On my maiden voyage as a Oakland blogger and/or on-line commentator, I wince as we are being smothered by these closing campaign ads blanketing our TV, radio, on-line and newspaper spaces.
So, it is apropos on Halloween that we not get “spooked” and/or tricked into voting for yet another parcel tax increase measure of $198 for 30 years seductively labeled Measure AA and using the smiling faces of children being offered promised future educational “treats.”
I agree with the Courageous East Oakland Congress of Neighborhoods when they dared to ask serious questions about the accountability of the money.
Why should we entrust the mayor to develop a relevant budget plan after the fact? Why not use the money to underwrite the cost of housing for teachers in Oakland if they commit to staying five years or more?
I was recently inspired by some young teachers at Holy Names University who want to be able to afford to live in the city where they teach. I promised them that I will work to keep them here.
Measure KK, as you recall, was sold to us by the mayor, as a solution for homelessness and housing affordability. The mayor again is proposing to establish a blind pool of funds that will allow her to create another bureaucracy to study and seek solutions with no upfront defined goals. Let’s not be blind fools when it comes to following the money.
The Measure AA campaign is a sugar-coated pander to taxpayers, and as a former member of the Oakland Board of Education, I can recognize “political panhandling.”
Speaking of the strange bedfellows that our political process often presents to us, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Zennie Abraham strongly endorsed Desley Brooks for re-election to her District 6 City Council seat – a daring endorsement from a former Skyline High classmate of Libby Schaaf.
On election night I plan to call Zennie in Georgia while he is there with his mother as they pull for Stacey Abrams to become the first Black woman governor.