“Berlin,” Goethe said in the 18th century about the great city (where however he never lived), “is home to such an audacious set of men that you have to be a tough customer and a little rough around the edges now and then just to keep your head above water.”
He might have said the same about Oakland. I was born and grew up in the South Bronx, so I know something about a city that’s “a little rough around the edges.” I lived in San Francisco for a decade before moving here (in 1987). I had loved The City By The Bay, and had some trepidation about relocating here because of Oakland’s reputation for crime and violence. But within weeks of arriving, I developed a love for The Town that has only grown over the decades.
There used to be a bumper sticker you’d see on cars: I [Heart] Oakland, or sometimes, I Hella [Heart] Oakland. It’s hard to explain to outsiders. We Oaklanders are the first to admit our problems: homelessness, encampments, dumping, crime including violent crime, poverty, stupid politicians, the nitty-gritty of everyday street life. But true Oaklanders have a love for Oakland that not even our current incompetent leaders can shatter. Carroll Fife, Nikki Bas, Sheng Thao, Dan Kalb and their allies have done their best to divide us, but nothing they can do will dilute our love for the city we all call home.
Keeping your head above water implies being aware at all times when you’re out and about in Oakland. Danger can lurk around every corner, but in a strange way that’s all the more reason to love it. The frisson is invigorating. It’s not “Oakland” per se that’s dangerous, though, it’s some of the jerks who live here (or are from out of town). Why do we have so many dangerous jerks? I would argue it’s because a generation of failed political leaders has created a culture that appears to sanction criminal behavior. Our mayors and, especially, our city council members themselves have been dysfunctional idiots (except for Jerry Brown), and their cynicism told them that if they pandered to the extremes of the far left, it would help them politically. So they did. We had lunatics like Jean Quan march against her own police department during the Occupy madness. We had Libby Schaaf, hapless and weak, fail to defend Oakland against police defunders. Now we have Thao, about to be indicted. We had certifiably crazy council members like Desley Brooks (remember her?), and then, when we got rid of her, we replaced her with someone even crazier, Carroll Fife. It was these derelict politicians that turned the moral atmosphere of Oakland into a shit show.
Still, the things that made me fall in love with Oakland in 1987 remain. The diversity, for starters. How lucky we are to live in such an ethnically patchwork quilt of a city! I’d hate to live in a white bread Stepford suburb where everyone looks, sounds and dresses like everyone else. I love the little cafes in my neighborhood that serve up the foods of the world. I love menus that take me on tours of everyplace from Ethiopia to Mexico, Japan to Afghanistan, Burma to Northern California.
I love our weather. Oakland has got to have one of the best climates of any city in the world. We’re not cold and foggy like San Francisco, but neither are we bakingly hot in the summertime like in the valleys. This summer, when inland has been scorching and the coast has been drizzly, Oakland is in the sweet spot, the Goldilocks golden mean.
I love our physical beauty. The East Bay Hills, so much of which is preserved forever due to the Easy Bay Regional Park District, is a magnificent 40-mile stretch of wildland. From the upper trails of the parks, where it’s hot, dry, dusty and sunny, you can descend into shady glens filled with ferns, cooled by rushing streams, where the sun hasn’t shined for centuries. Even in the flatlands there are surprising little ecosystems of nature.
There are lots more things I love about Oakland. For now, I’ll just end by saying that Our Town is worth fighting for—worth being a tough customer for. Worth fighting the criminals, the rejects, the losers, the sociopaths, the scum who think they’re entitled to take what they want from people who actually earned it. Worth fighting the woke politicians who side with the criminals and make war upon us--the law-abiding good people of Oakland. A good fight is only worth having for a good cause. Oakland is a good cause.
Steve Heimoff