Adriana ValenciaAdriana Valencia

A longtime YIMBY, Valencia is an everyday rider on the AC Transit system. Her consistent advocacy over the years portends a vigorous role in delivering better service and a greater rider focus going forward.

Adriana Valencia brings an infectious energy and user-centered perspective to the AC Transit Board. An Oakland resident of nearly 30 years and lifelong transit user, she pairs deep passion for rider advocacy with a product management background. Her understanding of root-cause analysis, system interdependencies, and complex stakeholder alignment is a helpful skillset to fix canceled routes, streamline interagency transfers, and build a dependable bus network.

Her focus on transparency and accountability is demonstrated by her public-interest lawsuit against AC Transit over Brown Act violations following a closed-door $500,000 executive payout.

You might hear:

“Joel Young has 17 years of board experience and leads a national transit group. Adriana Valencia has not held elected office.”

Tenure and national leadership do not replace responsive local oversight. Valencia will face a learning curve typical for a first-time local official. However, we believe she is the better choice to bring accountability, transparency, and operational focus to AC Transit.

Source (https://www.empoweroakland.com/voter-guide#ac-transit-w3)

A founding member of East Bay for Everyone, Valencia is an everyday rider on the AC Transit system. Centering her campaign on the rider experience, Adriana calls out three focus areas of Reliability, Affordability and Accountability. She sees good governance as a requisite element of any progress at the agency, even throwing herself into the fray by filing suit against the District over the half-million dollar sweetheart deal engineered by her opponent, Joel Young, to outgoing GM Michael Hursh at the end of 2024. Her consistent advocacy over the years portends a vigorous role in delivering better service and a greater rider focus going forward. Adriana has earned the endorsement of the Alameda County Democratic Party, and disparate groups from Empower Oakland to Our Revolution, and elected officials Buffy Wicks, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Lena Tam, Zac Unger, and current and former transit officials Rebecca Salzman, Jean Walsh, Sarh Syed, along with many transit advocates.