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On Friday, Oakland Council President Ignacio De La Fuente called Ron Dellums to congradulate him after learning that 50.18 percent of voting Oaklanders chose him as the next Mayor of Oakland. Here's the full Oakland Tribune report: Mayor race ends with concession De La Fuente calls to congratulate Dellums, pledges 'to continue working very hard By Heather MacDonald, STAFF WRITER - OAKLAND TRIBUNE OAKLAND — Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente called former U.S. Rep. Ron Dellums on Saturday morning to concede the hard-fought race to become Oakland's next mayor. During a brief afternoon news conference at his Fruitvale home, De La Fuente said he congratulated Dellums and pledged to work with him as mayor of Oakland. "I will continue working very hard on those issues that got me into this mayor's race," De La Fuente said. Standing on his back porch, flanked by aides as well as his wife and daughter, he did not take questions. Mike Healy, a spokesma

After I posted my problem in the way I was treated by a staffer at "Easy" I received a number of responses, most sympathetic, then some just plain pathetic. The ones in the "pathetic" category seemed to run a consistent thread of wanting to explain away the staffers behavior when the writer wasn't even at Easy at the time of the incident -- let alone at all. It's this desire to avoid adressing a problem that keeps us as a society from making sure such scenarios don't happen again. I must also report that no one African American wrote to disagree. The main point is that if a person explains that something in the way they were treated was racist, don't try to explain it away if you were not there to witness it. Remember there are really a limited number of ways one can treat someone else: mean or nice. The reasons this is done vary from person to person. Thus one can be mean to someone for reasons of racial difference and express the same behavi

I received this email from a person who identified himself as one of the owners of "Easy" and regarding the problem I blogged about. I removed his name and contact information to protect his privacy. As an FYI, I had not contacted the establishment, so I can only determine that the blog post was so widely read, it was passed to him. Hello! I am one of the owners at Easy, and I'm really disappointed to hear that you feel that you were not treated with respect at our new establishment. With that all said, a couple of points (not in any particular order of importance): 1) All of the owners (4 in total), myself included, were present at the time of the incident. While I personally heard third-hand of what happened after close, had an owner actually been approached about the matter we most certainly would have sat down with you to resolve it amicably. 2) We do indeed have a number of black male staffers. 3) A large portion of my wife's family is African American, inclu

I wrote about a race-based problem I experienced at a new establishment called "Easy." My post spawned this reponse from a neighbor in Adams Point who asked not to be identified for this post. Hi- I saw your blog article. I grew up in the lakeshore area and still live there. I drove by the place the other day and was suprised to see that the 5th amendment had closed and sort of excited to see the easy sign. I dreaded what I saw the other night when I drove by (9 pm, weeknight) there were tons of white waspy youngish, looking folks that definitely don't look like the normal folks of the neighborhood. Don't get me wrong...It wasn't' that they were all white is what scared me, it jsut looked sort of exclusive to them but maybe...it definitely had a bad vibe so when I saw your headline I was like "oh great!!, I was right" I am not surprised. But trust me I am going tell all my friends and family about your experience. As I don't put up with that __

Is this the Oakland of the future? A place where black men are singled out and treated in less-than-human ways? It sure seems that way with the opening of "Easy", a restaurant and bar that opened in the space once used by the legendary Fifth Amendment on Lakeshore Avenue and in the business district that includes establishments such as Pete's Coffee and Arzimendi's. Thursday, June 15th was the opening of "Easy" and to those not familar with Oakland lore, it was an occasion to be observed. Long time Oaklanders -- like me -- wandered in to see how this new place was going to treat the neighborhood. Look. I understand more than anyone the need for owners to close an establishment at 2 AM. I also know that many bars have "after 2 AM parties" for friends, and whomever. Some of these gatherings feature the use of drugs, so it's better to sweep out the clientele before 2 AM so they can have real fun. Without naming names, there's one busin

The Oakland Police's failure to implement community policing is making our neighborhoods less safe, and Adams Point has borne the full weight of their mistakes. But to be fair the department is understaffed. I contend that the City of Oakland does not know how to develop creative financing measures to provide good service. Residents protest police redeployment Officers pulled from beats to answer emergency calls By Heather MacDonald, STAFF WRITER -- OAKLAND TRIBUNE OAKLAND -- Dozens of angry Oakland residents are accusing police Chief Wayne Tucker of betraying the city's commitment to community policing. They deluged the City Council's Public Safety Committee meeting Tuesday night with their complaints. Because the department -- with 100 vacancies -- has been stretched by the upsurge in violent crime, Tucker ordered his community police officers to spend one day a week responding to 9-1-1 calls. The stopgap measure, which began at the end of April as the outcry over incr

