Oakland Road Crew Refuses to Fill Potholes in Crime-Ridden Neighborhood, Citing Safety Concerns

A construction crew in Oakland, Calif., refused to finish filling gaping potholes on a worn residential street because they felt unsafe in the crime-ridden neighborhood.

The crew left halfway through the road project and never returned due to safety concerns, a Sobrante Park resident told local news station KRON4 of her phone call with the project manager.

“I called and the engineer with the City of Oakland said that contractor pulled out because the crews didn’t feel safe,” resident Shari Angarano said.

The construction project started sometime after the neighborhood received letters from the city in March, stating that the damaged road would be repaved.

“They put signs up, did some work,” she added, saying the workers were expected to return in May to finish the project. “The signage on the street barriers indicated that the crew would be back on 5/15-5/16 to complete the work.”

The Oakland Department of Transportation told the local outlet that the project will resume this week and is expected to be finished sometime this month.

Crime has surged in Oakland, and across much of California, in recent years, but appears to be receding. The San Francisco Bay city saw violent crime rise 21 percent, robbery increase 38 percent, and vehicle theft soar 45 percent from 2022 to 2023, according to the Oakland Police Department.

So far this year, these numbers have been on the decline. Oakland has seen 20 percent fewer homicides, 44 percent fewer commercial burglaries, and 60 percent fewer car break-ins between January and May, compared to the same time last year.

The crime drop is, in part, due to Governor Gavin Newsom deploying 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland and the surrounding area in February in order to crack down on the rise in thefts and violence.

“As crime rates across California decrease — including right across the Bay in San Francisco — Oakland is seeing the opposite trend,” Newsom said in a statement at the time. “What’s happening in this beautiful city and surrounding area is alarming and unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, California experienced a 6.1 percent increase in violent crimes and a 6.2 percent increase in property crimes from 2021 to 2024.

Alameda County district attorney Pamela Price, whose jurisdiction includes the city of Oakland, is facing a recall in November, less than halfway through her first term. Price announced this week that her office had dropped murder charges against two of three men accused of killing a man who was found strangled to death on the side of the road in 2021.

Price said the deals reflected that the men had “accepted responsibility for their actions.”