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I got an email from a friend who's homeless and reports that a man by the name of "ED" decided to end his life by walking in front of a train one morning at 711 Harrison St, near where she sleeps in her car. She reports that this happens a lot. My fear is that the cities of Oakland and Berkeley are doing nothing to curb the real source of new homeless people: landlord activity in those cities. Just look at the California Hotel matter, which the City of Oakland seems to be a partner in with Oakland Community Housing. It's an outrage.

This is a video of the recent June 19, 2008 meeting to present Safeway's controversial plan to dramatically move and expand the current Safeway store at College Avenue and Claremont. The new store will be at 6310 College Avenue and roughly at what is now a corner gas station. The new 75,000 square foot store -- three times the size of the current facility -- will undoubtefly bring more traffic and also foot traffic closer to the center of Rockridge in North Oakland. That's the concern of the over 300 people who packed the room on that hot Thursday June 19th evening. The video features incumbent Councilmember Jane Brunner's presentation of the meeting, a talk with Patrick McCullough, who was Brunner's challenger in the last election primary (2008), a presentation by Dan Metzger of the Claremont / Elwood Neighbor Association, Stu Flashman of The Rockridge Community Planning Council, and Elizabeth Jewel, the planning consultant, as well as Todd Paradis, of the Safeway Rea

I created this "vlog" (video-blog) to deal with and talk about a problem I've had with certain friends. Perhaps you've had the same problem where some of your, in my case, friends who are White (or the reverse or generally interracial) don't give you proper "consideration" in your friendship, where consideration is a kind of contract that all friendships have -- a contract of basic expectations of treatment. In other words, while you call them, they don't call you, or if you are dealing with someone who's racist, they tell you that you "see racism" rather than coming to your aide. Or they are your friends as long as they're able to take advantage of you or get information from you, but when they get around their friends, you suddenly don't exist. I'd like to know your response to my video and your view. Thanks.

For me, covering what turned out to be this three-part video documentary started with a call from a friend and fellow Cal Alum who said that I should get "down there" with my camera because there was no video on what was happening. So, fresh from a meeting, and with two hours to spare, I went over to the Grove in front of Cal Memorial Stadium, the site of the clash between the Cal Tree Sitters and the UC Administration and Police. The overall story is that we -- Cal -- needs an upgraded stadium facility and the plans for this have been in the works for almost ten years. With the success of Cal Coach Jeff Tedford, it became easier to raise money toward this objective. As part of the effort , the University of California was able to secure $500 million from British Petroleum, most of which would go to the creation of a new research institute, and the rest toward what will be an athletic facility upgrade -- a new training center where the Grove is. (CORRECTION - The BP D

This is a 20 minute movie on the dramatic event that was the convention held in Oakland, CA to elect delegates to represent the 9th Congressional District in Oakland and Barack Obama. It drew 2,000 people. If you live in Oakland and are politically involved, you're going to see someone you know in this video. It was really a kind of homecoming for people in Oakland politics and of course Oaklanders who have been involved with the Obama campaign. I thank the people in the video from Peralta Community College District Chancellor Elihu Harris to my friends, all of whom are in the movie and listed, and the delegate winners in this movie who are just some of the Oaklanders that will represent Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, Jennifer Pae, Fred Feller , Mark Friedman, Ayelet Waldman , and Darlene Brooks. The estimate of 2,000 people was my own and came from first, eyeballing the event, second from figuring that of 101 candidates, each had perhaps 10 people aver

Oakland Personal Injury Lawyer Bob Schock talks about personal injury law and the construction site. See his vlog show at http://oaklandpersonalinjurylawyer.blogspot.com

According to the East Bay Daily News , the small venue called Freight & Salvage will become much larger in 2009, in a 14,000 square feet space on Addison Street. It will grow to 420 seats and allow Freight & Salvage to stay open until 2 AM.