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A planning student at U.C. Berkeley wrote a 19 page paper about the Oakland General Plan and the Design Review Committee. I don't know who the student is, because they didn't put there name where it could be easily noted. It's worth reading; so much so I posted it here for you to see and evaluate: Oakland: report on General Plan and DRC - Upload a Document to Scribd

I can't disagree more with my friend Chip Johnson on the idea of replacing district elections in Oakland with an all-at-large system. The simple reason is that having people represent a district means that economic resources are better targeted and people are more engaged than in an at-large system. Think about it. While the current system certainly has problems, what Chip forgets is that the ability to influence councilmembers in an at-large system will be left more to the rich and powerful than to small neighborhood activists and groups. What did he say? That's right. If you think that politics exists without the need or attempt to influence is some way, then you're dreaming. Big time. The fact is that the district process brings power closer to the common person. It takes less money, effort, and time when the geographic area is smaller and that produces better and more engaged citizens at the grass roots level. There's a reason the district election sy...

With all of the crime problems Oakland faces it's almost funny to think that cutting police overtime charged would actually cause the city's $42 million deficit to decrease. It will not over a period of time because the workload that is attached to police overtime will not magically go away. Indeed, the move could result in more work not done or crimes not solved or criminals not apprehended, which means that the problems that exist will not go away. I have another solution: merge ALL of the City of Oakland Redevelopment Project areas and release some of that money reserved for projects to pay for police overtime. Between the Coliseum Redevelopment Area, the Downtown Redevelopment Area, and the West Oakland Redevelopment Area most of Oakland's flatlands are under the view of the Redevelopment Agency. Before someone says "you can't use Redevelopment revenue for services" that's simply not true; such can be done if the money is declared for such ...

This video posted today features a news story on a growing contributor to Oakland's homicide rate: the emergence of Latino gangs.

Last year, San Francisco Magazine devoted an e ntire issue to Oakland . It was a great work and I don't write that because I was in it. It did try to cover the base, although I felt it could have focused more on Oakland's African American businesses than it did. My overall impression was that the publisher wanted to present Oakland to the monied White establishment of San Francisco. I kind of said that in this video: But still it was a great work. One of the articles was on Mayor Ron Dellums and there I said that the good Mayor could do more. So Friday, I was contacted for my comments in preparation for this new article and I pretty much said the same thing. But what was of interest to me was what the reporter said OTHERS were saying about the Mayor. His supporters feels Dellums is doing a good job but that others don't know it. But what they point to are small projects, when Oakland really needs big projects and a coherent downtown development plan (We ha...

When I worked for Elihu Harris as Economic Advisor between 1995 and 1999, Goldman Sachs responded to an RFP issued by our then-treasurer Jan Myzck to issue municipal bonds for Oakland projects. At the time, Goldman was competing with an organization I favored, the minority firm Pryor McClendon Counts (PMC). Goldman proposed using a kind of "swap-option" bond, where our payments were essentially swapped with those of another party -- a counterparty -- with the idea that we would be under the rate of interest of the other bond when it was lower. I prefered PMC's more basic proposal because it had less risk attached, but Goldman won the competition and was the sole-source organization with zero minority participation -- a situation I just plain didn't like at all and since Jan was Black, I was really steamed that she handled matters the way she did. PMC had a good -- great =- proposal but she was in Goldman's back pocket. Elihu hated the outcome of the dea...