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There's a lot of talk about the possibility of California State Senator Don Perata running for Mayor of Oakland.  I love Don.  Great person who's done a lot for California, the East Bay, and Oakland.  But I think Perata running for Mayor of Oakland would be a big mistake. I think he'd lose.   The seeds of my educated guess based on study were planted in the last election of two weeks ago when, Oaklanders voted for "change" candidates:  Barack Obama for President;  Rebecca Kaplan for At Large City Council; Dennis Hayashi for Alameda County Superior Court Judge.   The last person, public interest lawyer Dennis Hayashi, should be of note because he ran against San Leandro Prosecutor Phil Daly.  Daly was backed by Perata and a host of local judges -- and lost.   By contrast, Hayashi was supported by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, California Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, and a host of liberal elected officials.  (Liberalism's back, so I'm using it instead of &

I've not yet confirmed this with Robert Bobb himself, but two sources have explained to me today that former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb has resigned from his position as a consultant with  Public Financial Management Inc.  -- the assertion from one source is that he did so to become Oakland's next City Administrator, replacing former City Adminstrator Debra Edgerly, who was fired in July of this year.   Bobb has been going back and forth, in and out of Oakland as part of a consulting engagement that saw the public service veteran analyze various aspects of Oakland management and operations in an effort to determine why the government's not working as it should and why service delivery has been so poor.   The possibility of Bobb's return was a focus on a recent debate between the two At Large City Council candidates Rebecca Kaplan and Kerry Hamill.  Both were rather lukewarm to the idea of his possible return, with Hamill more along the commentary of "I

I can't disagree more with my friend Chip Johnson on the idea of replacing district elections in Oakland with an all-at-large system. The simple reason is that having people represent a district means that economic resources are better targeted and people are more engaged than in an at-large system. Think about it. While the current system certainly has problems, what Chip forgets is that the ability to influence councilmembers in an at-large system will be left more to the rich and powerful than to small neighborhood activists and groups. What did he say? That's right. If you think that politics exists without the need or attempt to influence is some way, then you're dreaming. Big time. The fact is that the district process brings power closer to the common person. It takes less money, effort, and time when the geographic area is smaller and that produces better and more engaged citizens at the grass roots level. There's a reason the district election sy

Last year, San Francisco Magazine devoted an e ntire issue to Oakland . It was a great work and I don't write that because I was in it. It did try to cover the base, although I felt it could have focused more on Oakland's African American businesses than it did. My overall impression was that the publisher wanted to present Oakland to the monied White establishment of San Francisco. I kind of said that in this video: But still it was a great work. One of the articles was on Mayor Ron Dellums and there I said that the good Mayor could do more. So Friday, I was contacted for my comments in preparation for this new article and I pretty much said the same thing. But what was of interest to me was what the reporter said OTHERS were saying about the Mayor. His supporters feels Dellums is doing a good job but that others don't know it. But what they point to are small projects, when Oakland really needs big projects and a coherent downtown development plan (We ha

After weeks of discussions, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums finally got his request for $7 million in funding for new police officers. But buried within this victory comes a question of how to train them. A question posed by none other than Oakand Police Chief Wayne Tucker. According to the Oakland Tribune , Tucker said "It's going to be a real challenge to train the new recruits." That's a huge statement to make. It means that the police department lacks the people to train the new people. Makes you wonder who the heck did the planning for this allocation of money? Wow. If you think about it, that means there's less of an incentive to actually follow through with the Mayor and Council's decision and implement the new policy!

Jane Armbruster of Oakland wrote this letter to the editors of The SF Chronicle: Editor - Regarding Chip Johnson's Feb. 15 column, "Oakland mayor politicks as people are killed:" Does anyone really believe that the presence of Mayor Ron Dellums or any elected official would have prevented the tragic loss of life in Oakland that weekend? Could Mayor Ron Dellums, Sen. Don Perata, Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and Attorney General Jerry Brown have donned Superman outfits and put themselves in the paths of bullets? I worked to elect Ron Dellums because he understands that Oakland, and other cities, need more resources to address the deep-seated problems that produce murder in the streets. I would do so again because was in Washington, D.C., lobbying for resources. Unless he and other officials obtain more resources to address urban problems, governing cities is nothing more than administering scarcity. Administering scarcity means denying funds for filling some pot

This news comes from the same Newsletter by Mayor Ron Dellums as the other post below. I don't know anything of value about either appointee. Margaret Gordon' a long time player in West Oakland, so I guess that's some information of value, eh? Mayor Dellums' two Port Commission appointments were overwhelmingly approved by the Oakland City Council this month. "Both Margaret Gordon and Victor Uno embody my sincere interest in addressing the critical and wide-ranging issues facing our City's port," said Mayor Dellums. Over the last decade, Gordon, a West Oakland resident, has become a strong public health and environmental advocate for her community, meanwhile gaining regional and statewide respect for her knowledge of the issues. Victor Uno, brings to the Port Commission an extensive labor background, as he is currently a National Board Member for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO, and the Business Manager for the International Brothe