The most recent Oakland Energy Ballot finds widespread concern for the state of downtown because it emerges from the depredations of the pandemic
9 out of ten Oakland Energy Ballot members imagine it’s time for the Metropolis of Oakland to revive metropolis authorities to its pre-pandemic degree of service.
In response to a current name from the Oakland Chamber of Commerce to reopen downtown, we surveyed panel members about their attitudes concerning downtown Oakland. And a majority of voters have been fairly dismayed on the metropolis’s inaction concerning homelessness, blight, crime and the lingering results of the pandemic.
“Oakland is in a downward spiral,” wrote one panel member. “Enterprise is leaving, crime is rising and the town streets are a dumping floor for trash. The town is in disaster, however management isn’t performing with goal.”
On different issues, a robust majority of voters imagine it’s time for Oakland and Alameda County to finish their pandemic-era rental eviction bans.
In the meantime, half of all respondents don’t imagine that the 47 sheriff’s deputies who failed an examination designed to weed out folks temperamentally unfit to work in regulation enforcement ought to be permitted to serve once more as frontline officers.
Lastly, the overwhelming majority of respondents need improvement to be severely curtailed in fire-prone areas and for forestry officers to extra aggressively skinny forests to forestall wildfires.
Listed below are the particular questions and responses to our ballot:
Query 1
Citing the unhealthy state of downtown Oakland, the Chamber of Commerce just lately referred to as upon the town to completely reopen Metropolis Corridor and require the town council and planning fee to as soon as once more maintain all their conferences in particular person. Choose the assertion that the majority intently aligns together with your viewpoint:
It’s time to completely restore metropolis authorities to a pre-pandemic degree of service. — 90%
I assist the Metropolis of Oakland’s warning in returning to enterprise as ordinary. — 10%
No opinion/don’t care — 0
Query 2
What would you just like the mayor and metropolis council to know in regards to the state of downtown Oakland?
Query 3
Even because the state and different Bay Space counties have lifted their pandemic-era restrictions on rental housing evictions, Oakland and Alameda County have left such restrictions in place. Now that companies have returned to work and jobs are comparatively plentiful, is it time for Oakland and Alameda County to permit landlords to evict tenants who don’t adjust to the phrases of their lease?
Sure — 57%
No — 37%
No opinion/don’t care — 7%
Query 4
Upon the revelation that 47 Alameda County deputies have been employed regardless of failing a state-mandated psychological examination designed to weed out staff whose temperament makes them unsuitable for regulation enforcement, the sheriff’s division introduced that it plans to retest all of the people. How ought to the company deal with this case?
The division is correct to let these officers take the check once more. — 43%
Deputies as soon as judged unsuitable for police work shouldn’t be retained. — 33%
The officers ought to be eligible for desk jobs, however not frontline positions. — 17%
No opinion/don’t care — 7%
Query 5
A current paper within the journal Environmental Air pollution estimated that emissions of carbon dioxide from California’s 2020 wildfires have been twice as plentiful because the state’s whole discount in greenhouse gasoline emissions between 2003 and 2019. The paper referred to as for significantly higher funding in forest administration practices, together with mechanical clearing and prescribed burns. Rank all of the statements you agree with, with 1 being your highest precedence:
Forests ought to be routinely thinned, even when that will increase tree-cutting. — Rating 4.5 (23)
Improvement ought to be severely curtailed in fire-prone areas. — Rating 4.1786 (25)
Extra forests should be allowed to burn infrequently. — Rating 3.3571 (23)
Forest administration practices have correctly centered on fireplace suppression. — Rating 1.4286 (13)
We already minimize down too many timber. — Rating .8214 (11)
Improvement choices ought to stay on the native degree.
Evaluation of Questions 1-2
The Chamber of Commerce clearly speaks for most individuals in terms of totally reopening metropolis workplaces and as soon as once more holding public conferences with out the help of Zoom. Each single panelist who commented in our newest survey expressed nervousness concerning the state of downtown Oakland.
“It’s mainly a ghost city,” one voter wrote. “The town wants to guide in getting folks again to work and into downtown. Continued metropolis council and different regulatory organizations that Zoom, deprive the general public of fine and efficient advocacy. It’s very simple for council and fee members to cover behind a display and never must work together with their constituents.”
“The downtown seems deserted,” one other panelist noticed. “Different companies are beginning to return and different cities are coming again to life; why not Oakland?”
Crime was a priority of many. “Auto break-ins discourage patronage of downtown companies and eating places—to not point out being out in Oakland usually,” wrote one more voter. “The police are complicit in saying they’re too busy to indicate up en masse for a taking pictures.”
“Downtown (and adjoining areas, just like the Lake) feels unsafe, and I believe bringing employees into workplaces will assist rebuild a way of group and security,” a fourth voter added.
Evaluation of Query 3
Different cities and counties have allowed their eviction bans to run out. Our panelists imagine that Oakland and Alameda County ought to as nicely.
Evaluation of Query 4
Sixty % of our panelists clearly really feel some empathy for the 47 officers who have been allowed to affix the Alameda County Sheriff’s Workplace regardless of having failed a state-mandated psychological check. And that’s why 43% imagine they need to be allowed to retake the check and 17% imagine they need to be allowed to fill desk jobs.
And but, half of all respondents imagine that such officers ought to both be banished to desk duties or not be allowed to retain their positions in any respect. And on condition that we did not ask in regards to the destiny of any officers who would possibly fail the check a second time, the variety of panelists uncomfortable with officers who fail their assessments might be finally a lot increased than 50%.
Evaluation of Query 5
The overwhelming majority of panelists appear to agree that the explosive development of wildfires in California calls for some radically completely different coverage responses. Seventy-four % assist higher thinning of timber, whereas the identical quantity additionally favor letting forests burn infrequently to scale back gas masses. Such coverage modifications have already begun to be applied at each the state and federal ranges.
Extra putting, nevertheless, is the discovering that 81% of our respondents imagine that improvement ought to be severely curtailed in fire-prone areas. Given that the majority such choices are made on the native degree, this seems like one more entrance within the rising tensions between the state and its native governments concerning land-use points. Proscribing improvement on this method isn’t more likely to be standard in giant elements of the fabled “State of Jefferson.”
Oakland Energy Ballot isn’t a scientific ballot. Somewhat, we ask questions of influential folks with a variety of viewpoints to assist advance knowledgeable dialogue in regards to the metropolis. Energy Ballot is studiously non-partisan.
