Oakland has a long history of activism around issues of inequity and social justice. It is, therefore, not surprising that Oakland was chosen in 2017 to be among the first cohort of five cities to develop local Equity Indicators tools in partnership with the City University of New York’s Institute for State and Local Governance (CUNY ISLG) and with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Law Enforcement Topic includes three Indicators that measure disparities in police response times, stops, and use of force. The first Indicator measures disparities in police response times between Area 5 and Areas 1/3. This is a placeholder for this year that we plan to replace with an analysis of response times by police beat which can be more closely related to the racial and ethnic demographics of each beat. The second Indicator measures disparities in discretionary stops between African Americans and Asians. The third Indicator measures disparities in use of force between African Americans and Whites.

The Incarceration Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in adult felony arrests, jail incarceration, and prison incarceration. The first Indicator measures disparities in adult felony arrests between African Americans and Asians. The second Indicator measures disparities in jail incarceration between African Americans and Asians. The third Indicator measures disparities in prison incarceration between African Americans and Asians. In all three indicator areas the disparities between African American and White residents were nearly as large.

The Community Stressors Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in domestic violence, homicides, and juvenile felony arrests. The first Indicator measures disparities in domestic violence victimization between African Americans and Asians. The second Indicator measures disparities in homicides between African Americans and Asians. The third Indicator measures disparities in juvenile felony arrests between African Americans and Whites.

The Business Development Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in business ownership, prime contracts awarding, and business vacancy. The first Indicator in this Topic measures disparities in business ownership rates between African American and White Oaklanders. The second Indicator measures disparities in the distribution of contracts under $100,000 awarded by the City to African American and White business owners. The third Indicator measures disparities in the location of business addresses that had been vacant for two years or more by majority race/ethnicity of census tracts.

The Teachers Topic includes three Indicators that measure racial and ethnic disparities in teacher representation of the student population, teacher experience, and teacher turnover. The first Indicator measures disparities in teacher representation of students between Latinos and Whites. The second Indicator measures disparities in teacher experience between schools that are predominantly African American and Latino vs. schools that are majority White. The third Indicators measures disparities in teacher turnover between majority African Americans and majority White schools.

Mortality is a widely recognized measure of population health. This Topic includes an Indicator on infant mortality, which is particularly important to public health and relates to other health outcomes, including access to care. The other two Indicators in this Topic, life expectancy and premature death, reveal disparities in how long individuals are expected to live and whether they are able to meet those expectations. In all three Indicators, African Americans have the worst outcomes.

The influx of development in the Bay Area, soaring housing costs, and a lack of affordable housing, have all contributed to the displacement of Oakland residents. Displacement is difficult to measure, but the three Indicators in this Topic serve as proxies for this larger, more complex issue. Homelessness is one possible consequence of displacement, and it is also a possible consequence of eviction, which is measured in the third Indicator. The second Indicator in this Topic is a measure of housing stability, which may help to prevent displacement among homeowners.

Oakland has a long history of activism around issues of justice and equity. Both oppression and this resistance to oppression have shaped the city’s past and the lives of its residents to this day. It is, therefore, not surprising that Oakland was chosen in 2017 to be among the first cohort of five cities to develop local Equity Indicators tools in partnership with the City University of New York’s Institute for State and Local Governance (CUNY ISLG) and with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Employment Topic includes three Indicators that measure participation in the workforce, an essential component of economic wellbeing. The first Indicator in this Topic measures disparities in the rate of disconnectedness from school or work among young people ages 16 to 24 between African Americans and Asians. The second Indicator measures disparities in labor force participation, while the third Indicator focuses on disparities in unemployment, both between African American and White Oaklanders.