Editor:
There could not have been a greater, or more disheartening, dichotomy than what occurred at the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) Enforcement Committee meeting on Aug. 23.

The City of Sausalito and the Richardson Bay Regional Agency provided detailed presentations on their efforts to remove anchor-out vessels from Richardson Bay, with buy back programs and onshore housing subsidies. By contrast, no Oakland representative even bothered to attend the meeting, a complete slap in the face to a very concerned public.

At a February 2022 BCDC meeting on this matter, a specified direction was presented that required the “removal of anchor outs and shoreline encampments within one year or by the end February 2023.”

Oakland has ignored this very specific direction with apparent impunity. The boating community and liveaboard residents on the Oakland Estuary made it clear that the current state of lawlessness is absolutely intolerable.

Perhaps it is time to impose the threat of financial penalties if the City of Oakland continues to fail in its responsibility to protect this regional resource, as was the case in the removal of the homeless encampments from Union Point Park.

A continuation of the current status quo is entirely unacceptable.