If you know me, you know how deeply I love and care about Oakland. This is not just where I live, it’s my home. You also probably know how dissatisfied I’ve been with our local government. You may even have been treated to a slobbering hell-in-a-hand-basket rant on the subject (sorry about that).
Let’s be honest: Oakland is a mess on so many fronts. Crime is so bad it’s synonymous with Oakland. Our streets are obstacle courses of pits and ripples. There’s a pension bomb coming in the next few years that will wipe out our budget for decades to come. The economy is in the tank and floating face down. Getting a permit to do anything is Kafkaesque on a good day. It seems like anything you might reasonably expect your government to do, Oakland finds a way to do badly, if at all.
I often hear politicians talking about Oakland’s potential. In my 15 years living in this city I have come to resent that word like no other. I am tired of hearing about our city’s vaunted “potential” while waiting behind locked doors for it to show up. I’m tired of hearing how great it almost is. I’m tired of meeting people who moved here because they loved the potential but moved away because they were worn down by the reality.
Until that potential turns into something, it’s meaningless. I’m done with it. No more promises of a “model city”, no more utopian ditherings. It’s time for a city government that focuses on fulfilling its basic responsibilities, a city capable of delivering on those responsibilities. All of the other stuff is great, and I’d love to see our city council end the conflict in the Middle East as much as the next guy, but first I’d like to be able to drive down my street without having to dodge a pothole that’s so deep it’s halfway to the Chilean miners.
Like a website designed by your grandmother, the way our city government goes about its business is so fundamentally archaic and backwards that it defies logic. I’m not saying our elected officials are bad people – they’re nice and well-meaning. Just like your grandmother. For the most part, they are involved in the government because they love this city – I do not doubt their sincerity at all. I doubt their efficacy. Ideological grandstanding from decades past, misplaced idealism trumping pragmatism, fiscal irresponsibility under the auspices of fairness (often at the expense of those who actually need the city’s help), and an entrenched way of doing things that sees no possible room for improvement: These are but some of the reasons our city government never seems to get anything done. These are the core problems that need addressing.
While they certainly bear some responsibility, the city council can’t be held solely responsible for this – the way our city’s government is organized puts them more in a support role. Oakland’s government takes its structure and and form from from the office of the mayor – that’s where things get started in Oakland, that’s where they get done. They mayor appoints the heads of departments in addition to the city administrator – the most powerful unelected position in our government and the head of our bureaucracy. It’s not just about having a bully pulpit, it all really does start at the top. If you don’t believe me, just look at civic embarrassment that is the last 4 years.
It’s time for smart leadership. That’s why I support Rebecca Kaplan. It’s not just that she is the best choice available in the current crop of candidates, it’s that she’s exactly the sort of person we need in city hall. She understands the issues big and small, potholes to pensions, and she has strategies to address them. What she doesn’t have plans regarding, she is smart enough to tackle shrewdly. She is that rare blend of policy wonk and solid communicator. It’s not just that she can talk for 5 minutes on the flow of paperwork at city hall, it’s that she can get a whole room of people excited about it as well.
On top of that that, she likes it when things work! Efficiency doesn’t scare her! She doesn’t want to shut down all the bars and restaurants, she wants more of them! She understands that we need to keep a police force on the streets! As strange as it sounds, this is new thinking around city hall. I’d like to encourage it.
While she hasn’t been on the city council for very long, she’s managed to do an awful lot. From regional transportation to developing Uptown to streamlining zoning permits to taxing pot, she’s been working hard to get things moving.
I’ll be voting for Rebecca Kaplan to be Oakland’s next mayor. I hope you’ll join me in that. But don’t just take my word for it, go find out for yourself. Visit her website and read up. Go to an open house (or throw your own). Go to an event. Listen to what she has to say on the issues and ask her tough questions about what matters to you.