Charlene for Oakland

Charlene is fighting for pragmatic solutions to address Oakland's problems with homelessness, public safety, and the high cost of housing while bringing Oakland into a bright future with jobs in clean energy and development that celebrates our diversity while reducing our carbon footprint. Her campaign's priorities are the following:

Address the Public Safety Crisis:

I plan to address the skyrocketing levels of crime and gun violence by investing in community policing, with an increase in the size of our police force. While Oakland ranks at the top of our nation's violent crime rates, our police force is unusually small with far below the national average of police per capita. Our city's police force has the 4th highest caseload of violent crimes per officer in the nation, with officers working significant overtime hours that are documented to increase the likelihood of use-of-force complaints by 27% and eating into our city's budget. No wonder we have abysmal 911 response rates and homicide solve rates that impact our most disinvested communities like East Oakland the most, with kids growing up without a basic sense of safety. Businesses are closing and we are losing our jobs. This is unacceptable. By hiring more Oakland police staff from our most disinvested neighborhoods alongside ensuring strong measures for police accountability, our officers will be more responsive to emergencies and have the time to build community trust and relationships. Furthermore, I plan to reinvest in gun violence prevention programs such as Ceasefire, implement a gun buyback program, expand non-police response systems such as MACRO, and create a Crime Victim Program to provide monetary and other forms of support to people and businesses victimized by crime. I will also advocate to implement enhanced measures to improve police accountability and oversight, such as making body camera footage publicly available. Read more about how the small size of Oakland's police force impacts our community here.

An Affordable, Walkable City:

The cost of housing and rent is a primary cause of the homelessness crisis as well as the closure of our small businesses. To lower these costs, I will support the construction of more housing and commercial real estate for all income levels, with a special emphasis on affordable and workforce housing in all parts of Oakland with an inclusionary zoning policy. I will upzone density in the city to build affordable apartments and other housing, and commercial real estate in all of Oakland's neighborhoods especially alongside major bus lines and BART stations. Doing so is key to not only housing affordability, but for making our city a better place to get around without cars - making it easier to walk, bike, and take public transit. Given the long waiting lists to get into Oakland's existing public housing programs, I will seek partnerships between the Oakland Housing Authority and developers to build new public housing, drawing from the effective innovations developed in Montgomery, Maryland. Furthermore, I will work to fix our potholes, repair our sidewalks, slow down speeding with speed cameras and traffic calming, install bus and bike lanes, and transform underused streets into vibrant neighborhood plazas.

A New Strategy for Homelessness:

The number of people living on Oakland's streets continues to explode, with at least a thousand more people added to our number of unhoused every two years. The issue with our county's homelessness response is that we put unhoused people on a waiting list so they only qualify for housing once they reach a high "vulnerability score". You are more likely to get housing the longer you have been on the street. This leaves people languishing on the street for years, developing mental illness and addictions until they need round-the-clock care, making each individual more expensive to rehabilitate and house. I am pushing a new strategy that takes people off the street as quickly as possible, with housing, social services, and a job with a new Oakland Corps program to clean up trash and plant trees with the goal to turn their life around. I co-authored a homelessness strategy to get youth and young adults off the streets of Massachusetts as quickly as possible that was recognized by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government with a distinguished award. I will champion innovative workforce, housing, mental health, and outreach programs for the homeless.

Green Manufacturing Jobs for Oakland:

I plan to build on Oakland's legacy of industry and manufacturing to make Oakland the center of the nation’s clean energy transition by working with non-profit organizations and businesses to bring blue and white collar jobs in clean energy and clean transportation to Oakland. Nearby Fremont has had a green manufacturing boom, and we can do the same and more in Oakland. Congress’ Inflation Reduction Act is bringing unprecedented opportunities for investment in clean energy—let’s ensure Oakland is at the leading edge of this transformation and a major recipient of green investment.

An Oakland Cultural Renaissance:

I want to celebrate and invest in what makes Oakland so special: our ethnic diversity and culture. I am inspired by the model that we already have with Chinatown. Let's spur the creation of cultural districts in West Oakland, East Oakland, Little Saigon, and Fruitvale that have tax incentives for new small, minority-owned businesses in the arts, music, restaurant, and nightlife industries. A condition of lower taxes on these businesses would be a requirement to give back to the local community, for example, by providing free classes to youth and seniors. Then, we can reinvest the eventual rise in property values in and around these cultural districts into community land trusts for permanent affordable housing to ensure there is no displacement in the neighborhood. In the same way New York had a Harlem Renaissance, we should have an Oakland Renaissance too.

Competent, Accessible Government:

I will demand more transparency, efficiency, and accountability from Oakland government and its contractors. I will ensure city documents and services are translated into multiple languages, to better service our diverse community. I will work to ensure Oakland has dedicated grant writers so that we can competitively access money offered by our state and the federal government.