Candidate for
Council Member At Large; City of Oakland

• Honoring Oakland.

People in Oakland are tired of our elected representatives saying bad things about Oakland on television. We're proud of our city, and while we know about the problems, we also know about all the beautiful things happening in Oakland all the time. Everywhere in Oakland people are rising up to solve their problems, marching for peace and nonviolence, starting programs to create new opportunities for youth. I will use the resources of my City Council office to promote a positive message about Oakland, to show the media and the rest of the Bay Area that we live in Oakland because of all the good things that go on here.

• Shop in Oakland.

We need to improve on the current efforts to get people to spend their money in Oakland's neighborhood shopping districts. The Chamber of Commerce and the merchants at Grand Lake, Rockridge, Dimond/Laurel and Fruitvale all work to get people to shop in their districts, but the city doesn't do enough to coordinate them into a big marketing campaign. Meanwhile too many people go to Emeryville. Sure they have some national chains, but we have neighborhoods stores that cater to local communities. As a city, let's get behind them!

• Youth programs.

There are fantastic programs offered to youth within the city of Oakland, like the bilingual Ascend School in the Fruitvale District and Project Yield which brings arts programs into the schools in West Oakland. What both have in common is the influence of one of our prize institutions, the Museum of Children's Art, which I currently serve as the Vice Chair of the Board. City government needs to put it's money where it's most valuable, and as an elected official I will help make public/private partnerships to direct funding into the city's most valuable institutions for youth.

• Protecting tenants.

61% of the people in this city are renters and with the housing crisis, people are crowded into small units which are in bad condition. As your City Council Representative, I will ensure that HUD standards for rental units are met. Everyone has the right to live in safe affordable housing.

• Affordable Housing.

How will I ensure that more affordable housing is built? The City has done a good thing by setting up the Oakland Community Land Trust, which when fully funded will make it possible for thousands of low and middle income Oaklanders to buy houses. I will work tirelessly to secure full funding for the Land Trust.

• Community Policing.

Too many people in Oakland are scared both of crime, and of the Police. There are many things we can do to ensure that police officers become a full part of the communities they work in. The first step is to make it affordable for Police Officers, and other city workers, to live in Oakland. We can create subsidy and incentive programs to get Police to live in the communities they serve.

• Jobs for Oakland.

We need a jobs program that makes sense for Oakland. Part of the reason we don't do well when we recruit jobs to Oakland is we're looking in the wrong direction. We built a 22-story office building to get jobs from San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and it's sitting empty. Meanwhile, we're the transportation center of the Bay Area, with the Port, the best rail links, and the infrastructure for trucking and distribution. We're right next to the world's richest agricultural lands. It's time to finally build the produce market on the old army base land. There are thousands of jobs possible, high-paying union jobs, in warehousing and shipping produce, and yet we talk about dangerous pipedreams like casinos. That's not what Oakland needs.

• Uptown Arts District.

Oakland has one of the largest populations of artists in the country. It's a terrible shame that these artists have to work in San Francisco and Berkeley. We can make the Arts a center of our Downtown Development strategy by creating an Arts District in the Uptown area, anchored by the Fox and the Paramount. In synergy with the housing already planned for the area, we can draw restaurants, coffee shops, galleries, theaters and office space for nonprofit arts organizations.

• Make the government serve the people!

Most important, people don't feel like they are served by City Government. My door is always open; I will make sure that every person in Oakland knows they have two representatives in the City Council - their district representative, and the at-large representative. This is a democracy. We own the government. There's no reason asking your representative to help you with your problems should be so intimidating! I will bring the city to the people.