Also: Nine out of ten Black survey respondents said crime and public safety are 'concerning' or 'extremely concerning' — the highest concern level of any group for any issue in the survey.
Most Oaklanders do not support the Authoritarian agenda imposed on us by the One-Party Progressive regime that has taken over the town. The issue is not race, it is that the city does not provide the services (public safety, sanitation, functional and well-maintained infrastructure) for which we are repeatedly taxed. The money is increasingly diverted to fund the one-party machine. This will not change without voting reform: Voter ID, no mail in ballots except for the exceptions prior to the Covid era, In-person voting in neighborhood precincts, same day count of ballots, no late ballots included, and no ranked-choice voting.
You are seriously anti-intellectual, and you never offer any real refutation to our points grounded in facts and logic. You just come here and make an ass of yourself. Learn how to debate—you’re outmatched.
Still waiting for you to actually write something yourself and submit it to the court of public opinion. My guess is you struggle to put more than a few sentences together—certainly nothing of substance. Anti-intellectual to your core.
ranked-choice has been in Oakland and SF for a long time. To try to go back to the way it was is an absolute lost cause. It's like promoting something useless.
the main advantage of ranked-choice is that it allows a fuller expression of the voter's will. for example: i like A, but i next like B. that's a fuller expression of will than "I like A."
Another advantage is that it creates "an instant run-off" result. efficient use of the cost of one election.
the general tenet re the vote count is that the first candidate that gets to 51% of the total is the winner.
in general, it also urges civility amongst the campaigners.
Thank you for sharing this data. This aligns with the feedback I receive from people in D6/D7. On Friday, I spent some time with the Oakland NAACP talking about the longstanding disparity issue in the Town. I run a fairly large department that provides a number of services to the public as well as delivers capital projects for public benefit. I suppose one could say I represent the problem, but I’m seeking solutions. The imbalance can’t be denied. You can see it visually. In Atlanta, I spent a lot of time in the “SWATS” helping residents understand how the city sausage was made. It’s time to do that in Oakland.
I was sitting in the dog park thinking about another topic. I do have a dog, but I also sit in the dog park alone to think. Yes. Weird. The topic runs parallel to the statistics presented in this article- voting. Allow me to draw on my professional experience from other jurisdictions. This is not an Oakland comment. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I suspect it rings true here. There is an inverse relationship between voter turnout and investment of municipal resources. Simply stated, communities who vote in high numbers tend to get more attention. Even if a community turned up only to vote for the city surveyor or dog catcher (neither are applicable in Oakland), there would be immediate attention and near immediate change. I have consulted in multiple countries, states, counties, and cities where street paving was a political tool. Those who turned out to the polls got more. Again, I am making no commentary about Oakland. Voter turnout changes things, even if you don’t trust the system. If we only had an election in 2026, then we could test my voter turnout theory in Oakland. I’ll bet a dozen chocolate chip cookies from Oaklandia that I’m right.
How do we get these verifiable facts into the heads of the patronizing, out-of-touch, self-styled "progressives" of the demographically wealthy voter precincts of town?
I think the "progressives" you allude to are cult members that have pledged total loyalty to an ideology (notice how the Wellstone Democratic Club members recite the same exact doctrine, beliefs, and opinions).
Reminder that a majority of voters in DISTRICT 1 were against the recalls of Pam Price and Sheng Thao. Time and again, the D1 voters have disappointed me.
Just a footnote: although I share many or most of the stated goals of self-described progressives, I do not want to share their failure rate and keep giving the store to the right-wing reactionaries. Oakland - California the nation - can do better.
Any information you can provide that could disconnect hills homeowners from the ideological nonsense spouted by the corrupt public unions running Oakland, would help turn the City around. More of this and louder!!!
The finding that African American residents in Oakland report higher levels of dissatisfaction than other groups is not surprising. What stands out, however, is the consistently high level of dissatisfaction across all communities. To better understand these results, it would be helpful to know what residents expect from city services and outcomes.
