Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

California Governor Jerry Brown is known for attacking sacred cows but sometimes he does so without a clear vision of the real objective and how to achieve it. Such is the case with California Redevelopment Agencies (CRAs), which Brown wants to do away with as part of his State of California Proposed Budget. Governor Brown thinks the move will return $1.7 billion to the general funds of California cities; but such a claim shows Brown doesn't understand Redevelopment, how it works, and what it's supposed to do.  The real objective of returning $1.7 billion will not be done in the way he says, and for several reasons. First, California Redevelopment is designed such that it allows cities to establish redevelopment areas to keep property taxes. And contrary to popular view, redevelopment revenues from project areas can be used to provide services in those project areas. Many cities have done this, including Oakland. Indeed, California Redevelopment Law was used by the C...

Pork Loin at Plum in Oakland , originally uploaded by zennie62 . Last night, I paid a visit to the new Plum Restaurant on Franklin near Broadway. It's a new addition to the Uptown Oakland food scene, joining Luka's, Osumo, Pican, Vo's, and Bakesale Beattie's, as well as Farley's Cafe and forming a nexus of food places at Broadway and Grand. Now, I'm not a restaurant reviewer. In fact, I was spurred to try Plum because of Michael Bauer's review at SFGate.com. Plus, living in Oakland, I think its important to support Oakland business whenever I can. Now, I've got to put this in perspective. The Pan-Roasted Half Chicken at The Wood Tavern is the best in the SF Bay Area. It's a 23 dollar meal that will more than fill you up; you'll have to take some of it home. I asked what the most filling dish at Plum would be and the patron next to me recommended the Pork. So I ordered it. I inhaled it. It's $18 and yet is the size of a small ...

This edition of Oakland News has a lot of information for you. First, if you've ever eaten at the North Oakland restaurant called Wood Tavern at 6317 College Avenue (with the best half-chicken in Oakland, if not the SF Bay Area), then you'll be able to picture it's new spring-off called "Southy." Why that name? Because it's going to be right next door and south of The Wood Tavern. Set to open in about 10 days, Southy's going to cater to a younger crowd. There's going to be a sliding door to deliver take out orders, to which I suggest offering sliders to go with that slider! Also, on the Oakland / College Avenue restaurant gossip beat, if you're wondering how some eateries are doing, I understand that one of them, once a large, popular place this blogger visited regularly, eventually fell off and started "floating" its liquor accounts. Let's say you own a restaurant in Oakland. As I understand it, if you purchase beer, you...

In this San Francisco News, construction of The Transbay Terminal is under way. This space will have updates from the newsletter of the Transbay Terminal organization. If you're wondering what this is all about, the idea of a new transportation terminal in downtown San Francisco started almost 20 years ago. It culminated in this design competition: From the newsletter of The Transbay Terminal organization: This week at Transbay... Weekend Work (1/7/11 - 1/9/11): This weekend, work will take place on Saturday, between the hours 7:00 AM and 11:00 PM. The contractors will move the crane known as “Big Red” into the west portion of the old Terminal footprint in order to continue demolition of the West Terminal building. Weekday Work: Weekday work between Monday, January 10, 2011 and Friday, January 14, 2011 will focus on the demolition of the West Terminal building using the wrecking ball. Work began on Thursday, January 6, 2011 to demolish the ramp between Howard and Natoma an...

Oakland, CA: Live From The Fox - Today's a special day in the City of Oakland, because Jean Quan, formerly District 4 Councilmember, then the (to some) surprising new Mayor-Elect of Oakland after beating front-runner Don Perata thanks to Ranked Choice Voting, today becomes Mayor of Oakland. Quan started the day with a walk from Chinatown through Oakland, and ending at the Fox Theater, where we are for the inauguration ceremonies. She held an inpromptu "thank you" chat with supporters and onlookers in front of the Fox, and was joined by Assemblyman Sandre Swanson. Sandre, a protege of former Congressman and now outgoing Mayor Ron Dellums, issued what in retrospect, was the first sign that Dellums wasn't going to run for reelection: he announced his support for Quan. Moreover, Sandre's support for Jean never wavered. Now, today, he looks like a proud papa, grinning from ear-to-ear. Libby Schaaf, Pat Kernighan, and Courtney Ruby Take Office Today's...

On October 7th, 2010, Oakland's Tiki Tom's Restaurant burned down in a blaze of fire that rang up an estimated $750,000 worth of building damage. There was, and still as of this writing, no known cause of the fire. According to several sources, the building was chain locked, and while the power had been turned off, PG&E reported it wasn't their doing. The fire was officially labeled "suspicious." Everything was burned, including the boat, a Tampa 66 Chris Craft according to Tom Davies AKA "Tiki Tom", docked on the Oakland Estuary, and in back of the eatery. The restaurant that was located at 329 29th Avenue with the frog on top was at the center of what it's owner, "Tiki Tom" called "The Oakland Riviera" during a video tour. This blogger was taken there the day before my 48th birthday on August 4th, and by long-time friends Bob and Barbara Schock, who are new Oakland District Four Councilmember Libby Schaaf...

This year, 2010, once again this blogger is following (kinda) the Santa Tracker, but while tree trimming, wine drinking, and talking, and listening to Nat and Frank (Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra).  But here's my NORAD Santa Tracker Video, because I just had to! This business of going to the NORAD website to track Santa Claus' trip around the World is rather cool, but I'm in the middle of watching It's A Wonderful Life , so I decided to embed the tracker right here in my blog: As of 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST, Santa Claus is , well, he's moving really fast! (If the embed doesn't work in your browser, click on the NORAD link.) Merry Christmas!