The Oakland Merchants’ Leadership Forum conducted a forum on Crime & Safety in Oakland’s commercial districts on February 25, 2009 bringing together the Area Captains of the Oakland Police Department and the Mayor’s Public Safety Director. If you were not able to attend the forum, you can listen to the audio by clicking here.

Guest speakers included:

• The Oakland Police Department’s three Area Captains: A. Toribio, Area 1 Captain; R. Orozco, Area 2 Captain; A. Rachal, Area 3 Captain.

• Dori Reed, Mayor’s new Public Safety Coordinator

• David Kozicki, Deputy Chief of Police: Discuss role of the PSO’s (Problem Solving Officer) Measure Y

• Eddie Simlin, Merchant Watch Coordinator

• Angela Haller, Block Captain of Woodminster commercial district and President of Crime and Safety Council beat 22X.

To view the Crime and Safety Survey Analysis 2009 click here.

To view the 2008 Crime & Survey Analysis and OMLF recommendations click here. 

Listen to our forum from Wednesday, March 26, 2008. Click here to listen
Guest speakers included:

Taylor Preston, professional online marketing consultant and Oakland business owner,talking about the many free ways to promote your business online including Google Local Business Center, Yahoo, and more.

Tina Ramos, owner of La Borinquena Restaurant, will speak about her successes with Yelp, and discuss a few of the other local ad methods she has used for her business.

Erin Kilmer Neel, Director of Oakland Unwrapped! will speak about 1)selling online via Unwrapped! and 2)the current opportunity for businesses to advertise for free in the Pro Arts East Bay Directory of the Arts. (Deadline to particpate is March 31).

City of Oakland Marketing resources - discussed the City’s several marketing programs and resources available to merchants, and introduce upcoming marketing workshops the city is developing.

Retail Recruitment
Discussion of a New Tool on the OMLF website for Districts to Market their Retail Vacancies.

omlf 3-26-08.MP3

Fill out this form and submit it to the OVCB to have your district event announced on their website. This is a new addenum to the Merchant Toolkit. Take a minute to print it out and add it to your toolkit. Don’t have a toolkit, click here to get your toolkit.