r/OaklandCA

Oakland and San Francisco can be complementary cities.

San Francisco seems to be experiencing a renaissance and on the rise.

What can Oakland learn from San Francisco and bring here?

What areas should Oakland stay distinct from San Francisco?

Hopeful that Costco can open a new store in West Oakland.

I believe rising tides lift all boats. Hopefully by Costco opening shop here other companies will replicate.

However, Oakland seems to lose stores and restaurants as fast they arrive. Downtown had stores like Gap, Target, Foot Locker, and Lululemon but were unable to keep them in Oakland. In n Out was a heavily publicized example of a company moving out of Oakland because of crime.

Not surprising, there are major retailers in neighboring cities not far from the Oakland boarder (San Leandro, Emeryville, etc).

So what can Oaklanders and city government do to help Oakland become more retail and commerce friendly?

>"The two unions, which represent the city's technical and service workers, have been locked in contentious contract negotiations with the city for months."

https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/city-unions-threaten-strike-plan

Today, at her state of the city address, Barbara Lee was publicly embarrassed and effectively disavowed by the unions that begged her to come to Oakland and backed her for mayor (just as they backed Sheng Thao). They not only picketed outside city hall prior to the session, but they also hijacked the comment period (as they often do) and effectively made the event about them and their contract dispute.

She thought (or was told) that she could come to a crisis-ridden city and not have to take any difficult positions, make people unhappy, or implement personnel changes. Her brand alone would suffice for real policy proposals.

And now, with the election less than a month away, the unions are attacking her, the one measure she has stumped for (Measure E) has failed spectacularly, and journalists are starting to notice that Oakland is still flailing compared to San Francisco.

She will probably still get re-elected, but I don't think it will be much of a voter mandate.

What do others think?

Oakland continues to be a great city to live, work and play in.

This community was created to talk about the good, bad and ugly that Oakland entails.

In order to support and grow this community, we'd like to welcome u/shamusfinnegan to the team.

u/SanFranciscoMan89 will continue to be involved but having additional moderators will allow the team to respond more effectively to questions and keep the community civil and engaging.

Please welcome u/shamusfinnegan and support them in their new endeavor.