{"id":292246,"date":"2026-04-30T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292246\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T00:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:00:10","slug":"oakland-pilots-new-program-to-stop-street-prostitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292246\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland pilots new program to stop street prostitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city of Oakland hopes a new pilot program to install temporary barricades on the side streets along its known sex trafficking boulevard<\/a>, known as The Blade, will help to curb street prostitution.<\/p>\n

Oakland City Council member for District 2, Charlene Wang, has proposed installing the barriers along International Boulevard near 14th avenue in hopes of preventing Johns from having access to sex workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pilot proposal is essentially to put up some water-filled traffic barriers along the streets of 9th, 10th and 11th Avenue off of International Boulevard,\u201d Wang told KTVU<\/a>, about the area near a health clinic and an elementary school.<\/p>\n

Wang said the idea would be to block the side streets and essentially push the illegal activity out onto the main road, making it easier for police to crack down<\/a> on people paying for sex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city of Oakland hopes a new pilot program to install temporary barricades will stop street prostitution. John Chapple for California Post<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational is like the main corridor,\u201d the council member said. \u201cBut you know, the purchasing activity happens on these side streets, is to block off those areas so that can\u2019t happen there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways, it\u2019s to force it onto International Boulevard. That way it makes it easier for the police to do their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not everyone is hopeful that it will stop, with residents and businesses citing concerns about parking and traffic in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so. It\u2019s been here for so long, at the corner,\u201d David Nguyen, who runs Autolectrics Car Wash, told the outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post<\/a> about the proposal, there were a lot of mixed thoughts about it too.<\/p>\n

One person wrote, \u201cThe answer is community policing, not roadblocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not everyone is hopeful that it will stop, with residents and businesses citing concerns about parking and traffic in the area. John Chapple for California Post<\/p>\n

Another added, \u201cBoth..and they need Social Workers to be present with the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a third wrote, \u201cHere\u2019s a thought: why not invest in actual resources to help the victims of sex trafficking like education, job training, housing, healthcare, safe ways and places for these kids to get help, etc?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA barrier isn\u2019t going to do it and will be a big waste of money. I do want to note there is a difference between sex workers and sex trafficking victims, one is by free will and choice, the other is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sex workers KTVU spoke with also made it clear the barriers weren\u2019t going to stop them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wang said it would block the side streets and push the illegal activity out onto the main road, making it easier for cops to crackdown.<\/p>\n

Wong admitted it\u2019s just an idea and she has no clue if it will be successful in stopping the street prostitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposal would go along with an ordinance passed by the city earlier in the year to stop the illegal sex activity. According to the city amendment<\/a>, \u201cLoitering For The Purpose Of Purchasing Commercial Sex As An Offense\u201d was added.<\/p>\n

It also includes, \u201cFines Against Sex-Purchasers, Sex-Traffickers, And Properties Used For Prostitution\u201d and the creation of a \u201cHuman Trafficking Survivor Support Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal followed one from several years ago where the city installed blockades along 16th avenue, per the outlet.\u00a0 The pilot program is expected to get underway in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Post reached out to Wang and Oakland Police Department for further comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of Oakland hopes a new pilot program to install temporary barricades on the side streets along…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7,4182,143,145,144,3649,26468,3586],"class_list":["post-292246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-california","tag-metro","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-prostitution","tag-sex-trafficking","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}