
Greenberg: Can Oakland Survive Barbara Lee?
Lee’s victory signals trouble for a city already battered by crime, homelessness, and financial ruin
By Richie Greenberg, April 22, 2025 7:21 am

Barbara Lee’s triumph in Oakland’s mayoral race on April 15, 2025, has been hailed as a progressive milestone, marking her as the city’s first Black woman mayor. But beneath the applause lies a grim reality: Lee’s victory signals trouble for a city already battered by crime, homelessness, and financial ruin. Her 27-year congressional record, steeped in ideological zeal over practical solutions, is a warning sign for Oakland’s future. With violent crime spiking, an $87 million budget deficit looming, and public trust shattered after former Mayor Sheng Thao’s recall, Lee’s policies threaten to deepen the city’s woes. Worse, the election’s stark demographic divide reveals a fractured electorate, casting doubt on her ability to unify Oakland’s warring factions.
Start with public safety—a crisis Lee seems ill-equipped to handle. As a congresswoman, she pushed to slash police funding and funnel money into community programs, as seen in her backing of the Marijuana Justice Act. She resisted tougher penalties for crime, prioritizing progressive ideals over the hard realities of Oakland, where violent crime has surged and 72% of residents scorn the city’s safety measures, according to a Chamber of Commerce survey. Her campaign’s tepid pledge to cap police hiring at 850 officers—compared to rival Loren Taylor’s push for over 100 more—echoes her federal aversion to law enforcement. In a city where 911 calls go unanswered and businesses like In-N-Out Burger have fled due to rampant crime, as CBS News reported, Lee’s stance risks leaving streets lawless, businesses shuttered, and residents terrified. Can Oakland afford a mayor who sees police as the problem, not the solution?
Then there’s the city’s financial freefall. Lee’s congressional career was defined by lavish social programs—universal healthcare, federal grants—often untethered to sustainable funding. While she funneled federal dollars to Oakland, critics argue this bred dependency, not resilience. Now, facing an $87 million deficit and a structural budget crisis, as detailed in city reports, Oakland demands ruthless fiscal discipline: service cuts, layoffs, or both. Yet Lee’s cozy ties to public sector unions, which bankrolled her campaign according to the East Bay Times, suggest she’ll shy away from hard choices. Taylor’s platform, rooted in self-reliance and data-driven governance, stood in stark contrast to Lee’s reliance on federal handouts—handouts that may vanish under a Trump administration hostile to blue cities. If Lee doubles down on her spendthrift ways, Oakland’s financial collapse could hit hardest the very communities she claims to champion.
Governance, too, raises red flags. Lee’s congressional alliances with unions and Democratic insiders—earning endorsements from Jerry Brown to nearly every city council member, per KQED—smack of the “business as usual” politics that fueled Thao’s recall. Her vague nod to a contract transparency portal sounds promising, but her silence on strengthening Oakland’s weak gift ban for officials hints at a tolerance for cronyism. With Thao’s federal bribery indictment still raw, as The Mercury News reported, Oakland craves a mayor who’ll root out corruption, not cozy up to the political machine. Lee’s entrenched ties threaten to perpetuate the opacity and distrust that have long plagued City Hall.
The election itself lays bare Oakland’s divisions. Lee eked out 53% of the vote against Taylor’s 47% after nine rounds of ranked-choice voting, with a meager 37.84% turnout among 250,800 voters, per The San Francisco Standard. She swept the progressive flatlands below Interstate 580, home to diverse, lower-income voters, capitalizing on her appeal to young idealists and union loyalists, as The Oaklandside noted. Taylor, meanwhile, dominated the wealthier, less diverse hills—Montclair, Chabot Park—where moderates and older homeowners rallied behind his focus on safety and fiscal restraint, per KQED. This split, amplified by low turnout and late progressive ballots, as The Guardian observed, reveals a city cleaved by ideology and class. Lee’s progressive dogma may resonate in the flatlands, but it alienates the hills and moderates craving pragmatism. Can she bridge this chasm, or will her policies widen it?
A decade ago, Lee’s progressive vision—social justice, defunded police, big spending—seemed like Oakland’s salvation, a bold rebuke to systemic inequities. Supporters still see her as a unifier, a trailblazer for marginalized voices. But today, voters can smell the failure: boarded-up businesses, tent cities, and a City Hall mired in scandal. Research backs this grim reality. Progressive policies like reduced policing have been linked to crime spikes in cities like San Francisco, while reliance on federal aid often masks local fiscal rot. Oakland’s own data shows a 20% rise in violent crime since 2020 and a homelessness crisis that’s grown 10% annually. Lee’s congressional playbook, applied to City Hall, risks turning Oakland into a case study of progressive overreach.
On Twitter/X, critics decry Lee’s win as a step backward, blaming her policies for Oakland’s decline. Supporters cling to her symbolism, but the 47% who backed Taylor signal deep skepticism. Oakland stands at a crossroads: spiraling crime, empty coffers, and a cynical electorate demand bold, practical leadership. Lee’s record—long on ideals, short on results—suggests she’ll deliver more of the same. Voters may soon realize that progressive dreams, like unchecked vices, have consequences for everyone.
All ya need to do is look at her lapel pin to answer your question. No, she will not. She proudly wears a pin of Angela Davis, a former Blank Panther, terrorist, who the marxists rebranded as a scholar, activist!
I am sure the OPD has confidence in their new Mayor Elect to bring safety to the streets of Oakland!
God speed Oakland. You voted or more likely did not vote for this. As 34% turn out is abysmal!
Oakland is doomed to a constant state of anarchy.
You nailed it.
She’s a divisive Black supremacist and a communist who’ll try to blame racism for all of Oakland’s problems? No doubt she’ll claim that reparations are the solution? Oakland has been destroyed under her watch as a Democrat Congresswoman. Now as mayor she’ll make it sure that Oakland’s destruction is complete. She’s like an old buzzard devouring the last remnants of a dead carcass?
And you didn’t even mention the schools-also in a precipitous decline. Ranked choice voting was also in play here as I thought Taylor was ahead until 2nd place votes were counted.
I don’t want her to fail, but Oakland is also a sanctuary city and funds will be cut when she digs in. Then we will find out if “blaming Trump” for all Oakland’s troubles will work.
To paraphrase the Great Rush Limbaugh, I hope she fails in her mission to destroy Oakland.