Frustrated Businesses Say Oakland's Pearmain Street Is A Dangerous Dumping Ground

CBS San Francisco

July 26, 2022

From crime to blight to homelessness, there are no easy answers for Bay Area cities but for many, the lawless state of Oakland has reached a point of hopelessness. Nowhere is that more evident than on Pearmain Street.

The flag above the Melrose Powder Coating company flies upside down, a universal symbol of distress. From inside the office, owner Curtis Nagengast keeps an eye on his security cameras, documenting the lawlessness going on outside: A fistfight between two men, a drug transaction with a man carrying a bow and arrows, another man smoking crack in his car, a pickup truck driving out from under an old camper shell, dumping it in the middle of the street. He can see all of that in one block of the city.

"It probably started getting bad about ten years ago, really bad, to where we have the squatters and the drugs and just disregard for any city laws whatsoever on this street," said Nagengast. "And it's become very dangerous."

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