NTO Responds to Media Misrepresentation
It all begins with an idea.
I’m in our community garden in West Oakland, cleaning up after the press conference for my new nonprofit, Neighbors Together Oakland (NTO), when I received the exciting news that the first article about our movement had posted! Then I read the headline; “Town Sweep”: New group demands Oakland crack down on homeless camps. Well, our organization is called “Neighbors Together”, so I immediately smelled a hit piece.
Being a lifelong union organizer and activist, I’m hella familiar with hit pieces. When I worked for the California Nurses Association, we took on Governor Schwarzenegger who claimed that the nurses who care for us were “special interest groups” because they protected staff-to-patient ratios that save lives daily. Many nefarious actors in the media supported this claim and the hit pieces were vicious. Well, it backfired bigly and they quickly learned why registered nurses are consistently the most trusted profession in the U.S. What I learned was the power of effective coalition building and owning your message.
Neighbors Together was formed to improve resilience, unity and preparedness in our community. Our tenets are community safety, accessible housing, localized agricultural systems and thriving local businesses. We know that housing is a human right, and we love all of our neighbors, both housed and unhoused. We work diligently to manifest and grow our community, repairing the damaged fences of trust that have long since rusted in our Town. It is not easy work, and we expect to have hard conversations that are sorely needed.
NTO’s first Initiative, “Town Sweep” is about Oakland residents taking personal responsibility to help improve their immediate neighborhood. NTO will be seeking legal recourse against the City of Oakland demanding that it follow through with the Encampment Management Plan (EMP), which was unanimously approved by Oakland's City Council last October. We will also be organizing local clean ups and working with local organizations and businesses to help do our part in keeping our neighborhoods clean and beautiful.
At our press conference yesterday, we had speakers ranging from commercial property owners, lifelong residents who have raised families, and multiple speakers representing the unhoused and non-traditional housing community. They spoke passionately about their experiences with NTO, why they joined and what our mission meant to them. They also shared their stories, to the cadence of the dozens of chickens directly behind us.
It was beautiful; a critical moment of solidarity and hope. At least that's what I thought, and what all my neighbors told me. Then I read that aforementioned article by Marisa Kendall from the Mercury news. According to her, NTO was there to “crack down and clear out the camps”. She even interviewed one of our speakers, quoted them and tried to use their comments against us. But failed to mention that they were a NTO member and speaker at our press conference. Our main slogan, “We Deserve Better”, which was displayed literally everywhere, wasn't even mentioned once in the article.
When I was coming up, hit pieces at least had to be factual. The meaning of communication is the response you receive, so I’m never one to complain if my message doesn't resonate, I simply ask more questions and actively listen so that I can learn more and communicate more effectively. But when there are convenient omissions and stretches of the truth that lead to many of our close allies in the unhoused community blowing up my phone asking me “WTF Seneca?!?!”, It's time for us to tell our own story.
Good for us, our coalitions are strong and a simple conversation was all that was needed to clear the air. The event was very well covered by many other local news outlets and publications. We eagerly await their takes on the day’s events and what has been written about our speakers and our message. We look forward to meeting all of our neighbors across the Town. Please visit our website at https://www.neighborstogetheroakland.org/ to learn more about Neighbors Together.
Peace,
Seneca Scott, Executive Director
Neighbors Together Oakland