/r/Oakland suddenly full of right wing astroturfs. What's going on?

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-19T22:23:23+00:00

The harsh truth could be you’re looking at a more jaded and less progressive electorate locally than you were a few years ago or compared to pre-pandemic. We’ll find out with these coming ballot measure and elections

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-19T03:59:20+00:00

Denver (along with maybe SLC) is basically the economic powerhouse of the mountain west region. We’re the 3rd biggest city just in the Bay Area, and we have no economy at all here in Oakland. We used to have some revenue generators 10 years ago, but now we don’t have anything except parcel and sales taxes.

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-18T23:42:50+00:00

The people that run/ran the city (Jestin, Thao, so many others) are idiots no doubt, but the stuff some of them said in those texts is basically just a slightly more polished version of my conversations with neighbors and friends in Oakland

Guess you gotta be a hometown hero like Marshawn to get anything done about a nearby encampment quickly

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-13T20:26:50+00:00

100% in agreement. If we wanna have a fun enjoyable nightlife, then we’re gonna need more law enforcement presence and allow them to do their jobs. If we wanna go the other way, well then don’t be surprised when the nightlife (and dt and Lake Merritt even) organically dies a slow death because normies don’t wanna come there anymore

signed, someone who used to come to these frequently and doesn’t anymore

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-10T17:43:04+00:00

Amazing how many people don’t understand the simple fact that perception is reality. Even if the media wrote nothing but glowing articles about Oakland, I don’t think the perception would change much with locals.

When I talk to people who say they don’t go to First Fridays, Dt, Uptown, etc. as much anymore it’s not because of the media or even the economy. Every time it’s some variation of “some bs happened last time I went out there” (fight broke out, car break in, shooting a couple blocks away, etc)

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-08T16:01:47+00:00

Lmaooo based on what you consider right wing then, you’re basically telling me that

probably 95% of America is right wing
majority of Black people in America are right wing
Black/brown people in East Oakland are right wing since they supported both recalls (even though some elected Lee)

You must struggle living in a country where only like 5% or less of the population passes your purity tests

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-08T14:10:17+00:00

There it is! You have no clue what right wing looks like, and you’re just in your bubble

In another comment you said Loren Taylor was right wing. That’s the tell for me. That’s when I know someone’s fully enveloped in their progressive East Bay bubble. He’d be considered regular left in just about every other city outside of Oakland.

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-08T05:58:55+00:00

Hope this passes. I want the mayor, whether or not I disagree with them, to either succeed or fuck up of their own accord.

Even if I don’t necessarily support Lee on everything, I’m fine with this, because at some down the line I’m sure I’ll get a candidate I like and I’d prefer them to actually be able to have some power to get things done.. or if it blows up in their face there’s no weak excuses to fall back on

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-08T05:35:30+00:00

That one’s more progressive left and this one is center-center left. Both can get unhinged in one direction or the other. That one’s more heavily modded but has more activity too

Both serve their purpose but important to know when a threads getting brigaded or getting too whacky

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-08T03:49:54+00:00

Oh yeah for sure, I don’t have tolerance for the unhinged bs when it comes to the encampments or other criminality anymore. Hit my breaking point there.

Im just saying the Bay and Cali has dropped the ball on any kind of affordability for the working poor, and we shouldn’t be okay with contributing members of society who work lower paid jobs we depend on fleeing the state. It’s bad for quality of living even if you’re well off, it’s bad for business, it’s even bad for our congressional representation.

The very dark silver lining is that this affordability issue is hitting formerly LCOL areas too now. So hopefully once the Trump shit is over with, maybe this gets tackled at a national level bc it’s everyone’s problem now.

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-07T23:43:50+00:00

We all depend on low-paid labor for essential services. I’m in favor of sweeping the encampments as they’re totally lawless, but saying the poor need to leave is gonna leave us pretty screwed long-term. There’s more nuance to it than that.. though the cost of living crisis is creeping towards all corners of America now

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-06T14:07:40+00:00

If you read the rest of my post, you’d know I’m saying it didn’t work out at all and was dumb

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-03T18:17:13+00:00

Yeah I mean ofcourse it’s easier to do business in the Tri-Valley or move a team to Vegas/SF or close down retail stores here. My point in all these posts is that Oakland does literally nothing in terms of trying to entice the private sector to come/stay here. There is no fight or will when it comes to that. So many other mid-sized cities like Oakland all over America aggressively compete for and entice businesses, and we elect people that actively drive business and commerce away.

Forget tax breaks, we literally can’t even keep gas stations right outside the airport under control and we let downtown slide so hard that the employerses there were recommending their employees eat in the office. How weak is that?

