Why would an organization openly court the Oakland Raiders to move to Los Angeles, work to buy a portion of the team at a cut-rate price (something that Colts Owner Jim Irsay has threatened to block), and yet turn around and even think to ask to replace SMG (Spectacor Management Group) as manager of the Oakland Coliseum? A one-word-answer: power. And its that interest in power that would wreck the Oakland Coliseum for the foreseeable future.
Right now, the Oakland Coliseum, and the City of Oakland, is under a wave of negative sports industry PR not of its own making. The Oakland A's were making noise about leaving for San Jose. The Golden State Warriors have made noise about wanting a new stadium in San Francisco. And Oakland Raiders Owner Marc Davis recently made comments pointing to a possible move to Los Angeles.
[caption id="attachment_15107" align="alignleft" width="232" caption="Phil Anschutz Of AEG"]
[/caption]All of this points to the scenario of a sports-tenant-less Oakland Coliseum within the next 14 years, and yet the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority would even dare consider giving the keys to the stadium to one of its executioners: AEG.
Crazy.
And on top of that, why would the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority even consider letting a firm ran by Philip Anschutz, a man who's considered as ultra-right-wing giver of millions to Republicans and is opposed to gay rights, and maintains a base in Denver, home of the hated Denver Broncos, rather than continue a relationship with SMG, which maintains an apolitical face? Even allowing the idea that such a scenario as AEG running the Oakland Coliseum could happen is shocking to this blogger.
But that's a digression: the bottom line is AEG should be, and must be, booted from any talk of managing the Oakland Coliseum, and as soon as possible.
Stay tuned.
In an action that comes as no surprise to anyone, an Ecuador appeals court confirmed the decision by Ecuador to award an $18 billion damage award to Ecuador. Ecuador's court, long accused of bribery and beset with scandal, would not dream of going against the wishes of that country's President Rafael Correa.
Consider that President Rafael Correa recently sued a popular local newspaper and its columnists and editors for $80 million, as I explain in this video, when the cost was just $10 million....
...then took the "pledge" (if you will because those news guys don't have $80 million in their pockets) and attached it to the $116 million that he said would stop Ecuador from drilling in the Yasuni park region.
And Correa has allowed his state-run oil company Petroecuador to continue oil drilling and environmental damage, and to the point where it and other foreign oil companies have committed over 100 oil spills since Chevron left the country in 1992.
Steven Donziger Keeps Pushing
And who's pushing this fraudulent lawsuit? Plaintiffs' lead U.S. lawyer Steven Donziger, and even with evidence that he knew the lawsuit he filed was based on "smoke and mirrors," and "bullshit" as he said in this video:
The simple fact that Donziger was caught on video saying this means Chevron should not give a dime to either Ecuador or Donziger, who has openly stated that he would become a billionaire from this. See:
Stay tuned.
[caption id="attachment_14777" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sanjiv Handa"]
[/caption]Sanjiv Handa, RP? Still can't believe it. It's a good idea to blog to get out of my head the idea that in my reality Sanjiv Handa, Oakland's Gargoyle - head of the East Bay News Service, expert on Oakland Government, gossip about Oakland's elected officials, and source of intel on the next local government party - is putting together his next newsletter, all set to tell us the whole matter was all a mistake, he's just fine, and that the effort to recall Mayor Quan was going slow because of disorganization and lack of money (which is true).
But what's true is that Sanjiv is gone from our physical presence. I've never used the term "gadfly" because I never saw Sanjiv as an irritant, and I have little respect for those who describe him that way anyway. Why? Because some of those same people either wrote about or knew about a really mean and stupid email that was circulated about him at City Hall in 2010 and that caused me to write this blog post called "Sanjiv Handa – the sad attack on an Oakland institution." And I wrote:
Someone wrote a terrible email about him that I decided to ignore. I hope the people within Oakland City Hall rise to a higher standard and stop being so childish where Sanjiv Handa is concerned. For all of his faults, the man cares about Oakland.
When I say "I decided to ignore," I mean that in total. I never saw it, and don't know who wrote it to this day. I was told about it by someone who didn't write. But the anger that I expressed then, I find, is still fresh in me today, after Sanjiv's passing. Oakland, well, some in Oakland, can really do some fucked up shit to other Oaklanders for no good reason. It speaks to how small minded those people were and are that the person who did it never stepped forward to apologize.
But it's people who are like that, and who constantly use the term "gadfly" to describe Sanjiv that make other people want to leave Oakland and say "screw you with your loser self," then get their face on TV as of to remind Oakland of how good they were at what they did.
And here I'm thinking of former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb, but I digress.
If there's anything, or anyway, I'd like for people to do to remember Sanjiv Handa, it's not to be as informed about Oakland as he was, but to actually STOP ATTACKING PEOPLE WHO ZEALOUSLY CARE ABOUT OAKLAND!!
Got that? Hear that? If so, then DO that.
Oaklanders must stop the silly, stupid, incessant hating on each other for no good reason. (And the Oakland Tribune article slamming Sanjiv for not being a journalist with "He called himself a journalist but crossed the line of traditional journalism ethics," almost made me cry. Who, in their right mind, gives a fuck when a man has died? Moreover, why put, in the same article, that he had problems paying his rent?) This city, now, more than ever, needs everyone to pull together to help push it up.
See, you have to understand that after friend, mentor, and former Alameda County Counsel Richard Winnie died earlier this year, I stood in the Rotunda after the ceremony, talking with Sanjiv about how our little family of people who cared about Oakland was passing away, moving on. Really sad. Really sad.
Ok, my anger's out and on the page. It's not in me any more. Now, I can remember this Sanjiv that I talked to just one day after the Occupy Oakland police / protestor clash:
The one who understood the real details behind what was going on, and the interpersonal relationships that led to clashes, and the one who remembered that Oakland's City Hall had 40,000 condoms in it.
Only Sanjiv would remember that.
Always here, never to be forgotten.
Stay tuned.
