Two Guys Fighting At Gaylords On 41st and Piedmont Tonight - 10:30 PM

Ok, so I'm sitting here at Gaylord's working on my computer when a Asian guy who's obviously without a home walks in to the establishment's door and takes a right turn, but before he can do anything this super-skinny, two day-old stuble (no mustasche) white guy with a painter's cap and a blue shirt-not-tucked-in and jeans and a face not unlike that of "Chucky" just gets up from his table, and angrily points at the man saying "You're coming in here asking for money."

As he says this for me everything seemed to just slow down, as I was wondering if I should move now to protect my computer. So, the homeless guy picks up a chair and the painter cap guy picks up one and they kind of go at it in a weird way. Then some other patron -- a white man in a brown leather jacket with short hair -- rushes in and tries to subdue the Painter's Cap guy and ends up pushing him to the ground of the cafe.

While this goes on I and others moved away and I called 911 for the police. But as the government would have it, all I got was "All receptionists are busy," or words to that effect -- twice. Plus, there was no beat officer around -- unlike the old days of Oakland community policing.

Finally, the Painter's Cap guy calms down as the homeless guy makes his way down the street.

As far as I'm concerned, the Painter's Cap guy was at fault big time. He didn't need to do that at all. Moreover, he walked in about an hour earlier, sat down and grabbed a magazine which he was only half-reading. So my quick impression was that this guy had nothing better to do at 10 PM on a Sunday -- and had a an axe to grind on top of it.

This guy's a piece of work. He seems to be looking for trouble. He's also good at finding it.

As for me, the computer's fine and I managed to dodge the flying coffee.

Measure "B" Wins! Oakland Once Again Supports Needed Bond Issue - Oakland Tribune

I've never missed an election since I was old enough to vote and attending Skyline High School. And in all those years, I can only recall once -- I think 1998, but I'm not sure -- when Oakland voters rejected a bond issue. This time was not one of them.

Bond victory thrills Oakland schools
Administrators are eager to fix infrastructure, but proposition's opponents fear lack of oversight

By Grace Rauh, STAFF WRITER - Oakland Tribune

OAKLAND — Caroline Yee can hardly contain her excitement about Measure B, the $435 million Oakland school district bond that snagged 77 percent of unofficial votes in Tuesday's election, far more than the 55 percent required to approve it.

The principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Oakland's Chinatown is thrilled, elated and delighted, she said, letting the adjectives trip over each other Wednesday.

"No kid deserves to be in a portable (classroom) with broken window shades, poor ventilation, crowded over," she said, referring to the packed classrooms on her campus. "There aren't enough room for the bodies."

Lincoln is one of the first schools in line to access the bond money, earmarked to replace dilapidated classrooms, renovate restrooms and fund other improvements at schools attended by Oakland's 42,000 students.

Measure B taxes property owners an estimated $38 to $48 for every $100,000of assessed property value and is the largest Oakland schools bond ever approved by voters. Oakland voters passed the $303 million Measure A school bond in 2000 and the $169 million Measure C bond in 1994.

Property owners here already pay $195 per year to fund smaller classes and music, art and library programs.
Yee is hopeful the new bond will pay for an extra room at Lincoln for student events and assemblies, and replace the school's crumbling classrooms with newer buildings. Each year her student body grows, and she struggles to fit the children into the limited space on campus.

"We have 11 portables that predate, I don't know what, I think the'50s or around the'40s," she said. "I feel we've been neglected."

Her sentiments were shared by others Wednesday who are pleased long-overdue renovations may now receive the attention they deserve thanks to the funding influx. But proposition opponents, who argued voters should not approve a new tax when the Oakland school board has no governing power, continue to worry there will be no spending oversight.

In 2003, the state began running the Oakland schools, appointing Randolph Ward to head the debt-ridden district. The school board was stripped of its authority and now acts as an advisory body.

"The concerns are there are absolutely no controls on how Randy Ward spends the money," said Bob Mandel, an Oakland teacher and member of the teachers union executive board, who did not support the union's endorsement of the bond measure. "There are no controls on priorities. He sets them."

Oakland voters also elected a new school board member Tuesday. Oakland middle school teacher Chris Dobbins garnered 52.2 percent of unofficial votes for the District 6 seat encompassing the East Oakland hills to the shore, beating out parent activist Wandra Boyd for the post vacated by member Dan Siegel, who is stepping down after eight years.

School board President David Kakishiba and board member Gary Yee ran unopposed for re-election.

