Oakland residents furious over homeless camp blocking riverside path

Oakland residents are fuming after being forced to cross an eight-lane highway, with their local lawmaker accused of being too work-shy to clear a homeless encampment blocking the riverside path. Pedestrians have published angry blog posts slamming city council president Nikki Fortunato Bas for failing to clear up the tents and belongings that obstruct the scenic waterway bike path.

Local blogger Roger Rudick described the situation as 'infuriating'. 'There shouldn't be a need to cross Lake Merritt Boulevard by foot or bike in the first place,' Rudick wrote on SF Streets Blog. 'The city built a lovely bike and pedestrian path over a decade ago along the channel that goes under both Lake Merritt Boulevard and the Nimitz Freeway. 'Unfortunately, it's been unusable for a couple of years now. The path is completely blocked by encampments, discarded trash, and even parked cars.'

Instead, pedestrians must navigate the dangerous eight-lane Lake Merritt Boulevard, where the wide lanes and relative scarcity of traffic encourages motorists to hurtle down the highway at breakneck speed. Locals also fumed about the encampment blockage on Reddit, saying it had been 'complained about for years'.

'I'm fairly tolerant and usually walk around and pass through,' one person wrote. 'Have gone this route for years on the way back to Lake Merritt Bart station. 'The encampment has permanently closed off with a stop sign a gate and "Not walkable" sign!

'That's a whole new level of entitlement. How and why is this allowed? I tried anyway and the guy started yelling at me and told me to walk around.' Others also shared stories of being yelled away from the area and even threatened with a guard dog. Several placed the blame squarely on President Bas' (pictured) shoulders, including Rudick who warned it was only a matter of time before a serious accident happened on the eight-lane highway as a result of so many pedestrians having to pour over it.

Bas's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Oakland as a whole has become synonymous with mass looting, rampant crime and more than 170 sprawling homeless encampments that cover entire city blocks. One of the largest encampments is sprawled alongside the 880 freeway across from the city’s famous Embarcadero.

A stone’s throw from downtown is another huge encampment with a sign that welcomes visitors to ‘the ghost town’ while another, set up in an underpass, has a huge graffitied sign that reads: ‘[Expletive] this dystopia’. As a result, the city’s progressive mayor Sheng Thao and DA Pamela Price are both facing recall elections in November – Thao after she was caught up in an FBI corruption probe and Price over her ‘woke’ refusal to prosecute low-level criminals.

In February, California Governor Gavin Newsom was forced to flood the city with California Highway Patrolmen in a bid to shore up the city’s flailing police department – left leaderless for over a year due to Thao’s decision to fire Chief LeRonne Armstrong after he turned whistleblower.

But despite their efforts, crime has continued to shoot up with burglaries up 23 percent compared to last year and motor vehicle thefts up by a whopping 44 percent. Meanwhile, the homeless population now stands at a record 5,490 – double what it was 10 years ago – with 67 percent of the unhoused living in camps on the street.

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