319 Chester Street, revisited
It took me longer than I planned to get around to this, but I said a while ago that I’d follow up on my post about 319 Chester Street. Better late than never,...
Good on paper, maybe not so much in practice
So. Last weekend, relieved that the elections are finally over, I spent a bunch of time catching up on meetings I hadn’t had time to watch during campaign...
Oakland Mayor debates, past and present
So, on Wednesday night, I went to the “Green Oakland” Mayoral forum sponsored by the Sierra Club and the East Bay Young Democrats. I’ll write...
Ignacio De La Fuente: Balancing the City Budget and My Position on Police Layoffs
Last night, at the first of Oakland’s two scheduled budget readings, the City Council voted to approve a range of recommendations with the goal of balancing the...
Ignacio De La Fuente: No More Delays!
As those who have been following the budget process are aware, I have been extremely vocal about the fact that the longer we put off balancing the budget the larger...
Council gets it backwards on new parking meters, should go learn from Shoup tonight
Do you guys remember all that noise about parking meters this summer and fall? Of course you do. How could you possibly forget. Aside from the fact we have a lot...
Ignacio De La Fuente: Join me in demanding real solutions to Oakland’s financial crisis
Since the outset of the current financial crisis, I have encouraged the residents in District 5 and my supporters throughout the city to participate in the Budget...
League of Women Voters: What is Records Management – and Why Should You Care About it?
Records management is the practice of maintaining the records of an organization — in this case, the City of Oakland — from the time they are created up to their...
Making sure this never happens again
Tonight, after almost two months of discussion, the Oakland City Council will finally adopt a budget that closes our $83 million General Fund deficit. Mostly, discussion...
Oakland Councilmembers offer changes to Mayor’s budget proposal
So do you guys remember how in the budget (PDF) the Mayor proposed, we were going to save $24 million a year from the General Fund by just not paying into our internal...
What are the core functions of a city?
Sitting around fighting about whether the police are paid too much (they are) and if they care about Oakland and its residents (they do) is not productive. Let’s...
Another chapter in the saga of the Kaiser Convention Center
And just like in the last one, nothing happens.
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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...