Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

I'm in Georgia as I write this having flown most of the day from San Francisco to Chicago to Atlanta. So just when I think I've only got to pay attention to my Cal Stanford Big Game videos and my Oakland sim, I have this CNN-and- SFGate-reported news of a BART officer smashing the face of a drunk man by the name of Michael Joseph Gibson into a window on the West Oakland BART Station platform. So I immediately went to YouTube and found this video: And showed it to my mother who said "Why did he have to throw him into the window." Exactly. Why? Here we go again. Another predictable argument between those who justify police' violent actions and those who question it. I am tired of the dichotomy, so I decided to create a poll to learn what others think. While the officer's action is questionable, that his presence was desired is of no question. In the video as the officer hauls Michael Joseph Gibson off the train and before he reaches the wi...

Cal 34, Stanford 28; Cal Golden Bears win Big Game! Remember that because a lot of Cal alums, including me, will never forget it. When a beaming Cal Chancellor Robert Birgeneau roams the Stanford field after the victory, shaking hands and posing for pictures, and says "This was one of our greatest wins", you know it was a special game. It certainly was. It was one for Cal's football history because it marked the first time we beat Stanford to keep them out of a big game after the turn of the century. We've beat Stanford before to harm their bowl hopes - but never The Rose Bowl . Rather than snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Cal did the opposite. Moreover, it happened at Stanford . The win and the significance of it, made the song "You know it. You tell the story. You tell the whole damn World this is Bear territory!" mean more than just words. Stanford Stadium became "Bear territory" with Cal students, alums, faculty and ...

OaklandSeen is KPFA 94.1 KPFA Morning Show radio personality and twice candidate to represent Oakland City Council District Two (now-Councilmember Pat Kernighan won the race), Aimee Allison's new show where she talks about what's happening in Oakland. This was an interesting show in that it was produced at a makeshift studio within Revolution Cafe at 1612 7th Street in West Oakland, and across from the Oakland Main Post Office. (As an aside, the cafe's real cool and has a nice collection of couches and overstuffed chairs. My only issue with Revolution Cafe is, at an 8 PM time, it closes too early. 10 PM would be great.) Aimee Allison's 85-minute plus show featured Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners' member and 2nd Vice-President Margaret Gordon, Ronnie Stewart of the Bay Area Blues Society, Erica Torrence of People's Grocery, Aimee Allison, and me, Zennie Abraham. (The meat of the video starts about 20 minutes in; you can see and hear us se...

Well, just one day after Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared on Oprah for what was a good interview and on the day her book "Going Rogue" was released (I have to admit I bought Star Trek on DVD instead), Newsweek helps keep Palin's name near the top of the public conversation (and makes her into Carrie Prejean ) by using this cover photo: The pict got the best of Governor Palin who took to her Facebook page to complain about it, writing: The choice of photo for the cover of this week's Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this "news" magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant. The Runner's World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness - a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now. If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows...

Candlestick Point An interesting development occurred over the past few days and virtually under the radar of much of the media in the Bay Area. Two environmental impacts reports were released at almost the same time: one for the Candlestick Point / San Francisco 49ers Stadium development and the other for the SF Niners stadium proposed for Santa Clara . I also must explain that I'm biased toward the idea of keeping the 49ers in San Francisco, but I'm not beyond telling it like it is with respect to how the enviromental impact reports are presented. I've read both EIRs (it was part of my role as Economic Advisor to The Mayor of Oakland when Elihu Harris was Mayor and for Robert Bobb before I worked to try to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland) and while at 3,000 pages (I didn't read all of the pages), the Candlestick Point includes comments and a detailed and well-organized list of anticipated impacts and ways to work to dampen or eliminate them (called ...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Ok, Chipotle Mexican Grill offering a free Chipotle burrito is nice and great for Halloween. If you walk in with a costume, you get a free burrito. But how did this message, this keyword, go viral? As I write this, it's the number 2 most searched Google Trend. I'm not kidding. The source city for this search was Minneapolis, MN, with five percent of total traffic. But think about what that means. It means that in some way Chipotle Mexican Grill was able to send press releases and activate a small number of blogs to push that result and then once it hits Google News, the other newssites will pick it up. Of course, one has to have some kind of national event to be able to trigger such a search, as well as a national brand. Chipotle Mexican Grill qualifies here. This is no small event folks. Anyone who pays attention to online marketing trends should look a...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I got the email below from Susan Bergmann, who's a very upset Oakland small business owner, and especially with Oakland Parking Director Noel Pinto. Susan Bergmann gave me permission to present the email in full to you and she wants Noel Pinto to see it. (I'm telling you, she's really pissed). I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who's really in a lather about the City of Oakland's " misery industry ." If you have a problem with Oakland parking you want to share with the World, send it to me at zennie@zennie62.com with the words, "please print for your blogs" in the subject heading. Hi Zennie, I am engaged in a battle with Noel Pinto, new head of parking. He insists on giving me parking tickets on MacArthur Blvd, in front of my office, for violation of 2 hour parking, despite the fact that I come and go all day long....