This gentleman recycler stopped to urinate on the walls of Alliance (behind on Magnolia Street) before going to cash in his recycling. The smells emanating from Alliance is not just from old, smelly cans and bottles. Urine and human defecation is part of the mix.
West Oakland. I grin, and tell people, "It's not for everyone". But I like my little part called Dogtown. I like the diversity in architecture and I like the diversity in its people. I like its history, its location. And, like anywhere I've called home, I feel protective and want only better things for it.
The photos you see here are images from around the Dogtown area where Alliance Metals conducts its business in an irresponsible manner. According to the City of Oakland, Alliance is an "attractive nuisance", drawing people and inundating our neighborhood with constant, bad behavior. Many of Alliance's customers are paid cash for "their" bottles and cans and then they block and loiter on our streets, openly consuming alcohol and drugs, publicly urinate...and a long list of other unsavory behavior. For years, the local community has cried out but continues to endure and suffer from Alliance's indifference.
Alliance says they’re helping the down and out. However, the reality is that Alliance, wrapping itself in a false cloak of social good, is doing nothing but enabling these poor souls, effectively keeping them down in an abject existence. You decide…