East Bay hall still defying virus rules
City officials have not moved to shut down an Oakland events space that’s been openly defying public health orders for months, despite neighbors complaining and infectious disease experts publicly describing the indoor weddings, birthday parties and wakes there as potential superspreader events.
Alameda County does not allow any indoor social gatherings, but it’s up to cities to enforce the county’s rules. Oakland fined the Humanist Hall events space nearly $ 14,000 for violating pandemic regulations, but the police have not intervened so far.
After inquiries from the Chronicle on Tuesday, the city said it plans to issue a lien against the property and the City Attorney’s Office said it will go to court to stop events, said Karen Boyd, a spokeswoman for the city administrator’s office, in a statement.
A shooting in the neighborhood that injured three men at about 1 a. m. on Oct. 17 has prompted Oakland police to patrol the area around Humanist
Hall nightly “to assess unpermitted activity and security conditions” as they investigate whether the venue or any events are connected to the shooting.
Boyd said police will instruct the hall to cease events but she did not respond to an inquiry about when. It’s not clear why police haven’t done this over the last few months, when city officials have long been aware of the situation.
Residents in the area have continued to express anger that events are still being held. The Humanist Hall had 25 events planned in October and 18 more in November, according to its website.
The manager of the space, David Oertel, said he plans to
continue to host events — some of which have exceeded 100 people — and to ignore the fines.
The Chronicle reported on Sept. 25 that Oertel defied health orders by hosting events since at least July because he said people want a place to gather, and he didn’t think the coronavirus was anything more than “a bad flu,” despite 220,000 people dying from it nationwide.
At the time, infectious disease experts said the Humanist Hall events had the potential to become superspreaders. Councilwoman Lynette McElhaney told the Chronicle in late September that she’d talked to Oakland’s interim police chief about intervening.
Since then, McElhaney said she’s been in touch with the city administration and city attorney’s office pushing for enforcement at the venue. But she expressed frustration at the lack of action from the county and the city.
“I cannot understand why Alameda County and the City have not taken immediate action to padlock this facility, revoke all permits and licenses in the interest of preserving life,” McElhaney wrote in a letter Tuesday she sent to residents, Oakland police and city administration.
“What’s truly enraging is that this facility caters mostly to people of color,” she added.
The Humanist Hall is marketed to Black and brown communities, which have been hardest hit by the pandemic. The hall is described on its website as an “affordable” event space where Oakland police “will not come by to harass you for being ethnic.”
Oertel, the events space manager, said he won’t stop hosting events or pay the city’s fines, and instead wants to send the city a “reparations bill” for “their illegal and immoral ‘ lockdown.’ ”
Oertel said he believes
“it is our basic human right to gather and commune with each other, make sure that people have food, work and cultural expression.”
City officials sent Oertel a letter on Sept. 25 fining him $ 11,904 for five events that month and threatened to impose a lien against the property if he didn’t stop holding events.
Oertel previously received warning letters from city officials in July and August. He was given 14 days to appeal the penalty, but did not. Since then, the city has levied penalties against Oertel. To date, Oertel owes $ 14,404 in fees.
Justin Berton, a spokesman for Mayor Libby Schaaf, condemned Oertel’s actions, calling it “deplorable” that Oertel is “profiteering from large indoor gatherings during a pandemic.” Berton encouraged customers to boycott the business.
“The best way our residents can stop his dangerous and reckless behavior is to stop patronizing his business,” Berton said.
On Sept. 25, a Chronicle reporter witnessed a large indoor event at the hall, located at 390 27th St. in midtown.
Large indoor events have concerned public health officials throughout the pandemic. San Francisco officials quickly shut down an indoor wedding in July that drew nearly 100 guests at a Catholic church.
Oertel argues the government should not shut down his events, citing low risk from the virus and personal freedom and government overreach, echoing what President Trump has espoused.
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus after an indoor reception for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Sept. 26. Public health officials said that event appears to have been a superspreader event after at least a dozen other attendees also tested positive.
Robert Siegel, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University, said that the virus spreads due to people’s behaviors — be it Oertel’s or Trump’s.
“If people are denialists about the virus, the virus really doesn’t care. When people engage in risky behaviors, they are actually impacting a lot of other people,” he said.
He said those who attend events at the hall can catch the virus and spread it to those in their community who haven’t attended.
“Those kind of events could have huge consequences down the line,” Siegel said. “The local authorities are going to have to put some teeth into the regulations so that people are actually complying with them.”
Oertel has disparaged social distancing, masks and handwashing, which public health experts say are vital to stopping the spread of the virus that has killed more than 1,600 people in the Bay Area.
But despite knowing about the events for months, the city has done relatively little. City Attorney Barbara Parker said in a statement that her office is “actively looking into this issue in coordination with other city departments.”
“Although we are still determining which legal strategy or strategies to pursue, we are extremely concerned about the situation at Humanist Hall,” Parker said.
Boyd said the city attorney’s office could pursue a court action over Oertel’s refusal to comply with the public health order. She did not have a timeline on when the city attorney’s office would pursue that avenue.
The events have concerned nearby residents.
Seth Katz, 58, said he lives about a mile away, but often walks past the Humanist Hall on his nightly walks. He said he’s witnessed parties with bounce houses and other large gatherings where people spill out onto the street and block the sidewalk.
Katz has contacted McElhaney and Councilman Dan Kalb, whose district is nearby. He’s also reached out to Gregory Minor, the assistant to the city administrator who sent Oertel the letters about the penalties.
“This guy is lining his pockets, presenting unlicensed events in an epidemic,” Katz said. “It seems like there would be more the city could do to shut that down. I’m not opposed to parties ... if there wasn’t an epidemic. It is a hall and should be used, but not to kill people.”