Libby Schaaf will go down as one of the worst mayors in Oakland History

By Cat Brooks
Originally published October 12, 2022 in SF Gate

Libby Schaaf will go down as one of the worst mayors in Oakland’s history. By nearly every metric, she has decreased community safety and increased human suffering of those already most marginalized.

I'm a Black woman and a co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project. I believe all observers, regardless of their backgrounds, should be able to see that Schaaf has failed. The numbers speak for themselves.

Since Schaaf took office, the number of unhoused Oaklanders has increased by 130%. An estimated 60% or more are Black. 

Under Schaaf’s watch, displacement has accelerated drastically. While market rate housing is constructed for new residents, Oakland has become the third most expensive city in the country for renters, and Black Oaklanders especially face overwhelming displacement pressures. From 2010 to 2020, the city population increased by 50,000, but the Black population shrank by 14% — and the number of Black youth under 18 decreased by 29%.

Even the United Nations condemned Schaaf’s treatment of the unhoused, saying it “constitutes cruel and inhuman treatment and is a violation of multiple human rights, including the rights to life, housing, health and water and sanitation.”

Schaaf spent her entire first day as mayor in 2015 at the Oakland Police Department, demonstrating tone-deafness to the people at a time when thousands of Oaklanders were in the streets protesting OPD shootings of Black folks. Remember, this was literally in the middle of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and Anti Police-Terror Project had been bringing Black people into the streets to protest state violence for five consecutive years.  

Her stop at the police department wasn't just symbolism — it was a signal to the police that they were her top priority. She has made good on the promise to invest in police: The Oakland Police Department’s share of the Oakland General Fund ballooned from $194 million per year, in the last budget put forward by Schaaf's predecessor, to $353 million per year in 2022-23 — an 80% increase in just eight years. 

This bloated police budget has done nothing to improve public safety; in fact, annual homicides increased from 93 when Schaaf took office to 133 in 2021. Officers say they’re overwhelmed by call volume, and data shows the majority of these calls are for noncriminal events such as issues related to homelessness and mental health. Schaaf failed to expand MACRO, a model for mental health emergency support to Oaklanders that does not lead with law enforcement, and which could free up officers to handle actual crime. It’s Schaaf’s job to make sure the police respond in a timely manner to emergency calls, but all she has done is throw money at an agency that is already grossly inefficient.

Effectively no affordable housing

Nearly 5,000 new apartments were built in Oakland's downtown area between 2018 and 2020, but less than 4% of those units were below market rate.

On the flip side, Mayor Schaaf failed to build 5,000 units of affordable housing, as required by the state to meet Oakland’s affordable housing requirements, and only issued permits for 22% of the mandated affordable housing. The number of units the city was supposed to build is greater than the number of unhoused people, while the Town spends 10 times as much on police as it does on housing.

Schaaf has responded to the housing crisis instead by criminalizing unhoused people. Under her watch, Oakland has repeatedly and violently evicted residents of Oakland encampments — closing as many as 12 encampments a month. Most recently, Schaaf backed the mass eviction of a community at Wood Street, the largest encampment in the Bay Area, while not doing the work to provide enough housing or shelter to those evicted. 

Crumbling infrastructure

With so much of Oakland’s budget flowing to policing, the city has been hobbled in its response to questions of basic governance and infrastructure. Under Schaaf’s watch, Oakland Public Works has downplayed and covered up toxic sewage leaks into city creeks and Lake Merritt. Street paving plans are held up by a shortage of 63 staff positions in the Department of Transportation. Overall, since Mayor Schaaf took office — while the total OPD budget grew by over 80% — Oakland’s Public Works budget has increased by only 38%.

As stated, earlier, the numbers speak for themselves.

I’m writing this piece as a warning to every voter in Oakland. We must pay close attention to both the people and policies who get support at the upcoming city elections. Once again, lots of folks tout themselves as progressives, but — just like Schaaf — they are neoliberals co-opting language that they hope will fool voters and get them elected. We cannot afford another year of the Schaaf neoliberal nightmare. As a Black woman I never want to tear other Black people down, but Schaaf has endorsed Loren Taylor for mayor, and his values, which align with Libby Schaaf, are not the values that will support marginalized people in Oakland. They are literally the antithesis of everything we say we stand for.

Oakland needs a mayor who will listen to our communities and prioritize them over profit. The next mayor has their work cut out to get us out of the hole Schaaf has dug us into. First, they’ll need to stop digging. Stop doing the bidding of the corporate landlords and wealthy developers. Stop giving all our money to an inefficient police department without making necessary changes. Stop criminalizing and dehumanizing our unhoused neighbors. 

Then they’ll need to lift us up. Invest in our communities to ensure housing as a human right, good jobs to support Oakland families, mental health care and youth programs, safe roads and clean streets. That is the only pathway to a safe and healthy Oakland where all of us can thrive.

That’s what the people of Oakland expect and demand. A mayor who serves all of Oakland, not just the wealthy few, someone with the courage to undo the Schaaf painful legacy and allow Oakland to heal. 

Cat Brooks is an award-winning actress, playwright, the executive director of the Justice Teams Network, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and the host of "Law & Disorder" on KPFA.