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Parkway Theater to get help from Oakland Redevelopment Agency

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! Remember the blog post I wrote about a week ago stating that Oakland District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan should get the Oakland Redevelopment Agency (ORA) involved in the effort to save the now-closed Parkway Theater? Well, I was just contacted by an unnamed source who explained in great detail how and when the ORA will work to redevelop the Parkway Speakeasy Theater, located at 1834 Park Blvd in Oakland. The effort will mean the "best of" the Parkway's employees will be asked to return to their jobs, if they want to do so. First a brief review. The once-popular Parkway Theater closed its doors on March 22, 2009 after its owners, Katheryn and Kyle Fisher of Downey Street Productions, received an eviction notice from their landlord, the Cheng family of San Francisco just four days before closing. The news caused a major panic within the ranks of Parkway employees, who didn't know what t

Deborah Edgerly finally sues City of Oakland

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! According to Matier and Ross in the SF Chronicle , former Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly's suing the City of Oakland for unlawful termination (They used the term "unfair" but it's "unlawful").  At any rate, it was an expected action given the way she was let go and the kind of statements made about her before the action took place.  I wrote then that a defamation of character lawsuit would have been appropriate , but Edgerly apparently feels she was wrongfully terminated.  Again, Edgerly's way of protecting family and favorites caught up to her, that's certain.  But, and I state this again, Edgerly was put on the chopping block for actions that are common in the City of Oakland. I wrote a while back - stating that SF Chronicle Columnist Chip Johnson was right about Oakland favoritism - and will continue to assert this: Don't think that favoritism starts with Deb

John Russo says drop in Oakland crime due to police

By Oakland City Attorney John Russo For once Oakland is getting some news about crime that isn’t horrible. Despite recent high-profile cases of violence, including the murder of four Oakland police officers in March, major crime in Oakland is down significantly this year. Homicide is down about 20 percent, according to police department statistics. Assaults with firearms – down almost one third. Part 1 crimes – everything from assault to burglary – are down about 15 percent this year. Credit is due to our police department – to the patrol officers who risk their lives and to the investigators and commanders who are using smarter and more effective tactics to fight crime during difficult times. And whether or not it’s the popular thing to say, one other person deserves some credit – Mayor Ron Dellums. At critical moments, Mayor Dellums took a stand to reform policing in Oakland and to fully staff the police department, and it looks like those decisions have helped the departmen

Michael Jackson : MJ Memorial something to see

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On YouTube.com You know it's a special day when your T-Mobile cell phone allows you to make "Emergency Calls only", you know you paid the bill, and you can't even call customer service. I've seen a lot of days and a gaggle of events, but nothing like this. If you didn't know Michael Jackson passed way, today, you do now. This memorial is incredible: Stevie Wonder just gave a terrific performance. Now, former LA Lakers great Ervin "Magic" Johnson is giving a really personal, funny, ("I didn't know Michael Jackson liked Kentucky Fried Chicken!") and touching speech. And now, Jennifer Hudson's taking the stage. It's simply amazing this was asssembled so quickly and yet so well. It's moving. Unfortunately, in death, Michael Jackson is more powerful than in life. His power was always to make us happy, if just for one moment in time, feel carefr

Remembering Steve McNair: The 2000 Super Bowl v. The Rams

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On YouTube.com The passing via murder of former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair is really hard to take.  It's hard because McNair was a major player in my first Super Bowl: Super Bowl 38 (or XXXVIII) in Atlanta to open the new century in 2000. I was their as a guest of the NFL as I was working to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland. (We eventually lost to Jacksonville for the right to host the 2005 Super Bowl .) McNair's Titans weren't favored to win that game agains the "Greatest Show On Turf", the St. Louis Rams.  The Rams were blowing-out and steam-rollering opponents that year and there was no indication that wasn't going to be the case in The Super Bowl. But someone forgot to tell that to the Titans, led by a stalwart defense and Steve McNair.  With the Alcorn State legends fancy footwork, laser passing, and quick decision-making, the Titans stayed within scoring dist

Forum On Port of Oakland And The Future - 5/1/09

From Californialcv on YouTube who reports: Is it OK that a child born in West Oakland will die 15 years earlier, on average, than a child living in the Oakland hills? That was one of the questions asked of the attendees of the CLCV-hosted Environmental Leadership Forum and reception about air quality and health equity issues surrounding the Port of Oakland on May 1, 2009. (In case youre wondering, everyone in the room responded to that question with a resounding No!) The featured speakers at the forum were: * Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) * Marc Hershman, District Director for California State Assemblymember Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) * Dr. Anthony Iton, Director of the Alameda County Department of Public Health and County Health Officer * Margaret Gordon, Board of Commissioners, Port of Oakland * Doug Bloch, Director, Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports The forum was moderated by CLCV Board member and Port of Long Beach commissioner Mario Cordero, who spearheaded the development

