Oakland Mayor-elect Barbara Lee speaks about her plans for office
Votes are still being counted, but with her closest competitor having conceded, Barbara Lee is now considered the mayor-elect of Oakland.
And on Monday, she addressed the media with her plans to unite a city facing some pretty significant problems.
Barbara Lee entered the room full of people whom she had represented for decades. But now she has a different job in a very different political atmosphere.
"More than 100 days ago, I launched my campaign to be Oakland's new mayor," she said. "And when I made this decision, I did so knowing that Oakland, yes, is a deeply divided city. And so, I saw an opportunity to unite our community, not just to unite, to talk, but so that we could all work together to transform Oakland to solve our problems."
There are plenty of problems to solve. Lee said her focus will be on enhancing public safety, including violence prevention programs.
She said she will root out corruption, increase housing and economic development in poorer neighborhoods as well as downtown and business corridors. She also wants to increase shelter for the homeless by seeking more resources from the county.
Lee said in her first 100 days she intends to bring together stakeholders, including PD, to improve public safety and staff blight reduction crews while seeking punishment for illegal dumpers.
"I mean, code enforcement, fines, illegal dumping, that's got to stop," Lee said.
The mayor-elect said she'll also enlist the city's biggest businesses to enhance growth and enact permit reform for small businesses and homeowners.
And she said there will be a thorough audit of the way the city spends money to make sure it's done effectively. And while Lee said she would like to get the police force up to 700 officers, she declined to talk about how she will do all that with the current $129 million budget deficit.
"Sure, well, I'm going to be briefed on the details of the upcoming budget," she told reporters.
But across the street, enjoying a cup of coffee, was Lawrence Gladfelder who summed up the city in one word.
"Struggling. I mean, it's probably not as bad as Detroit. But it's up there," he said.
Gladfelder has lived in Oakland for a long time and has seen a lot of mayors come and go, and he admitted he doesn't have the answers to cure what ails the city.
"I'm not sure. But it's going to take something that they're not doing now," he said. "You can hear a lot of rhetoric over here and flowery promises. But if it achieves anything, I doubt it. I'm a realist, and I've watched this, you know, I've watched this happen for decades."
Lee will be relying on the goodwill built up in a community she represented on the national stage. But how different will it be when she is expected to solve problems in a city plagued by problems?
It didn't work out so well in 2007 for Ron Dellums, another former Congressmember-turned-mayor, who was later seen by many as being disinterested in the mundane business of operating the city. But Lee said she is committed to bringing the city together.
"It's OK to have differences," she said. "We can disagree, but we still need to unify, and can unify, about the approaches that serve all of Oaklanders."
But she'll have her work cut out for her. Especially when so many residents, like Gladfelder, have lost their faith in the direction of the city.
"Going from bad to worse. I don't know where you go from 'worse," he said. "I mean, overall, this is the worst it's ever been."
They say, "to acheive it, you must believe it." That may be the biggest challenge Mayor Barbara Lee will face in Oakland.
