Sorry, but from the perspective of one who’s held five different positions with respect to the City of Oakland since 1985, you all are the latest set of youngsters to act like Oakland didn’t have a history prior to 2011. The fact is we stopped doing real economic development- business retention and attraction - in 2012. That was a year after Jerry Brown killed redevelopment law. And before that Oakland has a giant affordable housing budget that was at $111 million for 2011, alone! Prior to the death of redevelopment, part of Oakland labor cost was paid for by our tax increment financing revenue. And although we have the capability of using it today, and since late 2014, we don’t even try. Moreover, we demonstrate that we don’t understand it when we do! See: Howard Terminal. We have the money just lack the knowledge and will to get it.
I'm not sure Oakland will ever be able to help itself and fix its own problems. Would a bankruptcy judge be able to make the changes that Oakland isn't willing to? It would be a drastic and painful step, but maybe the one that we need? As stated, employee compensation and especially pensions are out of control.
I agree that a big part of how Oakland got here is its lack of focus on economic development - and everything that supports that, like dealing aggressively with crime. In fact, I remember Mayor Jerry Brown proposing a casino at the old Army base, and the City Council tripoing all over themselves to kill that idea to instead propose low-income housing for that site.
The other part that contributed to this situation was a failure to recognize and deal with this structural deficit earlier, as described in this article. Oakland needs to a strategic plan with one focus: long-term fiscal sustainability. You can’t provide services unless you’re fiscal healthy, so it’ll get worse before it gets better.
Sorry, but from the perspective of one who’s held five different positions with respect to the City of Oakland since 1985, you all are the latest set of youngsters to act like Oakland didn’t have a history prior to 2011. The fact is we stopped doing real economic development- business retention and attraction - in 2012. That was a year after Jerry Brown killed redevelopment law. And before that Oakland has a giant affordable housing budget that was at $111 million for 2011, alone! Prior to the death of redevelopment, part of Oakland labor cost was paid for by our tax increment financing revenue. And although we have the capability of using it today, and since late 2014, we don’t even try. Moreover, we demonstrate that we don’t understand it when we do! See: Howard Terminal. We have the money just lack the knowledge and will to get it.
I'm not sure Oakland will ever be able to help itself and fix its own problems. Would a bankruptcy judge be able to make the changes that Oakland isn't willing to? It would be a drastic and painful step, but maybe the one that we need? As stated, employee compensation and especially pensions are out of control.
I agree that a big part of how Oakland got here is its lack of focus on economic development - and everything that supports that, like dealing aggressively with crime. In fact, I remember Mayor Jerry Brown proposing a casino at the old Army base, and the City Council tripoing all over themselves to kill that idea to instead propose low-income housing for that site.
The other part that contributed to this situation was a failure to recognize and deal with this structural deficit earlier, as described in this article. Oakland needs to a strategic plan with one focus: long-term fiscal sustainability. You can’t provide services unless you’re fiscal healthy, so it’ll get worse before it gets better.