Since 2015, the first year of Schaafs mayoral tenure, Oakland residents have become increasingly pessimistic about the city. As the town awakened that February morning and more people flocked to the lake for their daily jog or walk, a woman approached Schaaf. The persistent level of vacancies that Oakland has had in key departments, like public works, planning and building, has really impacted Oaklands ability to provide the basic services, Bas said. Schaafs model is now used in other cities, said Tomiquia Moss, the CEO of All Home, a nonprofit that focuses on addressing homelessness as a regional issue. As stated, earlier, the numbers speak for themselves. As Schaaf prepares to leave office on Jan. 2, still keeping her next move quiet, political experts say her tenure and her success as the citys leader is mostly mixed. However, she doesnt only do social works to gain peoples trust. The mayor, on the other hand, never seemed to find her political message, vacillating between her progressive goals and claims of fiscal responsibility and unable to articulate a vision that captured both. The 50th Mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf, is a happily married woman. Under Schaafs watch, displacement has accelerated drastically. Why hasnt it She failed to save her daughter from fentanyls grip. Political experts say that while Oakland is grappling with major issues the housing and homelessness crises and violent crime Schaaf deserves credit for leading the city through some of its toughest times, including the pandemic. She added that Schaafs administration also changed zoning codes to allow for different types of interim housing. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. But homelessness experts say its a quick and cost-effective way to get people indoors. This is the gem of Oakland and its completely trashed, the woman said, pointing to the people sleeping on the street. Is that fair for an overall eight year period? During her administration, Schaaf capitalized on public private partnerships, using fundraising to launch city programs. Other legal experts pointed to similar policies in cities like New York, which have been ruled constitutional. [31], Schaaf alerted city residents to imminent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in February 2018, earning criticism from some federal authorities. Her mother used to work as a flight attendant. "And it will be for others to decide whether that was a good job or not.". First published on December 21, 2022 / 6:55 PM. And with the passage of Measure U, an $850 million bond measure that Schaaf co-wrote with council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, the city will have more money to put toward creating affordable housing. Most famously, she sparred with former President Trump after alerting residents that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could conduct a raid. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Schaaf hired Matt Nichols as her Policy Director[22][28] for Transportation and Infrastructure in March 2015. In addition to repaving, Schaaf created a Department of Transportation and a 311 system that residents can call to report potholes and damaged roads. 311 is an easy-to-remember telephone number that connects you with highly trained City of Oakland Call Center representatives who are ready to help you with requests for non-emergency City services. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. On the flip side, Mayor Schaaf failed to build 5,000 units of affordable housing, as required by the state to meet Oaklands affordable housing requirements, and only issued permits for 22% of the mandated affordable housing. [1], Schaaf won the November 4, 2014 Oakland mayoral election in the 14th round in ranked choice voting with 62.79% of the vote. Its a humanitarian crisis, Schaaf said. The numbers speak for themselves. Despite voters suggesting a different form of leadership, Schaaf said she hopes residents will remember her as a fighter. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Administrator Ed Reiskin today released a two-year Proposed Policy Budget for fiscal years 2021-2023. Schaaf failed to expand MACRO, a model for mental health emergency support to Oaklanders that does not lead with law enforcement, and which could free up officers to handle actual crime. Rather they split between progressives. Its a non-profit organization that organized and implemented hundreds of volunteer community improvement projects across the city. Skelton: California has lots of catching up to do on flood management, Opinion: How facial recognition will transform airport security. As Schaaf exits on Jan. 2, she leaves behind a crime-ridden city with inadequate police staffing, unfunded retirement liabilities that have grown from about $2.4 billion a decade ago to $3. $5 million for each longtime Black resident? Libby Schaaf's Tweets. In 2015, 68% of likely voters had a favorable impression of Schaaf, according to the chamber poll. So the council, which shifted from roughly evenly split to labor dominance during Schaafs tenure, has had the final word on the citys budget and the votes to stymie the mayors police-staffing goals. But, he said, She should get real credit. While making the rounds, she shooed a rat away from a blanket covering someone sleeping in the pergola. Heres what Sheng Thao plans to do first, Is Oakland more progressive than San Francisco? First, theyll need to stop digging. In the citys housing element from 2015 to 2023, which lays out how a city will plan for new homes, Oakland reached 174% of its goal for above-moderate-rate housing. