Sam Gondelman loves Oakland and wants to help make it even better.

A resident of the Bay Area for the past decade, Sam lives in the Longfellow neighborhood with his wife, Alaina, their two cats, Mango and Blueberry, and a constantly rotating collection of foster kittens.

After growing up in Washington, DC and attending Brown University to study Engineering and Computer Science, Sam moved to the Bay Area to continue his mission of building tools to help people. In his career, Sam has helped empower small businesses with technology that is normally out of reach.

When they met, Alaina was living in Longfellow and their early dates entailed exploring Oakland. They now live just blocks from Alaina's old apartment and spend their days working together and walking through Temescal, Rockridge, and the rest of Oakland. They were recently married just a few hours from the Bay, underneath the redwood trees.

Together, they have fostered more than 50 kittens (and counting!) from Oakland Animal Services.

A lifelong progressive, Sam believes that our leaders have failed us. Every homeless neighbor is a policy choice. Every shuttered storefront and unfilled pothole is a dereliction of duty by our elected officials. Sam is dedicated to fixing these problems, and with your help, he will.