Dellums touts model city concept

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 11, 2007 | by Heather MacDonald

OAKLAND -- The city's economy must develop the capacity to employ all its citizens, including recent graduates of the public schools and those returning home from prison, to transform Oakland into a model city, Mayor Ron Dellums said Friday.

At a lunch organized Tuesday by Oakland's five chambers of commerce at the Oakland Marriott, Dellums said he looked forward to a "magnificent conversation" with the business community.

"The answers are not easy. If they were, I would just e-mail them to everyone," Dellums said, telling the crowd his grandchildren regularly mock him for not being able to use

e-mail.

About 950 people paid $75 for a lunch of salad and chicken and to hear the new mayor speak. After the event, Dellums said he planned to host a summit in the spring to devise an economic development plan.

Although former Mayor Jerry Brown left office touting the miraculous rebirth of Oakland's downtown, Dellums said downtown was not yet vibrant. In addition, Dellums said he would work to help neighborhood businesses thrive and build more affordable housing to ensure longtime Oaklanders are not forced out of the city.

"Oakland is not working for a lot of people," Dellums said, again emphasizing his 40-year record of social activism does not make him anti-business. "We have a long way to go."

Dellums said he was not interested in calming a business community alarmed by his campaign pledge to support only projects that embrace Oakland's racial, ethnic and cultural diversity.

"I'm not here to make anyone comfortable," Dellums said during a brief news conference with several reporters. "I'm not here to allay any fears."

The mayor said he would spend the next four to six weeks reading and fleshing out the recommendations put forward by the 41 task forces he established to examine the issues facing Oakland.

Dellums also said he met recently with the warden of San Quentin State Prison, Robert Ayers Jr., to talk about ways to prepare inmates for their imminent release by connecting them with not only

social services but also a job, rather than just giving them a bus ticket, $200 and letting them "sink or swim."

"That is a large part of the crime and violence equation in Oakland, and a lot of other cities," Dellums said, reiterating his pledge to make public safety his No.1 priority.

The mayor said he would use the power of the bully pulpit to ask Oakland businesses to join him in making Oakland a model city, a theme he returned to in his speech, joking he would keep explaining it until everyone understood it.

It is in the self-interest of businesses to help create a cohesive, coherent community with a healthy citizenry fully participating in the civic, social, economic and cultural life of the city, Dellums said.

"The window of change is open," Dellums said, adding Oakland's economy must thrive if he is to be successful. "It would be criminal not to seize this opportunity."

E-mail Heather MacDonald at hmacdonald@angnewspapers.com.