But the city reached 43% of its very-low-income housing goals, 26% of its low-income housing and 3% of its moderate-income housing goals. Its a humanitarian crisis, Schaaf said. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. "I know I put my heart and soul into serving my beloved hometown," she said. Residents are mostly split in their opinions of Schaaf. Jerry Brown lends support to ex-aide in Oakland mayor's race", "Gov. She is dedicated to public service, community work and is devoted to . $5 million for each longtime Black resident? Not only the lovely couple enjoy a blissful life together, but they are also blessed with two beautiful children,DominicandLena. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. And the business community must decide whether it wants to unify to be a potent force in the citys electoral politics or become irrelevant. In South African townships oppressed because of unemployment, crime, drugs and violence, and where many of the population are suffering from HIV and Aids, this inspiring feature-length documentary follows the journey of six people who transform themselves through yoga, and documents the impact that yoga has on their families, and communities. He pointed out the citys facing the highest levels of crime and violence in a decade, a massive increase in homelessness, a potential financial collapse and the loss of more than a third of Oaklands Black population. Some of the highest vacancy rates are in key city functions about 30% of jobs in the building department and nearly a third of positions in the transportation department are open. She has provided coverage on wildfires, mass shootings, the fatal shooting of police officers and massive floods in the North Bay. The housing shortage in California is at the root of the states biggest problems,said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who wants to expand the use of local bonds to promote more building in one of the countrys priciest areas for real estate. ICEs acting director Thomas Homan stated that ICE failed to arrest around 800 people because of the alert. [38][39][40] She lives in Oakland with her husband Salvatore Fahey. [21], In June 2015, Mayor Schaaf announced the formation of Oakland's first Department of Transportation. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. it's the highest highs and lowest lows," Schaaf said. Bloomberg Surveillance: Early Edition with Anna Edwards, Matt Miller & Kailey Leinz live from London, Berlin and New York, bringing insight on global markets and the top business stories of the day. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Stop criminalizing and dehumanizing our unhoused neighbors. For the first time in recent history, Oakland will have a progressive mayor and a progressive-majority City Council the outcome of the November election, which Ross called a repudiation of Schaafs time in office. Her name wasn't on the ballot, but the 2022 Oakland elections were a disaster for outgoing Mayor Libby Schaaf, the culmination of her eight-year fall from grace. December 21, 2022 / 6:55 PM Come January, Thao, as the new mayor, and her labor allies on the council will no longer be able to use Schaaf as their political foil to hide their own failures to address the citys problems. Then theyll need to lift us up. Oakland is a challenging city to govern, said Doug Linney, a political consultant in the East Bay. The first enforcement of this ban was on May 21, during a #SayHerName[29] march, a nationwide coordinated march focused on ending state violence against black women and girls in the US. There is no doubt with a million worth fortune; she holds several lavish properties; however, nothing official has been released on this topic. The Just Recovery Budget totals more than $3.85 billion over the next two years, as shown in the table below: "As the City begins to recover from the devastating impact of the COVID pandemic, this Just . "You know, I always tell little kids who ask, 'What's it like being the mayor of Oakland?' in political science from Rollins College and a J.D. But, he said, She should get real credit. The department is tantalizing close to ending nearly 20 years under federal oversight in May, if it can continue to comply with court-mandated reforms. The outcomes and conditions in the city arent as positive as anybody would like. Despite new property taxes championed by Schaaf and rapidly rising revenues, the city remains plagued with the same key problems present when Schaaf was elected mayor eight years ago. It's been the honor of a lifetime to serve as Oakland's 50th Mayor during the eventful years of 2015-2022. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. libby schaaf eye problems. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". [1] Schaaf won the November 4, 2014 Oakland mayoral election in the 14th round in ranked choice voting with 62.79% of the vote. Our Ceasefire Partnership gave Oakland its lowest 5-year homicide rate on record. And while crime in Oakland dipped to some of its lowest levels early in Schaafs tenure, the spike in violent crime is at an all-time high for the first time in nearly a decade. Two sports teams left the city and a third, the Oakland As, has threatened to leave if their proposed multi-billion dollar waterfront ballpark and surrounding development doesnt move forward. Those times also include overseeing a police department plagued with a sex scandal and once cycled through three police chiefs in just nine days in 2016. Also See: Grab all the details about Jane Pauley, her net worth, and married life. As Schaaf, a moderate, leaves office, the progressive Sheng Thao is preparing to take over. The programs success is mixed. The numbers speak for themselves. [11], In 2006, Schaaf joined the Port of Oakland as the Director of Public Affairs,[12] helping to secure state and federal funding for the city of Oakland, as well as directing all strategic communications for the port. Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. I'm a Black woman and a co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project. That wasnt her goal, Schaaf said. OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Police are investigating an act of vandalism at Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's house. Overall, since Mayor Schaaf took office while the total OPD budget grew by over 80% Oaklands Public Works budget has increased by only 38%. "My other disappointment is I was able to budget for a police force of nearly 800 officers, but never actually able to reach that staffing number," she said. But as she prepares to leave office, with the city still facing tremendous problems, Oakland's 50th mayor was reluctant to evaluate her own performance. Mayor of Oakland Libby Schaaf reacts after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics at Oracle Park on June 25, 2021, in San Francisco. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was a target of HBO's Bill Maher on Friday night over her handling of a controversy surrounding supposed nooses found at Lake Merritt. She added that the city has 2,200 affordable homes in the pipeline ready to be built. We made PROMISES to our children, by leaving transformative new resources for the next generation of Oaklanders, including: The Oakland Promise, nationally recognized as the most comprehensive cradle-to-career initiative of its kind, will provide all OUSD students with scholarships, college access and completion support. Libby Schaaf will go down as one of the worst mayors in Oaklands history. But she didnt galvanize that into a political force.. An Oakland Chamber of Commerce poll released in October shows that voters are largely dissatisfied with the city 64% of the polls respondents said they felt the city was headed in the wrong direction. There have been 13 homicides in Oakland . This is the gem of Oakland and its completely trashed, the woman said, pointing to the people sleeping on the street. There are cities that have gone through big transformations when it was said it could never be done. Schaaf said building housing at all income levels is key if the city hadnt, high-income workers would have taken over the existing naturally affordable units. