Interview with Jean Quan on Possible Recall, the Occupy Movement and the Oakland Economy
November 28, 2011
KQED reporter Krissy Clark: Are you negotiating with Occupy protestors now?
Mayor Jean Quan: I wish that I could negotiate with so called Occupy Oakland. I mean we’re one of the few cities where, I think because the anarchist element was in general assembly, that they refused to meet with the city.
I think the movement is still learning and growing. I’ve been very supportive, some of my old SEIU friends are going to Washington and that’s where I think they need to be.
I think we should be encouraging people to go to Washington and camp out in the mall because of the jobs bill. I think that’s where the target would be better aimed.
Mayors of big cities like ours are just having a hard time doing the balance because of the economic impact. For Oakland it was also just the drain on the services. The day we had the big demonstration we had to pull police out ofthe neighborhoods. That day the shootings were the highest of all year.
People have to be more thoughtful about their strategies. I don’t think they intended to hurt the economy but they have. I don’t think they intended to draw services away from communities that need them, but they did.
EXERPTED FROM: http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2011/11/28/interview-with-jean-quan-on-possible-recall-the-occupy-movement-and-the-oakland-economy/
Who is Maxine Holz?
To look at the actions of the city council, the mayor, the port of Oakland and the chamber of commerce. Their vision of Oakland is a bunch of chain stores like Cost Plus and Beverages and More. With a lot of overpriced high density “lofts”. That is what all of the redevelopment energy in this city goes for.
Yeah, De La Fuente would be a horror. He’s very scary. Yes, we should throw our energy behind Rebecca Kaplan. She was my first choice anyway.
Recall Quan, why? So we can have Ignacio De La Fuentes? Whatever his name is? I hear some scary things about him. We’re better off with Quan, then maybe switch energy to Rebecca Kaplan for the next election.
Ah, Maxine Holtz… aren’t you the person who used to pretend to represent Occupy Oakland? How did those media moments work out for ya? Got a book deal yet? Care to share your real name? My real name is David Heatherly.
Strange mixture of truth and lies here in Quan’s statement. First, all of us who took part in 11/2 port shut-down know that we did not see any freaking cops. So if she pulled them from all the neighborhoods, she must have stationed them all at some hideaway. That’s just bizarre. I literally saw only 2 or 3 cops all day long. They weren’t at the Occupy protest, so where were they instead of in the hood? I think she created that crisis on purpose to buy herself a talking point. Too bad for those people who got shot, huh?
But it’s true that our core group of anarchists, many of whom are people who I have less in common with than I do with the 1%, has prevented us from taking a lot of sensible action to defend ourselves and present ourselves in a positive light. And we made it easy for her to do what she did, by not speaking to her at all.
The quote from Mayor Quan’s letter “The day we had the big demonstration we had to pull police out of the neighborhoods. That day the shootings were the highest of all year.” WTF, why did she pull police out of the neighborhoods? That was her decision, not the Occupy movement, OO would rather not have the whole police force on stand ‘in case’ the Occupy movement gets out of hand. But it is the police, not the Occupy movement activists that are injuring veterans, and spraying pepper in the eyes of the activists.
Does Mayor Quan think we are stupid? That we can’t see from her own words what a waste of manpower and taxpayers money she is causing by paying the whole police force, and police forces from other cities to ‘keep the protesters in line’.
Guess common sense is not a requirement for becoming Mayor of a large city?????????
What did she run up in Sam Yick or Layonna and ask for their accountants? That is a really dubious figure to me. Chinatown is the cheapest place to get food. If the economy is bad they should be booming.
I do’t know if Quan or her aides read this. But hey, if you are really concerned about people not coming downtown to shop, how about fix the timing of the streetlights so it isnt impossible to drive through downtown on less than a quarter tank. It’s been stupid for decades! Oh yeah and dont send in the stormtroopers at the drop of a hat. Shoppers tend to be frightened by tear gas clouds. Ok?
seriously?
As of three weeks ago, Jean Quan totally knows who shot Scott Olsen, and is totally protecting those who shot Scott Olsen, Scott Campbell and those who beat Kayvan Sabeghi, and who let the Mercedes driver go.
Jean Quan needs to take some action on these safety items that are priority concerns for all of us. Without a change soon, she will need to negotiate with the Federal Court referee when the police department is put under their receivership.
yeah we refue’d to negotiate… can’t negotiate on an empty stomach… oh and … i would like my undies back.
You’re still posting here. I’m just sayin’…
You’re still posting here. I’m just sayin’…
Nobody is saying that Mayor Quan is an adminstrative genius. However, Occupy Oakland has indeed refued to negotiate with anyone, and not just her. Meanwhile, the movement is well known for denying First Amendment rights to its opponents. The joke is on you people, not Mrs. Quan.
Wow. That Mayor is living in another world!
You Marxist filth are very funny.
If she didn’t overreact with such a huge militaristic police response that was completely unnecessary she and the City Council wouldn’t have cost Oakland thousands of unnecessarily spent dollars as she chose to abandon the neighborhoods by placing all police assets unnecessarily in downtown. Also she cost Oakland so much more. She stained our already dubious reputation in the area, State, Country, and now, thanks to her bad decisions, the world. We need to recall this incompetent sell out immediately.
i think this little Q and A from the same interview demonstrates Quan’s brilliance:
“What are some of the ways you’re trying to drum up support for downtown merchants in Oakland?
As you know the Oakland economy has been pretty hard hit like most of the Bay Area, and the downtown demonstrations have particularly hit our downtown merchants, even Chinatown which is nowhere near downtown tells us that they had 40% drop off.
So what we’re hoping to do is remind people that Oakland has 40 unique and distcint neighborhoods and invite them to come.”
Her plan to help downtown is at best to tell people it exists, at worst to direct peoples attention to every other neighborhood in the city. No wonder she tries so hard to blame occupy for oaklands shitty economy she’s inept and has no solutions for anything.