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AC Transit Zero Emission Bus  In Monday's Bay Area News Group websites The San Jose Mercury News and the Tri Valley Herald in San Jose, California and Southern Alameda County, AC Transit Interim General Manager Mary King explained why the East Bay California public transit service provider is asking the 1,750 member Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) to accept a contract it imposed on them. King starts by explaining that "Our future — and the future of affordable and environmentally sound transportation for Alameda and Contra Costa counties' riders — is in jeopardy," then tells the reader what this space has been trying to drill into the collective heads of many for some time: revenue froms sales and property taxes has decreased. But what King does not explain in numbers is that AC Transit's total operating revenues have dropped by $12 million in one year, and all one has to do to understand this is download and read the AC Transit budget here: BUDGET . ...

Terrance Candell Oaklander and St. Mary's graduate, Director of Candell's College Preparatory Academy, and CNN Roland Martin look-alike Dr. Terrance Candell , smarting from what he views as an apparent slight on the part of The Oakland Tribune , and regarding the Oakland Seen-produced Mayoral Forum of three weeks ago, issued a provocative video entitled "Candell Crushes Quan & Kaplan At Mayoral Forum pt.1." While this blogger attended the San Francisco Dress for Success event that evening, there was a hired video spy in the building. From the video of the forum, Terrance Candell was the crowd favorite, even as the Oakland Tribune failed to note that fact until down in the depths of the page, and even then giving the appearance that it wasn't real but planted by him. So, since Candell and company thinks he wasn't well-reported by the Oakland Tribune , they issued this video: Candell's style is a crowd pleaser if you're looking for sp...

Oakland District Four Councilmember Jean Quan met with this blogger for a requested redo of an interview conducted with her just after her kickoff event for the Oakland Mayor's Race. The request came from this space simply because the first interview video was so long, 41 minutes long, it was at least 12 minutes beyond the length of the Don Perata Interview of a month ago, and 18 minutes longer than the interviews with mayoral candidates Don Maccley and Greg Harland. Jean Quan  The desire was for a more uniform length that showed the candidate in a good light so that you, the viewer, could make a good evaluation. The result is this 29 minute-plus video that's light-years better than the first one. Rather than meet in a cafe, as before when we met in the upstairs nook at the Lake Merritt Cafe, we met at the Law Offices of Siegel and Lee, the same firm in Oakland City Center where Oakland City Council Vice Mayor Jane Brunner is a partner. Like many of my visits her...

If The Oakland 209 Gin Cocktail Competition at Sidebar Oakland felt like a small town reunion of friends, the Bloggers and Boosters party we held for my friend Libby Schaaf was even more so. The event was held at Era Art and Design Bar on Grand Avenue near Broadway in downtown Oakland, and was very well-attended, with a mix of Oakland City Council members like Oakland Council District Five's Ignacio De La Fuente and Pat Kernighan from District Two (who's in a tough re-election battle against Jennifer Pae ), to local notables like Bill Wong, to Libby's family and friends, and their friends. A good, intimate mix. Libby Schaaf  Libby is running for the Oakland City Council Seat currently held by Councilmember Jean Quan, who's running for Mayor. But, and nothing against Councilmember Quan, Libby really should run for Mayor of Oakland. Ignacio said it best: "One of the things I'm absolutely convinced of is that Libby Schaaf is the most well-train...

Sidebar Oakland  You know the Oakland Restaurant Scene has picked up when Sidebar Restaurant on Grand Avenue holds what was the Adams Point District's first cocktail competition. The 209 Gin Oakland Bartender Cocktail Competition was held last Wednesday night at the Lake Merritt bistro-style eatery known for its good food and warm atmosphere. The idea was to learn who could make the best drink creation based on 209 Gin - the makers of which did not endorse this blog post. The competition featured great bartenders making great cocktails and from some of Oakland's hottest eateries: Matt and Brian from Sidebar , Marjon from Era Art and Design Bar , Josh from Pican , Alex from Marzano, Matt from The Wood Tavern , Brian representing Levende East , and Jon who's at Grand Tavern, and Eric from Adesso . (As an aside, the only problem was all of the Oakland 209 Gin Cocktail Competition bartenders were men. There are some great female bartenders, like Britt at Pican,...

One evening during the 2009 NBA Finals this blogger was given a surprise: the opportunity to be a celebrity bartender for the first time and at a place called Players Sports Bar and Arcade at Pier 39 in San Francisco. Aside from the fact the owners of Players Sports Bar should have aimed higher that a blogger, it was a heck of a lot of fun. So much so, that for World Cup Soccer, it's got to be hopping! One day, Steve Molloy, one of the owners of this kind of mini Dave and Busters in San Francisco, was the tour guide through this vast 13,000 square foot of Pier 39 space, leading the camcorder through its islands of video games, air hockey tables, and other fun stuff. But the video sat on the computer waiting to be uploaded while yours truly fretted with how to improve it. Yesterday, all the worrying gave in to the desire to just get it out, so the result is the video above and a plug for the place that may have been the first in the San Francisco Bay Area if not Americ...

Oscar Grant  As Oakland, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, California, and much of the United States await the jury verdict in the Oscar Grant / Johannes Mehserle murder trial, Oakland braces for what's widely feared to be an outbreak of riots should the jury decision not go in a way that is an obvious punishment for former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle. If you want to find out what's happening on the streets of Oakland around the rioting fears, there are few better people to talk to than Oakland cab drivers. On Saturday night, one cab driver (who did not want to be identified by cab service provider or name), did agree to this video above as we talked about what he heard people saying as they rode his cab . "Everybody's talking about it," he said. "I don't know. Some people are saying that a lot of people left town. You know this guy was saying 'I knew a lot of cool white people that's left town. They're not ra...