WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
Make Oakland Better Now! congratulates our elected or re-elected City Council members Dan Kalb (D1), Lynette Gibson McElhaney (D3), Noel Gallo (D5), Larry Reid (D7) and Rebecca Kaplan (At Large). Running for office is very hard, and we recognize that no one would do it who didn’t sincerely want the best for our City. In that spirit, we wish our newly elected and reelected officials the greatest success in making Oakland the city we all want it to be.
Now that the election is over, it’s time for even harder work to begin. The question we hear from all parts of Oakland is this: what do these election results mean? Most people seem to think we will see an increase in civility among council members, and that’s a good thing. But it will take far more than increased civility to make the changes Oakland needs. City leaders need to do something they haven’t done in many years: they must align their actions with their oft-stated beliefs in public safety, budgetary responsibility and government transparency.