Oaklanders Support Wilson Riles Jr. For Mayor

Oaklanders Support Wilson Riles Jr. For Mayor
By Lynda Carson

Oakland Ca--Oakland City Council Member Nancy Nadel gave the green light for Wilson Riles Jr, to run for Mayor of Oakland as she herself declined to run for office. In a call to Riles, Nadel stated personal reasons for the decision not to run for Mayor after a 15 day self imposed deadline in which she made the decision wethor to run for Mayor or not. Progressives who were faced with the decision of who to vote for if Nadel and Riles both ran for Mayor are relieved that the two of them came to a mutual understanding.

In a quote from Riles today, he states that he is very respectful of the process Council Member Nadel experienced in making her decision to remain on the City
Council. Hopefully, Ms. Nadel would support my campaign for Mayor, says Riles. Feelings are mutual in the progressive community by those that have worked with both on a number of issues. With Council Member Nadel already in place on the Council, and Riles on the way to becoming the new Mayor of Oakland, progressives now have a vision for a kinder gentler Oakland than what has been offered by Mayor Jerry Brown and his scheme of
promoting the eviction for profit system by way of his
wasteful 10 K Plan.

All too often long time Oakland residents have felt unwelcome ever since Mayor Brown moved to town with his undisguised preference for the rich, and his penchant to kick around the poor. Many voters of Oakland feel double crossed by the Jerry Brown talk show host of KPFA, who became the man that goes out of his way to make Oaklanders feel unwanted. According to sources, evictions are up by 300% in Oakland, and 65% being evicted are people of color. Landlords feel the Mayor gave them the greenlight to ignore the \"2 Year Moratorium\" on rent increases after evictions, and Oaklands Rent Program fails to prosecute the lawless landlords. Mayor Jerry Browns solution to the housing crisis in Oakland, has been to promote the construction of new housing downtown which more than half of Oakland residents will not be able to afford, while at the same time ignoring the loss of affordable housing every time that someone gets evicted. Mayor Jerry Brown\'s past dog and pony shows to offer support for Oakland renters have been dismissed for what they were. Dog and pony shows.

In a quote from James Vann of the Oakland Tenants Union, Vann states that Mayor Jerry Brown must be challenged by progressives of Oakland. Vann wants to winnow down the contenders for the mayors race down to one,
and is still a big supporter
of Council Member Nadel,
who has been an ardent
supporter of renters rights.

As a contender for the Mayor of Oakland, Wilson Riles Jr supports a Just Cause Evictions Measure amended to sunset when the housing levels rise to around 5% open available housing on the market in Oakland. Riles has support in the progressive community, and is for the growth of Oakland, but not at the cost of having thousands becoming displaced or homeless just for the sake of greed. As a contender for Mayor of Oakland, it\'s a clear choice for voters to end the vicious cycle of greed unleashed by Mayor Jerry Brown, and put re-development on a track that is welcome to all Oaklanders.

According to a Bio of Wilson Riles Jr:

WILSON C. RILES JR.

Wilson is a graduate of Stanford University (1968) with a BA degree in Psychology and a minor in Mathematics. He did graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley in Educational Psychology and Child Development from 1971 until 1973. He was a Peace Corp volunteer from 1968-1970 in Sierra Leone, West Africa, where he taught calculus and general mathematics at the Kabala Secondary School.

He is the son of Wilson Riles Sr. who was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of California in 1970 and served for three terms until 1982. (Wilson Riles Sr. is the second African-American to be elected to a statewide office in the history of the United States since Reconstruction; the first was Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts.) Wilson Jr. has taught mathematics at the Middle School level with the Oakland Unified School District. For two years he worked for Weiner and Company, a professional campaign advertising and management firm. In 1976 Wilson Riles Jr. was appointed Administrative Assistant to newly elected Alameda County Supervisor, John George. He worked with George fighting for a decent health care system, alternatives to incarceration, against apartheid in South Africa, for bi-lingual education in schools, and housing and services for the homeless. In 1979 Wilson Riles Jr. ran and was elected to the 5th District seat on the Oakland City Council.

Wilson Riles Jr. engineered the City\'s commitment of $1.3 million from the Redevelopment Agency for the Schools\' Academies programs. He was instrumental in the defeat of the INS establishment of a privately run detention facility in Oakland. Riles was the principal Council member responsible for both Oakland\'s Anti-apartheid Ordinance and Oakland\'s Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance. He was the strongest Council member supporting the development of downtown and neighborhood non-profit housing projects.

Wilson is currently Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Pacific Mountain Regional Office. The AFSC is a eighty-three year old international non-profit based in the United States which gives contemporary meaning to Quaker principles. The organization is in twenty-two countries and in forty-four communities in the US. In 1947, the AFSC received the Nobel Peace Prize for Quaker assistance to victims of World War II. In the Pacific Mountain Region Wilson is involved in administering a $1.4 million budget supporting programs which address the problem of achieving a world with out weapons, the problem of US policy in regards to Middle East peace, the problems of the farm-workers, the homeless, the criminal justice system, the Native American community, the Asian Pacific community, youth, the interface between the diverse, rural-urban communities in the Stockton area, and the problem of economic justice in the African-American community in West Oakland.

He is a founding member of the Community Bank of the Bay, California