Charlene Wang 王夏琳for Oakland City Council At Large

Address the Public Safety Crisis

I plan to address the skyrocketing levels of crime and gun violence by investing in technology alongside community policing. While Oakland ranks at the top of our nation's violent crime rates, our police force is unusually small. 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 disadvantaged 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 strengthening police accountability, our officers will be more responsive to emergencies and have the time to build community trust and relationships. We need enhanced measures to improve police accountability and oversight, such as reforming the police department's internal affairs investigations process and making body camera footage publicly available. Furthermore, I plan to reinvest in gun violence prevention programs such as Ceasefire, implement a gun buyback program, reform 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. Read my public safety plan here. Read my detailed plan for public safety here. Read more about how the small size of Oakland's police force impacts our community here.

Jobs and Opportunity

Too many people are shut out of opportunity, and are living paycheck to paycheck in Oakland. At the same time, our budget deficit requires us to get creative about generating more tax revenue. I have specific plans around the economic development I'd like to bring to Oakland:

Green Manufacturing Jobs: 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 businesses and non-profits to bring blue and white collar jobs in clean energy and clean transportation to Oakland, particularly for environmental justice communities like West Oakland and East Oakland where there are also old manufacturing sites ready for re-use. 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.

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 health conditions 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

Balanced Budget, Address Corruption

Oakland has a $170 million dollar budget deficit. If we can't balance our budget, the city will be forced to make painful cuts to essential services like public safety. My experience is designing and managing large government budgets with an eye towards efficiency and maximum service delivery. Read about my plan to balance the budget here.

I'm running on pragmatic solutions to address crime, the budget crisis, homelessness, the high cost of living, and the need for better jobs. Please read my detailed policy platform on addressing Oakland's biggest issues below: