Glenview Support Letter
Dear District 4 Voters,
As both residents and community leaders of Oakland’s Glenview neighborhood, we are writing to urge you to vote for Libby Schaaf to be your next Oakland City Council Member. As Ignacio De la Fuente’s liaison to the Glenview neighborhood, Libby earned our support because of her professionalism, responsiveness, courtesy, enthusiasm and persistence in delivering results for us. We were lucky to have her as a neighborhood proponent; you could not ask for a better representative in City Hall.
Libby embodies the ideals of participatory democracy by supporting and facilitating community involvement. She has consistently and aggressively shepherded projects through the sometimes daunting city bureaucracy to make tangible improvements to our neighborhood, from median planting, to saving street trees, to supporting our schools, to making traffic safety improvements.
Libby’s work on two projects in particular stand-out as examples of her responsiveness, creative problem solving, and ability to get things done. In 2003, after years of flooding due to inadequate storm drains, the residents of La Cresta Avenue appealed to City Hall for help. Libby took the lead as the neighborhood’s proponent at City Hall, identifying and procuring $165,000 in capital improvement money to fund a new storm drain (a difficult task since the project was not already in the budget). Even more impressive was her sensitivity to the urgency of the matter; she was able to skillfully navigate the City’s bureaucracy, and got the construction contracts expedited so the project could be completed before the fall’s rainy season.
Another tangible result of Libby’s dedication and hard work is the beautification of the Park Boulevard Median Strip, a key visual anchor for the business district. For years the neighborhood association was told the City would never put irrigation into the medium strip. Councilmember De La Fuente put Libby on the task, and through her resourcefulness she identified $150,000 in gas tax money – restricted to roadway improvement – which could be used to install irrigation as a traffic calming measure.
Libby, however, went beyond simply procuring the funding; through her tireless efforts she successfully leveraged the gas tax money to build our neighborhood’s visibility. She worked with our neighborhood association to identify our pro bono landscape architect, Dan Morris, recruited volunteers to raise money to buy plants, and helped organize a volunteer day to plant the median strip with drought tolerant plants. Our collective efforts drew the attention of the City’s Marketing Department, which hired a neighborhood graphic artist, Maja Brugos, to design new street banners promoting the district. Since that time many new restaurants have moved into the area, earning Glenview the title of the Bay Area’s newest “gourmet ghetto.”
Finally, Libby reached out to our local schools, Glenview Elementary and Brewer Middle School, to support several improvement projects. Her long history of dedication to children and schools was evident in the personal commitment she showed. She even managed to continue supporting our efforts long after she left her position with Ignacio’s office.
We wanted to let you know what a huge help Libby Schaaf has been to us. She has a unique combination of gifts; Libby is responsive to constituents, understands complex policy, builds community collaborations and achieves tangible results. We cannot speak highly enough of her, and urge you to throw your support behind her campaign for Oakland City Council, District 4.
Sincerely,
Derrik Williams
Christian Downer
Michelle Ellison
Patricia Eagan
Michael Kilian
Viola Gonzales
Elizabeth Gray
Marie Munson
Robert Gray
Delana Toler
Christine Danhakl
Jerry Murphy
Sharon Morris