Loading “Oakland homicides drop by three in 2008 - Inside Bay Area”

More at The Oakland TribuneFrom the Trib: "OAKLAND — Barring any deadly New Year's Eve revelry, Oakland is poised to finish with 124 homicides in 2008, three fewer than the 127 recorded in 2007.
Regarding numbers, it is not much of a change. But in a city where homicides seem to get more public interest than other crimes and in a city looking for any kind of good news when it comes to crime, it was reason for optimism.
"I'm the eternal optimist," Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said Wednesday. "Three less is better than three more. But we are not satisfied with that, and we will work harder to get those numbers down to double-digit reductions."
There were eight homicides in December, six fewer than in December 2007. One of the eight was a man who died from a beating in April. Another was a determination through new evidence that what had been considered an accidental killing in July was actually a homicide."

ACote Oakland - Crazy New Year's Eve 2008 Video

This video by YoutTuber rebeccabelin1 was created at ACote restaurant in Oakland on College Avenue New Year's Eve. It's just people -- hey, no one of color? -- saying some funny things. The camera holder says she looks like a Transvestite. A man says that the Flip Video camera she is using -- I use one -- looks like a cream sickle. I must agree.

The only misgiving I have about this fun time is that all of the people in the video are, well, White. And I wonder what goes on where some folks in Oakland don't have racially diverse friendship bases.

Undoubtely the person would say they have friends of color, but are they more acquaintances than friends? Friends are people you invite to join you at events like that one. They're the people you make a call to, not just see on the street.

I hope the folks in the video make a concerted effort to have a friendship base that's racially diverse in the future. That's the real strength of Oakland, or at least it was. My fear is that Oakland's going to degenerate into just another racially divided urban place.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger In "Ahnuld for Governor"

This is another great "JibJab" video, this one on our California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. As JibJab put it:

"This funny video has Arnold Schwarzenegger going after the governor's office, and he won't take no for an answer. Part political satire, part action movie block buster, all hilarious. Hasta La Vista, Davis!"

It's a funny retrospective as we head toward the 2010 race for California Governor, one that's paced by California Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.