Former Rep. Barbara Lee, who called for a$ 50-an-hour minimum wage for California when running for the Senate last year, has been elected mayor of the city of Oakland, California.
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During a conversation that included candidates running to replace the chair of the late Senator Diane Feinstein, Lee argued that people deserved a “living income. “
” Just do the math, just do the mathematics,” Lee urged the market. Â
” In the Bay Area, I believe it was the United Way came out with a report that very recently,$ 127,000 for a family of four is just barely enough to get by. Another study, very just,$ 104,000 for a home of one, little enough to get by. “
Lee defeated former city councillor Loren Taylor after an exhausting nine sessions of ranked-choice election. ” I think in a democracy, you may vote for who you want to voting for and that voting should be counted and that’s it,” said vote Eric Strelneck, quoted by KTVU.
Speaking as an observer of one failed city ( Chicago ) to another ( Oakland ), I would recommend to Mayor Lee that she keep living in a dream world, because Oakland’s real world really, really sucks.
To humour:
Oakland’s murder charge is five times the national average. The murder rate has climbed by 86 % since 2003.
” Robberies grew 38 % last year [2023] in Oakland, according to police data. Burglaries increased 23 %. Motor vehicle theft jumped 44 %. Approximately one of every 30 Oakland people had a vehicle stolen last month, according to a San Francisco Chronicle research,” reported CNN.
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The real problem is that those data may be greatly underreported.
The area is facing a major budget deficit, with lower-than-projected fees and declining home sales. Then there’s poverty, development, economic collapse, a hollowing out of the city company area, and the problems in shoplifting, and Mayor Lee may have thought twice about wanting to run this hellhole.
Lee is also charged with trying to restore a little trust in town government. Recalled Mayor Sheng Thao, along with her lover Andre Jones and two other strong native traders, were indicted on corruption and influence peddling costs. Â
Federal prosecutors allege that Thao agreed that the city would buy housing products from one of the Duongs ‘ firms and maintain the state’s deal with a disposal business David Duong owned.
In exchange, David Duong and his son Andy are alleged to have promised to fund a$ 75,000 negative mailer campaign during the run-up to the 2022 election. They are also accused of a plan to funnel$ 95,000 in payments disguised as wages for a job that Jones did not need to show up for.
If convicted of all counts, each faces up to 35 years in prison if the sentences run concurrently. Â
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Speaking as a chronicler of public corruption in big cities, these Oakland crooks are both stupid and not very greedy. They should take lessons from New Orleans, Chicago, or New York pols who engineer maximum thieving with minimum exposure. Â
Mayor Lee needs help. Since receiving aid from Washington is out of the question, Lee must look to putting the squeeze on Governor Gavin Newsom, a man who wants to run as far away from a political liability such as Oakland as he can get before 2028.
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