In Her Unprecedented Third Term, Mayor Schwager Reflects on a Year Like No Other

When Linda Schwager got sworn in early this year for an unprecedented third term, she could never have imagined that just a few months later she would be holding council meetings from her kitchen table via the video conferencing app Zoom, or giving residents daily telephone and email updates on how many people a global pandemic had infected—and killed—in Oakland.

With the fear and many questions the pandemic had stirred, and the feeling of helplessness most people felt, particularly when numbers of infected and fatalities climbed mercilessly day after day, Schwager turned to one of the earliest lessons she learned after first becoming mayor.

“I learned…when I first became mayor and we were in the middle of a hurricane…I realized that people want information, they want to know what’s happening,” she said in an interview via Zoom (of course) earlier this summer for a segment of “This Week in Oakland,” which ran for 12 episodes. “If you don’t know what’s happening…[then] you think about the worst possible scenarios.”

So she made it a priority to communicate with residents about the virus’ impact and the latest updates from county and state officials.

She also wanted to communicate with Oakland’s children, although, of course, that too had to be through Zoom.

“I was doing storytime on Wednesday mornings for the preschoolers,” the mayor said. “It was so enjoyable watching them as I was reading the books for them on Zoom.”

“On the last day, we did a craft, about the rainbow, how after [the storm, the gloomy skies] there’s a rainbow.”

The mayor also did a “town hall” through Zoom with teachers and second graders, where students got to ask her all kinds of questions.

“The students were incredible with their questions,” she recalled. “It was a real town hall.”

She is impressed by how smoothly many children incorporated Zoom and other forms of technology into life during the lockdown.

“Children adapt more easily than adults,” she noted. “All this technology, it’s tough to learn.”

But everyone rose to the occasion.

Borough officials communicated via Zoom and telephone, and kept the town running, tending to the typical matters in atypical ways, and trying to resolve and address the unprecedented needs and challenges that arose from the pandemic and lockdown. First responders did their jobs heroically, even while risking exposure to the virus. And they made sure that children's birthdays and special milestones did not go uncelebrated--at a time when there could not be gatherings--so they drove by, sounding their sirens and saying "Happy Birthday" through their speakers.

Town residents volunteered to help those who were homebound with such things as grocery shopping and other errands. And, of course, teachers, forced to shift gears with little notice, found new ways to keep their students learning and engaged, while parents assisted, often as they juggled their own work responsibilities.

The mayor said that like most people, she looks forward to the gradual return to a life where people could enjoy their favorite activities and go about their work and education. But she prefers that it be done prudently.

She has done outdoor dining with her husband, and said she’s greatly enjoyed it. Children are running around playgrounds again, giggling and enjoying the summer. Adults are walking on the recreation field’s reopened path. Parents are teaching their kids how to throw a curveball. Residents are meeting friends at their favorite dining spots, which have had to get creative, turning parking lots into eating areas.

“When we have meetings in person [again], we’re going to have to do social distancing, and we’ll have to sit spread out,” she said of municipal meetings.

“Little by little, we’re taking baby steps to get to the end line.”

Even amid the trying last several months, the borough continues to take steps towards improving the quality of life and making progress on long-time goals.

Schwager mentioned the dismantling of the Stream House, expected by about the end of the year, and replacing it with a "structure we are proud to show in our community," as she told The Record. She looks forward to having downtown sewers that would then facilitate the beautification of the area. 

“Once the sewers come in then we can really concentrate on beautifying the downtown area, which I’d really like to see.”

One dream she shares is someday having "a river walk between the Great Oak Park and the recreation field, that's my dream."

Mayor Schwager hopes that this time of hardship and sadness will leave enduring lessons about what is important, what perhaps used to be taken for granted.

“It forced us to slow down, we were really in a very fast pace in our society,” she said. “This forced us to stop and breathe the fresh air.”

She notes the price we’ve all had to pay to stay safe, to keep those we love safe.

“It is nice to work from the home, to be on Zoom, but it’s not good not to have all the social interaction,” the mayor said. “That’s what I worry about with the children, they’re not getting the social interaction they need, [they’re] not communicating in person.”

Looking forward, Schwager is optimistic.

“We have to work together, and we’ll move along and we’ll get there” and get to the other, better, side of this difficult time.

“Eventually, there will be, I hope, a vaccine. This will all be past, it’ll be a memory. We’ll all look back and, hopefully, we’ll learn from it.”