Comments:Oakland renters displaced by Hope VI program

This article is very poorly researched.

As a member of the original design and master plan team, I can testify to why there were so few residents from the previous Coliseum Gardens housing project that moved into the completed Lion Creek Crossing development. When the previous housing development was demolished there were only 13 families living at the site. Of course these families were living in substandard conditions, reflecting our societies neglect and attack on lower income families since the civil rights movement. Before demolition took place, all of the families that were residents at the original Coliseum Gardens housing project were given a number of opportunities to move into other OHA properties throughout Oakland. Some took this opportunity, others did not. Many residents indicated an unwillingness to continue to live in OHA subsidized units based on their horrible experience at the original Coliseum Gardens housing project.

In fact, I think it is a major accomplishment that any of the original families made it back at all.

The HOPE VI program, while poorly administered in other parts of the country, must be considered a huge success in Oakland. Not only were all of the original government subsidized units replaced at a one to one ratio, in terms of bedroom size and affordability, but there was a substantial increase in affordable units provided on site, that were not previously available(both at Mandela Parkway and Lion Creek). In the same vein both of these projects were thoughtfully planned to act as catalysts for improving two of the most marginalized neighborhoods in the entire Bay Area region.

Please, in the future, when writing a hit piece that is negatively critical of on one of the few and underfunded social services that our government actually does provided low income families, it is critical to do some research. There are no corroborated facts in this article.

It does a great disservice to those in the Oakland community that actually have been fighting for the needs of marginalized, low income families for decades to write these NIMBY type articles, cloaked in anti-big developer screeds. Walk around Lion Creek today and you will see the positive effect that individuals who truly care for the people and city of Oakland have had. Then walk around Downtown Oakland and you will see the negative effect that anti-urban development NIMBY's who do not care about the people and city of Oakland have had.

Noah Friedman —12.149.154.5 00:55, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I tend to agree that this article has significant problems. IMO it is nothing more than an opinion editorial, rather than a news article (editorials are not permitted on Wikinews). This article was published years ago, before (any real) quality control policies had been implemented on Wikinews. If this article was written today, it would most likely not be published. That said, it was published, and it will remain published in its current form due to Wikinews' archive policy, which states that we cannot modify the content of an article more than ~3 days after initial publication. Gopher65talk 01:40, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I second Gopher65's assessment. The article is pretty much the same as Indymedia's article. That being said, it has been published for years and, as such, should remain in our archives without change. We are optimistic that such POV reports won't get published in the future due to enhanced editorial control measures that we have implemented. --SVTCobra 02:33, 8 January 2009 (UTC)