GAY TEEN SUPPORT GROUP WANTS TO LEAVE 'OAKSTERDAM'

Oakland Center, Which Also Helps 'Questioning Youth,' Closes Down, Claiming
Safety Risks

OAKLAND -- Blaming downtown street violence exacerbated by unregulated pot
clubs, administrators of a youth center that offers support services for
gay and "questioning" youths say they have been forced to close the facility.

Claiming the Uptown area dubbed "Oaksterdam" has become too dangerous for
its clients, the Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda County is seeking a
new home for its youth center, said Roosevelt Mosby Jr., the nonprofit's
executive director.

"The neighborhood is increasingly unsafe for participants and staff, and we
cannot continue to risk their safety," Mosby said Monday at a press
conference announcing the closure.

The center at 1738 Telegraph Ave., which offered counseling and a range of
other support services for gay, lesbian, bisexual and "questioning" youths,
closed last Wednesday after a series of altercations involving a cannabis
club, its clients and other people who come into the area to buy marijuana,
Mosby said.

On Nov. 10, two days before the center shut down, four men, including one
with a gun, tied up a bouncer outside the Compassionate Caregivers
dispensary -- located right next door to the former youth center -- and
took several ounces of marijuana and a significant amount of cash before
fleeing, police said.

Police also have said there have been reports of people being robbed of
marijuana as they leave cannabis clubs.

"What happens is people looking to buy 'weed' (marijuana) will ask people
on the street 'do you have a card?'" Mosby said.

The center is now housed at the agency's administrative office at 1755
Broadway, but more space is needed, center administrators said.

Mosby said because as many as 11 cannabis clubs have been allowed to move
into the Uptown area, city officials should help find a drug-free area for
the youth center.

Mosby's salvo Monday is the latest in an ongoing exchange between the city,
the pot clubs and the center.

The city has been grappling with the touchy issue of how to regulate
medical marijuana outlets, and a recent Public Safety Committee meeting in
October did little to resolve questions about whether the number should be
limited or whether special permits should be required for the clubs to operate.

The pot clubs blossomed and went largely ignored by the city until
recently, when council President Ignacio De La Fuente (San
Antonio-Fruitvale) threatened to shut them all down and allow only one
dispensary to operate.

On Monday, City Councilmember Nancy Nadel (West Oakland-downtown), who was
at the press conference, said she has identified a new space for the youth
center at 25th Street and San Pablo Avenue. But the rent would be $14,000 a
month, more than twice what the center was paying.

Mosby said he would like to raise $1.3 million to purchase the new building.

Operators of the Lemondrop Club were unavailable. However, other area
merchants said there has not been an unusual level of criminal activity in
the neighborhood.

Several other cannabis club operators declined to comment.

The Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, the only city-sanctioned
dispensary, has issued identification cards to2,600 Oakland patients. Its
administrative offices remain open, but it is not dispensing medical
marijuana because of a civil lawsuit brought by the federal government.

"We just want to find a safer place," said Crystal H. Weston, director of
training and development for the Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda County.

Weston and Mosby said gay young people are not offered any support services
at schools, churches or other nonprofits.

"They need a place to feel safe and be themselves," Mosby said.

Mosby's agency receives $1.2 million a year from city and county
governments, private donations, and the Centers for Disease Control in
Atlanta. The center had 1,300 visitors last year, up from 250 some five
years ago, according to Mosby.