Oakland mayor jean quan reflects on tough year

In her first year in office, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan lost two top aides, watched a well-regarded police chief resign, saw a parcel tax she had pushed get crushed at the ballot box and became the subject of two recall campaigns. And much of that was even before the city’s Oct. 25 raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment, a violent clash between police and protesters on the City Hall lawn that made Quan a national lightning rod for criticism, particularly after she allowed the protesters to re-establish their camp the next day. “It was very tough,” Quan said of her first year, in an interview this week. The beginning of 2011 held promise. Quan had history on her side as the first Asian American and first female mayor of Oakland. The workaholic Quan also was highly visible, in contrast to the notoriously absent previous mayor, Ron Dellums. “She was showing up for work and she was attending to her duties,” said Randy Shandobil, a media consultant who was a longtime political reporter for KTVU television. “By comparison to Ron Dellums, that seemed great. At first, I thought she was going to do just fine if for no other reason than that she had a low bar. ” But, Shandobil added, “It went from honeymoon to divorce papers within a matter of months. You clearly have to be making a lot of mistakes for that to happen.” (Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com …