It was great reading that Native American tribes in Northern California have regained ownership of a significant chunk of coastal Mendocino County land. The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, which represents tribal nations with historical ties to the area, was given ownership of 523 acres of pristine land by the Save the Redwoods League, which bought the property for $3.55 million back in 2020. The Sinkyone Council has been working since 1986 “to reconnect descendants of the Sinkyone people to their historic territory.”
I was inspired by this story, not only because the Sinkyone Council regained the land their ancestors settled millennia ago, but also because their victory shows that, sometimes, worthy fights take a long time to win. I don’t mean to suggest that the Coalition for a Better Oakland is in any way comparable to the Sinkyone Council. But we, too, are engaged in a great battle, in our case with the forces of reaction and coercion in the city of Oakland, and we, too, need to recognize that this is a fight for the long haul.
Change doesn’t come easily in a place like Oakland, which has been ruled by one-party politics for a long time. Voters reflexively elected what they thought were Progressives to the Mayor’s office and to the City Council. Their motives were pure: racial, gender, ethnic and income diversity and fairness. Oaklanders wanted a city that reflected our glorious rainbow colors, and they elected representatives that promised to give it to us.
Sadly, along the way, these Mayors and City Council members—mainly the latter—fell victim to what always happens when one-party politics tramples out competing voices: fanaticism. Untrammeled by political opposition, feeling invulnerable, frenzied with authority, they abused their power, one step at a time. It was like putting a live lobster into a pot of cold water and turning on the heat: supposedly, the lobster is lulled to sleep by the increasing warmth, and then it’s too late: It’s cooked.
The lobster is us, the people of Oakland. It’s been obvious for years that the Progressives were failing to represent us. First, Mayor Schaaf invited all the homeless people in the Bay Area to come here. “We love you,” she told them. The result was entirely predictable: massive encampments, which we may never be able to get rid of.
The situation turned virulent in November, 2020, when Carroll Fife was elected to the City Council, which then turned pugnaciously leftward. Fife persuaded her new comrades-in-arms to double down on their “defund the police” madness, and they did—well, most of them—to their endless embarrassment. Voters turned against them—as they are doing across the country—in a huge protest against wokeness.
People who subscribe to the Coalition for a Better Oakland sometimes ask me, a little impatiently, why it’s taking so long for us to do something…anything. I don’t blame them. I wish things would happen faster. I think maybe the Sinkyone Council also wished things would happen faster—or, perhaps, being Native Americans, they understood that things happen when they’re supposed to. At any rate, the Sinkyone Council never gave up. I can’t imagine all the hoops they’ve had to jump through to make this land transfer happen. But however frustrating it was, in the end, they won.
I never expected the Coalition to turn Oakland around overnight. I realize it takes long, hard work. And that means never giving up. We are learning to Reimagine Oakland, one dream at a time: an Oakland free of irresponsible, reckless political extremists. As we learn to work the nuts and bolts of politics, it will take us a while to achieve victory. But we’ve begun.
Steve Heimoff