Oakland has been a tough place, and one of the things this has meant is we really don’t have a big budget. A lot of people are seeing the SF/SV wealth pouring in, but because a lot of land is still being taxed at levels from 10-40 years ago the city isn’t getting that money.

That means we’re getting the government services of several decades ago. This is an issue for a lot of other California cities beside Oakland — and the 2020 split roll ballot initiative will give Californians a chance to better fund our government.

Further our new transit department, OakDOT, is doing creative work with a limited budget. They’re taking the MVP approach to rolling out better infrastructure, while also being one of the first DOTs to prioritize equity in terms of who gets access to limited transit funds first.