For example, dissatisfaction with schools could reflect concerns about literacy rates among elementary students. If parents are frustrated that many children are not reading at grade level, that is an important signal. We know that early literacy strongly correlates with long‑term academic success.
Similarly, dissatisfaction with public safety may stem from slow response times, limited visible law enforcement presence, or a lack of effective crime‑prevention strategies. Each of these issues requires a different set of solutions.
What remains unclear is how the City is addressing these concerns.
- What specific steps are being taken to improve performance in these areas?
- How is progress being measured and monitored?
- How are residents involved in defining success and evaluating whether strategies are working?
When data show that an approach is not meeting its targets, it is important to understand how course corrections are made and how community members are engaged in shaping those adjustments.
2020 Proposition 19 was sold in the name of Equity but hurts Black families. Sign petitions at ForCalifornians.com to #FiXProp19 to #SaveOurChildren'sFuture and #ReclaimVoters'Rights . Don't wait until you lose a loved one and are losing your truly affordable multigenerational home to act.
If I know anything, it's that the Black community is not a monolith—not in how we vote and not in how we experience the world. It's interesting to analyze data in the aggregate, but it's not nearly as instructive as when you disaggregate it futher.
Why not ask ALL residents of Oakland and, perhaps, if you feel the need, record the race. I think you'll find that very few think the taxes being paid are worth it. Only the unions want taxes to go up.
Who thinks that 1/3 of Oakland employees should be making more than $300K. That's ridiculous.
Loren, thank for this enlightening article and this clearly shows how out of touch City Hall is with its constituents. However, we should not be surprised because Barbara Lee is running Oakland for the non-profits and unions, not residents and small businesses.
Nice article. I really enjoy these Oakland Specific Substack articles. Less noise from legacy media.
I wanted to offer my opinion about this line in your article:
"It is worth stating plainly: this is not reflexive anti-tax sentiment."
Did I miss the analysis supporting this statement? I think most (those paying attention) Californians would agree that taxes across the state, and certainly locally in Oakland, are burdensome and never produce the promised results on time, on budget, etc. Or, our tax dollars are sent into the unaccountable NGO machines who are not required to provide proof of success (homeless, drug rehabs, get out the vote, etc).
I suppose one could generally say they are not anti-tax. I'm not anti tax. What I am is, anti fraud, anti grift, anti waste of our tax dollars. Yet year after year, Oakland elects the next progressive darling to the council or mayor's office. The city drives deeper into debt, trash piles onto the street corners and into the lanes of traffic.
This happens because the elected officials fear what they praise about Oakland. Oakland's history of protest. Yet now, our protesters are SEIU and DSA backed organized protesters who do nothing to control the radical elements within their crowds (antifa, black bloc, bamn) who then burn and loot in the name of social justice. God forbid someone in elected office take a public stance agauant them. They will then be called a white supremacist or adjacent to. Or "right wing". (gasp!) And then their next election will be derailed by another more progressive tax wasting politician. I still remember seeing photos in the paper of Kaplan walking arm in arm against the OPD with Occupy Oakland before the council ordered them removed from FOP The cycle begins.
Tax dollar wasting City government at the behest of their SEIU overlords blame the police department of much of the finance drain. Yes, OPD spends a ton on OT. There is no denying that. The City has also paid 10's of thousands of tax payer dollars to conduct audits on how big should OPD be. Study after study recommends 1000-1200+ sworn officers. OPD has fewer than 650, doing the work of 1000-1200+. It seems OPD cannot provide the police services Oakland deserves without overtime. Oakland deserves a traffic unit who investigates vehicle accidents in a timely manner and a 911 and regular police reaponse that isnt embarrassingly slow. That cost real money. A properly staffed department does not need to rely on overtime to fill the holes.
Has there ever been a politician in Oakland who ran on closing budget gaps by saying no to new spending? Certainly not in Oakland. Like BART, politicians just kick the can down the road and pray for a bailout.
