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Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition  Platform 2015-2018

MISSION

Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition (OCNC) is a community centered, city-wide arts and culture action and advocacy group  formed in June 2015 with a mission to "Keep Oakland creative, affordable and vibrant!"  . The coalition is made up of Oaklanders and community members who believe Oakland's economic growth and overall well-being depends upon cultural equity and economic justice.  Our founding was sparked by the accelerating displacement of artists, their families, and longstanding arts organizations on both sides of The Bay. We are working together to strengthen the health and vibrancy of our diverse and dynamic neighborhoods, including the enactment of more robust arts and culture policies by the City of Oakland.

VISION The City of Oakland values its creative community and cultural equity. The City enacts policies that preserve Oakland's cultural legacy and assets, institutions, neighborhoods and communities of color -  immigrant and low income - those who are drivers of our culture but often the most underrepresented and under- resourced. The City of Oakland builds its internal infrastructure to better meet the creative needs of residents and cultural producers,starting with the creation of an Oakland Art and Culture Commission, and a neighborhood based cultural plan that leverages the people and community assets already being cultivated on the grassroots level.

CORE GUIDING PRINCIPLES 1. Oakland’s economic growth & well-being depend upon the health of the arts and culture community 2. Cultural Equity is inextricably tied to racial & economic justice and community health 3. Citywide resourcing– beyond Uptown, funding and resources must reach East and West Oakland too (e.g. the flatlands) 4. Community Oriented – both the processes of cultural development and funding recipients 5. Local First – policies must prioritize Oakland residents from historically underrepresented communities in both funding allocations and arts programming

5 AREAS OF FOCUS FOR A ROBUST CULTURAL EQUITY POLICY IN OAKLAND: 1. Strengthen the City’s Arts and Culture related infrastructure- appropriately staff and fund departments and commissions 2. Establish an Oakland Arts & Culture Commission with citywide representation and decision making power 3. Develop City of Oakland Arts and Culture master plan, cultural policies & guidelines with strong community input & oversight 4. Increase funding for local artists, schools, arts organizations, community-based projects and creative enterprises 5. Increase affordable housing, facilities and workspaces for artists, cultural workers and creative entrepreneurs

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OCNC Hosts Arts Action Forum + Peoples Town Hall, Jan 25, 2017 from 6-8pm at Betti Ono

Building on the successes and opportunities of two years of organizing and mobilizing people power, the Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition (OCNC)  invites all concerned community together for our first convening of 2017 the Arts Action Forum and Peoples Town Hall on Wednesday, January 25th, from 6- 8pm taking place at Betti Ono located at 1427 Broadway, Downtown Oakland. 

The Arts Action Forum & Peoples Town Hall will give voice to the most pressing needs affecting Oakland's arts and culture communities today and provide a platform to take action and effect real and measurable change. We will lift up the key issue areas and priorities identified during the Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition: Communities Priorities Meetings #1-10 held in 2015 and 2016. We commit to putting ideas for impact into action. 

Help to make the Arts Action Forum &  Peoples Town Hall a success. Here are three ways you can lend a hand. We hugely appreciate anything you are able to do.

Come - Mark Wednesday, January 25th on your calendar and come to the People’s Town Hall: Arts Action Forum.

Mobilize - Help promote the event. Email to everyone you know who may be interested. Invite friends and family.

