Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

There's a lot going on in Oakland, but I'm figuring out that, frankly, this city of mine isn't as socially connected as it likes to think it is.  There are only a handful of bloggers, a small group of people who read them, and few, considering the total population, who use Twitter to tweet or any camcorder to vlog. In short, a lot of information about what happens in Oakland goes without matching content.   Just saying - though I'll say more about this later. One small Facebook Page group of people is growing organically. Called " Terrorized by CEDA Oakland, CA ," it has about 198 "likes" and it's not going to reach massive proportions unless someone connects Oakland's Economic Development boss, Walter Cohen to a sex scandal; I'm just kidding, of course, but you get the idea, given media today, and my opening paragraph. A problem at the Community And Economic Development Agency CEDA, first reported here and at Oakland Focus by Gwilly...

Spanatix.com , simply described, "is a social platform for sports fans to engage and connect online" and that's actually the "25 words or less" pitch line used by its co-founder, Marlon Sullivan. In the video above, I talked with Mr. Sullivan and he gave a demonstration of how Spanatix.com work. Let's just say that if you play it, you'd better know your sports info stuff. Spanatix.com consists of two parts in its online space: a social network designed such that if you pick your favorite team or player, you can see what has been written and add to the conversation, and a unique fanometer that's coolly addictive. With the fanometer, you can gain points for what you know about your team. You can pick a game and if you guess the correct winner you gain points. You can challenge friends in "one-on-one" competition, or go into what's called a "pool" challenge. It's a really great social network game, that makes a...

On July 1st, The Port of Oakland quietly issued a long press release announcing its 2011-2012 Budget. The release reports that "revenue from the Port’s aviation, commercial real estate, and maritime businesses has been recovering modestly," but that tenants remained concerned about the overall economy. The Port also explains that it brought $462 million in taxes to the City of Oakland over the last fiscal year, and that it has a $40 million "pipeline" of new projects that will come under the consideration of the Port Of Oakland Board Of Directors. Here's the full press release: For Immediate Release July 1, 2011 Port Of Oakland Adopts 2011-2012 Budget $296.6 Million Budget Represents Port's Aggressive Focus on Business, Competitiveness, Positive Economic Impact, and Environmental Stewardship Oakland, Calif. - July 1, 2011 - The Oakland Board of Port Commissioners just adopted a 2011-2012 fiscal year (FY) operating budget of $296.6 million. This ...

If anyone had a doubt that the City of Oakland was in financial trouble, one look at tonight's Oakland City Council meeting should change their mind. Watching via live stream from Georgia, this blogger has never seen so many Oakland workers come before the City and beg to have their jobs maintained. And these are good, long-serving, proud Oakland workers, like Brenda Franzel. Really sad.   Brenda Franzel,a revenue officer with the City of Oakland, just took the unusual step of coming to the Oakland City Council tonight and having her daughter speak before the Council first, and then and asking for "justice." This as the Oakland City Council considers various budget options placed before it. "I refused to participate in the slurs about who brings in revenue for the City, and by that, I mean money," Franzel said. "I blame the culture in which we serve for even considering cutting people who raise revenue for the city. It creates a hostile envir...

Just got an interesting email from Don Macleay, last year's Oakland Mayoral Candidate, who is urging Oaklanders to come to Tuesday night's Oakland City Council Meeting. But before we get to his, and the Oakland Greens, issues, a comment. The City of Oakland must agree on a budget plan by July 1st, and that day is this Friday. There has been a lot of focus on and discussion over a process that, long ago, this blogger knew was insular, and because the public doesn't have all of the past budget information, and because the arguments about the budget are within the margins and not about how to extend the margins . What do I mean by extend the margins ? One problem is that of each property tax dollar collected, the City of Oakland gets to keep just 26 percent of it. The other problem is much of Oakland's revenue-producing land is controlled by the Redevelopment Agency, which is a good thing, because that's the only way Oakland itself can collect 100 perce...

This blog post comes as an advisory to the Oakland Mayor's Office, and it's done not for malicious intent, but to bring a stop to a growing problem that's reared its head twice in five days. To cut to the chase, the Oakland Mayor's Office needs to determine what it's going to sent out in a communication to this blogger, and then make sure that message is consistently delivered, and without potential for misunderstanding, or appearance of subterfuge. First, I must take time to thank the Oakland Mayor's Office under Jean Quan for at least trying to communicate with the public - it's a far cry from the previous administration. But, Mayor Quan's approach still appears as if it's confused and all too reactive to what's written in the press, well, OK, what's blogged by this blogger. After trying to deal with this behind the scenes, I've just plain had it. The first episode started when I received an email from Susan Piper, Mayor Qua...

HI Your Fit Day Friends: I hope you're all enjoying the spring weather. Here in the Bay Area we've had some pretty picture-perfect days. And the days are still getting longer. Hey! You know what that means, don't you? More daylight hours... for... ex-er-cising! So no excuses; at least for the next 6 months, anyway. Go enjoy the great outdoors and make fitness fun. Grab your kids-or someone else's-and Go Go Go. Visit your National parks, (hurry, while you still time, since many are set to close in September). Play on the swing-sets. Bike the trails, and run in them thar hills!! Hey! Speaking of running...that's something I won't be able to do for a while, and I wanted to give you an update on your trainer's life. My Hippy News In my Part I of Key to Pain Free I mentioned seeing a second surgeon after I was 'misdiagnosed' by the first. The first surgeon, let's call him Dr. Compassion (not!), advised Motrin daily; told me to ...