With $9 billion we could hire more teachers, have smaller class sizes, provide health care for all, clean up our streets and fill potholes, create safe parks for kids in all neighborhoods to play in, expand public transit schedules and routes, and so much more. Together we can end continuous cuts to vital community programs and services, and to take back funding that our communities have been robbed of for too long.

Oakland Rising, as a member of the statewide coalition California Calls, launched our fall civic engagement campaign this week to get folks fired up around the potential to Make It Fair by reforming commercial property tax laws. Right now, California commercial property tax is lower than most states – we want to Make It Fair by closing that loophole and generating the revenue that the state needs to best serve our communities.

Our team of 14 outreach members is mostly comprised of Oakland natives who have worked on campaigns with us for the past several years. In addition to these dedicated returners, we have a couple of team members joining us from our sister organization, San Francisco Rising. As members of Bay Rising, together we are calling into Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose’s working-class communities of color to build our base of supportive voters. We know that when we band together, we become a political force that can take down even the most powerful and deep-pocketed special interests.

In addition to gearing voters up for this big opportunity to bring much-needed resources into our communities, we are talking to Oakland voters about the proposal to move the A’s stadium near Laney College and Chinatown. With displacement running rampant and projects proposed by powerful developers being rubber stamped for approval, we and our collaborative partner the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) will inform folks about the potential impacts that the stadium development would have on these neighborhoods which currently serve immigrant, low-income, and residents of color. We will then take our results to Oakland’s decision-makers including the Peralta College Board of Trustees and City Councilmembers so that they know what the community would like to see.

Want to get involved? Join us as we talk to Oakland voters on our Volunteer Door-Knocking Days: October 28th and November 4th. Email [email protected] for more information.