On Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012 Mayor Jean Quan, gave her first State of the City speech entitled “Oakland is on the Rise” to an audience of Oakland’s community, labor, business, athletic, musical and grassroots leaders. As one of Oakland’s native daughters, the mother of a young son and the Executive Director of Oakland Rising, I listened to the State of the City pensively.

Oakland Rising was founded in 2007 to educate and mobilize voters in the flatlands to speak up for and take charge of the issues impacting our lives. We are a multilingual, multiracial collaborative between APEN, EBASE, Causa Justa :: Just Cause and the Ella Baker Center with deep roots in East and West Oakland's neighborhoods.

Oakland Rising is teaming up with Oakland's Young Progressives to usher in a new era of political power that is committed to building an Oakland for everyone.

As you all know, the City of Oakland recently converted the Limited Public Financing Fund into a $225,000 for instant-runoff voting (IRV) education for Asian, African American and Latino voters.