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. [1], Schaaf won the November 4, 2014 Oakland mayoral election in the 14th round in ranked choice voting with 62.79% of the vote. By nearly every metric, she has decreased community safety and increased human suffering of those already most marginalized. A year later, her Drake-backed fried chicken chain opens first Oakland restaurant this week. She led Oakland through not easy times.. In 2010, Schaaf was elected to represent her home district, District 4, on the Oakland City Council. A key component of Schaafs strategy to addressing homelessness is the community cabin program, which moves unhoused people into temporary structures. She repaved 161 miles of the citys crumbling roadways, but residents complain about the amount of trash on city streets in the span of one year, enough garbage landed on city streets to cover the length of 13 football fields. But the 50-year-old former city councilwoman, whose profilers seem unable to describe her without mentioning her high school . "I like to think that I'm leaving them with the bases loaded.". Stop giving all our money to an inefficient police department without making necessary changes. Libby Schaaf is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party. San Francisco Mayor London Breed (left) and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf hold baseballs before a between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland As last year at at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Under her watch, Oakland has repeatedly and violently evicted residents of Oakland encampments closing as many as 12 encampments a month. Schaaf spent her entire first day as mayor in 2015 at the Oakland Police Department, demonstrating tone-deafness to the people at a time when thousands of Oaklanders were in the streets protesting OPD shootings of Black folks. We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. When Nathan, a 9-year-old boy she was tutoring, ran across the gym to greet her with a hug, she recognized that her real joy was in public service. Previously, she covered breaking news and crime for The Chronicle. She added that Schaafs administration also changed zoning codes to allow for different types of interim housing. All housing helps the homeless crisis and all housing at all income levels has helped slow gentrification and displacement of Oaklanders, Schaaf said in a recent interview with The Chronicle. Before the sun rose on a brisk February morning, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf looked around Lake Merritt and counted the number of people sleeping on the street for the bieennial point-in-time count. As an Oakland native, the town is a road map of Schaafs life history: Its where she grew up as the daughter of a shoe salesman and a flight attendant, where she graduated from Skyline High School and where she raised her two kids. And the new candidates Schaaf backed often entered the races late, lacked sufficient funding and were unprepared, inexperienced and/or poorly vetted. During her tenure, Oakland has undergone an economic revitalization and building boom, as well as cut gun violence in half. In 2015, 68% of likely voters had a favorable impression of Schaaf, according to the chamber poll. Meanwhile, with Schaaf gone, more politically moderate residents who once backed her and this year subscribed to Taylors pragmatic progressive approach have almost no representation or political organization to fall back on. She oversaw the city as it dealt with tragedy when the Ghost Ship fire killed 36 people at a warehouse party. Her stop at the police department wasn't just symbolism it was a signal to the police that they were her top priority. Finally, when needed, we were unafraid to throw a few PUNCHES for Oakland and her values: We stood up against President Trump when he attacked our city and threatened Oakland's beloved immigrants. We did not have a structure in place to deal with it. Is that fair for an overall eight year period? 1965. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. she exclaimed. A Bay Area native, he holds masters degrees in public policy and journalism from University of California, Berkeley. Libby Schaaf will go down as one of the worst mayors in Oakland's history. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. In Oaklands weak-mayor governance structure, the mayor can propose a financial and policy agenda, but the ultimate power rests with the eight-member City Council. Oakland Police Officers' Association Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf got on her knees for Black Lives Matter amidst the Floyd riots last year and scolded all white police officers as evil racists and oppressors of innocent black people before wholeheartedly embracing the "Defund the Police" movement. The states shortage of affordable homes threatens its golden-ness, Libby Schaaf says. In 2016, Schaaf wrote a voter-approved $600 million bond measure that helped fund street improvements. Profile: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Then, during one of Schaaf's own volunteer experiences with Oakland Carestutoring children at a local schoolshe hit a tipping point. That is understandable because that is what developers want to build, but thats not necessarily what Oakland needs.. She serves on the Leadership Council at Kiva, a non-profit organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to low-income entrepreneurs and students in over 80 countries. "I have every confidence that the A's and the new mayor, Sheng Thao, will get this deal done," she said. Schaafs model is now used in other cities, said Tomiquia Moss, the CEO of All Home, a nonprofit that focuses on addressing homelessness as a regional issue. Polling showed Schaaf was widely popular in 2015, the year after her first mayoral election. Speaking more about her educational background, she holds a B.A. S.F. Libby Schaaf hosts her final news conference as Oakland mayor this month. First published on December 21, 2022 / 6:55 PM. As the town awakened that February morning and more people flocked to the lake for their daily jog or walk, a woman approached Schaaf. As Schaaf exits on Jan. 2, she leaves behind a crime-ridden city with inadequate police staffing, unfunded retirement liabilities that have grown from about $2.4 billion a decade ago to $3. For the first time in recent history, Oakland will have a progressive mayor and a progressive-majority City Council the outcome of the November election, which Ross called a repudiation of Schaafs time in office. When the ranked-choice balloting was completed, he lost to Thao, a union-stalwart, by just 677 votes. In the category `` necessary '' was said it could never be.! Metric, she holds a B.A cookies in the citys electoral politics or become irrelevant co-founder... Also have the option to opt-out of these cookies impression of Schaaf, according to the people on! 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