I can’t walk in the Oakland mayor’s shoes.

Bought at SoleSpace, the hip shoe retailer with stores on Telegraph and Grand avenues, Libby Schaaf’s pumps are rubber with a chunky heel.

They match her black-and-white plaid suit made by Lesley Evers, the Oakland designer whose eponymous flagship store is on College Avenue in Rockridge. Schaaf’s black coat was purchased at Urban Stitch Boutique, a sun-splashed second-floor shop that overlooks Broadway.

It’s an impeccable ensemble for Plaid Friday, Oakland’s adaptation of Black Friday, the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Schaaf does what she wants others to do: spend money at local small businesses. Her Visa card flashes as often as her smile as we walk through downtown.

“Isn’t that Libby Schaaf?” a man yells out of the window of a car. “Libby Schaaf, we love you.”

It’s been two years since Schaaf was elected, and she carries Oakland on her shoulders — in the clothing and accessories she buys and wears. I’m not the Grinch, but on one of the easiest days of her tenure, I want to talk about some of her hardest.

Like the bizarre nine days in June when the Oakland Police Department went through three chiefs. That month Schaaf also had to reveal that the department, already ensnared in scandals involving officers and a sexually exploited teenager, was investigating racist text messages and emails shared among officers.

The Police Department, which remains under federal oversight, is now under civilian control, reporting to City Manager Sabrina Landreth. While the Raiders, housing affordability, infrastructure improvements and homelessness are at the top of Schaaf’s list of mountains to climb, finding a police chief who can improve community race relations and stabilize a department that shows signs of racial disparities in law enforcement is arguably the most important.

Oakland remains on schedule to announce a new police chief early next year. A total of 31 people applied, most of them from outside the Bay Area. Two community members, who have not been determined, will sit on the selection panel.

“I am really excited about the caliber of candidates that we have to choose from,” Schaaf tells me at Farley’s East, the Grand Avenue coffee shop. Outside, she scoops a coffee lid from the sidewalk and dunks it into a trash bin.

Schaaf knows the success of the next police chief will go a long way toward persuading Oaklanders to continue investing in her administration — and the city.

“My whole life, people have viewed this city as a place that is not safe,” Schaaf says. “And families have felt like this is a place where their children are not safe, and that’s wrong. And that has always been one of my highest priorities when I came to this job — to try and create a place where every family feels safe.

“And obviously police are not the only factor in creating safety, but they’re a very critical one. What happened over the summer was just a complete setback, a disruption to what had been some really good progress.”

She points to the stop data, which confirmed what many already knew: Oakland police stop blacks and other people of color more often than they do whites.

“We’ve opened ourselves up to a lot of criticism, much of it warranted,” Schaaf says. “But it’s that honesty about what is going on that is the first step to changing it. And I felt like we were making tremendous progress, and (the turnover at the top) just derailed all that momentum.”

Schaaf’s shopping tour includes Oaklandish, the Hieroglyphics tent outside of Oaklandish and the concept shop Show & Tell. Her haul includes underwear for an office gag gift and soap.

“If you’re going to buy something, it’s so much more enjoyable that you’re not just buying a thing, but you’re also buying a story,” Schaaf says to me at Kosa Arts, a store and gallery on 19th Street. “And you know the person who made it.”

Soon, we’re at Calavera, a restaurant that serves Mexico-inspired food, a business that had windows shattered earlier this month in post-election protests. Some small-business owners I’ve spoken with are bracing for more after the president-elect’s inauguration.

Schaaf’s administration has taken heat for cracking down on protests. She tried to ban marching at night without a permit, which, of course, sparked a night protest. And last week the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area held a news conference at Oakland City Hall to complain about the police brutality during this month’s protests.

Interviews with police-chief candidates are already being scheduled, Schaaf says. Drinks arrive at the table.

Cheers for good luck.

Otis R. Taylor Jr. is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist whose column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr