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Kofi Bonner | Bonner With Lennar in SF Bay Area | 49ers Stadium Issue

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Kofi Bonner | Bonner With Lennar in SF Bay Area | 49ers Stadium Issue After a stellar career as an executive in the National Football League and with a credit card company, my friend Kofi Bonner is back in the San Francisco Bay Area as Director Of Urban Land for Lennar Corporation. Here's some background on the person who was once Interim City Manager for Oakland from the SF Business TImes. Kofi Bonner is back. Lennar Corp. has hired the former Bay Area planning and political whiz to help in its Hunters Point and Treasure Island developments and search for fresh Bay Area opportunities from San Jose to Sacramento. "It's wonderful to see the old faces. Many have moved onward and upward and are as cantankerous and loving as ever," said Bonner. "It's great to be back." Known for his aggressive role in redeveloping Emeryville during the 1980s, Bonner also served as the head of economic development and interim City Manger in Oakland before becoming an...
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County to Fund Housing For Homeless People With Mental Illness

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It's about time! OAKLAND -- Alameda County hopes to attack two root causes of homelessness next year with new social service programs aimed at the mentally ill. Using a portion of a annual $20 million grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the county and two partners will seek to offer permanent housing and services to mentally ill homeless persons. "The programs will serve a very under-served and chronic homeless population in our county," said Riley Wilkerson, manager of the county's community development agency. "We are really starting to make inroads and focus in on the populations that have a high level of use." One of the new programs will focus on mentally ill homeless who have criminal histories. The program, Forensic Assertive Community Treatment Shelter Plus Care, will give permanent housing to 13 homeless individuals and provide each with services. The other program, STAY Well Housing Project, will focus on 31 menta...
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Sports Business Simulations Turn Five Years Old This Month

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In 2002, a former aide to The Mayor of Oakland met the head of the University of San Francisco Sport Management department to discuss stadium financing, and the need for a new stadium for the Oakland Baseball. In that meeting, USF Professor Dr. Dan Rascher, PhD, took note of Zenophon "Zennie" Abraham’s web-based simulation game The XFL Simworld, and said "I need that for my class." When Mr. Abraham finished his second simulator in late October 2002, the Oakland Baseball Simworld, he met again with Mr. Rascher, and Sports Business Simulations (SBS) was born. On January 24th of 2003, SBS became a Delaware Corporation, with seed capital, and based in Oakland. Now, SBS is about to turn five-years-old. SBS is the first company who's products are built around the Forio Macro Language (FML) programming language developed by San Francisco-based Forio Business Simulations. "Forio's partners, Michael Bean and Will Glass have been our friends and advisers over the...
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YouTube's Chad Hurley & VC Tim Draper at BizWorld Lunch

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I had the pleasure of attending a great lunch event. YouTube Co-Founder Chad Hurley was the featured guest at the BizWorld.org luncheon on December 4th, 2007. He was introduced by MySpace Co-Founder Brett Brewer and interviewed by Tim Draper, VC & Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. In the talk, Draper asked Hurley questions surrounding YouTube after its acquisition by Google, and really focused on the changing landscape of the online advertising industry and how YouTube was responding to it. Hurley said that Youtube's success rests in the constantly growing inventory of video content that people want to see. As for the Google relationship, Hurley commented on their food and the large resource base that they have at their disposal for growth and for legal protection, although he didn't say that directly. Hurley also pointed to YouTube's new relationships with educational institutions like UC Berkeley and MIT, where students can view class lectures online....
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