| Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Part XLVIII of the “Back-to-Basics Governance” Series
Sheng Thao is a young American politician and Oakland, California’s 51st and current mayor. She is the first Hmong (Laotian)-American mayor of a major city in the United States. Mayor Thao took office on January 9, 2023. She is only 38 years young.
Days into her mayoralty, Mayor Thao placed Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong on administrative leave over allegations that he had obstructed an investigation into a hit-and-run incident that involved a police officer. After a probe was conducted, Mayor Thao fired OPD Chief Armstrong on February 15, 2023.
In April 2023, Mayor Thao announced that the city would end long-standing negotiations with the Oakland Athletics baseball team owners for a waterfront ballpark. Her decision likely “forced” Oakland’s MLB team to relocate to Las Vegas, Nevada. The Oakland A’s had been “secretly” doing (at least “off-the-record”) negotiations for the building of a new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip. The new site in Southern Nevada is hundreds of miles away from the Pacific Ocean. The demand for a “new waterfront ballpark” was a ruse to leave Oakland and move on to the “Sin City.”
This column reported that the City of Oakland suffered two losses Monday, May 15, 2023. It lost a tenant for its “Baseball Cathedral” and a Catholic educational institution, the Holy Names University (HNU), with its 155-year-old history and many “chapels of learning.”
The report was Part I of this mini-series. It was headlined, Oakland Must Turn Its “Baseball Cathedral” Into a “Cathedral of Learning” at this link.
“Reviving the HNU and broadening its role to become the leading medical educational institution can pave the way for Oakland to become the site of an actual medical center. And in the foreseeable future, a new “Mecca of Medicine” can raise ample human and financial resources to solve the city’s problems. Yes, including social cancers, as discussed earlier in this column.”
Mayor Thao faced three major crises less than 100 days into her supposed “honeymoon” period with her constituents and the Fourth Estate. She showed lots of guts in addressing the matter involving Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong and calling a “bluff” by the Oakland Athletics baseball team.
Some readers tell this columnist that Oakland faces a rising crime wave, especially in the city’s downtown section. This also happens in other major cities in California, where the homeless population keeps expanding. The more homeless residents there are, the bigger the crime statistics become.
Discussed last June 14 in this column was the topic, Homelessness Can Be the Third Factor in Oakland Not Becoming “America’s Happiest City” at this link.
Some pundits believe that Mayor Thao is a fortunate lady, for she is allowed a once-in-a-political lifetime to solve some of the pestering problems that her city faces. And more like homelessness, affordable healthcare, and shrinking city revenues.
As discussed in this column, it looks like all she has to do — as a first step — is to persuade the City Council to come up with a majority decision to revive the HNU. Reviving the HNU and broadening its role to become the leading medical educational institution can pave the way for Oakland to become the site of an actual medical center. And in the foreseeable future, a new “Mecca of Medicine” can raise ample human and financial resources to solve the city’s problems. Yes, including social cancers, as discussed earlier in this column.
Quo vadis, Mayor Thao, and the other city officials of Oakland?
