Oakland Laying Off Almost 100 People

The City of Oakland is laying people off.

This sad news comes from the Oakland Tribune and will take place this week in the wake of the massive City of Oakland budget shortfall projected to go to as much as $100 million.

The departments impacted include Parks and Recreation, finance, human services and others. In total the Mayor's budget calls for 250 people to be let go.

Downtown Oakland's Massive Thursday Party

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget!



To say that Steve Snider - my friend known for the revival of the downtown Oakland party scene and who served on the Mayor's Sports and Entertainment Task Force, and is now part of the Uptown District team that's behind this party to take place tommorrow - gets involved with anything small would be a joke.

While "Oakland Uptown Unveiled" isn't the largest event ever held in downtown Oakland, it's certainly the biggest one for the Uptown. This area, which just five years ago was still considered a place not to be for any but the most experienced Oaklanders, has taken off.

Where the Broadway / Grand development is today was once the home of a sleepy rental car establishment. Luka's across the street was the long time location of "The Hof Brau" where old-timers spent a day talking with friends and eating large meals. Another Oakland of another time.

Now, the area has a number of great and popular restaurants, from Flora to Pican and the Franklin Square Wine Bar. It's also the focus of "Art Murmur" which features Oakland art galleries in an open studios tour that takes place at the beginning of each month.

Oakland Uptown Unveiled consists of six blocks of 15 bands on three stages: The Uptown Stage, The Fox Stage, and The Van Kleef stage, named after Oakland Legend Peter Van Kleef. Some of the bands set to play include John Santos, The Kev Choice Ensemble, Miko Marks and Damon & The Heathens. (I've seen Damon & The Heathens and they have a cool sound, not to be missed.)

Also the Fox Theater will be open so you can take a look around the facility. If you want a preview, here's my video from the opening gala:



This video was created during a media event at Pican; it opens with my explanation of what's happening around the Uptown:



This should be a great event; wish it were on the weekend as I return from Georgia, but that happens. Really, it should be two days and not just one Thursday, but it's a great start.

For more information, visit the website MeetDowntownOAK.com

Oakland Women Brag to KMEL About Beating! From SFist

This is classic from the blog SFist:

After taking turns brutally beating Seals at her Oakland salon and videotaping the entire thing, because Seals' ex-boyfriend allegedly asked them to do so, the two mental giants went on-air and had the following conversation. Ahem:

Sana G (KMEL DJ): "Which one was the one doing the karate kicks to the face? Was that you?"

Caller #1: "Right here, this my sister."

Caller #2: "... that was me, man. That b---- deserved everything they got, that she got. And if you would have been there and on the situation, you would have respected it."

WHAT???? One more example why we live in scary times.

Christopher Rodriguez 12- Year Old Forgives Jared Adams, Who's Stray Bullet Shot Him

I remember when this happened because Rodriquez, then 10-years old, was not far from the car wash on Pleasant Valley and 51st near Piedmont Avenue on the Saturday this happened. The whole neighborhood was buzzing about it.

Now, he's forgiven Adams, which shows a lot of strength for anyone, and he's paralyzed from the accident.

Digital Britain? How about Digital Oakland?

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget!



On YouTube.com

The Twitterverse is abuzz with the news of the "Digital Britain" report introduced by Stephen Andrew Carter, the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting or "Lord Carter" in the UK. The idea of the report is to lay a framework for future development of the digital media industry in Britain. But this is a terrible first start; it's just a PDF report! (You can get it here!)

When I think "digital media" I expect a video, podcast, and blog complete with a website of some kind. Not in this case. There's no real good website at all, just pages and a forum that has way down in the page an embed of a video from the first Digital Britain event, a stodgy affair featuring a bunch of older British white guys, rather than a diverse set of young people, the common theme in the industry.

That's the problem.

Digital industry policy should be formed with the most common consumers of it in the room, and the suited group in the video's not it; the grassroots bloggers, programmers, and vloggers are. It's no wonder Digital Britain's policy's appear to favor large old media telecommunications firms (an indefinite 3G license to original holders without competition for them is a terrible idea) almost at the expense of the little but innovative players in digital media. Moreover it seems to be some kind of rationale for the funneling of public dollars to a few big companies, like iTV.

The other problem with the report is that it focuses on Britain as if the rest of the World doesn't exist. In the matter of copywrites, the report explains a desire to essentially liberalize rules but how? What if the material doesn't come from the UK, as is often the case? I think the whole initiative's a good start but an example of what not to do; such efforts must be both "local" and international.

Local in that there should be a "Digital Oakland" where Oaklanders set their own digital media policy directives. Or Digital London, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and so on. In fact, Oakland's a terrific place to have a "Digital Oakland" conference. We've got our share of large firms, like search engine operator Ask.com, and a healthy group of members of the Twitterverse coupled with vloggers like myself, a government that's really behind the curve on this stuff (sorry but it is), and a large set of people who want to know more about how to access and use digital media for business and for life. Oakland's perfect.

Digital Oakland. I like the sound of it.