So much of my mental energy these days lives in the future. It’s a case of hoping for the best: hope that encampments will disappear. Hope that crime will diminish. Hope that we fire the recalcitrant leftists on the City Council—yes, the ones responsible for getting us into this situation in the first place. Hope that Oakland recovers from the destruction wrought upon it by the pandemic and economic collapse. Hope that the anti-police forces wither up and go away, once and for all. Hope for better times for us all.

Oaklanders breathed a sigh of relief on Friday when we learned that Judge William Orrick abruptly lifted his Temporary Restraining Order, which had prevented Caltrans from clearing out 200 homeless people who were trespassing on the agency’s property at the Wood Street slum.

Dear Steve,
It take a lot more than community gardens, being funny and cool to manage Oakland. Your piece here shows a lot more of the kind of wooly haired thinking on your part that we get from the "woke" council members. Charisma helps but you also need a seasoned manager in Oakland. Seneca's employment history with unions may not enable him to "stand up to the unions" as he claims.
Jim Mehner

Sheffield Village

I want to share with readers why Seneca Scott should be the next Mayor of Oakland—a belief shared by my colleagues at the Coalition for a Better Oakland.

I’m proud of Gov. Newsom for two things he did this week: he vetoed that bill that would have allowed so-called safe injection sites, and he went to war with that judge, Orrick, who is refusing to allow Caltrans to clear their property at the infamous Wood Street homeless slum.