Tim White, Oakland school district's facilities director, said he thinks the bond money will begin reaching the district in September or October. The district will spend it on projects already listed on its master plan, which includes nearly $1 billion in facilities needs, he said.

"Obviously, everything is subject to some change and adjustment, but it's definitely all restricted to what's in that master plan," he said.

"The big picture is that it allows us to continue the process of improving our schools."

Oakland Has A New Mayor - Ron Dellums - Oakland Tribune

On Friday, Oakland Council President Ignacio De La Fuente called Ron Dellums to congradulate him after learning that 50.18 percent of voting Oaklanders chose him as the next Mayor of Oakland. Here's the full Oakland Tribune report:

Mayor race ends with concession
De La Fuente calls to congratulate Dellums, pledges 'to continue working very hard

By Heather MacDonald, STAFF WRITER - OAKLAND TRIBUNE

OAKLAND — Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente called former U.S. Rep. Ron Dellums on Saturday morning to concede the hard-fought race to become Oakland's next mayor.

During a brief afternoon news conference at his Fruitvale home, De La Fuente said he congratulated Dellums and pledged to work with him as mayor of Oakland.

"I will continue working very hard on those issues that got me into this mayor's race," De La Fuente said. Standing on his back porch, flanked by aides as well as his wife and daughter, he did not take questions.

Mike Healy, a spokesman for Dellums, said the phone call between the two former rivals was pleasant. Dellums thought De La Fuente was gracious, Healy said.

Dellums plans to hold a news conference Monday morning;

De La Fuente scheduled one for Monday evening and said he would discuss his future plans in detail then. The election of Dellums, who left Congress in 1998 after 27 years representing the East Bay and worked as a lobbyist, represents a sea change in Oakland politics.

Dellums' margin of outright victory could hardly have been slimmer — just 153 votes separated him from facing De La Fuente in a Nov. 7 run off.

Overall, however, it was not close. Dellums got 50.18 percent of the 83,675 votes cast for mayor of Oakland while De La Fuente collected 32.99 percent, or 27,607 votes.

On Friday, elections workers finished counting 3,428 provisional ballots just before 11 p.m. As the last ballot was processed, a huge cheer erupted from the workers, who have been tallying ballots practically around the clock since June 6.

There may be a handful of damaged or mismarked ballots left to count, but not enough to change the result, said Acting Registrar of Voters Dave Macdonald. The deadline for the election to be certified is July 4.

Councilmember Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland), who saw her progressive base and many of her ideas swallowed by Dellums' entry into the race, was third with 13.06 percent.

Businessman and former Oakland Police Officer Ron "Oz" Oznowicz won 2.18 percent of the vote, housing developer Arnie Fields got 1.02 percent and perennial candidate Hector "Reno" Reyna was last with 0.41 percent.

The results had been delayed by Alameda County's switch from electronic voting to paper ballots and a shortage of optical scanners to tally the votes, officials said.

Two Oakland races will be decided by a November runoff: city auditor and the Grand Lake-Chinatown seat on the City Council.

In his bid for a third term, City Auditor Roland Smith will face Courtney Ruby, chief financial officer of the East Bay Conservation Corps.

Councilmember Patricia Kernighan, who won the Grand Lake-Chinatown seat on the council in a special election last year, will face Aimee Allison, a businesswoman and member of the Green Party. While Kernighan supported De La Fuente for mayor, Allison backed Dellums.

Desley Brooks, the only council member to support Dellums, won re-election to the Eastmont-Seminary seat outright, defeating two challengers.

Dellums and De La Fuente, who represents the city's Glenview-Fruitvale district, presented starkly different plans for Oakland. While Dellums dazzled crowds with a sweeping vision of Oakland as a model city, determined to confront the problems that has bedeviled it for decades, De La Fuente promised to deliver on the basics of city government and to encourage private investment.

Until Dellums entered the race, it was shaping up to be a somewhat sleepy contest between De La Fuente, who launched his campaign in 2004, and Nadel, longtime opponents on the council.

De La Fuente appeared to have all of his ducks in a row — the endorsement of Mayor Jerry Brown, who is being forced from office by term limits, and a majority of council members, among others. De La Fuente's campaign coffers were flush with the support of Oakland business and development communities, who looked to him to continue Brown's development-friendly legacy.

But then a petition drive that garnered 8,000 signatures spurred Dellums, who has long been a progressive icon, to enter the race. Although his platform was criticized as too broad to be implemented in a city as complex as Oakland, his supporters said they were inspired by his call to take action and become involved in civic life.

