Viola Gonzales - Oakland City Council District Five Vote Viola Nov 8th

Viola Gonzales - Oakland City Council District Five - Vote Viola Nov 8th Jobs and the Economy My first priority is economic development, to create jobs in all areas of our city for all residents. I believe we should: Support policies that help local businesses grow. Create jobs by encouraging self-employment, micro enterprise development, business revitalization, and larger business development. Support quality training & education that leads to good paying jobs. Support smart growth and creativity in housing options: transit-oriented development; secondary units, infill and new, et al. Residents throughout District 5 want city services to function and they especially want police to shorten its response time and for police to have the resources by which to investigate crimes and bring justice to all concerned. We are not going to have police respond to more than homicides unless we can generate more revenues with which the city can serve its populace. ​ HousingMarket forces are not policy. What city policy can override a homeowner’s free choice to sell a property--the value of which has increased tenfold, and which represents a large percent of their net worth? That is the tyranny of gentrification; the word itself betrays the anti-diversity impact that gentrification often has. The goal for the City Council is to build bridges that maintain Oakland values and benefit both existing residents and newcomers. We need to encourage housing development for every income level: market rate, owned or rented, affordable housing, owned or rented, and low income. We need to look for avenues to incentivize market rate developers to transfer properties to strong performing nonprofit developers that attract sustainable funding. And we also need to look for creative avenues to redevelop our brownfield properties. We need to support infill development that does not concentrate people of only one-income strata. There can be opportunities for everyone to live in all parts of the city. We can encourage owners of smaller apartment buildings, especially those that live in their properties to not only maintain them but stay as owners and keep them affordable. We can work with stronger performing nonprofit developers to buy older apartment buildings not currently under rent control to stabilize the market. We need to encourage single-family residence owners to build secondary units on their properties, making it more viable for families of mixed incomes to co-exist and older residents to stay in their homes. We can encourage new thinking regarding shared housing — modern versions of rooming houses, et al to meet emerging needs. Public SafetyPublic safety fears threaten to undermine Oakland’s economic future. Racial profiling is a societal problem, and police are part of society. Racial profiling by the police is especially critical given the moment to moment potential for lethal tragedy, for residents and for police. The advent of body-mounted police cameras has focused attention on this stark problem. Oakland has been part of the nationwide plague of the death of residents at the hands of police. Today, we have a department without a chief, under consent decree for “The Riders, ” an adjudicated excess of 13 years ago, and now a sex scandal engulfing not just OPD but nearby jurisdictions. The historic Riders’ Case scandal, the resulting consent decree, the huge cost of the consent decree, the sex scandal, racial profiling and the administrative uncertainty of OPD must all be confronted as a whole. It is a daunting array of moving parts, but lines of communication must be maintained – between residents, public safety officials, and city officials. All three of these groups have both a vital interest and also a vital role in pushing toward solutions. The police commission--if it passes--will not be enough. If it passes, it must be effectively executed and with dispatch, but by itself, it is not a comprehensive solution. More at: http://ift.tt/2eFUH5U Note: Zennie Abraham was commissioned to produce and distribute this video for the Viola Gonzales For Oakland City Council District Five Campaign.

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