Thank you Loren and Oakland Report. You are right the black population is had it with the tax agenda. I am proposing a solution, which will work to bring Oakland into a great city again. I am asking my fellow Oaklanders to make a big leap out of the controlled box. I offer my current press release as a way out. Let us all work together for all Oaklanders. That is my concern.
As a lifelong advocate for Oakland's working families and a candidate for Mayor in 2026, I stand firmly against all new taxes, including the proposed parcel tax hikes in Oakland and the statewide Billionaire Wealth Tax! Time to take a stand and I am taking that stand.
These aren't solutions—they're destroying our Oakland and in many cases killing our people. They chase jobs, businesses, and families straight out of Oakland. They leave our streets with crime, drugs and homelessness.
Real leadership rebuilds!
1)Bring back manufacturing and business.
2)Upgrade our ports and infrastructure.
3)Rebuild East and West Oakland.
4)Rebuild Chinatown and Oakland’s downtown.
Build Baby Build! This means families grow, seniors are safe, and all Oaklanders have a future.
Turn Oakland into a growth engine where companies thrive and hire.
This is my vision, I am asking you to join my campaign.
Oakland Declines While Government Seeks a 125% Raise for Failure
Reality vs idealism:
Reality is potholes, slow response, illegal dumping, and visible decline. Idealism is talk without measurable delivery.
Like maintenance failures, the root cause is clear and visible.
So what is the foundation of this failure?
Recently, I read that supervisors are seeking a ~125% pay increase, justified by comparisons to Los Angeles and San Diego. Is that reality? No.
At a time when federal economic pressure is driving prices up, jobs are being lost, benefits are shrinking, and affordability continues to slip, that proposal exposes the real issue.
It reveals a system where:
* fiscal failure is rewarded
* visible failure is ignored
* compensation is detached from outcomes
That is the foundation of failure.
And it sits squarely with those responsible:
the Mayor, the Supervisors, and those operating behind the scenes.
Based on actual outcomes, I analyzed compensation against performance. The result is clear: salaries should be reduced by at least 10%. That is reality.
Until incentives are tied directly to performance, what we see on the streets will not change.
Thank for this thoughtful, data-heavy piece. But it does raise the question, why the continued support for, for example, Barbara Lee, who is a good person but represents the same-old, same-old, or worse, Sheng Thao. I suspect that it has a lot do with influence that public employees' unions, particularly the SEIU, exert on our elections. People complain with good reason that billionaires have outsized influence in our democracy, but as far as practical effects in Oakland and other places in California, the influence of the public employees' unions is much more pernicious. Is there some way to limit the amount they spend on elections?
HERE ARE THE FACTS… The Institute for taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that for most states, the state and local taxes (SLT) that Black & Hispanic households pay is a higher effective tax rate (taxes as a percent of income) than the average. For example, in Tennessee, Black and Hispanic families pay about 1 percentage point more of income in state and local taxes than the statewide average. (SOURCE- https://media.itep.org/ITEP-Who-Pays-7th-edition.pdf)
Most Oaklanders do not support the Authoritarian agenda imposed on us by the One-Party Progressive regime that has taken over the town. The issue is not race, it is that the city does not provide the services (public safety, sanitation, functional and well-maintained infrastructure) for which we are repeatedly taxed. The money is increasingly diverted to fund the one-party machine. This will not change without voting reform: Voter ID, no mail in ballots except for the exceptions prior to the Covid era, In-person voting in neighborhood precincts, same day count of ballots, no late ballots included, and no ranked-choice voting.
Rank choice needs to go
Why do you want for ranked-choice voting to go?
One reason is people game the system to secure a win
it means that candidates can agree to be civil with each. that's a good thing.
This is nonsense is reflective of the Oakland Report's story. First Seneca Scott. Now Loren Taylor. Who's next?
