Thursday: Rebecca Kaplan fundraiser/VP Debate watching party

I’m sure you guys were all already planning on watching Biden and Palin debate on Thursday. You know what’s way more fun than watching stuff by yourself at home? Watching at a party with lots of other people. And that why Becks has taken it upon herself to put together a debate watching party/Rebecca Kaplan fundraiser. Read more

The 8.2 million dollar question

So on Friday, HUD released the allocations for funding from the Housing Rescue Package, and, sadly, Oakland didn’t fare particularly well. Instead of the $30 to $60 million some were expecting, we got a kind of sad $8.2 million. Read more

Mayor’s new budget proposal now available

You can view it here (PDF). I haven’t had a chance to digest the whole thing yet, so I’m going to hold off on commenting until I do, but here’s the basic plan, as outlined in the letter (PDF) the Mayor sent to city staff: Read more

Mark your calendars - Zoning Update meeting next Saturday

So I went to like, the best meeting ever last night. Well, not quite. The meeting actually kind of sucked and I was really bored most of the time. But it was also totally great.

Okay, this isn’t making any sense. Let me start over. Read more

Still waiting to learn about WIA

So, remember back in June when the Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee was supposed to get a report about what goes on with the millions of dollars of we get through the Workforce Investment Act? Read more

Jane Brunner and Nancy Nadel say no to anti-nepotism ordinance

So earlier this summer, Oakland City Council Ignacio De La Fuente introduced an anti-nepotism ordinance (PDF). It first came to the Finance and Management Committee before recess, and it failed to pass onto Council.

A revised ordinance (PDF) came back to the Finance and Management Committee today. Read more

Earthquakes are scary!

Wow! A girl leaves town for a few days and this place goes crazy with comments. In the interest of trying to get caught up with responding to all those, I’m going to keep things short today.

So I something I found myself thinking about last week, for whatever reason, was if I could name one thing that I would like to see the City make their top priority this year, what would it be? Read more

Meaningless gestures in the name of government reform

So I’ve said plenty of times before that I think we need to start talking seriously about charter reform here in Oakland, and I had hoped that over recess, I’d be able to put up a series of posts about the types of changes I’d like to see. Sadly, I lost about 50 pages of notes on the issue when my computer died (back up your hard drives people!) and I haven’t been able to find the time to start putting it all together again.

But when I talk about the need for charter reform, I’m talking about changes that will allow government to operate more efficiently, things like eliminating the prohibition on outsourcing, or measures that would create a better system of checks and balances, so as to improve government accountability. I am not talking about meaningless and condescending gestures like this:

Read more

Rebecca Kaplan and Kerry Hamill at the JLDA forum

So on Monday I attended the Jack London District Association at-large candidate forum with Rebecca Kaplan and Kerry Hammill. Read more

Open Thread, now with announcements

A place to discuss things I haven’t written about. Also, Rebecca Kaplan fundraiser and municipal wifi meetings. Read more

Encinal Tower renderings

As promised, I now have fancy renderings of Encinal Tower to share with you guys, courtesy of the nice people over at SOM. Read more

City Council says no to Ada Chan

Last night, the Oakland City Council rejected Mayor Ron Dellums’s nomination of Ada Chan to fill the seat left vacant by Suzie Lee on the Oakland Planning Commission by a vote of 3-4-1 (Y: Quan, Brunner, Nadel; N: De La Fuente, Kernighan, Reid, Chang; A: Brooks). Lee’s term expired on May 5th. Dellums did not bring a nomination for a replacement Commissioner to the City Council until July 1st (PDF). When it became clear that the Council was unlikely to confirm Ms. Chan that night, the Mayor withdrew the item.

Chan was back on the agenda last night, at the first post-recess Council meeting. Despite having had two and a half months for the Mayor and Ms. Chan to persuade those concerned about her suitability for the position, both declined to make any effort to do so, instead using the time to marshall strident support from union and affordable housing advocacy organizations while shutting out the business community. Read more

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