Will Oakland Be Paving Streets In 2025?
- deborahshefler
- Apr 8
- 2 min read
By Gail Wallace
You might answer “Of course. Oakland voters passed Measure U, which authorized the City to issue bonds as needed to pay for a city-wide paving program at the rate of approximately 50 miles per year.”
In better economic times, you would be correct. The City would be issuing a new set of bonds to pay for paving anticipated in 2025. However, the City is hesitating to sell additional bonds, apparently because it might have to pay a higher interest on any bonds issued this year. Without selling bonds, Oakland may be able to pave just 10 miles rather than the 50 miles projected in its overall paving plan.
Bond money may also determine forward progress on projects for affordable housing.
Details on all these matters are available in reports from the Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Community Development:
The Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) uses infrastructure bonds to fund its capital commitments for affordable housing. HCD has made funding commitments to 9 projects that are dependent on a 2025 bond issuance. These projects contain 922 units, including 257 homeless housing units. Without a 2025 bond issuance, the impact on these projects will be severe.… .As of this report writing, until a new bond sale of Measure U is completed, OakDOT cannot initiate new contract paving projects and is in danger of delaying grant-funded, shovel-ready streetscape projects…
The City Council will discuss these matters at a special meeting on April 14th @ 3:30 PM. Use this link to see the agenda and the reports. The agenda includes instructions and links to listen to the discussion live or after a recording has been posted.
Take Action: In advance, you can email the Mayor (officeofthemayor@oaklandca.gov) and the Council and the City Administrator (cityadministratorsoffice@oaklandca.gov) to ask questions or advocate for the result you favor. If you want to make public comments at the meeting, either in person or via zoom, see LWVO’s guide here.