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A Brief: Radical Proposal to Transform Oakland

A Brief: Radical Proposal to Transform Oakland

Condensed proposal to increase Oakland's Political power, municipal revenue, and housing

Victor Flores
May 12, 2025

At the end of any other election, we might share a breath of relief. Oakland’s special election concluded with pretty clear winners after a week. I congratulate Mayor-elect Barbara Lee and District 2 Council member-elect Charlene Wang. Unfortunately, for those who will sit in the mayor’s office or city council, a familiar challenge looms large: the city's persistent financial straits. Whether you grew up here or chose Oakland as your home, we all love it and want to see it succeed, yet we find ourselves constantly set back with many community members facing economic uncertainty, crushing costs of living, deteriorating infrastructure, and unsafe streets.

In the spirit of hope, I will propose a radical idea to help Oakland grow its budget, fund services, and increase its political influence. The leaders of Oakland should plan to make Oakland a city of three million people and build the housing units to accommodate them.

Political Power

Currently, Oakland shares two Assembly Members who have other cities in their district, one State Senator, and one Representative in the House. At the State Assembly level, each district should have an ideal population of 494,043, State Senate districts 988,086, and Congressional districts 760,066. At 3 million residents, Oakland would receive at minimum around three times the current representation. This would increase Oakland’s influence to advocate for additional resources from the State and Federal governments.

Table of the current representation Oakland house vs. what it could have.

Money

Oakland’s recurring issue is that its revenue is insufficient to cover all of its needs. If a city doesn’t have the funding, it needs to reduce its spending, meaning fewer services. Cities get revenue from a few major common sources, such as property taxes, parcel taxes, and sales taxes.

A significant percentage of Oakland’s budget is dependent on real estate. Property taxes, parcel taxes, and real estate transfer taxes. In 2022, Oakland received $258,968,959 in property taxes.

Adding to Oakland’s strain is its low sales tax revenue. Oakland’s actual sales tax revenue in 2023 was slightly over $63 million. Smaller cities like Hayward and Alameda brought in $44 million and $22.7 million, respectively.

A Table of similar-sized cities and their sales revenue.

Building higher-density residential buildings to house 3 million people would result in millions of dollars in new general funds. The Atlas on 14th Street is 40 stories tall, has 633 residential units, and 17,350 square feet of retail space on a 1.38-acre site. This building paid $5,215,596.04 in property taxes in 2024-2025. That’s roughly one percent of Oakland’s total property taxes paid by one building. If we built 100 buildings similar to the Atlas, we could more than double the amount of property taxes Oakland receives.

Screenshot of The Atlas Apartments property tax bill.

Housing

Using Oakland’s average household size of 2.46 people per household,100 new Atlas buildings would only add about 155,700 people. To get to 3 million people, Oakland would need to build 1,029,571 housing units.

The Housing Element requires the City to zone for 17,974 units of subsidized affordable housing (AH). Assuming we build 1,029,571 homes over 16 years and have a 5% inclusionary zoning (IZ) requirement, that would generate 51,478 units of subsidized affordable housing.

Source: Oakland 2023-2031 Housing Element

Conclusion

Oakland is a diverse home with a strong identity and a lot of needs. Our residents and elected leaders have not lacked imagination or ambition, but too often our city’s budget is insufficient to support many innovative ideas. There are tools to transform Oakland and address its fiscal issues, while addressing issues like the high cost of housing. If there has ever been a time to be bold, that time is now.

P.S. If you’d like to support my work, please check out the ad below.

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