New Oakland mayor will face old Oakland problems
OAKLAND -- On Friday night, the Alameda County elections office released the latest results in the Oakland mayor race showing city councilwoman Sheng Thao with 56,841 votes. She has 50.3 percent of the vote and now leads fellow councilman Loren Taylor by 680 votes. Elections officials said on Friday there were very few ballots left to count.
Taylor said it is premature to concede the race at this time, insisting there are still "thousands of ballots left to count."
The Alameda County elections office is expected on Monday to say exactly how many ballots are left in the Oakland mayoral race.
With a small lead, Thao's camp is optimistic she'll be the next mayor of Oakland but some residents say Oakland's problems run way too deep and they can't afford to wait for change.
Renee Dryer is leaving Oakland, a city she's called home for 46 years.
"We're looking at my life -- about 10' x 7' -- I've been able to cram into this storage unit from my apartment on Lakeshore," Dyer said as she sat next to a storage pod containing her belongings.
She cited changes in her personal life and the rise in crime and said she no longer feels safe walking in her Lake Merritt neighborhood.
There was a mass shooting that killed one person and injured seven others near her apartment last year.
"Even my own college is gone now. It's been absorbed by Northeastern University so a lot of what I've known and been proud about Oakland and felt safe about in Oakland has been destroyed," Dyer said.
More importantly, she said, she doesn't think Oakland leaders have the political will to reduce crime and homelessness.
"It's going to have to crash and burn without me. Or maybe she rises from the flames and I was wrong but I can't do it anymore. Can't do it anymore," Dyer said.
Both mayoral candidates, Thao and Taylor, said that, if elected, they would focus on stopping gun violence.
While Taylor leads in the number of first-place votes, Thao is ahead due to ranked-choice voting.
"To have a system that is open to a lot of confusion, a lot of mistakes by people, (ranked-choice is) not a democratic process," said mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente.
De La Fuente was eliminated in the mayoral race. The moderate Democrat said he is surprised that approximately 25 percent of his supporters gave their second or third choice votes to Thao who is a progressive. Only 37 percent of De La Fuente supporters voted for Taylor, a fellow moderate Democrat.
"If you're going to vote for a candidate number one because you believe in that candidate, normally second and third (place votes) go to people with similar kind of politics," De La Fuente said.
As Oakland waits to find who the new mayor will be, Dyer said she's out of patience and out of time.
"Dear Oakland, goodbye!" Dyer said.