You are seriously anti-intellectual, and you never offer any real refutation to our points grounded in facts and logic. You just come here and make an ass of yourself. Learn how to debate—you’re outmatched.
If not for rank choice voting we would not have ended up with an unqualified mayor like Sheng Thao
You are entitled to your opinion, I stand by mine
and Jean Quan too!
Still waiting for you to actually write something yourself and submit it to the court of public opinion. My guess is you struggle to put more than a few sentences together—certainly nothing of substance. Anti-intellectual to your core.
ranked-choice has been in Oakland and SF for a long time. To try to go back to the way it was is an absolute lost cause. It's like promoting something useless.
the main advantage of ranked-choice is that it allows a fuller expression of the voter's will. for example: i like A, but i next like B. that's a fuller expression of will than "I like A."
Another advantage is that it creates "an instant run-off" result. efficient use of the cost of one election.
the general tenet re the vote count is that the first candidate that gets to 51% of the total is the winner.
in general, it also urges civility amongst the campaigners.
Thank you for sharing this data. This aligns with the feedback I receive from people in D6/D7. On Friday, I spent some time with the Oakland NAACP talking about the longstanding disparity issue in the Town. I run a fairly large department that provides a number of services to the public as well as delivers capital projects for public benefit. I suppose one could say I represent the problem, but I’m seeking solutions. The imbalance can’t be denied. You can see it visually. In Atlanta, I spent a lot of time in the “SWATS” helping residents understand how the city sausage was made. It’s time to do that in Oakland.
I was sitting in the dog park thinking about another topic. I do have a dog, but I also sit in the dog park alone to think. Yes. Weird. The topic runs parallel to the statistics presented in this article- voting. Allow me to draw on my professional experience from other jurisdictions. This is not an Oakland comment. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I suspect it rings true here. There is an inverse relationship between voter turnout and investment of municipal resources. Simply stated, communities who vote in high numbers tend to get more attention. Even if a community turned up only to vote for the city surveyor or dog catcher (neither are applicable in Oakland), there would be immediate attention and near immediate change. I have consulted in multiple countries, states, counties, and cities where street paving was a political tool. Those who turned out to the polls got more. Again, I am making no commentary about Oakland. Voter turnout changes things, even if you don’t trust the system. If we only had an election in 2026, then we could test my voter turnout theory in Oakland. I’ll bet a dozen chocolate chip cookies from Oaklandia that I’m right.
Great work Loren and the Black Action Alliance. No more taxation without representation!!!!
How do we get these verifiable facts into the heads of the patronizing, out-of-touch, self-styled "progressives" of the demographically wealthy voter precincts of town?
I think the "progressives" you allude to are cult members that have pledged total loyalty to an ideology (notice how the Wellstone Democratic Club members recite the same exact doctrine, beliefs, and opinions).
Reminder that a majority of voters in DISTRICT 1 were against the recalls of Pam Price and Sheng Thao. Time and again, the D1 voters have disappointed me.
Just a footnote: although I share many or most of the stated goals of self-described progressives, I do not want to share their failure rate and keep giving the store to the right-wing reactionaries. Oakland - California the nation - can do better.
This is very important work.
Any information you can provide that could disconnect hills homeowners from the ideological nonsense spouted by the corrupt public unions running Oakland, would help turn the City around. More of this and louder!!!
The finding that African American residents in Oakland report higher levels of dissatisfaction than other groups is not surprising. What stands out, however, is the consistently high level of dissatisfaction across all communities. To better understand these results, it would be helpful to know what residents expect from city services and outcomes.
For example, dissatisfaction with schools could reflect concerns about literacy rates among elementary students. If parents are frustrated that many children are not reading at grade level, that is an important signal. We know that early literacy strongly correlates with long‑term academic success.
Similarly, dissatisfaction with public safety may stem from slow response times, limited visible law enforcement presence, or a lack of effective crime‑prevention strategies. Each of these issues requires a different set of solutions.