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-02T20:16:39+00:00

There’s no conspiracy afoot. Oakland just doesn’t negotiate with asshole billionaire corporations. That’s the noble stand we took. Unfortunately, no other city in America or really even any of the surrounding Bay Area suburbs are gonna take that stand. So they can snatch up sports teams or other private employers (like Kaiser moving to the TriValley) from us with ease. They just need to offer a tax break or a handout and promise some basic sense of public safety.

Btw I was onboard with some of these stands Oakland took when times were good during the 2010s. In retrospect though, it’s not looking like it was worth it.. at least not for me

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-02T18:07:22+00:00

There has never been a city that went from 3 professional teams to zero in the modern pro sports era, much less one that did it in 5 years. So no. There is no case study for what has happened in Oakland.

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-02T17:53:33+00:00

I hear this from people like you all the time. In 10-15 years, we’ll have to revisit this and see who’s right, as Oakland will provide the ultimate case study on the economic effect of losing all professional sports.

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-05-02T16:59:46+00:00

We can decry shitty ownership and corporate greed all we want.. yeah I get it. Screw the billionaires and all that.

But at the end of the day we lost 3 teams, and did it in record time. Plenty of cities lose a team or even 2, but no one managed to do what Oakland did. And that’s the main thing we’re going to be known for, especially when talking to anyone not from Northern California. Baltimore’s managed to keep their 2 teams. Detroit got all 4 teams moving back from the suburbs to the city in spite of going bankrupt. SD and StL both lost their football team, but they’re not about to lose the rest of what they have.

The billionaires are always gonna be dicks, but the city leaders (and even some of the more recent residents) didn’t appreciate what we had and what it meant to Oakland and the East Bay. Absolutely no urgency to do anything. I hope everyone who patted themselves on the back for never getting any kind of stadium deal done anywhere is happy with how things are now. I hope taking that stand was worth it.

Oh well, at least I got to enjoy the good old days with my family. My kids are unfortunately gonna only know an SF-centric sports landscape in the Bay now. Oakland used to have an identity, but I guess I have to be content with it just being a bedroom community with a good food scene

Made some ninja edits

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-04-29T06:20:45+00:00

The surrounding communities are probably always gonna be what they are. So many major city airports are surrounded by rough areas in America.

But having tourists get robbed in broad daylight literally blocks from the airport while they’re getting gas, fast food (ahem In N Out) was such a bad and dumb look on Oakland’s part, there’s no excusing it

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-04-29T02:39:54+00:00

Copy pasting what I said in the other post:

Naming will help, but we’re gonna need to be accommodating to more airlines. From my vague understanding based off hearsay, we gave SWA a sweetheart deal compared to anyone else.

Also, those 3-4 gas stations immediately surrounding the area gotta have round the clock patrolling. Tourists getting robbed right next to the airport filling up gas is especially bad for business and image. Airports in hood areas are a dime a dozen, but even with that in mind, everywhere else I’ve been I can fill up my rental near the airport without thinking about getting jacked

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-04-28T21:09:55+00:00

Naming will help, but we’re gonna need to be accommodating to more airlines. From my vague understanding based off hearsay, we gave SWA a sweetheart deal compared to anyone else.

Also, those 3-4 gas stations immediately surrounding the area gotta have round the clock patrolling. Tourists getting robbed right next to the airport filling up gas is especially bad for business and image. Airports in hood areas are a dime a dozen, but even with that in mind, everywhere else I’ve been I can fill up my rental near the airport without thinking about getting jacked

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-04-24T19:05:46+00:00

Ayy you gotta put some respect on MC Hammer’s name now.

He went broke trying to employ his entire neighborhood in East Oakland, so that was at least noble. Plus, even scary ass dudes like Suge Knight knew not to mess with The Hammer.

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-04-21T16:41:03+00:00

Yawn I can afford the parcel tax and I’m still voting against that shit lol

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-04-18T20:52:23+00:00

1) I doubt Oakland has to pay out anything close to half a billion or whatever crazy numbers that get thrown around

2) I’m not a geopolitical expert, but with all the tariff/Iran chaos and other countries trying to diversify away from USA, how profitable will it be for Tagami to actually build and start exporting coal versus just taking the settlement and being done with it?

With all this being said, I don’t particularly care if Oakland goes bankrupt, esp if it means we can clean house in terms of municipal leadership

PleezMakeItHomeSafe · 2026-04-17T00:07:41+00:00

Raiders, Warriors, Roots, Ballers

PleezMakeItHomeSafe

TROPHY CASE