ABOUT BEVERLY BLYTHE

I have lived in Oakland since 1977. I fell in love with this city in 1973 on a visit with five girl friends. As a young mother I waited four years before I came back. Six weeks later I was an Oakland resident.

To me Oakland was an Oasis; the weather was perfect, compared to Texas. The communities were friendly and the City was very clean. "I named it the Alpine City."

In 1994 I became acquainted with volunteering and I've been in tune with what is happening in Oakland from the grassroots level.

I was elected to the Fruitvale Community Development Council under the City of Oakland and the Council of Seven Chairs. The Fruitvale Council was made up of District 5 residents who brought to the Council their experience and knowledge of what was happening in the District 5 which included Fruitvale/San Antonio at time. Some of those needs included:

Commercial Areas
Changes residents would like to see.
Mexican Stores
African American Stores
Computer Stores
A decent Shopping Mall
Macys/Sears Stores

Services
Health Care Programs
Senior Services
Inadequate Educational Services
Technology Access Services

Youth
More effective youth services
Need focus on computer training
Boredom of youth
At risk programs for children
Inadequate educational programs
Medical Coverage for 18 year olds
Not enough for students that do poorly in school
Youth Sex and drug education
Too many idle students on the streets

Employment
Employment (living wage) needs
Coordination between business/job training
Employment/job placement for English/non-English speaking residents
Inadequate educational

Recreation
Not enough Parks
homelessness
gangs
crime
truancy
noise
Lack of activities for children

Housing
More affordable housing
Cannot find affordable housing
Excessive Rents
Parking inadequacy

Transportation
Lower bus fares
Insure drivers stop for residents
More frequent Sunday Services
Making sure that drivers stop for riders
Not enough parking
Potholes/street paving

Specific Needs
Life coping skills for youth
Control of drug dealing/public drinking
Affordable Housing
Citizenship Services
General counseling services
Life coping skills for youth

Fast forward to 2008

We still have these needs and concerns. The council went door to door to talk with people and made funding recommendations based on board meeting presentations results and what we heard from the community.

Funding recommendations included (to name a few):

  • Computers of Allendale Park Recreation Center
  • Turf for Fremont High School
  • Expansion funding for Spanish Citizens Foundation
  • Father Figure Program/Calvin Simmons Middle School (mentoring program)
  • Quasi-Internship for students to accompany professionals while they did their jobs at Highland Hospital to acquaint them with the medical profession.
  • Expansion of Peralta Hacienda Park
  • Kennedy Childcare Center for special children
  • The Spanish Unity Council (Unity Council)

Over the years we canvassed the community with funding recommendations.

As Vice-Council of Seven Chairs

The Council made funding recommendations for affordable housing, The Community Center at the Old Merritt College; Central East Oakland Housing Project at Seminary & International Blvd and others.

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Contact Beverly at 510.532.0333 or FayeBeck@comcast.net