Re-examining the legacy of an East Bay mayor
Ro Khanna’s wife recently purchased stock in Russian company
CITY & COUNTY NEWS
SAN LEANDRO
—KARP’S LEGACY—San Leandro may soon re-examine the tenure of a former mayor through the lens of the city’s problematic racial history. Last week, San Leandro Councilmember Corina Lopez asked to begin the process of possibly removing former Mayor Dave Karp’s name from a city overpass and community room at its main library.
—"I think it's time to take a second look about whether we really want to have these markers in our community named after Dave Karp," Lopez said.
Karp served on the San Leandro City Council in the 1980s before being elected mayor in 1986. He died during his second term in office after suffering a heart attack in 1993. He was the first Jewish mayor in the city’s history. The overpass in Washington Manor and large conference room at the downtown library was subsequently named in his memory.
While Karp’s ethics were questionable, any clear personal racial animus is not fully apparent. While in office, a federal grand jury indicted Karp for tax evasion, alleging he failed to pay $125,000 in federal income taxes over a two-year period. Karp died just months after the indictment.
Last July, as the city was doing its due diligence in advance of naming its police administration building after former San Leandro Police Chief Robert Maginnis, the research found some unpleasant aspects of Karp’s career in public service.
Karp reportedly downplayed an infamous racially-charged incident in 1991 that involved a police officer being attacked at San Leandro High School. In addition, a cross was burned in the front yard of an African American family in San Leandro, strongly evoking the city’s history of racial exclusion.
—It’s Karp’s participation in continuing forms of housing redlining in San Leandro that is also fueling calls to remove his name from city markers. The San Leandro City Council voted last week to prioritize the process for removing KARP’s name from the structures.
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