Greg McConnell: Is Oakland Worth It?
This guest post was written by Gregory McConnell, President and CEO of the Jobs and Housing Coalition, which represents major businesses in Oakland. Many Oakland...
A better Snow Park
Last night, I attended a community meeting about improvements to Snow Park, 20th Street, Lakeside Drive, and Harrison Street. Where is Snow Park? If you spend a...
How can we improve the area around Lake Merritt BART?
I have been mystified by the wasteland that surrounds the Lake Merritt BART Station since like two days after I moved to Oakland. A friend and I were sitting in...
What criteria should be used to select public art?
You guys know that Oaksterdam University sign painted on the side wall of their building by 17th and Broadway? I think it’s cool. Certainly, it’s an...
One more chance to help keep downtown Oakland from becoming even more blighted
This Wednesday, the Oakland Planning Commission will consider, hopefully for the final time, a proposal to create something called a Temporary Conditional Use Permit...
TCUPs return to Planning Commission
This Wednesday, January 19th, the Oakland Planning Commission will consider a proposal (PDF) to allow for the creation of “temporary” conditional use...
Should a sex shop be allowed in Uptown?
A couple of years ago, I had this short-lived obsession with how Oakland needed a Good Vibrations in Uptown. It started when I read an article somewhere about…well,...
Come party with us on January 6th at Disco Volante!
One of the most frequent questions I get when people talk to me about my blog is whether I actually know all the people who leave comments here. I usually respond...
DTO hosts Oakland Holiday Parade on Saturday!
Tomorrow is one of my favorite downtown events of the whole year — the Oakland Holiday Parade. They claim that 100,000 people come to Oakland to watch the...
Aren’t you sick of eating lunch at Max’s?
I have had the pleasure of working in downtown Oakland for most of the last nine years. During the period where I did not work downtown, I worked at night. Since...
Harrison Street high-rise comes to Planning Commission on Wednesday
While the Victory Court ballpark EIR scoping session is getting all the attention, there are actually some other interesting items on the agenda for Wednesday’s...
Oakland Planning Commission looks at Victory Court
If you follow Oakland political news at all, which, if you’re reading this, you presumably do, you are already aware that the Oakland Planning Commission will...
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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...