faith leaders and this week I’m scheduling a video conference with organizations who serve our immigrant and undocumented families as well as our LGBTQ communities.

We want to host more video events with Oakland community groups. If you are a member of a constituent group who wants to learn about the city’s resources that directly address your community’s specific concerns, please send suggestions and a contact to Yvonna Cazares, Director of Community Engagement, at ycazares@oaklandca.gov.

We want to organize and connect.
As Oaklanders, we love our open spaces – and a hike or jog is great for our mental health right now. But we are failing to properly socially distance in the parks – and residents are still using Lake Merritt to gather to meet up with friends.

If we don’t get this right, the parks will be the next space health officials direct us to shut down. Use the parks to personally exercise for a quick run or hike – please don’t use them to host gatherings.
We are all in this together – and we all need to do our part to keep everyone healthy.
On Tuesday I Skyped in to KTVU to make an announcement about the generous donations coming in to the Oakland COVID-19 Relief Fund . Since we launched the fund on Friday , we’ve already stood up two testing sites for our first responders.

The fund also helps us deliver food to our seniors, provide assistance to small local businesses, fight displacement of families, and care for our unsheltered residents. To learn more and donate to the fund, click here .

We’re also seeing a generous outpouring of volunteer support from Oaklanders – and you can sign up to join them right here .
 
These are the stories that bind us together, Oakland. I know this is an unprecedented and uncertain time. Yet I remain encouraged and grateful for the way our community works together in times like these.

Let’s keep at it.

With Oakland love,

Mayor Libby Schaaf