oakland chamber of commerce ceo barbara leslie. barbara, thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> it's a big week for you. you guys have your 2025 economic development summit, and ahead of that, you have completed an annual report. what did it set out to understand? who did you survey? >> well, this report specifically is based on economic data. we started the project about ten years ago, because we really believe that good decision making is based on good data, and we wanted to have more of it, and we wanted to use that for our membership. those that are investing in oakland, for those that are making decisions around growing their business, expanding here, as well as a blueprint for our policymakers to use when they're deliberating on their policy decisions and their budgets. >> right. so this was a survey how to how many people and what kind of questions did you ask? >> this this specific one is a data report based on a variety of different data sources. we also do survey research, which we do every fall. and that

. >> barbara leslie is

. >> barbara leslie is the chamber of commerce president. she says this year's report has some sobering revelations, based in part on survey results. perhaps most important of all, the role public safety plays in the city's overall economic well-being. >> the foundation for our economic recovery lies in public safety and by public safety, even drilling down a little bit deeper, we need to rebuild the confidence that our residents need to have. our visitors need to have and our businesses need to have. >> leslie says the chamber believes city policymakers should make public safety the top issue they address. she says without it, creating new businesses and expanding the city's tax base will remain a nearly impossible task. leslie highlighted some statistics from the upcoming report. one specifically showing the majority of oakland residents feel more unsafe now than they have in the past year or so, even though that percentage is dropping. that data also backed up by our abc7 news neighborhood safety tracker, which shows steady decreases in t

. >> barbara leslie is the chamber of commerce president.s this year's report has some sobering revelations, based in part on survey results. perhaps most important of all, the role public safety plays in the city's overall economic well-being. >> the foundation for our economic recovery lies in public safety and by public safety, even drilling down a little bit deeper, we need to rebuild the confidence that our residents need to have. our visitors need to have and our businesses need to have. >> leslie says the chamber believes city policymakers should make public safety the top issue they address. she says without it, creating new businesses and expanding the city's tax base will remain a nearly impossible task. leslie highlighted some statistics from the upcoming report. one specifically showing the majority of oakland residents feel more unsafe now than they have in the past year or so, even though that percentage is dropping. that data, also backed up by our abc7 news neighborhood safety tracker, which shows steady decreases in things l