Last week I wrote about how California’s Proposition 47 has been the catalyst for encouraging criminal behavior. When the criminal element knows there is no real punishment for their actions, they revel in it. For the past three weeks, I have been in California experiencing it directly. My family’s base of operation was in Oakland. Over the past 10 years, the younger generation has been steadily leaving. They may work in Oakland or visit it, but they won’t live there.
It reminds me of all the Black folks leaving the West Side and moving out to Plainfield and beyond.
I asked my cousin who is in his 30s, who drives a Dodge Charger, about incidents involving the criminal element breaking car windows. He told me he no longer locks his car doors when he parks in Oakland. If someone wants to rummage inside, the most they might get is a small amount of change.
Crime by the airport has gotten so bad that businesses are leaving. Businesses closing down mean jobs will be lost. There is a video on Facebook where a girl shows an entire shopping mall that once included Walmart. Most of the businesses in that mall have closed. Is criminal behavior the main reason?
San Francisco has become totally unaffordable and Oakland is right across the bay. Many in Oakland own their own homes, so gentrification has to be done in a different manner. The system is not moving out renters; it’s moving out homeowners. One relative had a house in Oakland that their mother bought for $135,000 in 1994. She inherited the house, owing around $350,000 because of loans taken out against the value. She ended up selling the house a year ago for $700,000. Someone went in, fixed it up, and resold it six months later for 1.3 million! As I looked at the real estate listing, the updates to the house weren’t fabulous. There was no gourmet kitchen. The best I can say is that it was staged beautifully. The basement area only got a paint job. Plus it was a corner lot, so it encompasses a lot of land in the back.
The mayor of Oakland is Asian, Democrat, and her response to the crime going on in the area reminds me of our Black mayor: wimpy, direction-less. Oakland should, under her leadership be a People of Color City, but in truth it’s headed to become a majority Wealthy City. And the losers, of course, will be the Black folks!
Speaking of Black folks losing, is anyone else disappointed with Brandon’s response to the recent murder of two students in downtown Chicago? When the mayor has a bully pulpit, the message to the criminal element should be direct and concise. I was expecting a strong message that included a promise that no stone would be left unturned as his police department hunted the killers, convicted them, and then placed them in jail. Sadly, that isn’t what flowed out of the mayor’s mouth.
Law-abiding citizens lack an advocate while killers roam free.