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Apparently the news that her Oakland City Council District Two Seat Competitor Jennifer Pae raised over $30,000 has driven her to the bar (just kidding). Oakland City Councilperson Pat Kernighan's hosting a gathering at Era Art Bar on Grand Avenue, just 40 feet from Broadway in Downtown Oakland, where she's buying cocktails for her friends and supporters - uh, with a donation. If you follow this space, you recall the last political event this blogger attended at Era Art Bar: the Blogger Party for Libby Schaaf, who's running for the Oakland City Council District Four seat.  In fact, here's the video: But - not that I'm complaining - you had to buy your drinks, which is great for controlling cocktail consumption!  (And The Era Art Bar's becoming the venue of choice for Oakland political events of late, with Libby, Pat and Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan holding shindigs there.) Pat Kernighan This news of "Complimentary Drinks" emphasize...

Get it?  Huh?   Now that the Oakland Mayor's Race has reached its second season and is heading toward the November election, we have candidates and groups trying to push what they see as "minor candidates" as Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan said Wednesday, out of the way.  But Councilmember Quan is really wrong, and this blogger's disappointed that she made the statement because with New Media and IRV, there are no minor candidates . This blogger is consistently disappointed at the display of the amazing levels of both hubris and, frankly, stupidity that have come to mark the media strategy in the Oakland Mayor's Race. Newspapers are not the number one source of information today in politics: the Internet is. But the people who run their election campaigns in Oakland, as well as those producing the forums, don't seem to get that. They think that by their actions in excluding talking to all of the candidates, or by some campaigners raising a lot of...

This blog post was written in the head of this blogger before it was obvious the Oakland Raiders were going to win their first 2010 NFL Preseason game, 17 to 9, against the Dallas Cowboys under the Hue Jackson / Jason Campbell offensive regime. Because, even with dropped and tipped passes, what was most interesting and pleasing about the Oakland Raiders, was the real, timed, precision passing attack. What was impressive was that from the snap of the football, to the quarterback's footwork, to the quarterback's hitch step, to the throw, to the receiver's routes, the Oakland Raiders quarterbacks are obviously drilled in the classic Bill Walsh fashion, with the objective of getting the ball out of the quarterback's hands and to the receiver as quickly as possible as part of a timed set of movements between passer and catcher. Yes, Jason Campbell completed 7 of 13 passes. Yes, Darrius Heyward-Bey didn't have a catch. But the passes got out of the quarterback...

Image via Wikipedia For some reason, these events go together: today's the 71st Anniversary of The Wizard of OZ and on Sunday, August 15th, at 7:30 PM PDT at The Herbst Theater in San Francisco, REAF, The Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation holds its 16th annual presentation of "Help Is On The Way" called Help Is On The Way XVI. Melissa Manchester It's hard to believe The Wizard of OZ is a full 71 years young.  In fact, it seems timeless.  Music and songs from The Wizard of OZ are etched into my brain, in part because one of my favorite songs to sing at The Alley in Oakland, is If I Only Had A Brain .  But it is 71 years yound, so it's important to stop and consider the impact this awesome musical movie has had on American Culture. It has been translated in 40 languages, and been the basis for scores of reinterpretations, including the popular musical, The Wiz . Which reminds this blogger why the link with Help Is On The Way XVI was made in my pea brain! ...

Image via Wikipedia Downtown Oakland, CA  Apparently, the City of Oakland's going to great lengths, almost neurotic, to alter the street culture of Downtown Oakland, but this bit of news is really disturbing. It rests in a Facebook message I just received, and part of which is posted here: have you heard about some of the ambitious plans of the Downtown and Lake Merritt Business Improvements District boards? Take a look, they want to pipe in shitty soft country musak 24 hours a day at all the corners of 13th and Broadway to drive away "undesireables" So a visit to this link reveals a Wikepedia page which reads: In July 2008, landlords in the district voted a parcel tax upon themselves to fund the "Downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt/Uptown Community Benefit Districts" to provide "special security services, cleaning of sidewalks, beautification, marketing and improvement of district identity and organizational services for businesses in the d...

If you follow this space, you recall the long process of working to get a final design for the new San Francisco Transbay Terminal. The old terminal, slated for demolition, was the hub of trains into San Francisco from the East Bay and using the San Francisco / Oakland Bay Bridge. Then, after trains gave way to cars and buses, it was the terminus of AC Transit Bus Service and San Mateo Transit Service for the East Bay and the North Bay. But with all of that, it had still fallen into a state of deterioration such that it became a blight in the South of Market area of downtown San Francisco. After the establishment of the Redevelopment Plan in 2005 and a competition, a design created by Pelli Clarke Pelli emerged as the unanimous winner. Here's this blogger's video from the competition and the presentation in San Francisco City Hall in 2007 : Ground breaking marks new beginning The plan is to take shape over the next seven years and be complete in 2017. I'm ce...

California Attorney General Jerry Brown should look into this. According to The Associated Press via The Huffington Post , Wells Fargo was ordered to pay $205 million to its customers as part of a successful class-action lawsuit. What Wells Fargo was doing was allowing debit purchases to go through when a customer's account was overdrawn. But Bank of America has the same practice, and this blogger experienced it after a client bounced a check. What Bank of America does is pile on one payment when you're overdrawn, thus triggering another overdraft charge and making more money from it. Then, when the non-paid vendor tries to collect again, the Bank of America issues a second overdraft charge ! My sources in and out of Bank of America have confirmed this problem. In other words, Bank of America has practiced the same process Wells Fargo was accused of and is now ordered to pay its customers back to settle. U.S. District Judge William Alsup accused Wells Fargo of pro...