Through difficult financial times, Mayor Ron Dellums still has plans to transform Oakland into a model city.
His “Model City Vision” led Dellums campaign to become mayor in 2006. On Tuesday, a progress report for his vision was posted on the Oakland City Web site. (You can view the PDF here)
The document includes a review of the city’s progress to provide safe communities throughout the city, foster economic development and enhance overall quality of life.
While other cities are scraping to keep the status quo in the face of budget cuts, the obvious challenge becomes how Oakland makes improvements in the current financial climate.
Oakland Public Information Officer Paul Rose said the advantage to Dellums, a former congressman, is his ability to utilize his connections in Washington D.C. to earn the city stimulus funds.
“There probably isn’t anyone better advocating on behalf of their city in D.C. than Ron Dellums,” Rose said.
Always a significant issue in Oakland, Dellums’ promise of safer communities and more police resources in Oakland remains chief in his advocacy efforts.
Rose said crime is down 14 percent year-to-date and homicides are down 28 percent.
“This is partly due to the mayor’s vision to get to the root causes of crime and violence,” Rose said. “Rather than just looking at it as a police issue, the city has to provide outreach services, counseling services, jobs, better education and youth services. We’re seeing all of that pay off.”
Rose also said Oakland is seeing examples of achievement by the way of programs such as Green Job Core, which has been praised by federal leaders and used as a model for the state.
The city graduated 40 east bay residents who took a training course provided by the city and are now seeking jobs in the green industry, Rose said.
The city can also point to the revitalization of uptown district.
“One of the things the mayor is fighting for in stimulus funds is producing more jobs in Oakland and the more jobs we can provide the more people will get off the streets,” Rose said.
Dellums writes on Page 4 of his report:
“I understand that the people of Oakland elected me to provide leadership, implement our blueprint for the Model City, and most importantly to leverage my relationships at the Federal, State and Local levels to bring resources Oakland needs to meet its challenges and realize its potential in the green economy. Never before has there been such an effort to develop a creative and effective Public-to-Public Partnership. This past year we have partnered with the Federal, State, and Local governments to bring the attention and resources Oakland deserves.”
James Spencer can be reached at jspencer@publicceo.com More from the mayor discussing his relationships with federal leaders: