Oakland’s been pretty quiet lately. No horrendous crimes that dominate the headlines. Incidents of specific crimes remain high, but this is Oakland; realistically, we won’t get down to the normal level of other cities anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the pleasant Fall weather may be adding to my impression of tranquility in the town. Mayor Lee is keeping a low profile, which is wise in her case since the more media she gets the more people dislike her. No media, in Lee’s case, is good media.
The City Council remains a zoo—watch any meeting on KTOP and you’re left agog at the buffoonery and incompetence. As a regular viewer, I am heartened, though, by the Council’s increasing rejection of Carroll Fife. Her proposals are routinely rejected by other, more sensible members, especially Ramachandran and Houston. It’s gratifying to see the Oakland City Council finally recognize Fife as dislikeable, disreputable and basically a lunatic. Hopefully one of these days so will the voters of District 3. It’s also possible that Fife may resign on her own, as she’s threatened to do in the past. I’m sure that if she had another job offer she would already have left. But who would hire Fife for anything?
The budget crisis, obviously, is cause for long-distance concern. Oakland is broke. Our government long ago decided that we should become a welfare city, taxing everyone and everything that moves and giving the money to its clients, namely the poor., unemployable, and shiftless. That this socialist approach isn’t capable of working has been proven all over the world, but Oakland government continues to believe in it. We now face, over the next year, a raft of tax increases that will increase the already-heavy burden on us. But at least we don’t have an overwhelming crime problem, for the time being.
So here we are moving into winter, when traditionally crime should fall even further. Not even muggers and robbers like working in the rain. We still have a dysfunctional city, but—another heartening thing—the career professionals who manage Oakland (as opposed to the politicians) seem capable and smart. As for the government shutdown, it hasn’t really hit Oakland yet, aside from the SNAP fiasco, for which Trump and his goons will found guilty in the judgment of history.
In my own case, I’m doing fine. I know a lot of you are concerned, and I thank you for that. So the old saying “No news is good news” may be true, at least for Oakland and me, for the time being. Knock on wood.
Steve Heimoff