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More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I have it from a very good source that the Oakland Redevelopment Agency is upset with SMG Coliseum, the managers of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum, because they charge the organization is withholding information needed to complete a bid for Oakland to host a FIFA World Cup Soccer Game. I believe it because the source is a good one and SMG Coliseum has done this before. To me. When I was working to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland . What happened in my case was that I needed specific drawings of the Coliseum to have for the Super Bowl bid package we at the Oakland Alameda County Sports Commission were creating. Sally Roach, who was representing the Stadium Management Group at the Coliseum at the time - 1999 - told me they didn't have the drawings. Deena McClain, who was then and is now again working as the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Administrator,was led t

The iReport at CNN team wants to know what my do-over-day would be. Well, the one I was thinking of, when I -- as Chairman -- wrote an email to the board of the Oakland Super Bowl Bidding Committee.

It's not often I read that Chip Johnson's happy about something Mayor Ron Dellums has done -- come to think of it, that is true for me -- but in this case, he is. Former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb is returning to Oakland in the form of consultant to fix the managerial system he knows so well: Oakland's. He comes representing The PFM Group , which is a company based around an existing set of public management consultancies in America. His title is "Senior Managing Consultant" and the website has this bio: Robert Bobb is a Director with PFM in the Strategic Consulting practice. He has over 30 years of professional management experience in the private and public sectors at the chief executive level. He is nationally recognized for innovative leadership, with special achievements in public safety, finance, community development, employee development, and community empowerment programs. Mr. Bobb is the former City Administrator and Deputy Mayor for Washington

I want to be the first Oakland blogger to affirm Chip Johnson's article today charging favoritism in the City of Oakland. My response is that it doesn't start or stop at the CAO's office or with Deborah Edgerly herself, and a really complete look should go back 10 years, not just 2004. Look, I was treated so terribly by the City of Oakland when I was trying to bring the Super Bowl here , that my own mother -- who's still cancer-free by the way -- observed that "Between Blacks who are jealous of you and Whites who think someone White should be doing what you're doing, you're going through a terrible place." She was right. Oakland's government has a long history of hating well-educated Black men who don't follow the normal ethnic stereotypes. I remember 1998, when all of us from Elihu Harris' office -- I was economic advisor -- were being placed in various departments of the City of Oakland after Jerry Brown won a landslide victory to

Some other SF Bay Area columnists who are friends of mine and just enjoyed an evening out with -- without talking about Oakland politics -- are still way wrong regarding Deborah Edgerly and the Edgerly Family. Specifically, my friend Chip Johnson , who presents a picture of an Oakland that was transformed by Deborah Edgerly into a sea of people who are related to her. If you believe that, you're a totally big fool. You're also all the more foolish if you think favoritism started with her. Hell, one major reason I accused former Mayor Jerry Brown of racism in 2000 was that I believed he picked those he was most comfortable with -- young white professionals -- over equals like myself who are Black. In my view, what Jerry Brown would do is relegate all of the young Black employees who should be in his office to then-City Manager Robert Bobb's office and, pointing at a young African American woman in his office, say -- as he did to me during our dispute over my treatment

It doesn’t matter if it’s a retail business or the Oakland A’s, all good economic development efforts start with one thing: action. Well, two things – action and aggression. Over the past six years, the City of Oakland – and I mean everyone, not just the government, has shown little of either. By contrast, Fremont, led by Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, and Fremont’s Mayor Bob Wasserman have been both active and aggressive in attempting to yank the A’s from Oakland. What can Oakland do? Simple. Fight. Take action and aggressively work to retain the A’s. Oakland should use Jacksonville, Florida as an example. Jacksonville had no business thinking it could host a Super Bowl game, but their shortcomings didn’t stop them from trying. They were rejected by the NFL, but kept coming back until finally in 2000, they landed the right to host the 2005 Super Bowl – the one the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission and I worked to bring to Oakland. We had a better plan, and

Yep. I just returned from a week-long trip to Miami, Florida and to attend my fifth Super Bowl game, Super Bowl XLI. For more on my trip and videos, check out our NFL Super Bowl Game blog. More on Oakland soon. Frankly, I was glad to get away from all of the bad news around town. Geez. Now, I learn that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's bearing his sole for all to see. Maybe that's a good turning point and a good example for politicians in Oakland and all over the World. Full emotional disclosure.