18 Comments
User's avatar
William K.'s avatar

That you put in so many footnotes is a great sign of thorough work. Thank you for your time and efforts.

J on the block's avatar

Thank you. It's all so disheartening, but having established facts at hand to combat the gaslighting from the social utopia/communism crowd is very helpful as people on either side of an issue can always joust with anecdotes. I'm hopeful things can be turned around, but for some reason there is a great asymmetry in that good leadership takes a long time to build things that bad leadership can wreck in a year.

Gary Shrago's avatar

Thank you for this information, Tim. Highlights failure of city governance. Ibut where is Newsom? Barbara Lee? The gall of Bas and Kalb to run for another public office! Pathetic!

Kay Marie Jacobson's avatar

Thanks Tim for parsing all this data and presenting it in a clear way that should help inform a sane approach to dealing with the current crisis — beyond just complaining. Information is power and defining the problem is key to moving Oakland forward.

Kenton's avatar

Thank you for writing and sharing the facts. You are doing a great service for Oakland

Zach's avatar

This is such a brilliant piece, in part by collating the countless dimensions of crime we are experiencing and using that information, along with data and analysis, to offer exactly the kind of action needed

Ian Gilmore's avatar

Really interesting data, but to back up the headline "like nothing before", it would be good if your charts went back before 2008, particularly since property crime in the US generally peaked in the 80s and violent crime in the 90s, at levels much higher than current levels. I know you put some references to this in a footnote, but it would be good to see it in the charts for comparison.

And this is from someone who walks everyday by the Rockridge store that was broken into 4 times, twice when the front had been smashed in.

Tim Gardner's avatar

Thanks. Note that the 2nd chart in the article shows the annual crime back to 1985, but that data (UCR data) is not as detailed as Oakland Police Data. OPD breaks the categories down into commercial, residential, and all the Part 1 crime categories. But it only goes back to 2008. Or at least I can only find data back to 2008. Perhaps in time, I will find a way to get the detailed data that goes further back in time.

Ian Gilmore's avatar

Good point - I was focusing on the 3rd set of charts and later.

Those motor vehicle stats are crazy!

Stephen F Gneri's avatar

perhaps one of the problems in Oakland is no consensus, no action plan. Oakland hasnt really changed much only gotten worse.

Dr J's avatar

The “heart AND lungs” bahaha.

What part of Oakland is the heart and what part is lungs…? If it was really bad, wouldn’t it also be attacking the liver and maybe the kidneys? I’m thinking maybe the liver might be West Oakland, the heart might be uptown. Pancreas might be Rockridge .

I don’t know until it gets to these other vital organs. I don’t think it’s that bad.

Dr J's avatar

Tim

How long have you lived in Oakland? Do you own or rent a home, and in what neighborhood? do you have children and are they enrolled in OUSD? Are you a full-time biotech employee? How would you characterize your household social economic status?

Kenton's avatar

The answers to those questions are irrelevant to facts presented above

Dr J's avatar

No, they provide a little bit of context as to the author's perspective on these issues… That and what he might offer as qualifications that would make your opinion any more relevant than anybody else’s.

If he doesn’t want to comment tells me he’s concerned about how the information might frame the discussion.

Are you his fan boy?

Seneca Scott's avatar

Do you have any thoughts on the information presented?

Or are you here for veiled threats?

Is this a City Employee?

Is 🍕 your favorite food?

Are you lonely, depressed person?

Dr J's avatar

What veiled threats? Is asking somebody about their background a threat? Since when? I’m curious as to who this guy is and why he thinks his opinion counts for anything more than anybody else’s. And I’m kind of wondering what sort of skin has in the game.

Of course, I suppose he could go around brandishing handguns if he sees something going on that he is suspicious of. I hear there are certain people around that do that sort of thing.

Personally, I think the crime levels in the city are bad, I don’t think our current civic leadership is doing a good job. And I think OPD in particular is a shit show.

Seneca Scott's avatar

Why does your opinion count for anything?

Again, any questions on the data presented?

What's YOUR agenda?

Wyy the veiled threats of doxxing?

We know you won't answer in good faith, and that's fine. Just by being here acting the way you are, we know you are extremely desperate.