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Sheng Thao Becomes Oakland’s Mayor

Mayor-Elect Sheng Thao’s victory is also historic: She is the first person of Hmong descent to lead a major U.S. city and — at 37 — the youngest Oakland mayor in about 75 years. (The first Hmong mayor was Steve Ly, who served as mayor of Elk Grove, California, from 2016-2020.)

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Sheng Thao
Sheng Thao. City of Oakland photo.

By Post Staff

Sheng Thao, Oakland’s District 4 Councilmember, declared victory Monday night in the city’s mayoral election after two weeks of ballot counting gave her a 682-vote edge over her closest rival, District 6 Councilmember Loren Taylor.

Taylor conceded on Tuesday morning.

“I have never felt more hopeful about Oakland’s future, or more determined to lead the fight for it,” Thao said in a statement. “I’m excited to get to work building the safer, more affordable, more just Oakland we know is possible in the months and years ahead.”

Both Thao and Taylor were relative newcomers to the City Council, both assuming office in 2019. Thao also held the position of council president pro tempore.

Voter turnout was low: only 113,636 ballots were cast. Thao received 50.3% of the vote to Taylor’s 49.7%. Taylor had been leading until Nov. 18.

Thao acknowledged the narrow margin.

“This was a very close election. I want to congratulate Loren Taylor on the strong campaign he ran. Councilmember Taylor and his family have been making a difference for this city for generations and we owe him a real debt of gratitude,” said Thao according to KRON TV news. “I hope to speak with Councilmember Taylor in the days ahead to find ways to work together for the good of our city.”

In his concession speech on Tuesday, Taylor told news outlets that he didn’t see a way forward to winning and criticized the rank-choice form of voting, referring to it as a form of voter suppression. He is not going to seek a recount although he would support any community member who wanted it done.

Thao’s victory is also historic: She is the first person of Hmong descent to lead a major U.S. city and — at 37 — the youngest Oakland mayor in about 75 years. (The first Hmong mayor was Steve Ly, who served as mayor of Elk Grove, California, from 2016-2020.)

Thao grew up in poverty as one of 10 children of Laotian refugees who lived in federal housing projects in Stockton. She settled in Oakland and found work at Merritt College before enrolling in classes, eventually transferring to UC Berkley in 2010 where she completed her degree in legal studies and city planning in 2012.

That summer she started work for Oakland City Councilmember at-Large Rebecca Kaplan and joined Kaplan’s staff formally in 2014.

Having once been a single mother who endured domestic abuse which forced her to live in her car for a period, her road to success was rocky. Despite that success, Thao, like many Oakland citizens, knows what it’s like to be unsafe: while her teenaged son was home alone recently, their house was broken into by would-be burglars while she was attending a City Council meeting.

It was her own experience with safety and homelessness that was part of what drove her to put those issues at the top of her agenda for Oakland.

Considered a progressive, Thao wants the Oakland Police Department to be fully staffed at 750 officers and supports development of a civilian unit to handle mental health calls. She wants more public safety funds diverted to Oakland’s Department of Violence Prevention.

Further, Thao asserts that a law-and-order approach to public safety is not enough: the factors that lead to crime must be addressed by improving education and promoting economic mobility by paying people a living wage.

Housing for the unhoused is extremely important to her both as someone who was once homeless, but also as one of the three renters who serve on the City Council.

During her campaign, she promised to expand mental health and drug treatment services for those living on the streets and expand the number of parking sites for RVs. By the end of her second term, she promised to build 30,000 affordable housing units.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one of Thao’s key proposals “is to create an enhanced infrastructure financing district over parts of East and West Oakland. The City Council took the first step to study it earlier this month. The tax district would siphon some property tax revenue from the city’s general fund and set it aside for affordable housing and infrastructure projects.”

The San Francisco Chronicle, KRON-TV News, Ballotpedia, Wikipedia, and CBS news were the sources for this report.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

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Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.
Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron RichmondCAER and  Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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