A Green Vision for Oakland

A Green Vision for Oakland City Politics
In Oakland we need to face some facts.  The facts are that we have many crisis to face in our city.

There is as three prong crisis facing our youth of education, crime and employment. 
We need schools up, crime down and jobs in. 

There is a crisis that is our city budget.  We need to hold a budget convention and issue a new, comprehensive budget. On the one hand we need to deal with the pension’s entitlement problems and have a stable, reliable budget for basic operations from parks to police stations and on the other hand we need to incorporate all the measures, such as Measure Y (or BB) into the body of our budget and law.  We need a budget that has a clear plan for up and down times in the economy. 

There is a crisin our democracy.   Council districts should look like neighborhoods, (not gerrymandered districts that cut them up)  All Oaklanders need to be represented in our government. We need the money out of our local election process and; we need to formalize the relationship with our grass roots neighborhood groups devolving part of the city authority and budget to the local communities.

We propose to make these and other changes only with the citizens of Oakland stepping up and becoming producers, not consumers,  of the politics in our own communities. That means we have to get involved with voting, even when we all know the system is rigged in favor of paid political advertizing and the status quo. 

The public is the solution.  The running of money free grass roots campaigns, the energy behind a reform of the City Charter and budget, the will to deal with our most intractable social problems all can find their solution in an active public.  There are thousands of local registered Greens on the Oakland Voter roles.  It is time for us to say NO MORE.  We need to say NO to money politics by not voting for it, helping spread the work without the media and paid advertizing and VOTING FOR REAL ALTERNATIVES. 

Now in the Oakland Green Party,  a group of known local progressives with a long track record dedicated to real change, are putting together a slate of candidates to be your voice for your and the cities real needs such as:  Schools with vocational training. Schools with arts and sports a top priority, with healthy food for our children a top priority. Safe public services.  Community Policing. Restorative Justice. Local employment.  Stable economic environment.  Environmental retrofitting. And many, many other basic practical things that our city should be doing, but is currently only doing for show, if at all. 

We signatories are stepping forward to be three of those candidates, committed to a reform of our city from top to bottom, from police practices to budget policies with our faith in democracy that includes all of us. 

Please help us by registering to vote those who have rightly been put off by the voting process.
We encourage other progressives to put up candidates and join us.  We plan a public forum in February.  

Don Macleay,                    Dist 1, planning to run for City Council,
Randy Menjivar                 Dist 7, planning to run for City Council,
Vicente Cruz II                   Dist 3, planning to run for school board

Oakland Green Party
contact@oaklandgreens.org (510) 866-7488  P.O. Box 20299, Oakland, CA 94620