Press kit
Reclaim the Career Center.
A community campaign to remediate the soil, return the building, and reopen the Brothers & Sisters BarberCosmo Career Center in East Oakland — an accredited school that, in ten months, housed 22 students and opened two accredited programs.
The one-pager
10 months
from empty building to accredited career center.
85%
of the buildout complete when operations stopped.
2 programs
Barbering & Cosmetology — both accredited.
22 students
housed on-site with wraparound support.
$1.2M
of community investment in the property.
$600–800K
estimated soil remediation; the initial contract stated there was nothing wrong with the soil.
$3.2M
appraised value after community investment and neighborhood turnaround.
$300K
price at which the landlord foreclosed and sold the building back to himself.
The demand
We, the undersigned, demand the remediation of the soil at the Career Center's East Oakland home, the return of the building, the protection of the $1.2M of community investment inside it, and the restoration of its programs and student housing.
The timeline
- The community invested $1.2M in renovations under an agreement to purchase the building at year's end.
- The initial contract stated there was nothing wrong with the soil.
- During refinancing, we learned otherwise: the soil needs an estimated $600–800K in remediation, and no bank would refinance without it.
- Our investment and the neighborhood's turnaround raised the property's appraised value to $3.2M.
- Instead of remediating, the landlord foreclosed — and sold the building back to himself for $300K.
- All-cash buyers are lined up for the building and the neighborhood we transformed.
- 22 students lost their housing.
Figures pending final confirmation.
The pattern
In 2019, the Oakland City Attorney sued this building's owners over conditions at six East Oakland rental properties. Announcing the case, City Attorney Barbara Parker called them “textbook predatory landlords who have profited for years from willfully violating the basic legal and human rights of tenants.”
In 2021, after a 13-day trial, an Alameda County judge found they acted in bad faith — “willful, reckless, or grossly negligent” — and ran a “pattern and practice” of violating Oakland's Tenant Protection Ordinance. A court of appeal affirmed every one of those findings in 2024.
The court ordered a $3.9 million penalty. On appeal, the penalty was vacated — not because the facts were wrong, but on a technicality about which city ordinance authorized it. The findings stand. The punishment evaporated.
The public record
Downloadable assets
Approved for editorial use. Please credit “Reclaim the Career Center campaign.”
Logo & wordmark pack
Campaign lockup, monogram, and wordmark in SVG + PNG.
brothers-sisters-logo-pack.zip
Approved photography
Building exteriors, classroom, and cleared community portraits.
brothers-sisters-photo-pack.zip
One-pager fact sheet
Printable PDF summarizing the campaign and the demand.
brothers-sisters-one-pager.pdf
Court of Appeal opinion
People v. DODG Corp., A163757 (2024). Full opinion PDF.
people-v-dodg-corp-a163757-2024.pdf
Media contact
For interview requests, background, and asset access.
- save@oaklandctd.org(placeholder)
- Response time
- Within one business day.