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Email him at dborenstein@ bayareanewsgroup.com. Moreover, she never capitalized on her early popularity and the bully pulpit of the mayoral post to build an effective fund-raising and grassroots political operation that could be mobilized in support of political allies. Schaaf said the biggest challenges from her time in office are the problems she inherited from previous administrations from deteriorating roads with no plans to fix them to a non-existent response to homelessness. As she departs because of term limits, Schaaf leaves the mayors office and seven of the eight City Council seats in the hands of her political opponents, a hard-left, union-driven coalition that swept the table in last months balloting. Its the kind of foundational investments that she did in her tenure that will bear fruit for the city of Oakland in the long-term, Moss said. "You know, I always tell little kids who ask, 'What's it like being the mayor of Oakland?' ICEs acting director Thomas Homan stated that ICE failed to arrest around 800 people because of the alert. She equipped an entire generation of children with college savings accounts and universal preschool. Specialties: Building community collaborations; creative problem solving; getting things done; bringing state and federal dollars to Oakland; analyzing policy and legislative proposals;. But, some say, the last few years of her administration, particularly throughout the pandemic, were less successful. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Published: Aug 26, 2022. And while crime in Oakland dipped to some of its lowest levels early in Schaafs tenure, the spike in violent crime is at an all-time high for the first time in nearly a decade. The mayor has only a seldom-used tie-breaking vote. Further, she is the mayor of Oakland, California, as of 2020. [42], Since 2010, Oakland elections have utilized ranked choice voting.[43]. Libby Schaaf hosts her final news conference as Oakland mayor this month. After the rally, demonstrators began to march onto the street. Further, she is the mayor of Oakland, California, as of 2020. Libby Schaaf was born on November 12, 1965, in Oakland, California. She equipped an entire generation of children with college savings accounts and universal preschool. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Stop doing the bidding of the corporate landlords and wealthy developers. Mayor of Oakland Libby Schaaf reacts after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics at Oracle Park on June 25, 2021, in San Francisco. Office chairs and a blue bird statue: Heres everything you can bid on Woman found dead near tree limb at Golden Gate Park identified as San S.F. Bloomberg Surveillance: Early Edition with Anna Edwards, Matt Miller & Kailey Leinz live from London, Berlin and New York, bringing insight on global markets and the top business stories of the day. Stop criminalizing and dehumanizing our unhoused neighbors. Also See: Grab all the details about Jane Pauley, her net worth, and married life. And there are moments of unbelievable tragedy and grief, like presiding over the Ghost Ship tragedy.". This is out of control.. from Loyola Law School. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani. We cannot afford another year of the Schaaf neoliberal nightmare. That is understandable because that is what developers want to build, but thats not necessarily what Oakland needs.. 3. Her style was that of a practical progressive; vocal on social justice issues, but also determined to deal with real-world problems. Nearly 5,000 new apartments were built in Oakland's downtown area between 2018 and 2020, but less than 4% of those units were below market rate. Oakland is grappling with a high vacancy rate, with nearly one-fifth of governments jobs currently vacant. And the pandemic has undercut the growth in business migration to Oakland that was so promising just a few years ago. Talking about the financial status of Libby Schaaf, her net worth is estimated to revolve around$1 millionas of 2020. As an Oakland native, the town is a road map of Schaafs life history: Its where she grew up as the daughter of a shoe salesman and a flight attendant, where she graduated from Skyline High School and where she raised her two kids. Officers say theyre overwhelmed by call volume, and data shows the majority of these calls are for noncriminal events such as issues related to homelessness and mental health. His candidacy was always a longshot, especially given his troubled two-decade tenure on the council, but it sucked up more than $500,000 of outside spending that could have helped Taylor counter more than $700,000 of independent expenditures for Thao. As she comes to the end of her eight-year term, the Oakland. There is no doubt with a million worth fortune; she holds several lavish properties; however, nothing official has been released on this topic. Most famously, she sparred with former President Trump after alerting residents that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could conduct a raid. