Nearly 50 community members, mostly from Oakland, gathered last night a public forum at the Women of Color Resource Center in downtown Oakland. The event was in response to the much-publicized gang rape that occurred Oct. 24 at Richmond High School.

Oakland Local reporter Amy Gahran was there and will be filing a fuller report later today. A recurring theme among participants was that sexual violence against women "happens all the time" in Oakland, and except for extreme cases generally receives very little media attention or public discussion. Several community groups active on violence, gender, and youth issues co-sponsored this event and representatives were available to share resources with attendees.

Wendy Dutton, a social worker with the Highland Sexual Assault Center (serving Alameda County), told Oakland Local that the Family Justice Center is planning a workshop that will address the "bystander issue" that played a prominent role in the Richmond rape.

In other news, today Zennie62 posted an overview of local reactions to Oakland's parking policies. In this piece, he challenges a quote from acting city communications director Karen Boyd included in .

On Nov. 9, acting city communications director Karen Boyd told CBS 5 that "There's been a perception that ticket-giving is up. In fact our records indicate that in fact it's actually slightly down." She also claimed the city is issuing an average of 39,000 tickets a month compared to 43,000 a month last year.

"Nothing personal," retorted Zennie, "but Karen Boyd forgets that number of tickets issued should be much lower than that for 2008 and not 'slightly' lower than in 2008. Why? The economy. Many more Oaklanders are unemployed and thus not using their cars. Almost one of every five Oaklanders are unemployed; that was not true in 2008.

"Moreover, with the City of Oakland's parking tow sting in force, tow truck drivers have told me that they're taking cars off the road and are worried about their market drying up!"

What do you think about Oakland's new parking policies and enforcement? How is it affecting you? Comment below.

Finally, a few tickets are still available for the Thursday evening Ella Baker Center fundraiser.

Photo of downtown Oakland, seen across Lake Merritt at night, by Hitchster. Available under Creative Commons license, via Flickr.

About Amy Gahran

Amy Gahran is an itinerant troublemaker and info provocateur who recently moved to Oakland CA after spending 14 years in Boulder, CO. Her background is as a journalist, editor, and managing editor mainly covering energy, environment, and business. For the last 12 years she's been happily and gainfully self-employed, mostly helping organizations, institutions, and individuals wrap their brains around the internet. Speaking of brains, Amy is also Oakland Local's official zombie reporter.