A correction to an earlier version of this article has been appended to the end of the article.

In a wide-open race to be Oakland’s next mayor, the 10 candidates looking to replace outgoing Mayor Libby Schaaf have not been shy in describing the city’s condition as worse than ever.

Whoever gets the job will inherit a city facing alarming levels of gun violence, an intractable homelessness challenge and a narrow tightrope to either grant the Oakland A’s a complex waterfront development deal or risk losing the city’s last major professional sports franchise.

On top of those issues, the next mayor must be a relentless booster for what makes this East Bay city great: the culture, beautiful parks, restaurants and a spirit of resilience among its diverse residents.

Here are the candidates:

Many Oakland residents know Reid, 49, who was just elected to the City Council in 2020, because her father, Larry Reid, held that District 7 seat for 24 years. The younger Reid said that gave her a front-row view of how city leaders have failed to fill city jobs or adequately fund law enforcement.

A former senior aide to State Sen. Nancy Skinner when she served in the state Assembly, Reid said only she can build political relationships around California so that Oakland isn’t alone in addressing its most pressing issues.

Related Articles Election | How election conspiracy theories tore apart this remote Northern California county Election | Recall campaign against Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao submits petitions Election | California passed a law to stop ‘pay to play’ in local politics. After two years, legislators want to gut it Some of her strategies: investing in more ShotSpotter technology to detect gunfire; bringing in garbage crews to clean up illegal dumping at “targeted hotspots” around town; and drawing a hard line in the sand with A’s team officials who want to build 3,000 luxury homes and a new ballpark at the harbor.

Why is Reid the best person to lead the charge, and not another candidate with more council experience?

“I’ve come from families that long endured the trauma of losing loved ones to gun violence,” she said. “The perspective I bring is my lived experience and the lens of being in that community.”

With a single term on the council representing District 6, Taylor, 45, often ends up citing his professional experience as a management consultant during interviews and public forums more often than he does his civic track record.

Despite supporting more funding for law enforcement, Taylor said he is “100% aligned” with community leaders who urge the city to instead invest in better social services, insisting it isn’t an either-or proposition: “It’s not prudent to take away something before you replace it.”

Taylor attempts a balancing act on homelessness, saying Oakland “can’t carry the bag” for solving such a wide-ranging issue on its own, while championing his ability to get housing built. His take on the A’s ballpark negotiations similarly resists pure optimism.

“Ultimately, we can’t we can’t control whether (the team) are really posturing to have an excuse to go to Las Vegas,” he said.

Oakland, he said, should develop its own parallel path of shopping the West Oakland harbor land to developers who could step in if the A’s walk away.

Like other candidates, Thao, 37, has shaped her campaign around how “Oakland is in a crisis” of crime and homelessness. But rather than fund more police officer positions outright, the District 4 council member wants to build police academies to “recruit from Oaklanders who would stay here and understand the culture” of the city and its residents.

Thao hedges her tough-on-crime politics by advocating for a diverse police force, promising to recruit officers who are “women, people of color and people from the LGBT community.”

When it comes to homelessness, Thao promised to order independent audits of the groups that have received local dollars to combat the issue. The nonprofits that are shown to be finding success should receive more investment, she said.

Thao also believes she “can get to a yes” from both sides of the A’s ballpark deal, but only if the team agrees to minimum levels of affordable housing and community investment, including hiring local vendors for the stadium’s concessions.

Since leaving office in 2012 after two decades serving on the council representing District 5, De La Fuente, 73, has done private consulting work, including for the ambulance company American Medical Response. But it’s Oakland’s “crime, crime, crime” that has driven him back into the mix, he said.

Much like he was during his nearly decade-long run as council president, De La Fuente is unapologetically tough on crime and big on business. He promises to give police as much money as they want to crack down on everything from brazen car break-ins to homeless encampments. Residents who are unhoused, he said, should live in other cities instead of flocking to Oakland.

He also wants to attract investment from the private sector wherever possible, and supports a proposal for an open-air sand and gravel plant that environmentalists say would worsen West Oakland’s air pollution.

While on the council, De La Fuente helped broker the deal for Coliseum improvements that brought the Raiders back from Southern California to Oakland in the 1990s — a deal that saddled the city with tens of millions of dollars in debt when the team left town a second time. When it comes to the A’s, he is similarly determined to keep them around.

“You’ve got to be able to negotiate, and yes, the A’s are tough, but there’s also billions and billions of dollars at stake,” said De La Fuente, who called the Howard Terminal site a “very good location.”

Hodge, 62, has been active in Oakland long enough to believe he has a shot at jumping ahead of the other four candidates with council experience.

The minister and attorney served eight years on the Oakland Unified school board during the 2000s, and in recent years has been involved in youth organizations, including the Executive Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, as well as community groups such as Resilient Fruitvale and AAPI Unite.

In an interview, Hodge did not offer too many concrete policy ideas, but outlined a vision of “pragmatic progressive politics” that would be structured around sit-downs and open conversations: “I try not to get locked into a position until I hear from everybody.”

He is also quicker to bring up police misconduct than other candidates, but promises to keep as many officers on the street as possible. And he demurs from a hard stance on the A’s deal, saying the project should go before voters.

Long before her job as an ACLU attorney, Victory, 29, was a child in Oakland dealing with housing insecurity. The experience convinced her that the key to solving homelessness is basic income and emergency assistance.

“Housing is the great anchor that can stabilize things,” Victory said. “When you destabilize people from housing, you’re cutting them out of society.”

Victory says the city “needs a better return on investment” with existing officers before it pays for more. She also criticizes the city for giving police too much to do — dealing with homeless encampments, staffing security at special events — at the expense of timely 911 response and thorough crime investigations.

And if the A’s don’t play ball with the city, Victory is fine with putting money toward other professional sports teams like the Oakland Roots or a future WNBA franchise.

Jordan, 58, a full-time paralegal who was appointed by Schaaf to the public library commission, said a major priority would be to expand the city’s library system.

The military veteran said he wants to construct tiny homes all around the city to shelter the homeless people, but acknowledged that might end up costing too much.

He said that rewarding the A’s with luxury condos would only cede more of the city to “big money developers.” And while hiring more police is one of his goals, Jordan wants to prioritize restorative justice. “People who spend time in jail should be able to get jobs in the city,” he said.

Since moving to Oakland a decade ago, former labor organizer Scott, 43, has founded local entertainment company Oakhella and co-founded the Bottoms Up Community Garden with a focus on sustainable agriculture.

But Oakhella publicly distanced itself from Scott after a photograph of the candidate holding a sign displaying anti-transgender ideology circulated on social media. Scott has also taken up some traditionally conservative stances on crime and housing, calling for aggressive policing and more evictions of tenants who can’t make rent.

A retired labor organizer and self-described socialist, Reimann, 75, doesn’t see winning as the ultimate goal of running for mayor. Instead, he wants to raise awareness about the rise of right-wing fascism, which, in his view, could lead to the collapse of democracy.

More locally, Reimann is strongly opposed to the A’s ballpark deal. If nothing else, Reimann’s relatively obscure campaign will be successful if he can get more people to oppose the deal, he said.

A fringe candidate with outlandish views, Liu, 42, earlier this month hurled anti-Semitic insults at local synagogue Temple Sinai for excluding him from a candidate forum, and regularly spews anti-gay remarks. He has been widely criticized, with many calling for him to drop out of the race.

Liu’s reputation has toggled between being an entertainer — he drew laughs at past candidate forums for promising to build water slides at Lake Merritt — and a far-right-winger who wants every Oakland resident to have a concealed carry gun permit.