Our Statement on Our Partnership with Square
By: Techequity Collaborative
Tags: Community, Bay Area, Tech, Square, Oakland

In late 2015, Uber announced they had bought the old Sears building in Uptown Oakland and were planning to move thousands of jobs there. Many Oaklanders rallied against this move, including launching the No Uber Oakland campaign. The community’s reaction to Uber’s announcement is at the heart of TechEquity’s founding story.

We wondered: what it would take for a tech company to move to a place like downtown Oakland and for the community to celebrate it? What would need to change for a tech-driven rising tide to lift all boats??

In answer to those questions, we think two things need to happen:

We need to change the economic context in which the tech sector grows. Not everyone has equal access to the opportunities Tech creates, and the housing crisis makes it much harder for those left out to gain a foothold in our booming economy. The people who work in Tech need to come to the table and collaborate around solutions with others in the community. We need to understand that we’re all in this together.

As we began to build TechEquity around that mission, the Sears building remained at the back of our minds and, located just two blocks from our office, served as a symbol for the change we were trying to create.

Late last year, we got the opportunity to turn that symbol into a literal manifestation of our work. We’re excited to announce that we’ve entered into a formal partnership with the building’s new leaseholder, Square, to do everything we can to make sure their move to Oakland is a benefit for all Oaklanders.

As we help to flesh out the details of Square’s commitment to Oakland, we want to be very clear about our commitment to bringing local voices into the conversation. We have spent the last three years building relationships and collaborating with many of the groups and organizations across the Bay that are working on the front lines of our affordability crisis, including working with the Our Beloved Communities Action Network on anti-displacement and Fair Chance Housing campaigns, as well as playing an active role in the coalition working to reform Prop 13 by making corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

We believe strongly that building these relationships and showing up for our partners when and how they say they need us is key to us successfully achieving our mission.

Above all else, we see our role in this partnership with Square as making sure the voices of our community partners are in the room — and are taken seriously — as Square sets its community engagement strategy in Oakland. We look forward to being held accountable to that standard.

It’s still very early so we’re not entirely sure what Square’s participation in the community will look like, but we have a few ideas. Square can:

Use its expertise in entrepreneurship and small business ownership to help Oakland businesses thrive.

Use its financial and other resources to help capacity-strapped Oakland nonprofits meet their community-serving missions.

Provide the space and time for its employees to work on civic and community projects.

Endorse policy initiatives that address the systemic and structural issues that make inequality in the Bay Area such a persistent problem.

Invest in long-time Oakland residents by training and hiring them into the positions that will populate the new office.

Over the next several months we’ll be sharing more about the progress of this move and what we’re learning. Check back for updates on how the conversation is going with community organizations and for opportunities to learn more directly from Square. We’re excited to see new opportunities coming to downtown Oakland and are even more excited to see that the company moving in is taking the time consider their impact on the place so many of us call home.