The Chronicle’s headline story yesterday on Downtown Oakland highlighted the area’s challenges, and also underscored the incompetence of Mayor Thao proposed solutions.
We’re all aware of the challenges. Poor Downtown just can’t catch a break. In the 36 years I’ve lived here, predictions of a renaissance have been perennial, but they’ve always crashed against the rocks of reality. First there was the Loma Prieta earthquake. Then the dot-com collapse. Then the Great Recession. Then the pandemic. Add to that periodic violent riots and persistent, endemic crime. The result is what we see today: Downtown largely shuttered and silent, with no apparent hope of recovery.
The Chronicle, however, did make the point that Downtown night life is thriving. It’s true. We have the bars, clubs, restaurants and festivals (like First Friday) to attract a younger crowd and make Downtown lively. The problem, as the city’s economists are well aware, is that nightlife doesn’t pay the bills. Not even close. Oakland needs huge income from business, sales and payroll taxes, but those have been diminishing, as companies either refuse to relocate to Oakland or are leaving altogether.
Thao understands this—how could she not? Her problem is that as long as Oakland is synonymous with crime, Downtown cannot recover. You can’t force people to come here and spend money if they’re afraid their cars will get busted into, or they themselves will be mugged. But Thao—a woke progressive controlled by the extreme left—cannot bring herself to do what is required for Oakland’s recovery. She cannot admit her mistakes, nor her complicity. So she is forced to mutter platitudes about her commitment to Downtown, while refraining from the only thing that can rescue Oakland’s heart: a vastly increase police presence. The public wants to see arrests and, more importantly, convictions, followed by jail sentences. They don’t want grandiose rhetoric about how great Oakland is; they don’t need a cheerleader Mayor. They want to see results.
Sadly, results are rare. Do you recall two weeks ago, when nine Oakland juveniles were arrested for a string of robberies? These criminals were between the ages of 12 and 17. We all celebrated their detention. But I’ve now learned that 8 of the 9 have been released. I’m trying to gather more information, but if this is true, it doesn’t surprise me. We have a “criminal justice system” that is broken because it’s run by people who don’t believe in punishment for crimes. That includes Oakland’s interim Chief of Violence Prevention, Kentrell Killens, who said of the nine, “These are our babies, these are our children, and they deserve a chance to get things together.”
Sorry, I don’t buy it. These “babies” are the future murderers and carjackers of Oakland. What they deserve is hard time behind bars. So long as we have this crazy philosophy of “restorative justice,” we’ll never get the safety and security we deserve. When Thao says (as she did of the nine arrests), “We’re taking all of this very seriously, and we’re taking all different approaches to ensure a better and stronger quality of life in the city of Oakland because that’s what our residents and businesses deserve," she’s stalling for time. She has utterly no plan for “a better quality of life” in Oakland because she’s in debt to the woke left, including the unions, that got her elected in the first place.
As for the Department of Violence Prevention, it’s a joke. A complete waste of our money. A scam, run by bureaucrats who are unaccountable, and who operate largely behind closed doors. Thao has proposed cutting its budget modestly, to help stanch Oakland’s looming fiscal crisis. But that proposal predictably has the woke left all stirred up. The Chronicle’s race columnist, Justin Phillips, wrote, “It is clear to me that crime in Oakland could be worse without it [the Department of Violence Prevention].” Well, we see what we want to see. What is “clear” to Justin is opaque to the rest of us. Violent crime in Oakland is up this year compared to last, despite all the “anti-violence” programs the city has thrown money at. If you believe the solution to crime is taking a bunch of hoodlums and having them sing Kumbaya under the wise guidance of a “violence interrupter,” then you must love the condition Oakland finds itself in.
There has got to be punishment. Not slaps on the wrist, not “counseling,” not revolving doors that return violent criminals to the streets, but consequences for awful behavior. Until Oakland’s leaders, especially Sheng Thao, step up to the plate and truly defend us, we will continue to deteriorate as a city, until there’s nothing left but a state of emergency.
Steve Heimoff