Oakland officials move to close local meat company after neighbor complaints
The city of Oakland is trying to shut down a local meat distributor after neighbors say the business has been causing problems for more than a decade.
The business in question is Suprema Meat Company at the corner of 57th Street and Lowell Street in West Oakland.
Beeping forklifts, idling trucks, workers shouting and metal gates banging are among the noises some neighbors say they wake up to as early as 3:30 a.m. most mornings when Suprema Meats starts loading and unloading trucks for the day's deliveries.
"The real banging and smashing and radios and forklifts and scraping and truck loading, shouting and mayhem happens all day long until around 5 or 6 p.m.," said Kim Lucas, who lives a few houses down from the meat company.
She is an epidemiologist who now works from home. Over the years, she has taken numerous videos showing trucks blocking the streets and sidewalks as well as loud noise at all hours of the day.
Similar allegations are laid out in a new lawsuit filed by the Oakland City Attorney's Office last week where the city asked the court to declare the business operations to be a public nuisance and order them to stop.
"We've done a lot and we can do more, but for the city to say I've done nothing?" said Suprema Meats owner Mike Jara. He says over the past 10 years as the neighborhood has gentrified, they've gotten more complaints from nearby residents.
Jara says they did change operations to try to make less noise and keep truck traffic off the residential streets, something that has cost the business a significant loss of revenue.
But he says the city still keeps suing them. When asked why he felt the city was singling out his company, Jara replied, "I don't know."
"There is a ten-year history of the neighbors being inconvenienced, and more than that, really devastated by the actions of Suprema Meats," said Zac Unger, the Oakland Councilmember who represents the area.
Unger said the city's actions weren't about singling out one business, but instead working for the good of the neighborhood as a whole.
"I am not someone who wants to chase business out of town. And I think that the city offered Suprema plenty of opportunities to change their practices or move their operations. I would like to see Suprema be successful, but not at the expense of our neighbors," explained Unger.
CBS Bay Area talked with a couple of the other neighbors who live right next to the meat company. They said they knew the meat distribution facility was there when they moved in, and their rent was a lot lower because of it. They said they don't mind the noise, because they're getting a good deal on housing.