And just like Brown did eight years ago, Dellums used his vision of Oakland to defeat De La Fuente and win the mayor's office, writing another chapter in his storied political life.

Dellums will be inaugurated Jan. 1, 2007.

"Easy" - Controversy Uncovers A Desire To "Explain Away" Race Problems

After I posted my problem in the way I was treated by a staffer at "Easy" I received a number of responses, most sympathetic, then some just plain pathetic.

The ones in the "pathetic" category seemed to run a consistent thread of wanting to explain away the staffers behavior when the writer wasn't even at Easy at the time of the incident -- let alone at all. It's this desire to avoid adressing a problem that keeps us as a society from making sure such scenarios don't happen again. I must also report that no one African American wrote to disagree.

The main point is that if a person explains that something in the way they were treated was racist, don't try to explain it away if you were not there to witness it. Remember there are really a limited number of ways one can treat someone else: mean or nice. The reasons this is done vary from person to person. Thus one can be mean to someone for reasons of racial difference and express the same behavior to someone else for a different set of reasons.

This is what must be understood: racism is a form of rejection. If one who is black is being excluded or singled out as "bad" and for no reason attached to their actions, but for their simple existence in a place or establishment, and they're a racial minoity in that setting, it's only logical to assume the problem is tied to racial prejudice.

That explains thousands of encounters African Americans, or those who are dark-skined, experience every day. It could be someone at BART who walks past a black person to ask somone white standing next to them for information on the next train. Or it could be scores of people who are not black walking past a black person sitting at a bench waiting on a train and only to sit at the next bench -- and more often than not where somone who's either white or not black is sitting.

This problem is pervasive, and must be stopped as it's borne of racial anxieties that should not exist. Remember the definition of "anxiety" is a fear that in reality will never happen but the person believes will occur.

If in reading this, you think people don't behave this way, just look around. For example, I was in North Beach with friends on the Saturday before the date of this post, when others -- white and English by accent and not known by me -- asked me if I was happy Ghana won.

"What?" Was my reply.

See, they assumed that because I'm black I was from Ghana and therefore knew about that country's World Cup win. I didn't know a thing. Remember, this was because I'm black. That's like me assuming that someone knew about the match between Germany and Poland because they were white.

Geez, man.

It's a primitive way of thinking and arguably a kind of mental illness that must be treated.

"Easy" - Owner Appologies For Employee's Behavior

I received this email from a person who identified himself as one of the owners of "Easy" and regarding the problem I blogged about. I removed his name and contact information to protect his privacy. As an FYI, I had not contacted the establishment, so I can only determine that the blog post was so widely read, it was passed to him.

Hello!

I am one of the owners at Easy, and I'm really disappointed to hear that you feel that you were not treated with respect at our new establishment.

With that all said, a couple of points (not in any particular order of importance):

1) All of the owners (4 in total), myself included, were present at the time of the incident. While I personally heard third-hand of what happened after close, had an owner actually been approached about the matter we most certainly would have sat down with you to resolve it amicably.

2) We do indeed have a number of black male staffers.

3) A large portion of my wife's family is African American, including my favorite niece who was at the opening party. Had I been first-party to any racist action by ANYONE, patron or staff, they would be fired and/or removed from the premises immediately.

4) Please understand that this was our opening party, and we were all extremely nervous and on edge, not knowing anything about our turnout or our ability to service our clientele.

The employee in question's behavior seems, on a gut level, to me to be a result of this nervousness about opening night, and not inherent racism. That said, I will keep a close watch on his, and any other staffers relations with those of all races.

Again, I'm sincerely sorry for the treatment and I hope that this note clears the issue up.

Feel free to contact me directly at Number witheld by Zennie to discuss this in further detail. Perhaps you can come over for a glass of wine on the house!

Sincerely,

Name witheld by Zennie

My reply:

Greetings,.

Thank you very much for this email, as I was completely disturbed by the employee's behavior. To stand innocently waiting to close out your bill, and then suddenly find a person yelling blindly at you for no reason is hard to forget. The only reason I assumed race was because his behavior was without logic, merit, or obvious reason. That seemed to be the only issue; I don't know the person and he seemed to think it was ok to treat me in a way that was unprofessional.

I may take you up on your offer at some point in the near future. In the interim, I will post your email -- after editing your name and number to protect your privacy.

Thank you.