There is no shortage of candidates running to be Oakland’s next mayor. That is because Oakland is hungry for change. We believe that the candidate best suited for the job is Dan Siegel.

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There are also other choices, some of whom will be surprising, for city and school leadership positions that we will recommend in upcoming issues.

But if we want real change – and we do – a fighter with a successful history in navigating Oakland institutions, someone with deep roots and a long track record of doing good things for our city, then Dan Siegel is our first choice.

Dan Siegel with CORE leader James Farmer in Mississippi
50 years ago.

Siegel has been involved in Bay Area social justice movements for over 40 years. A civil rights attorney and activist, who risked his life for our rights, Siegel is the only candidate with a proven track record of fighting for civil and human rights.

From defying the Klan in Mississippi where he and Post publisher Paul Cobb registered African American voters and marched with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders, to defending the family of Alan Blueford and the friends of Oscar Grant, Siegel has committed his life to standing up for what is right in the face of seemingly insurmountable circumstances.

Post publisher Paul Cobb with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders who marched for Black voter rights legislation while Dan Siegel was registering voters in Mississippi 50 years ago.

Siegel has also created change in some of our city’s most important institutions. As an elected school board member, he wrote a nutrition policy that is still held up as a national model, and he successfully reorganized the Housing Authority Police Department to end years of corruption and dysfunction.

Even beyond his history, Siegel’s vision for Oakland’s future is what we are really excited about.

Our students are in trouble. Siegel will bring his experience from the school board to City Hall and work with the superintendent of schools to create community schools, provide universal pre-school for all three- and four year-olds, reduce drop-out rates and end the “school to prison pipeline” by implementing restorative justice in our communities.

Our streets are atrocious. Siegel will cut through the red tape to crack down on illegal dumping, fill potholes and clean up our city.

Our neighborhoods aren’t safe. Just as he did with the Housing Authority, Siegel will reorganize OPD by utilizing our officers more effectively, getting them out of their cars and onto the streets, implementing the community policing ordinance he wrote in 1996 and demanding a zero tolerance policy for police misconduct.

For our residents, especially the formally incarcerated, who need jobs and an effective advocate for local hiring, Siegel is the man with a plan. He is committed to turning our city green and putting Oakland residents to work while doing it!

His vision of a Solar City includes job training and local hire for positions that pay $25 an hour. And for developers who want to come to Oakland, part of the deal will be an ironclad guarantee of jobs for Oakland residents.

Siegel’s vision sounds like a city where we want to live. Among the many choices for mayor on Nov. 4, he has the history, the vision, the commitment, and the ability to turn our city around.

We urge a vote for Dan Siegel.

For those who have selected others for your first choice, we urge you to include Siegel as your second or third choice selections.

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