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Oakland has the #1 property crime rate in America
Oakland also has the #1 violent crime rate in California — and the lowest reported rate of solved crimes of any major city in the nation.
 • Sean S. Reinhart
Rough cut: Our video montage missed the mark
Our recent video compilation fell short. We did not meet our own standard of “no implicit bias”
 • Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland Coliseum: An open letter to Oakland council member Janani Ramachandran
A District 4 constituent asks his council member to reconcile her vote for the Oakland Coliseum sale with the ‘culture of enforcement’ she has publicly…
 • Oakland Report
Oakland: trash is cash, garbage is gold
How Oakland built a problem it cannot clean up — and how to fix it.
 • Oakland Report
Oakland public school enrollment fell 35% — far more than the shrinking child population
Enrollment in the public schools OUSD runs has fallen 35% since 2000, while Oakland’s school-age population fell only 23%. Meanwhile, charter schools…
 • Oakland Report

Charter Reform series

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Oakland is “high sensitivity” — Letters to the editor
Homeless industrial complex; pay raises for city council and unions; who’s actually in charge of the city; you get what you pay for — and more letters…
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Hand-picked: the political and personal ties between mayor Barbara Lee and her Oakland "charter reform working group"
Mayor Barbara Lee’s eight-member panel consists of her transition advisers, her campaign’s institutional backers, a funder of its own process, and…
 • Alex Montana
Oakland city council pay raises: the charter reform provision no one is discussing
Oakland's charter reform could raise council pay up to 125%, pushing total compensation past $300,000 — yet the provision has been nearly absent from…
 • Alex Montana
Oakland’s charter reform process: the questions it was built not to ask
Mayor Barbara Lee’s charter reform ‘working group’ was hand-picked to diagnose Oakland’s dysfunction. But the group was set up to rule out the reforms…
 • Alex Montana
City council seeks a pay raise of up to 125% – which would be among the highest in the nation
Oakland city council is set to consider a charter amendment that would give city councilmembers substantial pay raises as part of a charter reform…
 • Alex Montana
Voter turnout and "strong mayor": equal voices or skewed by districts?
A dialog with an Oakland Report subscriber and the authors of our March 2 commentary, “Oakland voters should reject the inadequate ‘strong-mayor…
 • Oakland Report
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Commentary

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Rough cut: Our video montage missed the mark
Our recent video compilation fell short. We did not meet our own standard of “no implicit bias”
 • Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland Coliseum: An open letter to Oakland council member Janani Ramachandran
A District 4 constituent asks his council member to reconcile her vote for the Oakland Coliseum sale with the ‘culture of enforcement’ she has publicly…
 • Oakland Report
Oakland: trash is cash, garbage is gold
How Oakland built a problem it cannot clean up — and how to fix it.
 • Oakland Report
Oakland city whistleblower responds to Oaklandside ‘hit piece’
Transportation director Josh Rowan responds to media stories that named him as a whistleblower using records the city provided, which he alleges…
 • Oakland Report
Selective sourcing: Oaklandside's article on police overtime
Advocacy group members and city unions in active contract talks were quoted as 'residents' — while OPD's own overtime reports went unmentioned.
 • Rajni Mandal
Oakland Report is 70% toward our goal
We have raised $35,000 toward our $50,000 fundraising goal — our heartfelt thanks to all who have donated so far. Help us get the rest of the way…
 • Sean S. Reinhart and Oakland Report
Oakland is “high sensitivity” — Letters to the editor
Homeless industrial complex; pay raises for city council and unions; who’s actually in charge of the city; you get what you pay for — and more letters…
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland is beautiful, but encampments – and the city’s inequitable response – are holding it back
The city of Oakland’s encampment ‘sensitivity areas’ map perpetuates a long legacy of injustice by once again placing an inequitable burden on West and…
 • Oakland Report
It’s legal to lie in campaigns – but that doesn’t make it right
Oakland Measure E campaign’s claim that it results in “lower tax rates” is a misleading statement — in common terms, a lie. Nothing in the legal text of…
 • Oakland Report
Oakland Report is growing
Announcing five new additions to the Oakland Report team — and a $50,000 fundraising challenge. Don’t miss a beat! Donate to support our nonprofit work.
 • Sean S. Reinhart and Oakland Report
Oakland is still #1 – in highest taxes
Also: The racially-motivated aspects of Oakland’s taxation and service delivery; Rebecca Kaplan isn't qualified for the job; school administrator pay…
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland: the politics of emotional blackmail
For years, city leaders and advocates have repeatedly claimed that the city’s failures are someone else’s fault, criticisms are personal attacks, and…
 • Oakland Report
The latest from
Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland has the #1 property crime rate in America
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Oakland Report
Oakland Coliseum: An open letter to Oakland council member Janani Ramachandran
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Tim Gardner
Oakland is beautiful and we deserve better - Letters to the Editor
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Bob Borek
Oakland school board (OUSD) approves $102.5 million in budget cuts in 5-2 vote
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Podcasts
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Oakland Report Podcast
'Our babies are drinking lead and we wonder why they’re fighting at First Friday'

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When a loan is not a ‘loan’: city officials use wordplay to elide the truth about the Coliseum sale
Oakland lends its Coliseum buyer half the price — and the buyer plans to immediately flip the Arena for cash. We map the deal to the city's own…
 • Alex Montana
Oakland city whistleblower responds to Oaklandside ‘hit piece’
Transportation director Josh Rowan responds to media stories that named him as a whistleblower using records the city provided, which he alleges…
 • Oakland Report
OUSD spent its pandemic 'inheritance'— but it won’t show the receipts
Oakland Unified received $129.9 million in final-round federal pandemic relief. How three East Bay districts handled one-time money and falling…
 • Tarini Kakkar
‘Oakland’s greeting card’: Fox Theater anchors Uptown economy the city is belatedly moving to protect
The landmark performance venue anchors a district of dozens of bars and restaurants, and pays over $157,000 per year into neighborhood safety and…
 • Eric Urbach
Oakland set to give Ray Bobbitt’s company public financing at below-market interest rate to buy the Coliseum
We compare the proposed loan to what commercial lenders charge — and estimate the below-market public financing is essentially a giveaway of roughly $45…
 • Alex Montana
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Oakland Report provides reasoned, evidence-based analyses and critiques of the policies, actions, and inactions of our city, county, and state governments.
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