Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Youth at What Now America (WNA) express their views on Oakland through pictures.

The Blog Michael d's Buzz Report features Oakland's Lake Chalet Restaurant in full palm tree mode! My favorite place, for which now after all my self-starting advocacy I'm a spokesperson of sorts, is still drawing great crowds especially for Taco Tuesday's. Here's one of my videos - more to come - on the great new place to eat and hang:

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I watched as much of the NY Giants' mugging of the Oakland Raiders 44 to 7 as I could stand, even as the CBS Sports NFL group was apologizing for the game! CBS Football Analyst and NFL great Boomer Esiason said it looked like the Washington Generals versus the Harlem Globetrotters, and one had to assume the Raiders were the Generals, which were always beaten by the Globetrotters. Seeing them actually do that was a low point in Oakland Raiders football history, and now we must call into question everything the Raiders are doing on the field. Especially on offense with the Oakland Raiders passing game. I've said and written it before, and I'll do it again. The Raiders passing offense lacks the basic practices used by organizations that install timed passing games. The lack of use of hashmarks as landmarks is just the start of the problem. It's the overall...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I've received a lot of comments, calls, and texts since I revealed the City of Oakland's parking tow sting operation on Saturday. Working backward and reading some of them, a friend told me just a few minutes ago that just last, on College Avenue and Kasel, she saw an Oakland parking enforcement person - she used the term "meter maid" but that implies a level of civility of behavior I've not yet seen in the staffers - actually measuring the distance of a car's wheel to the curb and a red zone before giving them a ticket! Now, to say that's beyond the pale is an understatement but it shows just how much the City of Oakland's trying to squeeze money out of Oaklanders where they feel it the most (other than housing): transportation. The other story comes from a reader who explains: Not only is the city selectively issuing parking tickets...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com As Oakland Councilmembers like Jean Quan remind you that on Tuesday they voted to roll back parking enforcement times from 8 P.M. to 6 P.M., a terrible and really hurtful act is being done by the City of Oakland and its harming a lot of Oaklanders. The City of Oakland's instructed parking enforcement staff to just check license plates on cars to make sure the registrations' up to date. If it's not, even if the car's legally parked and regardless of the records error the driver is fighting, they will tow it. This is happening every day and now it happened to me. I had a DMV registration charge that I proved was too high from 2008. My 2009 costs were paid already but this matter has been in dispute and we finally resolved it and at a cost I could afford. Meanwhile I was barely using the car for obvious reasons, and staying around the neighborhood. But, late ...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I took a self-created video tour of Alameda Naval Air Station, and I must say that I'm profoundly disappointed that this once great facility, the economic engine of Alameda when it was open and running, is in what can only be called a horrible state of disrepair. In other words, it's blighted. The land that was this great " Aviation Gateway to the Pacific " supports some of the largest buildings I've ever seen in my life. As a member of the first "Alameda Base Reuse Committee", it was our collective dream to see this 1,500 acre monument to America's Military history redeveloped. Now, after years of not visiting the land as extensively as I did Wednesday, I'm really shocked that basically nothing has been done to improve this property and restore it to economic production. A remade and expanded trail is not enough. Even SunCal...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com The Oakland Gang Task Force , that was the much talked about unit of the City of Oakland's Police Department in the Discovery television series "Oakland Gang Wars", has been disbanded. In fact, this action happened just about a month ago according to sources who do not wish to be named. The reason for the action is a combination of budget cutting and political infighting out of the view of Oakland's City Council. Reportedly, but I offer this is not the exact explanation and only a caricature of entire story, the eight-person unit had one officer who was not well liked by the commanding sergeant, who wanted him reassigned. The other officers involved like and respect the officer and so disagreed with the planned removal. That set in motion a number of actions, some involving high level OPD execs, that my sources did not fully disclose but had something to d...