DECK CHAIRS REARRANGED: Oakland Residents Prepare to Oust Mayor as City Spirals Out of Control.

Sheng Thao insisted she knows the fear her fellow Oaklanders experience in the troubled Bay Area city where crime remains stubbornly high and a consistent concern.

“I’ve had my car broken into, and I too felt angry. I’ve had my house broken into while my son was home, and I too felt scared,” the embattled mayor said.

Speaking in the Oakland City Council chamber in mid October for her state of the city address, the 39-year-old mayor said the safety of Oakland residents is “the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning. And it’s the only thing on my mind when I fall asleep at night.”

“I want to say very clearly that community safety remains and is my top priority,” she said.

Thao is now advocating for increasing the number of police officers on the streets, investing in crime-fighting technology, and creating a more responsive 911 system.

“It’s time,” she said, “to get serious about cleaning up our streets.”

True enough. But time may be quickly running out for Thao, a far-left progressive who just a few years back supported slashing the police budget, reimagining what policing should look like, and investing in unarmed “violence interrupters” and other public-safety alternatives.

Less than two years into her first four-year term, Thao is facing a flood of criticism over her leadership. On Tuesday, she could be the first mayor of The Town to be recalled if a simple majority of voters agrees to oust her. Polls indicate that is likely.

Thao’s opponents allege that she is dishonest and incompetent, and that she is responsible for accelerating the city’s decline.

“Oakland is already burning under her watch. It’s a city on fire,” Gail Harbin, the recall spokeswoman, told National Review. She said that if Thao continues to lead the city for another two years, “we won’t have anything left.”

Oakland’s last Republican mayor left office in July of 1977.