Oakland Report

Oakland Report

Home
About
Donate
Radar
Analysis
Commentary
Media Bias
Newsstand
Oakland approved $61 million in contracts with no council vote or prior public review
Oakland delayed the required public reports on these contracts for three years. The report was finally issued this week — and it shows hundreds of…
 • Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland school board incumbents claim “billionaires” want to turn schools into… data centers?
Jennifer Brouhard and Valarie Bachelor made the claims in campaign videos, but none of their challengers has proposed anything of the sort, and state…
 • Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland’s governing philosophy: extract, don’t build
A licensed contractor argues Oakland's permits, fines, and fees extract from residents while the city projects $115–130 million annual deficits.
Oakland’s 911 system was offline for nearly 36 hours: “I got 5” top headlines
Also: City council could get $108,000 pay raises; Disgraced mayor Sheng Thao’s alleged corruption revealed — and more local headlines
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland's teachers union is a special interest — it's the biggest spender on school board races since 2020.
OEA runs on $1.2 million a year, but its PAC has outspent every other committee in school board races since 2020 — and its parent union holds $574…
 • Charlene Price

Charter Reform series

View all
Measure EE: In Oakland, accountability is on the ballot
Across our city, Oaklanders want services they can count on, clear answers when something goes wrong, and leaders who take responsibility for fixing…
Measure EE: Oakland voters should reject the “strong-mayor” proposal
It risks corruption and mismanagement, it makes it harder to hold elected leaders accountable, and it doesn’t reflect Oakland’s diverse community…
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
Categories
Agenda Watch
Archive
Budget
Charter Reform
City Council / Mayor
Commissions
Elections
Letters to the Editor
Oakland Unified School District
Public Safety
Taxes
Contribute
Send a letter to the editor
Submit an article, idea, or lead
Editorial and submission guidelines
Support Oakland Report
Donate
Volunteer

Commentary

View all
Oakland’s governing philosophy: extract, don’t build
A licensed contractor argues Oakland's permits, fines, and fees extract from residents while the city projects $115–130 million annual deficits.
Measure EE: In Oakland, accountability is on the ballot
Across our city, Oaklanders want services they can count on, clear answers when something goes wrong, and leaders who take responsibility for fixing…
Measure EE: Oakland voters should reject the “strong-mayor” proposal
It risks corruption and mismanagement, it makes it harder to hold elected leaders accountable, and it doesn’t reflect Oakland’s diverse community…
Homelessness has become an ideological war
Liberals blame broken systems. Conservatives blame broken behavior. The real answer is more complicated — and the only standard that should matter is…
 • Kevin Dahlgren
Oakland elections: No one wants to catch the “falling knife”
This year, the stakes are higher than ever in Oakland’s local elections — so why are so few candidates running?
 • Seneca Scott
Introducing Newsstand — a free public service for our readers
Oakland Report's Newsstand is a daily roundup of Oakland news and stories from across the spectrum — a one-stop destination for readers to keep abreast…
 • Oakland Report
Coming soon: Oakland Report is expanding
Oakland Report is growing — thanks to our readers’ generous support — and we’re launching a new service for our readers this weekend.
 • Oakland Report
Oakland’s Achilles heel — Letters to the editor
Wondering why a council member behaves like a nightclub act; who’s missing from the Sheng Thao witness list?; gross mismanagement at Oakland Unified …
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland did not dodge the budget crisis – it postponed the bill
Measure E’s backers warned of service cuts if voters didn’t approve it. Voters rejected the measure — yet the city avoided deep cuts after all, by using…
 • Oakland Report
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
The latest from
Sean S. Reinhart
Oakland approved $61 million in contracts with no council vote or prior public review
User's avatar
Oakland Report
Oakland’s 911 system was offline for nearly 36 hours: “I got 5” top headlines
User's avatar
Tim Gardner
Oakland is beautiful and we deserve better - Letters to the Editor
User's avatar
Bob Borek
Oakland school board (OUSD) approves $102.5 million in budget cuts in 5-2 vote
User's avatar
Podcasts
Logo for Oakland Report Podcast
Oakland Report Podcast
'Our babies are drinking lead and we wonder why they’re fighting at First Friday'

You might also like

View all
City council could get raises of up to $108,000 more per year: Oakland’s Measure EE
Oakland already pays its council more per resident than other big cities. The Yes on EE campaign doesn't mention this.
 • Alex Montana
Measure EE: In Oakland, accountability is on the ballot
Across our city, Oaklanders want services they can count on, clear answers when something goes wrong, and leaders who take responsibility for fixing…
Measure EE: Oakland voters should reject the “strong-mayor” proposal
It risks corruption and mismanagement, it makes it harder to hold elected leaders accountable, and it doesn’t reflect Oakland’s diverse community…
I got 5: Oakland city public union votes to strike
Also: Reality star Kash (Mackayla Paige) was accidentally killed by her half-sister; Costco moves closer to opening its first warehouse in Oakland — and…
 • Oakland Report and Sean S. Reinhart
Left out: Oaklandside’s election profiles are notable for what they don’t mention — and who comes out ahead.
Four candidate profiles left out the union’s role, the endorsements and money, and the incumbents’ votes. The promised funding and endorsement story…
 • Alex Montana
Top posts

Subscribe

Oakland Report provides reasoned, evidence-based analyses and critiques of the policies, actions, and inactions of our city, county, and state governments.
AboutArchiveSitemap
Oakland Report
© 2026 Oakland Report · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture