Should Piedmont Become Part of Oakland?

Piedmont is an anomaly — an incorporated city engulfed by another municipality, perhaps the only such geographical oddity in the United States.

That's just not right, says a group of Oakland teenagers who are pushing for the two cities to merge, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

According to an article published on the Chronicle's website sfgate.com Thursday afternoon, the teens — led by Oakland resident and high school senior Noah Goldstein — are circulating petitions and urging officials from both cities to consider a merger. 

"Piedmont's been able to create a utopia while other people are paying for it," the article quotes Goldstein as saying. "But they're missing out. They should want to be part of Oakland ... We're calling it the Liberate Piedmont movement."

"Here's the plan Mayor Quan and I are working out," the teens posted on their Facebook page, Return Piedmont to Oakland.

"Piedmont becomes the Piedmont district, all 10,000 plus residents will pay taxes and be legal residents of Oakland. Piedmont will keep its schools but school aged children in the grand lake and upper Rockridge neighberhoods will be zoned for Piedmont schools.

"Piedmont will lose its central government but will be represented in the Oakland city counsel. The Piedmont firefighters and police force will now be part of the Oakland units. The streets signs will also include the Oakland oak because... Piedmont will be part of Oakland."

""I'd welcome them because I'd want their money," Oakland Mayor Jean Quan told the Chronicle. "The reality is, we need a more regional approach to things like museums, police and other amenities."

Not everyone agrees. "Doing this would be like taking the jelly in a jelly doughnut and just putting more doughnut there," reads one post on the group's Facebook page.

Read the complete article at www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-Piedmont-borders-at-issue-4060364.php#ixzz2D1gQXYFf

What do you think of the Liberate Piedmont group's proposal? Tell us in the comments section below.

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