The current crisis Each July marks the beginning of the new fiscal year for the City of Oakland when by law, Oakland City Council must either adopt a new two-year ..read more

Because of Oakland’s budget crisis and the necessary cuts to Oakland’s expenses, some have argued that Oakland’s violence prevention programs, now housed in the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP), should ..read more

Guns To Gardens 2024Download ..read more

Oakland will need to deal with a number of fiscal uncertainties over the next 6 months leading up to the adoption of the 2023-25 biennial budget. In this post we will outline the challenges and the schedule that lies ahead. At its meeting of December 12th the City Council received this linked report which presents the 1st quarter fiscal report and projects the anticipated revenues and expenditures for fiscal year 2022-23 and the 2023-25 biennium. In summary it projects a balanced General Purpose Fund budget for the current fiscal year and a revenue shortfall of over $200 million for the 2023-2 ..read more

Below are the city crime statistics from June 13, 2022 to June 19, 2022 ..read more

The members of the board of Make Oakland Better Now! are disappointed that the Mayor and Administration have decided to lessen the budget deficit by using one-time revenues rather than dealing with the structural deficit that the City has been facing for a long time.  However, we are very encouraged by the statements that the City Administrator and many of the City Council Members have made supporting a top-to-bottom analysis of where savings can be made, across departments, by reorganizing the City government to be leaner and more efficient. We support and applaud making Oakland city gov ..read more

By Jonathan Hale for Make Oakland Better Now! For many Oakland residents, the feeling of dread that accompanies walking outside to find the remnants of one’s car window littered in small glass cubes on the curb has become all too familiar. Total crime has increased 28% in Oakland as of September 3rd, notes District 1 City Councilmember Dan Kalb in a recommendation that the council adopt a broad-ranging resolution prioritizing public safety. The proposed resolution mandates a formal analysis of the impacts of programs like Oakland’s Ceasefire and MACRO units, as well as the creation of a report ..read more

Make Oakland Better Now! (MOBN!)  is concerned that the actions required to balance the budget will be harmful to essential city services. Therefore, in adopting a budget, we recommend that the Mayor and City Council observe the following priorities: The budget must make Oakland safer: Public Safety is the first priority in this budget. Oakland is currently experiencing a crime wave as measured by any statistical measure. We are reminded of this every day by the crime constantly occurring all around us.  Following are our recommendations to the Oakland City Council: Maintain a robus ..read more

The City of Oakland is facing a very challenging situation for the FY 2023-25 budget. The Mayor’s recently released the FY2023-25 Proposed Budget . Included is the General Purpose Fund, which supports key city services. It achieves a tenuous balance thru a series of actions. Here is the budget: https://stories.opengov.com/oaklandca/published/lT3WgHKFA To know how various programs will be affected use the service impacts link:  https://stories.opengov.com/oaklandca/published/npRp5df56 Following are some of the more significant proposed budget actions: -Freezing a number of unfilled positi ..read more

by Ed Gerber April 11, 2023 The five-year forecast for the 2023-28 fiscal years has just been released and for the 2023-24 there is a projected shortfall of $195.5 million for a General-Purpose Fund budget of $949.9 million. Although it decreases in future years the deficit continues to pose a significant challenge to providing necessary city services. Here is a chart for the next 5 years: Figure 1 – GPF Forecast Revenues, Expenditures & Shortfall The full report can be found here: REPORT . The report explains in detail the various city revenues and expenditures which are driving the sho ..read more