Merry Christmas!
This blog will continue hiatus through January 1st. Until January 7th. (Might as well make it an even month off.) Have a great holiday, everyone. More Oakland...
Dr. No takes over Community and Economic Development Agency
Well, this is sad, although not at all surprising. Regular readers may have noticed a lack of posts recently. I’m busy with other things at the moment, so...
Billboards, again
I appreciate all the responses to my question about billboards. Honestly, I don’t really have strong feelings about billboards one way or the other, but if...
Stupid and stupider
Sometimes I think I’d be a lot happier if I just stopped reading the newspaper altogether.
Oakbook magazine launch party tonight!
So Novometro’s print magazine, Oakbook, is finally out and I’ve got to say it looks totally fabulous. The magazine is free, so when you see it around...
Ignacio De La Fuente announces Fruitvale Safety Initiative
So it’s about time (PDF!) that someone tried to do something about the increasing safety problems in Fruitvale: Oakland City Council President and District...
Can somebody explain this to me?
Why do people hate billboards so much? I feel like I must be missing something, because I just don’t get it. Who cares if there’s a billboard on the...
Save the planet without making yourself even mildly uncomfortable!
So the East Bay Express this week was all about global warming. If you missed it, you can read the stories here, here, here, here, and here. And overall it was interesting....
Meaningful citizen input
So if you ever attend or watch Oakland City Council or Committee meetings, a complaint you’ll hear nearly every week is that the Council is disrespectful to...
Why is Oakland selling our police officers to outside agencies?
So around 10 PM Saturday night, I happened to be sitting in a local bar, enjoying a glass of bourbon and a lovely conversation, when two of Oakland’s finest...
Outside Oakand
Nothing’s inspiring me today, either in the news or at the Council. (Concerned citizens may want to check out the emergency meeting of the Measure Y Oversight...
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Newest Comments
- len raphael: Unconfirmed that MJQ laid off 100 employees today, blaming RDA court case. How much did she and the CC waste in legal fees betting against Jerry’s lawyers?
- ralph: No, Livegreen, Occupy Oakland is doing plenty good. They are the poster children for the new, “This is Your Brain on Dope” Campaign.
- Livegreen: They seem to b determined to shut down Oakland and little else. They’ve forgotten Wall St. I can’t help but think the Officers who were preventing them from breaking in to City Hall could have spent...
- gregory mcconnell: The Occupest disrupted City Hall today. They managed to make it difficult, but not impossible, to go into City Hall. They demanded that people who accosted cops on Wednesday should be released. I was out...
- livegreen: I watched the M-Y mtg last night, & it was painful. Jose is a nice guy, but he has difficulty running a meeting that gets anything done. They debated for about 1 hour whether they should discuss recommendations...
- len raphael: The murder of 5 year old Gabriel Martinez. Got a call from an acquaintance who lives in East O and often gets supper at his family’s taco stand. She asked where she can sign up to help on the recall.
- Ravi: I’m sure that all of those Quan diehards (“a recall would be a waste of time and too expensive”) are very gratified that this lovely and deserving woman is having such a good time. No doubt they prefer...
- len raphael: JQ “”I’m actually having a lot of fun,” she said after rehashing many of the lower moments from her first year in office.” “http://www.insidebayare a.com/news/ci_19651889R...
- Ravi: And regarding police reform and the crime thing, Judge Henderson could decide to put OPD under Federal jurisdiction because the terms of the NSA haven’t been fulfilled by the City Administration. Those folks in City...
- len raphael: Harbinger of things to come to the City Council when they eventually have to make similar decisions. But they won’t. The Fed bankruptcy judge will do it for them.
- livegreen: Yeah, but OUSD has to do something. There are way too many schools for the school population. There’s simply no choice. At least they’re willing to make the tough decisions. Unlike the City of...
- len raphael: Are those school board recalls entirely over the school closing decisions? Different groups or one umbrella?
- Ravi: Two recall petitions for Quan; five recall petitions for five school board members.
- len raphael: City says there are now 7 concurrent recall petitions. Not clear how many are for Quan and how many for Council Members. Direct democracy at work.
- Ravi: Can the Oakland City Council lead? Nope, nor can the Mayor. It’s up to the citizens, who are deeply divided and have been for a very long time.
- len raphael: Oakland Local is the only on or offline general circulation media that shows understanding of the depths of our fiscal situation and understands that it’s causes precede the real estate crash. One of these...
- Mkilian: Related to the Cal Supremes haircut to Oakland with respect to RDA and the immediate need for a “fiscal operations plan” is another issue put forth in Oakland’s internet newspaper, Oakland Local, is...