What remains unclear is how the City is addressing these concerns.
- What specific steps are being taken to improve performance in these areas?
- How is progress being measured and monitored?
- How are residents involved in defining success and evaluating whether strategies are working?
When data show that an approach is not meeting its targets, it is important to understand how course corrections are made and how community members are engaged in shaping those adjustments.
Your questions directly relate to the "Four Year Community Violence Reduction Plan" that the Oakland Public Safety Planning and Oversight Commission is working on. This is the commission that is also tasked with allocating over $45 million in Measure NN funds. They are hosting community meetings to discuss the violence reduction plan - I highly recommend you participate! https://www.oaklandca.gov/Government/Boards-Commissions/Oakland-Public-Safety-Planning-and-Oversight-Commission AND I have written about this commission here https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/measure-nns-oversight-commission
2020 Proposition 19 was sold in the name of Equity but hurts Black families. Sign petitions at ForCalifornians.com to #FiXProp19 to #SaveOurChildren'sFuture and #ReclaimVoters'Rights . Don't wait until you lose a loved one and are losing your truly affordable multigenerational home to act.
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/10/californias-tax-on-inherited-properties-hurts-minority-communities/
If I know anything, it's that the Black community is not a monolith—not in how we vote and not in how we experience the world. It's interesting to analyze data in the aggregate, but it's not nearly as instructive as when you disaggregate it futher.
Why not ask ALL residents of Oakland and, perhaps, if you feel the need, record the race. I think you'll find that very few think the taxes being paid are worth it. Only the unions want taxes to go up.
Who thinks that 1/3 of Oakland employees should be making more than $300K. That's ridiculous.
Here is the full report for all Oakland responses… https://www.eastbaypollinginstitute.org/polls/oakland-q1-2026
They did.
Loren, thank for this enlightening article and this clearly shows how out of touch City Hall is with its constituents. However, we should not be surprised because Barbara Lee is running Oakland for the non-profits and unions, not residents and small businesses.
Nice article. I really enjoy these Oakland Specific Substack articles. Less noise from legacy media.
I wanted to offer my opinion about this line in your article:
"It is worth stating plainly: this is not reflexive anti-tax sentiment."
Did I miss the analysis supporting this statement? I think most (those paying attention) Californians would agree that taxes across the state, and certainly locally in Oakland, are burdensome and never produce the promised results on time, on budget, etc. Or, our tax dollars are sent into the unaccountable NGO machines who are not required to provide proof of success (homeless, drug rehabs, get out the vote, etc).
I suppose one could generally say they are not anti-tax. I'm not anti tax. What I am is, anti fraud, anti grift, anti waste of our tax dollars. Yet year after year, Oakland elects the next progressive darling to the council or mayor's office. The city drives deeper into debt, trash piles onto the street corners and into the lanes of traffic.
This happens because the elected officials fear what they praise about Oakland. Oakland's history of protest. Yet now, our protesters are SEIU and DSA backed organized protesters who do nothing to control the radical elements within their crowds (antifa, black bloc, bamn) who then burn and loot in the name of social justice. God forbid someone in elected office take a public stance agauant them. They will then be called a white supremacist or adjacent to. Or "right wing". (gasp!) And then their next election will be derailed by another more progressive tax wasting politician. I still remember seeing photos in the paper of Kaplan walking arm in arm against the OPD with Occupy Oakland before the council ordered them removed from FOP The cycle begins.
Tax dollar wasting City government at the behest of their SEIU overlords blame the police department of much of the finance drain. Yes, OPD spends a ton on OT. There is no denying that. The City has also paid 10's of thousands of tax payer dollars to conduct audits on how big should OPD be. Study after study recommends 1000-1200+ sworn officers. OPD has fewer than 650, doing the work of 1000-1200+. It seems OPD cannot provide the police services Oakland deserves without overtime. Oakland deserves a traffic unit who investigates vehicle accidents in a timely manner and a 911 and regular police reaponse that isnt embarrassingly slow. That cost real money. A properly staffed department does not need to rely on overtime to fill the holes.
Has there ever been a politician in Oakland who ran on closing budget gaps by saying no to new spending? Certainly not in Oakland. Like BART, politicians just kick the can down the road and pray for a bailout.
Thank you Loren and Oakland Report. You are right the black population is had it with the tax agenda. I am proposing a solution, which will work to bring Oakland into a great city again. I am asking my fellow Oaklanders to make a big leap out of the controlled box. I offer my current press release as a way out. Let us all work together for all Oaklanders. That is my concern.
Press Release
Mindy Pechenuk, candidate for Oakland Mayor 2026
March 18, 2026-Oakland, CA
www.electmindy.com
Mayor Barbara Lee: Tax Baby Tax
Mindy Pechenuk: Build Baby Build
As a lifelong advocate for Oakland's working families and a candidate for Mayor in 2026, I stand firmly against all new taxes, including the proposed parcel tax hikes in Oakland and the statewide Billionaire Wealth Tax! Time to take a stand and I am taking that stand.
These aren't solutions—they're destroying our Oakland and in many cases killing our people. They chase jobs, businesses, and families straight out of Oakland. They leave our streets with crime, drugs and homelessness.
Real leadership rebuilds!
1)Bring back manufacturing and business.
2)Upgrade our ports and infrastructure.
3)Rebuild East and West Oakland.
4)Rebuild Chinatown and Oakland’s downtown.
Build Baby Build! This means families grow, seniors are safe, and all Oaklanders have a future.
Turn Oakland into a growth engine where companies thrive and hire.
This is my vision, I am asking you to join my campaign.
www.electmindy.com
################
For more information, contact Gerald Pechenuk-cities12345678@gmail.com
FPPC #1480943
Mindy don't skip a beat! HAHAHAHAHAHA
Oakland Declines While Government Seeks a 125% Raise for Failure
Reality vs idealism:
Reality is potholes, slow response, illegal dumping, and visible decline. Idealism is talk without measurable delivery.
Like maintenance failures, the root cause is clear and visible.
So what is the foundation of this failure?
Recently, I read that supervisors are seeking a ~125% pay increase, justified by comparisons to Los Angeles and San Diego. Is that reality? No.
At a time when federal economic pressure is driving prices up, jobs are being lost, benefits are shrinking, and affordability continues to slip, that proposal exposes the real issue.
It reveals a system where:
* fiscal failure is rewarded
* visible failure is ignored
* compensation is detached from outcomes
That is the foundation of failure.
And it sits squarely with those responsible:
the Mayor, the Supervisors, and those operating behind the scenes.
Based on actual outcomes, I analyzed compensation against performance. The result is clear: salaries should be reduced by at least 10%. That is reality.
Until incentives are tied directly to performance, what we see on the streets will not change.
~d
Thank for this thoughtful, data-heavy piece. But it does raise the question, why the continued support for, for example, Barbara Lee, who is a good person but represents the same-old, same-old, or worse, Sheng Thao. I suspect that it has a lot do with influence that public employees' unions, particularly the SEIU, exert on our elections. People complain with good reason that billionaires have outsized influence in our democracy, but as far as practical effects in Oakland and other places in California, the influence of the public employees' unions is much more pernicious. Is there some way to limit the amount they spend on elections?
Seneca Scott is abrasive, controversial, and politically incorrect ... but he's always been right.
black people pay taxes?
HERE ARE THE FACTS… The Institute for taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that for most states, the state and local taxes (SLT) that Black & Hispanic households pay is a higher effective tax rate (taxes as a percent of income) than the average. For example, in Tennessee, Black and Hispanic families pay about 1 percentage point more of income in state and local taxes than the statewide average. (SOURCE- https://media.itep.org/ITEP-Who-Pays-7th-edition.pdf)