Fight in SF Fillmore: bouncer doing his job with patron

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! Saturday July 4th was a great day to be out-and-about in the San Francisco Bay Area. A tradition shared by my friends and I - and thousands of others - is to attend the Fillmore Jazz Festival, which is a good 10 blocks of music, food, and fun. One of the favorite stops along the stretch is Harry's Bar, which serves up a great combination of beautiful people dancing and socializing to funk and rock music. After hanging with friends inside, a group of us ventured outside as it was just too hot. I came back later, but after perhaps a few minutes inside, determined that the outdoor weather was better. I go to Harry's each year with the same group of friends - except we didn't see Monte Poole this year - so I'm used to the vibe during the festival. I give the staff a lot of credit for keeping the crowd at a manageable level; not that it was ever out of control in the past, or this year for that mat

Sarah Palin resigns: thin skin did her in

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On YouTube.com As of July 26th, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will resign her post as Alaska's governor. I deliberately used the term "governor" twice, because even though I disagree with her politics, I always respected her as a governor of a state in America. Moreover, I root for women in politics, period. But I always believed Governor Palin - as I will continue to call her, much as some still refer to California Attorney General Jerry Brown as "Governor Brown" even though he's not been that since the 80s - had too thin a skin to deal with the new level of stardom she achieved after her time running to be vice president of the United States. A lot of this has to do with the life she crafted for herself in Alaska, which totally drove her and the GOP nuts when the media started asking her about her past. Indeed, with the spotlight on Palin came a set of issues so great in number, I

BART workers make $115K; riders $55K - do the workers care?

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On YouTube.com I'm starting to get the impression that BART's workers are out of touch with the common person in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to BARTLabor.com the average union worker makes about $115,000 a year . By contrast, BART riders have an average income of just over $55,000. That means the striking union workers are doing well, and the average BART rider's just getting by in the expensive Bay Area. But with that, BART union workers want a 3 percent raise? Yikes! So let's say they strike after July 9th. That means the person who needs to use BART to get to that job interview in Concord from Oakland can't make the interview without paying money they can't afford for a cab to a place of employment that may not hire them. That's terrible. Why in Heaven's name would BART's workers who want to walk out if they don't get what they want even try to con

Irina Slutsky and Tracy Swedlow: vlogging pioneers

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! YouTube , MySpace , Metacafe , Blip.tv , Sclipo and Viddler I had the pleasure of hanging out with two of my favorite "vloggers" Irina Slutsky and Tracy Swedlow, of Geek Entertainment Television and Interactive TV Today . The idea was really just to meet at a cool cafe called "Mission Pie" on 25th and Mission in San Francisco and share ideas as friends - we all know each other already; this wasn't our first time talking but it was my first time getting together with both of them at once. We talked about events, vloggers, t-shrts, boobs, and the Karate Kid. I've long admired what both Irina and Tracy have done. I met Irina in 2006 at an event in San Francisco she helped produce called " Vloggercon " which was my first introduction to the community of video-bloggers. But what is "video-blogging"? Video blogging is the act and art of talking into a camcor

California fails to pass a budget; state's broke

For the first time in 17 years, though it seems like yesterday to me, The State of California will have to issue I.O.Us to those owned money. I have a friend who's disability check comes in part from California and that portion has shrank from $225 per month to $162 per month over just the last three months and he's depressed. Governor California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called a fiscal emergency forcing the legislature to work overtime in closing the $26 billion deficit the state's facing. Will they - the Gov and the Democrats come up with something they can agree on? Well, Gov. Schwarzenegger's got to stop trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor with service cuts and higher sales taxes, then blaming the Democrats. What he needs to do is stop spending on this war on the people of color in the inner city. More soon.

Oakland Budget contains $83 million in cuts, but...

The budget passed by the Oakland City Council last night in a 7-1 vote contains $83 million in cuts, but it doesn't mean the city's out of the woods just yet with respect to its $100 million projected deficit. If employees don't take the 10 percent pay cut that's part of the plan in the case of the police department , layoffs will take place. Moreover, the proposed 10 percent ticket surcharge on Coliseum event tickets is being challenged by the County of Alameda, which threatened a lawsuit. Someone in the City of Oakland should have called the Coliseum Authority before installing that plan. The lawsuit threats a reflection of lack of communication. More soon.

Rialto Cinema takes over The Cerrito Theater - Oakland Parkway Next?

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On Monday, June 29th the City of El Cerrito approved the Rialto Cinema Theater chain's proposal to own and operate The Cerrito Theater, which was the creation of Catherine and Kyle Fisher, the owners of the now-closed Parkway Theater and the executives behind " Downey Street Productions ." According to El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency records , Downey Street Productions failed to pay timely rent after doing so for the first 12 months of operation of The Cerrito Theater.   The Cerrito Theater (A personal side note: it's very painful to see Catherine and Kyle Fisher's business problems presented this way in public, but that is one downside of working with a redevelopment agency: the public gets to see the information, both good and bad. But a detailed read of the letters explains that they, working as Downey Street Productions , got into a debt problem after theater construction costs. In a le