Here’s a strike I can fully get behind. A group of as many as 200 businesses in the city of Oakland will be closing tomorrow as a way to call attention to the rising crime that threatens to put them out of business permanently.

Some merchants plan to close their doors for the whole day, while others just for a couple of hours, said Carl Chan, a public safety advocate in Chinatown. He said a majority of businesses participating are small convenience stores, as well as restaurants throughout the city.

“We’re not just here to complain, we want to offer some solutions as well,” Chan told the Chronicle last week. “We’re hoping that we can get the needed support (for) our business community.”

The one-day strike comes as city leaders are facing pressure from business owners and residents to address public safety concerns, and criticism for missing a grant deadline to receive millions in state funding to help police combat organized retail theft. Merchants said they feel the city isn’t doing enough to lower crime, which they said is preventing customers from shopping at their businesses.

The city’s failure to meet the deadline for state funding was the last straw for a lot of business owners. It was in response to this failure that Carl Chan called for the strike.

The NAACP Oakland chapter blamed Mayor Sheng Thao Monday, demanding an independent investigation and questioning what led to the failure to meet the deadline to receive millions from the state to combat organized retail theft.

“Oakland got nothing,” said Cynthia Adams, president of the Oakland NAACP. “The buck stops with the mayor. This is the mayor’s fault.”..

A review of Oakland Police Department data found a roughly 30% spike in all crime this year, compared to 2022. From January through July, statistics show robberies are up 24%, burglaries have increased 43%, and car theft up 54% this year.

Even before the strike arrives, one restaurant announced it would be closing permanently.

After 38 years, a popular family-run Vietnamese restaurant in Oakland is closing at the end of the month.

Owners of Le Cheval announced on social media that the restaurant’s last day at 1007 Clay St. will be Sept. 30. While “this chapter comes to a close,” they wrote, they will seek a new location elsewhere.

Owner Son Tran told KPIX that Le Cheval is closing due to slow sales, which were around 25% of pre-pandemic levels, he said. He also cited criminal activity in the area as a deciding factor.

To be clear, I think everyone understands that there are other factors having an impact of businesses. More work from home means less foot traffic downtown. That traffic may not be coming back for a long time if at all. Still, what businesses don’t need on top of those headwinds are the robberies and street crime that also help convince people to stay away. The difference between closing and surviving could come down to whether or not the city can get crime under control.

Oakland business owner and restaurateur Chris Rachal owns Mimosa on Grand and For the Culture. He says everyone from the mayor to the city council to the city administrator must be held accountable for this at a time when rising crime is killing businesses.

“Is an embarrassment really. I mean, when you really think about it, it’s just an embarrassment,” Rachal said. “Oaklanders are scared to come out of the house. You know, for the most part. I mean, a lot of people just don’t even want to come out the house with the fear of someone, either carjacking them robbing them breaking into their car. And it’s done quite a quite a hefty job on businesses.”

In case you were wondering, Oakland is one of the cities that voted to defund the police back in 2021:

The Oakland City Council approved a budget early Thursday evening that will strip $17.4 million in funding from the Oakland Police Department and direct the money toward other programs.

The $18 million is over the course of the next two years.

There was some expectation that the council would delay the controversial decision but, by a vote of 7-2, the Oakland City Council approved a plan that will redirect the funds from the police department to the Department of Violence Prevention with the intention of improving public safety.

Former Mayor Libby Schaaf opposed the cuts on the grounds that it would result in about 50 fewer officers at a time when crime was rising. Some of those officers would come from the city’s 911 response teams. The funding cut was pushed by council members Nikki Fortunato Bas and Carroll Fife.

Now, council president Fortunato Bas is disappointed that the city missed out on outside police funding saying, “Community safety is Oakland’s top priority, and I am extremely disappointed we missed a grant opportunity to bring more resources to our city.”

I really wish the business owners luck. Maybe this strike will finally get city officials focused on doing something about crime instead of offering excuses for their continued failure.

One more clip about the strike. One business owner told KPIX, “The crime is driving our customer base away.” He added that it goes beyond just helping businesses like his survive. It’s about the quality of life residents of the city are going to have. “We are fighting for our residents to have a comfortable, social and vibrant life,” he said.