City Government

OP-ED: Dan Siegel Is the Candidate Who Will Address the Issues

Published

12 years ago

November 3, 2014

By Walter Riley and Anne Weills

Many of the mayoral candidates are contributing to widespread apathy about the upcoming election by refusing to say anything important about the issues facing Oakland.

Mayor Jean Quan’s stance seems limited to statements like, “Crime is down, development is up, and I haven’t done as bad a job as some people say.”

Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Libby Schaaf say they can do better, but give few specifics.

Joe Tuman claims that hiring 200 more cops will solve Oakland’s problems but does not explain why – nor convince us how – Oakland can afford more police.

Parker argues that his experience as a hedge fund banker and executive for a (lawsuit plagued) kidney dialysis company will help get city government running efficiently. And Parker denies that profiling by the police has anything to do with race.

Oakland has real problems that demand real answers. Only civil rights attorney Dan Siegel offers the leadership Oakland needs.

Only a concerted effort to reduce poverty and unemployment will make Oakland safe and prosperous. Siegel supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and has specific plans to train people for well-paying 21^st Century jobs.

Oakland’s schools require serious attention. Siegel proposes universal pre-school to prepare our three and four-year-olds for kindergarten, and comprehensive afterschool programs to help students make up their educational deficits.

Crime rises with the poverty rate. Unless we fix our schools, Oakland will remain a city of high poverty and crime.

No other candidate offers a crime reduction program. Our city’s crime rates ebb and flow with no real understanding of why. And despite claims that Cease Fire is the reason why we have had only 62 murders so far, crime trend experts agree that no person and no program can take credit for the flux in crime rates.

Siegel is the only candidate to present a detailed plan that almost doubles the number of officers assigned to neighborhood patrol and investigation without increasing the total police budget. And the only campaign to demand zero tolerance for police misconduct.

The latest Chamber of Commerce poll shows that voters give the mayor and City Council negative job ratings. The incumbents have failed to govern and don’t deserve another chance.

Oakland’s voters are unhappy with their current leaders and deserve a Mayor with the vision and ability to make our City work for everyone.

Dan Siegel will be that Mayor.

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Related Topics:City of Oakland Dan Siegel November 4 November 4 election Oakland Oakland Mayoral Election OP-ED Opinion Politics

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

1 day ago

July 5, 2026

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

1 week ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”