Spread the Word: Share this event with your networks on Facebook, Twitter. Include a link and short summary of the event in your organizations newsletter and website

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Arts Budget and Implications of the City of Oakland Measure C - Hotel Tax Fund by OCNC Arts Budget & Policy Committees

January 11, 2017 Measure C - Hotel Tax FundMeeting Beginning @ 6pm City Hall, Room 1 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza Oakland, CA 94612

Oakland is experiencing a record-setting tourism boom. Yet little of that largesse is being funneled back to the city’s creative artists. Recently, Visit Oakland reported that more than 2.6 million people visited Oakland in 2016, generating a whopping $1.4 billion in spending. Yet city records indicate that just 1.5% of the more than $22 million projected from Oakland’s hotel tax for 2015-2017 supports the arts, and an even smaller percentage directly supports local artists. According to city data, under Measure C, 3% of the revenue from the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) is divided between the Convention and Visitors Bureau, aka Visit Oakland (which takes 50% of Measure C funds off the top); the Oakland Museum of California; the Oakland Zoo; Chabot Space and Science Center; and Cultural Arts -- whose portion is then further split between the Cultural Funding Program (CFP), Fairs & Festivals, and Special Events. The remaining 97% of the TOT goes into the General Fund.

What this means, according to the city’s June 2016 published budget figures, is that the Cultural Fund Program is projected to receive less than $100,000 from hotel tax revenues over a two-year period. In case you’re wondering 22,000,000 divided by 100,000 equates to approximately 0.45%, or less than half of one percent. (The actual number is even smaller, since the $100,000 figure is rounded up.)

Recently, a Facebook group, “Oakland Hotel Tax Fund – Increase Funding for Oakland Artists” formed. The group advocates for an initiative which would reconfigure the hotel tax distribution, and increase the amount directed at local artists. According to group member Lyz Luke, the initiative “could easily double the budget for the Cultural Funding Program.” OCNC is cautiously optimistic about the initiative’s potential to advance one of our long-term platform goals, and applaud community efforts to prioritize the arts in the city’s upcoming FY 16-17 budget.

Click here for .pdf of Measure C

Click here for Oakland Hotel Tax -- Increase Arts Funding Facebook group

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Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition - Call to Action

The City of Oakland is facing many crucial decisions at this moment as the next 2 year proposed budget (2015-2017) is being reviewed by the city council and in community budget hearing forums. Each council member will have an opportunity to identify and set budget priorities for their district and will vote to adopt a final budget by June 30th. In this moment of rapid and massive displacement, severe lack of affordable housing, and unnamed arts and culture priorities, the people of Oakland have an opportunity to speak up to ensure that budget priorities are rooted in cultural equity and create a vision where intersectional arts, culture and community are core priorities for neighborhood investment and development.

Vision

We aim to build a base of supporters that help shape and develop neighborhood based priorities for creative investment and activities; to encourage the City to re-establish the Oakland Arts Commission to assist in the creation of a neighborhood centered cultural plan. The adoption of a cultural plan that leverages the people and community assets already being cultivated on the grassroots level, and to encourage council members to develop policy/budget recommendations that support arts and cultural preservation, affordability, and healthy neighborhoods.

Structure

We invite anyone that wants to be involved in (1) action planning and advocacy, (2) communicating/rallying people, (3) policy writing/develop/research, (4) stakeholder cultivation, and (5) meeting/gathering facilitation, and probably more tasks to come.

Core Guiding Principles (Adopted from the Artivist PAC):

Oakland's economic growth and well-being depend upon the health of the Arts community

Cultural Equity is inextricably tied to racial and economic justice and community health

City Wide - beyond Uptown, must resource East and West Oakland too (e.g. the flatlands)

Community Oriented - both the processes of cultural development and funding recipients

Local First - must prioritize Oakland residents from historically underrepresented communities in both funding allocations and Arts programming

By joining the coalition we ask members to:

Appoint an organizational or community representative to attend meetings and events

Support the project by lending your org/group name and logo

Promote and share the meeting/event/action alerts with it’s members, mailing list, and social media followers

Stay engaged in the local conversations around cultural equity and arts policy

Commit to bringing out a strong contingent to actions

Share possible resources or examples of projects that would be good case studies for the work

Our Ask today: Please appoint at least one representative of your community to attend this Community Priorities Meeting AND share & invite your members.

Contact us if you want to participate, learn more, or if you have questions:keepoaklandcreative@gmail.com

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