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[caption id="attachment_14777" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sanjiv Handa"] [/caption]Sanjiv Handa, RP? Still can't believe it. It's a good idea to blog to get out of my head the idea that in my reality Sanjiv Handa, Oakland's Gargoyle - head of the East Bay News Service, expert on Oakland Government, gossip about Oakland's elected officials, and source of intel on the next local government party - is putting together his next newsletter, all set to tell us the whole matter was all a mistake, he's just fine, and that the effort to recall Mayor Quan was going slow because of disorganization and lack of money (which is true). But what's true is that Sanjiv is gone from our physical presence. I've never used the term "gadfly" because I never saw Sanjiv as an irritant, and I have little respect for those who describe him that way anyway. Why? Because some of those same people either wrote about o...

Oakland Food Truck Pods Coming to a Neighborhood Near You! After three years of sometimes contentious discussions, the Oakland City Council is poised to propose a pilot plan to allow Oakland’s numerous and varied food truck offerings a chance to set up in “pods” that is, groupings where few restaurants or other food services already exist, and be permitted as a group. [caption id="attachment_14012" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Karen Hester"] [/caption] Karen Hester, long time event promoter, said that it will allow Oakland entrepreneurs like her to plan ahead knowing how many trucks will be allowed and what will be required of them. Previously, food trucks were only allowed in the Fruitvale district where Taco trucks have blazed a trail of high quality, less expensive offerings in areas where people are comfortable walking up and taking their food elsewhere to eat. But, as a result of some problems encountered in the Fruitval...

(First posted at http://zenie62blog.com ) [caption id="attachment_13222" align="alignleft" width="235" caption="Oaklland Mayor Jean Quan"] [/caption]Is the Oakland Business Community really behind the planned recall effort of Mayor Jean Quan? As one blogger who's lived in Oakland since 1974, it's easy to gain the temperature around town because people either call or talk about the matter every day, including today. Let's say this: the issue of the recall of Mayor Jean Quan is not being officially driven by any recognized Oakland large business organization, as of this writing. Indeed everyone who's talked to this blogger, and in total, that's adding up to about 50 people so far, has said that, while they don't want to be quoted for political reasons, they're "on the fence" about supporting a recall effort against Mayor Quan. Here's my video on the Quan recall details: A large reason for this i...