Brooklyn–Bella Vista activist Dawn Hawk describes Pat Kernighan’s accomplishments for her below-580 neighborhood.

An important decision in the upcoming November elections is who will represent District 2 as our City Councilmember. As a neighborhood advocate working to improve the quality of life in our community, I believe this is one of the most important votes on the ballot. I’d like to share with you why I support City Councilmember Pat Kernighan for re-election.

District 2 is diverse, encompassing Chinatown, Crocker Highlands, Grandlake, Haddon Hill, San Antonio, Eastlake and my own Brooklyn–Bella Vista area. The neighborhoods below 580 share many of the same challenges — we need more effective and fully-staffed community policing to address crime; improved parks and recreation programming for young and old alike; we must require that corner liquor stores adhere to community standards with a zero tolerance for drug dealing and loitering; we seek redress from blighted, illegally developed properties of absentee landlords; and accountability from public housing managers who poorly manage the scattered OHA sites throughout our neighborhoods.

We need a City Councilmember who understands our issues and has experience and creative ideas for addressing problems. Here’s why I feel that Brooklyn–Bella Vista area neighbors should support Pat in the upcoming election.

• We have open access to Pat and her City Council staff, she listens carefully, she knows our issues
  Pat’s City Council staff members are well known to neighbors, as they come to each and every meeting of our 17Y NCPC (Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council). They don’t come with an agenda. They listen carefully to every point of view, and they ask residents how they can help address our concerns.
• Creativity in dealing with City bureaucracy, serving as our voice with the City
  Bella Vista Park renovation — Pat cut through bureaucratic roadblocks and helped create new ways of working with community members and non-profits in renovating City parks here in our neighborhood.
• Developing new paradigms for City Departments and Agencies that WORK for our neighborhoods
  Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) restructuring — Pat is working closely with residents to hold federally-funded OHA administration accountable to their mission of providing good housing to low-income tenants, and to be more accountable for properly managing scattered site public housing throughout our neighborhoods. We need to continue this vital work to bring real change to our community.
• Experience
  Nuisance liquor stores — Pat helped residents work with the Neighborhood Law Corps to bring nuisance stores into compliance with community standards. As Chief of Staff to former District 2 City Councilmember Danny Wan, and in her first year in office, Pat has shown she has the experience needed to continue to improve District 2 and the City as a whole. We know that real progress is hard won, and demands expertise and diligence, not empty promises.

Last night I received a call from the opponent’s campaign office. The earnest young man on the phone admitted that he didn’t live in Oakland (much less in District 2), and that he couldn’t say why local issues were not addressed with any detailed knowledge by the candidate he was supporting, and he confessed that he had only read through the opponent’s web site, and hadn’t even met her! The Brooklyn-Bella Vista area neighbors who are working to improve our neighborhood all know Pat and her Council staff, from years of working together on neighborhood issues. To know Pat is to support her — as our voice in City Hall.

I hope you will join me and other neighborhood advocates in supporting Pat Kernighan for the District 2 City Council seat in November!

Dawn Hawk
Brooklyn–Bella Vista area neighbor
Community Board Member, Friends of Bella Vista Park
Co-Secretary, 17Y Bella Vista-Highland Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council (NCPC)