A Q&A with Oakland District 5 City Council candidates, talking homelessness and crime
on October 31, 2024
With just days left before Tuesday’s election, Oakland North interviewed the three candidates running for Oakland’s City Council District 5 seat. District 5 extends from the affluent streets of Park Boulevard to the industrial flatlands of International Boulevard. Incumbent Noel Gallo is running, along with candidates Erin Armstrong and Dominic Prado. Each responded to the questions about their top concerns and policy plans. Their answers are presented verbatim, with editing for clarity and brevity.
Noel Gallo
Gallo has served as District 5 council member since 2013. He previously served on the Oakland Unified School District board, and was Oakland’s Parks and Recreation manager. He grew up in Fruitvale, and credits the community’s strong family bonds and commitment to education with driving him to get involved with politics and give back to the community. He can be seen in the district on weekends in a yellow reflective vest leading street cleanups.
What is the most important issue facing District 5?
A: “Public safety is certainly number one. My children can walk to school and walk back home like we used to. At the same time, we have to maintain a clean, safe environment. It used to be that you come out and sweep in front of your house or business, but now we’re all waiting for the street sweeper or the city to come and clean, and we need to get back. At the end is, we got to take care of our children and education, because that’s what we learn, grow and take home.”
Regarding public safety and crime, what concrete policies would you like to see?
A: “One is I do need to elevate my number of police officers to at least 750 because they’re the ones that have to respond to emergencies, whether you’re dealing with the homeless, the robberies and the crime in Oakland. It’s about enforcing the laws. … Why are so many young people out when they’re supposed to be in school? At the same time, I do need to bring my public workers back so we can have a clean environment. And at the end of the day, we have to take care of our school system and to educate families.”
Regarding housing and homelessness, what policies would you like to see?
A: “We have the laws already in place. It’s very clear where you can put your RV, where you can live, where you can have your home. You just can’t do it any place you want to and come over here and drug yourself. … It’s really important to educate and train the youngsters, not only through our schools, but it used to involve the parents, and that’s an area that’s missing. Well, if I choose to have three kids. They’re yours. Why should I have to come take care of them? We have to get back to that. That child I chose to have, it’s mine and it’s mine to the end, and I didn’t have three, four kids to get more money from government. And that’s what’s happening a lot.”
How do you persuade people to vote for you?
A: “It’s not so much about what you say, it’s what you do, and that’s why I’m out here on the street level. If the voters choose not to vote for me, that’s cool. I’ve been invited to do other governmental activities or services, but I’ll keep on contributing and do the best I can. I don’t take it personally whatever people say, because I don’t see a lot of people in the neighborhood helping out either, so I just value those that have supported me.”
Erin Armstrong
After moving to California from Utah, Armstrong began volunteering for Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, working her way up to senior policy adviser focusing on child care and education, emergency preparedness and homeless prevention. Part of her inspiration to run stems from her frustration with city services, particularly the slow police response when her home was burglarized and hearing dozens of similar stories.
What is the most important issue facing District 5?
A: “We have to focus on core city services that the city’s supposed to be providing and is failing to provide. To me, that’s clean streets and safe neighborhoods. We have to get back to basics. That’s making sure our streets are free of illegal dumping, that we have trees and speed bumps. And then we have to make sure that we’re providing public safety. So 911 needs to pick up when you call them, police should come and investigate. If your house gets burgled, if your car is stolen, they should follow up.”
Regarding public safety, what policies would you like to see?
A: “On a micro level, we have different public safety entities in Fruitvale, the sheriff’s Department, BART Police Department, Oakland Police Department, two private contractors that are contracted to provide public safety with the nonprofit groups. As a City Council member, I can pull that group together, bringing together the city, the county, the BART district, AC Transit, the nonprofits, the for-profit businesses, the community groups, and we’re going to set up communications channels to set up clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each department. On a macro level, we have to focus on policies that are going to help increase the number of police that we have, while also investing upstream to make sure that we’re preventing and interrupting violence. To me, that’s things like doubling down on the Ceasefire program, but it also means working together with the schools and the families, making sure that kids and families are supported so they can go to school and succeed.”
Regarding housing and homelessness, what policies would you like to see?
A: “If you imagine there’s this bucket of people who are homeless, we need to prevent people from falling into it, and then we need to get people out of it as quickly as we possibly can. I led the policy design for Measure W, which is about homeless prevention. This passed in 2020, but it hasn’t been implemented because we got sued by the taxpayers association, and they’ve been fighting it all the way to the California Supreme Court. We’re expecting to win this year, and if we do, then the county can start implementing homeless prevention programs. The most effective way to get somebody off the streets is to make sure they never got on the streets to begin with. So we need to fully implement Measure W and that needs to be in partnership with the county. We also need construction of more permanent affordable housing. I’d like to see the city create an affordable housing desk in the Planning Department dedicated to fast tracking affordable housing projects. We need to incentivize those programs and get them done fast.”
How do you persuade people to vote for you?
A: “People are hungry for change. So there’s not a lot of convincing that I have to do. They’re so sick of Noel. They know that he doesn’t pick up the phone, he’s not showing up at City Council meetings. Everyone knows he’s out there picking up garbage.”
Dominic Prado
Prado is a food business entrepreneur. He used to run a taco restaurant in the Fruitvale Public Market. Before starting his food business, he worked with grassroots organizations and labor unions to advocate for voters’ rights in Arizona. Prado says he was spurred to run for City Council when he saw how a rise in crime and a decline in financial investment began crushing small businesses, including restaurants. He also advocates for more support for Ceasefire, the violence prevention initiative.
What is the most important issue in District 5?
A: “Crime, crime, crime. Some people are upset that I focus on International Boulevard and the Latino community, but that’s where the most need is, and they’ve been affected by crime the most, more than any part of the district. Burglaries were happening almost on a day-to-day basis. I’ve also been on the forefront of the traffic situation — I saw somebody get killed on International. As merchants, lending our support to traffic safety advocates is helpful and can make progress. Without public safety, we can’t do business as usual.”
Regarding public safety and crime problems, what concrete policy would you like to see?
A: “Without the money to hire more police, and without people coming to Oakland and spending money and creating business, how can we even say that we’re going to budget for X number of police? I was incarcerated myself at a young age, so I want to aim energy into what can we do. Since we’re not going to have police, how can we make sure that we’re giving our youth an opportunity to stay out of crime? So maybe a policy is just enforcing what we have already on the books, amending the police chase policy, that we can do without having to hire more police.”
Regarding housing and homelessness, what concrete policy would you like to see?
A: “It’s a huge problem. A lot of money was spent on these issues but they’ve gotten worse. My goal will always be how to get people that are not collaborating to make connections and see what we can really do. The other thing is, having leadership and saying the things that need to be said right now. People say you can’t touch homelessness, you’ve got to be humane. Can we get people off the street and offer them a temporary place, a FEMA shelter, FEMA camps, something like that? Start over, get communities back. The longer you keep homeless on the streets, the more they’re never going to get out of homelessness. We need to stop it before people get too deep.”
How do you persuade people to vote for you?
A: “My advantage is that I’m already doing the stuff that needs to be done. I’ve already been working on this and trying to fix the issues when nobody else is — when Armstrong wasn’t around, and Gallo never showed up. I’m ready. I’m not a politician. I don’t have anything to gain from it. Mostly, I’m losing money because I’m focusing too much on this race. Win or lose, I’m still going to be an advocate and still live in the community.”
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