Bay Area

District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife Kicks Off Reelection Campaign

District 3 City Council incumbent Carroll Fife recently kicked off her campaign for reelection, speaking to an enthusiastic, standing-room-only crowd at ForTheCulture Oak, 701 Clay St. in West Oakland. Since she took office in 2021, Fife has been working to move Oakland City Council in a progressive direction, spearheading efforts and working with others on the council and in the community to enact strengthened protections for poor and working people.

Published

1 year ago

September 12, 2024

Oakland Post

Two supporters, attorney Walter Riley (left) and Pastor Servant B.K. Woodson, stand with Councilmember Carroll Fife at her campaign kickoff, Saturday, Aug. 10 in West Oakland. Photo by Ken Epstein.

By Ken Epstein

Since she took office in 2021, Fife has been working to move Oakland City Council in a progressive direction, spearheading efforts and working with others on the council and in the community to enact strengthened protections for poor and working people.

Her track record has earned her enthusiastic support from some quarters and stirred the enmity of others, including developers, large landlords, and hedge fund executives, who are already financing campaigns to unseat Fife and other local progressives.

“We are in a moment that they have written history books about,” said Fife at her campaign launch. “Our opposition is in fear because we are winning. We are winning, not because of me personally, but (because we are) lifting up the necessity of working cooperatively and thinking about the people who have the least.”

While on the council, Fife has worked for humane policies to reduce homelessness, strengthen public safety, build affordable housing, and foster small business and economic development.

She helped to pilot community-initiated traffic safety solutions, improve Oakland’s 911 dispatch system, finance safe parking sites for unhoused residents, establish a Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District, and put Oakland on record in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.

She has also backed the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (ASSEG)-sponsored development of the Oakland Coliseum, which potentially can lead to the historic economic development to benefit Oakland residents and especially residents of East Oakland.

Her work also included popular ballot measures that authorized low-rent housing, expanded tenant protections, created a progressive tax structure on big business, established public banking in Oakland, capped allowable rent increases for tenants, and expanded opportunities for young people through the Summer Jobs program.

Five candidates are running against Fife. One of them, Warren Logan, transportation planner and former policy advisor of ex-Mayor Libby Schaaf, has already raised over $100,000 in donations from Schaaf and others, many of them involved in tech and real estate development.

Formerly, Fife served as executive director of ACCE Oakland, helped found Moms for Housing and passed legislation at the state and local level to build collective power for tenants. She worked to develop a network of Black organizations and was a 2016 and 2020 delegate for Bernie Sanders and has been a member of the 2020 Platform Committee for the Democratic National Committee.

One of Fife’s major opponents will not appear on the ballot. He is Sam Singer, a longtime public relations operative, with deep connections to corporate media organizations, who has represented Chevron for years in its fight to demonize environmentalists.

Singer was also employed by Wedgewood Properties, a billion-dollar corporation, helping the company vilify Moms for Housing, which in 2020 received international attention in their fight to purchase a vacant home in Oakland. Fife, a community activist at the time, worked closely with Moms for Housing.

Currently, Singer works with officers in the Oakland Police Department and writes frequently on social media denouncing progressive elected officials. Local observers say Singer’s PR efforts promote racial divisions and encourage support for authoritarian solutions by promoting MAGA-type hysteria of rampant crime.

“We’ve got to be united,” said Fife. “We’ve got to organize like we’ve never organized before,” she said. “Information is easy to come by, but truth is not.”

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

2 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

1 week ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.