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Oakland officials are eyeing an expansion to the city's police force to confront the increase in violent crime, which has resulted in more than 115 homicides so far this year.Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (D) said her office is drafting a proposal to put before the City Council that would increase the number of active police officers and require the city to maintain a larger police force . The Just Recovery Budget totals more than $3.85 billion over the next two years, as shown in the table below: "As the City begins to recover from the devastating impact of the COVID pandemic, this Just . An Oakland Chamber of Commerce poll released in October shows that voters are largely dissatisfied with the city 64% of the polls respondents said they felt the city was headed in the wrong direction. Dear Abby: I kept this secret for 30 years, and now I'm devastated by the outcome. It was her most-consequential failing. We created several public-private partnerships to test innovative approaches with private dollars, like the Cabin Community Shelter Model and Keep Oakland Housed that prevented 1800 families a year from entering homelessness and won HUD's National Partnership Award. When I became the mayor, it wasnt a top concern. Born and raised in Oakland, Ive always felt such pride in our beautiful, diverse city. The next mayor has their work cut out to get us out of the hole Schaaf has dug us into. Speaking more about her educational background, she holds a B.A. And while crime in Oakland dipped to some of its lowest levels early in Schaafs tenure, the spike in violent crime is at an all-time high for the first time in nearly a decade. libby schaaf eye problems. Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. Bas said council members regularly hear from residents about their frustration with the lack of services trash, illegal dumping and sanitation and said its been a significant problem. She is dedicated to public service, community work and is devoted to . Dan Borenstein is an award-winning columnist for the Bay Area News Group and editorial page editor of the East Bay Times. Its the kind of foundational investments that she did in her tenure that will bear fruit for the city of Oakland in the long-term, Moss said. November 4, 2014 Oakland mayoral election, List of mayors of the 50 largest US cities, "Councilwoman Libby Schaaf files to run for Oakland mayor", "Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf wins re-election", "Mayoral election in Oakland, California (2018)", "Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Is Our East Bay Person of the Year", "De La Fuente to challenge Schaaf for Oakland mayor in 2018", "Mayor-elect Schaaf: Now is 'Oakland's time', "Oakland voters approve two tax measures, minimum wage hike", "Gov. The homeless crisis is just a moral outrage," she said. But the city reached 43% of its very-low-income housing goals, 26% of its low-income housing and 3% of its moderate-income housing goals. In her first five years, the homicide rate dropped. var year = today.getFullYear(); As Schaaf prepares to leave office on Jan. 2, still keeping her next move quiet, political experts say her tenure and her success as the citys leader is mostly mixed. Overall, since Mayor Schaaf took office while the total OPD budget grew by over 80% Oaklands Public Works budget has increased by only 38%. John Ramos accidentally launched a lifelong career in journalism when he began drawing editorial cartoons and writing smart-alecky satire pieces for the Bakersfield High School newspaper. The contrast with the current occupant couldn't be greater. It also lays out her political achievements and failures as the citys 50th mayor for the past eight years. Schaafs model is now used in other cities, said Tomiquia Moss, the CEO of All Home, a nonprofit that focuses on addressing homelessness as a regional issue. Meanwhile, with Schaaf gone, more politically moderate residents who once backed her and this year subscribed to Taylors pragmatic progressive approach have almost no representation or political organization to fall back on. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Jerry Brown lends support to ex-aide in Oakland mayor's race", "Gov. Weve had to respond to the crisis while building a whole new system that did not exist in City Hall just six years ago.. At least three new ponds are visible in Golden Gate Park after the recent rains attracting birds, frolicking dogs and people taking photos. After 8 years of Libby Schaaf, is Oakland better or worse? But, as Schaaf stood by passively, Oakland labor leaders over the past eight years built a potent campaign organization that financially and organizationally dominated the 2022 election. I'm a Black woman and a co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project. Its a humanitarian crisis, Schaaf said. When Oakland Mayor Elect Thao takes over, she may find -- as Schaaf did -- that in a city like Oakland, some problems are just too big for one person to fix. 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