Quan Picks 100 Secret Blocks,
Abandons 98% of Oakland

Three months ago Oakland mayor Jean Quan took over a "safety summit" meeting at Laney College, announcing she had a "100 blocks" plan to address the city's crime, which is twice as high as most large California cities.

On Jan. 17, 2012 Quan announced her plan all over again. She proposes to concentrate police and other resources on 100 blocks where, she claims, 92 percent of the violence occurs. Want to avoid those 100 blocks? At first Mayor Quan refused to identify them on the excuse that it might "stigmatize" those blocks! A week later, her office released a vague map (below).

Instead of turning a slogan into a realistic working plan, mayor Quan retreated into a publicity shack. Anyone can look up reported crimes by neighborhood on the Internet. The only effect of Quan obscuring the location of the 100 blocks is to avoid scrutiny of how her "plan" works out in reality.

The slogan was a loser from the beginning. One hundred blocks is about two percent of the City. Mayor Quan used contorted definitions to claim that most Oakland violence occurs there.

People are robbed and mugged downtown, uptown, around Lake Merritt, and in flatlands neighborhoods in north, west, and east Oakland. Are these robberies violence or not, mayor Quan?

People arrive home from work to find doors and windows smashed by burglars who cleaned out their belongings. Are forced entry burglaries all over the city violence or not, mayor Quan?

Quan drove out popular police chief Anthony Batts last October. Now she offers her slogan as a crime "plan" in place of his professional leadership. This is no way to address the number one problem in Oakland, the epidemic of crime, danger, and risk for innocent residents.

Oakland has half a police department compared with most major cities. When Jean Quan won a city council seat in 2002, the city had about 740 police. In 2004 Quan led the campaign for the Measure Y taxes, insisting we would get 802 officers. still far short of the 1100 police that Oakland needs. Today we have 643 officers. Mayor Quan has no police training academy scheduled or budgeted this year, which means that the department will lose another 50 to 60 officers who retire and resign.

No wonder a broad movement to recall Mayor Quan has arisen. (For information about the recall campaign, visit the website of the Recall and Restore committee at www.recallandrestore.com). Quan does not give priority to public safety, and when she tries to ride a "100 blocks" slogan, it only make plain that she is incapable of leading this city.

Those red spots are where Mayor Quan claims 92 percent of violence in Oakland happens.
If you don't live there, Quan has no plan for your public safety – except fewer police.