Jerry Brown was the last good mayor Oakland had (1999-2007). His 10K plan sought to revitalize downtown, which had been deteriorating since the 1989 earthquake, by bringing in ten thousand new residents. To do this, he fast-tracked development, leading to a spurt in new condos and office towers. The neighborhoods complained that Brown didn’t pay enough attention to them, but Brown was consistent—and correct—in his belief that a healthy downtown, with its vast tax revenues, benefits the entire city.
Brown had, of course, previously been Governor of California twice (and was to be elected to another two terms following his mayoralty). With his vast experience, connections, managerial skills and intelligence, he was able to position Oakland to prominence. I lived here during the entirety of his administration and can testify how hopeful and progressive Oakland felt in those days.
But two things happened that wrecked Oakland’s opportunity to be a great city. First, the economic meltdown that started in 2008 (after Brown left office) dealt a near-death blow. Then, a series of feeble, incompetent mayors followed Jerry Brown: Ron Dellums, Jean Quan, Libby Schaaf and Sheng Thao. Collectively, they lacked the vision and talents to properly guide our city. They also subscribed to a form of extreme leftwing ideology that Jerry Brown hated. The result is the Oakland we see today, in its own death spiral.
The worst of our four post-Jerry Brown mayors was Libby Schaaf. Everybody knew she hated the job. She wasn’t temperamentally fit for it. She was always angling for higher office: for years, she waited for Dianne Feinstein to die or retire, in the hopes that she would be appointed as replacement Senator. That never happened, of course; when Dianne finally died, Libby was in her waning days as mayor, and besides, it’s doubtful that Governor Newsom, who has an eye for political talent, would have appointed her anyway.
But Libby remains politically ambitious, so it’s no surprise that she just announced she’s running for California Treasurer in 2026. This has got to be embarrassing for her: being State Treasurer isn’t exactly the most glamorous job in politics. No doubt Libby hopes that, if she gets elected, she can springboard to the Governorship. But let there be no doubt: Libby Schaaf would be a disaster as Governor. She’s simply not clever enough to handle the job. She has no real vision. No one can associate Schaaf with a particular cause, policy or ideal. She’s just one of those cardboard cutouts that doesn’t know how to do anything except politics—in other words, exactly the kind of person we should flush out of the system.
Meanwhile, poor downtown Oakland. A shambles, and getting worse by the week. Downtown once offered glittering possibilities, but they have now been shattered, at least for many years if not decades. And once again, we have an intellectually-impaired mayor who doesn’t have a clue what to do about it—if, in fact, she even cares. I miss Jerry Brown as our mayor. You knew there was a grownup in the room. In Sheng Thao, we have a prom queen, admiring herself in the mirror while the city she purports to govern is burning.
Steve Heimoff