Thao’s SOTC: An embarrassing flop

Sheng Thao finally delivered her State of the City speech before a packed City Council chamber, and it was notable for being both boring and packed with lies.

I’m surprised Thao doesn’t have her arm in a sling today, from all the patting herself on the back. She took credit for everything and blame for nothing. Let’s go through what she said.

Her intro was a study in nauseating self-promotion. What she’s accomplished as mayor is, she said, “inspiring.” She’s done “deeply impactful work.” She is “truly amazed” at how wonderful things are. But “It’s not just about me,” she observed. “It’s all of us together.” Well, the Recall is just about you, Madame Mayor!

And then came the lies.

“Public safety is my top priority. I can tell you today that crime is down.” This statement is widely disputed. The media generally turns to OPD’s weekly crime report as authoritative, but over the summer there were numerous reports that this data is seriously misleading. The blogger Tim Garnder wrote, in his Substack “The Oakland Report,” “the apparent improvements in burglary and total crime [cited by Thao] will evaporate as data becomes fully tabulated,” by the end of this year or early next year. There also are numerous reports that Oaklanders do not feel safe under Thao’s mayoralty.

Thao also bragged that “We brought in a new police chief.” She never addressed the outrage she sparked when she fired the previous Chief, LeRonne Armstrong, who was wildly popular in Oakland. Indeed, it was that action that prompted the Recall.

Citing as proof that crime is down, Thao said, “Our local business owners have remarked that there’s a lot less broken glass in the street.” That’s a howler. I see a lot more broken glass, everywhere I go, evidence to me that bipping is at an all-time high. I need only to go around the corner from my home to see Whole Foods’ windows still boarded up after being smashed.

Thao threatened illegal dumpers with arrest. “You better believe if you’re illegal dumping in our city we will see you – don’t do it!” I see piles of junk, overturned trash cans, mattresses and boxes of garbage everywhere I go. You’re not doing a thing about dumping, Madame Mayor.

She boasted about her Department of Violence Prevention. “Our violence interrupters are proactive in our communities every day!” The truth is, DVP is a massive failure, a con job. Can you, as a citizen, cite a single thing DVP has accomplished? And now, Thao’s Measure NN wants even more money for DVP—despite the fact that 75% of “violence prevention” money goes to shadowy, unaccountable nonprofits.

Then Thao lied about her “improvements” to the 9-1-1 call center. According to the Oakland Police Officers Association, “The response times to crimes by OPD has tripled since 2020. For priority one calls in 2020, OPD had an average response time of 11.44 minutes. Now that response time is 32.51 minutes because we are understaffed because of the city’s failures to staff the department properly.” Thao bragged that, in her first administration, no cops lost their jobs. She failed to mention that her proposed new contingency budget will reduce the number of sworn police officers from 709 to about 600. The only way to keep OPD at its current level—which already is hundreds of officers below what is needed—is if the Coliseum deal goes through as advertised, which looks increasingly unlikely.

She bragged about the Oakland Roots, Oakland Soul and Oakland Ballers, but said not a word about how she supported the scandalous behavior of Carroll Fife, Rebecca Kaplan and Nikki Bas to drive the Oakland A’s, whom they hated, out of town, dealing Oakland one of its severest blows in years.

In a breathtakingly fraudulent claim, Thao said, “We are protecting our parks” from encampments. Take a walk through Lakeside Park, Madame Mayor. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it, polluted with dirty tents, human waste and open-air drug dealing.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Here’s what Thao didn’t say:

She didn’t talk about the $175 million structural deficit. Not a word.

She didn’t talk about the African-American Sports Entertainment Group’s missed payment.

She didn’t talk about reining-in her out-of-control city departments that spend money the city doesn’t have. She didn’t say a word about accountability.

Not a word about where she will bring the RVs she claims to be towing.

Not a word about firing Armstrong.

Not a word about parenting, or teaching kids how to be decent and moral, or the obsession with gangs and guns that too many young people suffer from.

Not a word of apology for being responsible for the State of the City, which is awful.

Not a word about improving the business climate downtown.

Not a word of criticism of the unions that have financed Oakland’s descent.

Not a word about Pamela Price going soft on criminals.

Not a word in defense of our hard-working cops.

Not a word about the parcel taxes that she and her cronies keep foisting on property owners.

In the end, when Thao came to her big applause line--“I can tell you, the state of the city of Oakland is one of renewed progress!—there was absolute silence in the room. Not even a polite golf clap, because everybody knew it was bullshit.

Steve Heimoff