A year of tragedy, power, and hubris in East Bay politics
Wilma Chan’s death, along with two school board trustees. shined a light on their lives and the need for greater pedestrian safety
We live in a region that experienced so much tumult over the past decade. There was the Occupy movement, a devastating recession followed by a vast restructuring of local government. The Trump years brought more protests, the surveillance state crept up on all of us, police killings signaled major changes in society and how we interact with each other. Covid then changed every remaining aspect of our lives that the latter developments failed to touched. The past year, though, brought 365 days amid continuing uncertainty, an uneventful, yet tragically deadly 12 months.
—COVID IS STILL HERE—The pandemic didn’t go away, but high vaccination rates in the Bay Area have led to a sense of some normalcy. We’ve mostly learned how to live with Covid, at least for now, as the Omicron variant logs high infection rates in the region. Thankfully, Alameda County hospitals are not yet being overrun with patients.
—RIP DEFUND THE POLICE?—The last half of 2020 brought the “Defund the Police” movement to the forefront in many East Bay cities. The ill-named moniker confused many in its literal sense. For some, abolishing local police departments was exactly the prescription for ending police violence against persons of color. But for a vast majority it quickly signaled a small reorganization of how police provide services—or don’t—to those grappling with mental issues.
The momentum for cutting police budgets in Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, and Hayward, among other East Bay cities, appeared quite strong. But perceptions of rising crime all over the Bay Area significantly quelled the “Defund the Police” movement in 2021. Organized “smash and grabs,” in which dozens of criminals stormed businesses and effectively looted their wares became a common incurrence. Television newscasts plastered videos of the crimes on a loop. Oakland registered over 100 murders, a return to pre-pandemic levels. But this year ended with scores of elected officials who a year prior were offering simmering to overheated anti-police rhetoric, move to soften or reverse their previous stances. Why? Keep in mind, 2022 is a big local election cycle. For example, Oakland will have a new mayor next year.
Cooler heads noted that crime in the Bay Area, while on a slight uptick, still remains at historic lows. But when it comes to fear the act of flashing a spreadsheet describing low crime rates does little to calm residents. In places like Oakland, a sense that daily acts of mayhem occur unabated doesn’t show up on any police reports. How cities and prospective candidates for public office handle crime is sure to dominate the political landscape next year.
Meanwhile, the levers of powers switched hands in East Bay politics and the trend will continue next year.
—TOP COP IS ONE OF OUR OWN—Alameda’s own Rob Bonta moved from the state assembly to the state attorney general’s office in April after receiving an appointment from Gov. Gavin Newsom. Many expected Bonta might get the nod after President Biden appointed former state AG Xavier Becerra to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Bonta was quickly cast as the state’s “progressive AG,” but his role in prosecuting bad cops and whether he can misdirect previous support for releasing inmates during the pandemic will go a long way in whether he wins a full four-year term in 2022.
—BONTACRACY—Similarly, the Bonta Dynasty in Alameda County politics began in 2021 after his wife, former Alameda school board trustee Mia Bonta, won the special election to represent the 18th Assembly District. Mia Bonta easily won a, nevertheless, spirited August general election against newcomer Janani Ramachandran.
—QUIRK RETIRES—More changes to the East Bay’s assembly delegation arrived in December after long-time Assemblymember Bill Quirk announced he would not seek his final two-year term in office. There appears to be no anointed successor to replace him after nearly a decade in Sacramento.
—REDISTRICTING’S IMPACTS—Rumors that Quirk would eventually retire have persisted for several election cycles, but perhaps the redrawing of maps by the California Redistricting Commission were persuasive to Quirk? The Hayward and Tri-Cities-centric 20th Assembly District now includes a portion of the Tri-Valley, a scenario in which Hayward could lose its representative to a candidate from Dublin.
Residents in unincorporated Alameda County will likely be represented in the state senate by a person from Contra Costa County under maps created very late in the process. The same open state senate seat, which Hayward Councilmember Aisha Wahab and Fremont Mayor Lily Mei are seeking next year, now includes a larger portion of Santa Clara County. Meanwhile, assembly and state senate maps in other parts of the East Bay remained pretty much intact, as did congressional and county lines.
—A LEGEND IS GONE—Over the past nine months, tragedy devastated Alameda County politics. The death of Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan in early November by a motorist in Alameda brought a level of profound sadness typically not seen in the hard-nosed world of politics. Chan is remembered as one of the giants in Alameda County political history. A sterling record as a defender of children, seniors, and the most-needy. Controversy over who would replace her raged early, but quickly subsided after Dave Brown, her long-time chief of staff, was selected as a one-year caretaker. A brutal June primary election for the District 3 seat has commenced.
—TWO OTHERS ALSO KILLED—Pedestrian violence occurred again two weeks ago after San Leandro school board trustee Christian Rodriguez was struck and killed by a car. Rodriguez had been selected just days earlier by the San Leandro school board to be its president in 2022.
It’s the third instance in which an elected Alameda County official has been killed by a motorist in the past nine months. Dublin school board trustee Catherine Kuo was struck by a vehicle at a food giveaway last March. Former Berkeley school board trustee Judy Appel was hit by a car and critically injured in January 2019. Appel faced a long rehabilitation period and decided against running for re-election last year.
—SOME GOOD NEWS—Questions about the future home of the Oakland Athletics became unsettlingly uncertain in the spring and dramatically positive for the proposed 35,000-seat ballpark at Howard Terminal in the fall. A’s management inserted competition in the form of Las Vegas and the move appeared to spook local officials into action. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors gave support for helping fund the infrastructure district around the ballpark and a final Environmental Impact Report was released to the public this month. Insiders believe an Oakland City Council vote on the project could come in the spring and a positive outcome for Oakland’s sporting future appears likely.