Home > Areas of Focus > Beautification, > Blight

Blight & Dumping

Here's the kind of issues we are working on with blight & dumping:

Dumping on Skyline near Chabot & on Scout near USPS collection box

There are a number of regulations that have been created by the City of Oakland regarding how we maintain our private and public spaces. A good summary is available on the Piedmont Pines Neighborhood Association Web site at http://www.piedmontpines.org/gar_hwy_mail.html

MSIC Goals:

1. Increase Awareness of extent and cost of dumping in Montclair and city wide, and that dumping is not just an urban issue.
2. Improve awareness and use of alternatives to dumping, such as location of recycling centers, Waste Management pick ups, legal use of city dump, city yard waste dumpsters.
3. Create an easy guide of contacts and procedures to report dumping and get debris removed.
4. Encourage legal enforcement actions to prevent dumping, not just continue to clean it up.

Scope:

• Dumping, especially on remote stretches of road
• Litter, on roadside and sidewalks
• Abandoned/dumped cars
• City employee dumping (still)
• Blighted yards
• Green waste from resident and private vegetation clearing
• Overflowing trash cans in the Village, especially on weekends

Activities:

1. Create simple guide of phone numbers and procedures for reporting dumping, removing debris, and litter and blight enforcement.
2. Identify hot spot areas in Montclair, gather pictures, documentation, testimonials. Reach out to other Montclair community groups. Compare Montclair and city-wide dumping hot spot lists.
3. Work with Oakland City Auditor, Budget Office and Public Works to document actual cost the city now spends to clean up after dumpers (city wide and in Montclair) and compare amount to other vital city services that are shortchanged.
4. Coordinate with Oakland Litter Enforcement Officer Program and review its objectives.
5. Gather documentation on existing blight and dumping ordinances in Oakland and how much they are currently enforced.
6. Work with Fire Department to get definitive schedule of green waste dumpsters that can be publicized in advance, and new chipper procedures
7. Evaluate city control over permits for private renovation contractors and vegetation contractors (who may be dumping sources) and mechanisms to reports dumping violations.
8. Review existing strategies for prevention, including enforcement, signage, motion detection cameras, including one time costs, and compare to continuing cost of chronic cleanup.
9. Work with police department, litter enforcement officers, public works, State and Solid Waste Management Board, to improve enforcement strategies and identify revenue generation potential for fines in chronic dumping areas and littering tickets in frequent litter areas like exit ramps.

Back to Beautification Projects