The controversial movement “Cancel Piedmont” is illuminating the wealth disparity between Oakland and Piedmont and its effect on Oakland schools.
As the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) enters the 2026-2027 school year, they remain $38 million in debt. Oakland schools struggle with decreasing student enrollment, dried-up COVID funds, and teacher retention. These issues personally impact students, from a lack of toilet paper in bathrooms to school closures.
Meanwhile, Piedmont’s towering gates, manicured gardens, and school district remain thriving. Piedmont is one of the wealthiest cities in the Bay Area, with median home value 3.5 times higher than Oakland. These two cities are directly next to each other, yet the difference between them is hard to miss.
“OUSD has this massive debt and Piedmont is doing just fine. What if they did something to try to address that?” asks Jesse Rosemoore, the activist behind the Cancel Piedmont slogan. “But they don’t, because that’s not the way wealth works in this country, and that’s not the way their city works.”
“Cancel Piedmont” is a familiar term to some Oaklanders. The phrase is plastered on the brightly colored stickers and T-shirts that Jesse Rosemoore passed around Lake Merritt. The slogan is less about canceling the city and more about exposing how Piedmont has protected its wealth.
“If we had a world and a government where equity was the goal, we wouldn’t have a city of Piedmont,” says Jesse Rosemore.
Piedmont is the only North American incorporated city completely encircled by another city. Its creation began with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when wealthy families fled to the Oakland hills. When Oakland’s rapidly growing city sought to incorporate the small community, a group of Piedmont artists and businessmen filed an election and became their own city in 1907, keeping their woodland area rural and separate from Oakland’s dense population.
Piedmont has been shaped by exclusion throughout its complicated history. In 1920, a man named Sidney Dearing made a fortune off a popular Jazz bar in Oakland. Since Black people were not allowed to buy houses in Piedmont at the time, he gave money to his white mother-in-law to purchase a house. His family moved in 1924 and faced harassment such as bombing attempts, a 500-person mob, and crosses burned in their yard. Dearing was forced to sell the house because the city planned to build a road on the property. It was never built.
“This is a really dark chapter in Piedmont’s history,” says Echa Schneider, Piedmont’s Communications Officer. Piedmont plans to complete a memorial for the Dearing family this year, bearing the quote, “There are Black people in the future.”
Although some see the memorial as a good way to shed light on Piedmont’s unsettling history, others believe the memorial’s installation is a quick fix to the deeper issue of Piedmont’s racial exclusion.
“It’s this performative nonsense that the city [of] Piedmont is doing,” says Jesse Rosemoore. “Who is that for?”
The two cities look almost nothing alike, whether it’s comparing race or wealth. Piedmont’s high median home value increases the property taxes the homeowners pay to the city, funding its schools, roads, and services. If Piedmont were incorporated into Oakland, their high property taxes would go to Oakland’s organizations. Most residents feel comfortable in their safe city and don’t want to be bothered with helping a struggling neighbor.
| Piedmont | Oakland | |
| Median home value | $2.6M | $722K |
| Median income | More than $205K | $102K |
| Share of white residents | 62% | 28% |
| Credentialed teachers in school district | 98.3% | 57% |
| Socioeconomicly* disadvantaged students | 2% | 81% |
*Students who are eligible for free or reduced price meals, and whose parents/guardians did not receive a high school diploma
Low wages and highly-demanding jobs for teachers in OUSD cause 17% of resignations in the district each year. The abrupt absence of teachers leaves schools scrambling to find replacements, often hiring non-credentialed teachers to fill the classroom.
“You have to deal with families and kids that are in really, really rough circumstances and you have so few resources to do it,” says Jesse Rosemoore on Oakland’s teachers. “Meanwhile, we have this neighborhood where it’s a lot of rich kids that don’t need a lot, but they have all the resources in the world.”
While Piedmont is financially advantaged, the city lacks the resources found in Oakland. Piedmont does not have its own retail district. They utilize Oakland’s libraries, grocery stores, and restaurants. Residents use Oakland’s roads to enter the city, and buses to go to school. Moreover, Piedmont has an aging population, so enrollment in Piedmont Unified School District decreases each year. Fewer students means less district income and a greater reliance on Oakland students to fill classrooms.
“We have extra space in our schools,” Echa explains. “Let’s invite students from other districts who can benefit from the education that’s offered here.”
Piedmont giving education to Oakland students sounds good, but every student who transfers takes funding from OUSD and gives it to Piedmont.
Piedmont is the lens through which one can view exacerbated wealth disparity in an uber-progressive setting. Municipal rich enclaves have formed for many racial, economic, and cultural reasons. Piedmont is not the first wealthy community, and it will not be the last. Though Piedmont’s integration with Oakland is unlikely, both cities must support each other to decrease future wealth disparity.