Last night at The Alley, a friend walked up to me and said "Dellums' lead is smaller than a ____ hair." I'll leave you to fill in that blank, but the vote count is now such that it appears the Oakland Mayors Race may be headed toward a runoff. That's both good and bad for Dellums supporters - myself included. Good, because it's a chance to really sharpen the knifes and get the campaign in a position to better reach out to the people of Oakland. Bad, because it means that De La Fuente gets another shot. Dellums' hopes of outright mayoral victory are fading Runoff seems more likely, but thousands of ballots still must be tallied By Heather MacDonald, STAFF WRITER - OAKLAND TRIBUNE OAKLAND — Former U.S. Rep. Ron Dellums' razor-thin lead in the race to become Oakland's next mayor slipped away Friday afternoon, as he dropped below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff against City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente. Alameda County e

Adams Pointers, your population is about to increase by one big apartment complex right on Grand Avenue. Read it and weep. Or just kick out the planning commission. Hmmm.....Maybe a citywide initiative taking planning commssion appointment powers away from the City Council? Good idea! City approves Grand Ave. condo complex Developers have made few concessions after proposal was previously rejected by committee By Eric Kurhi STAFF WRITER - CONTRA COSTA TIMES A large condominium unit slated for Grand Avenue won approval from city planners, despite the fact the developers made few concessions after being rejected by a committee earlier this year. The project, which is expected to be appealed to the City Council, would fill out a block of Grand between Bellevue and Euclid avenues with a six-story, 74-unit building. The building would take up a front lot and snake to a back lot between existing buildings. The plan's opponents were surprised to see it resurface, unchanged, just mon

This was from the Adams Point Yahoo! Message Board: Concerned Citizens especially in the Adams Point 14x area, today 7 Jun 06 at 8:00 AM., there was a sexual assault and robbery on Orange St. A woman walking on Orange was taken to the rear of 243 Orange St. where she was robbed and sexually assaulted. The man is described as a Male, Black, 20-25yrs, 5'2" to 5'4" in height, dark complexion w/ short natural hair wearing white T-shirt and blue jeans. He was a lone man on foot and fled in an unknown direction. The suspect was first seen at 29th St and Harrison. Please be aware, be careful and watch out for each other. Jill Encinias Problems Solving Officer

Well, I could have told you this. To me the election revealed just how backward Oakland can be at times. Oakland voters show division By Paul T. Rosynsky and Momo Chang, STAFF WRITERS OAKLAND — A smiling Jeffrey Miller walked briskly, sample ballot in hand, to the front door of his precinct at the Redwood Heights Community Center on Tuesday afternoon. Miller, 54, said he is excited to finally vote in a mayoral contest that has at least three qualified candidates on the ballot. "I have great respect for (Ron) Dellums, but he has been away for a while," Miller said. "De La Fuente has been more involved and, I think, can get things done." Although Miller chose De La Fuente, his thoughts on one of the closest mayoral contests in recent history illustrated how many of the voters interviewed Tuesday were divided among De La Fuente, Dellums and Nancy Nadel. Although split, the voters made their choice with conviction. "I just can't stand De La Fuente, he's o

Our new blog at http://oaklandbaseball.blogspot.com has videos of Oakland Mayoral Candidates expressing their views on keeping the A's in Oakland. Here's Nancy Nadel talking with A's fans:

I just read this article on how the Bay Area's white media has launched a weird campaign against Ron Dellums and I could not agree more. What continues to read as illogical is how the media and some totally unformed so-called Oaklanders of little note hold against Dellums the same things they praised Jerry Brown for: vision for example. No one has explained this at all. Let's see: Jerry Brown's white; Ron Dellums is black. I'm sorry, where there's smoke, there's fire. I would like to see a day when Oakland has several black mayoral candidates, not just one.

I've got to write that of all the political lawn posters, those representing Ignacio De La Fuente are just plain rude. They don't ask for permission to post on grass areas of condo complexes, they just do it. They don't request to get clearance to post a sign on the facade of a building, they just do it. How do I know this? They did it to my building. I took them down. It's not cool to maintain such a practice. ..Another reason to vote for Ron Dellums.

One simple way to battle crime is to know your neighbor. I've found that few people in Oakland who live next to each other know each other. The best way to change this is the block party. Tuesday August 1st is "National Night Out" and the sponsors want Oakland to have a lot of block parties. You should sign up to host one at National Night Out

I got this email from other supporters of John Russo, but it speaks for me. I think the negative campaign mailer on John Russo came from ex-Nate Miley Aide and Montclair-Greater Oakland Democratic Club President Pam Drake, as she said a similar message to me at the gym last fall. I guess no one knows about Sandre Swanson taking money from Jack Abramoff's firm, but whatever. Dear Friend: As you may know, we are strong supporters of John Russo for State Assembly. We know that John is the person we need in Sacramento. We also know John personally and he has been a passionate, outspoken champion for our kids and for our neighborhoods for nearly 20 years. The Russo for Assembly campaign is going well. John has done 75 House Parties and has knocked on more than one thousand doors. The campaign is ready for the final push. In fact, the Russo campaign has gone so well that John's opponents have resorted to distorting John's record. WE NEED YOUR HELP to get the truth out abo

My long time friend -- all the way back to Bret Harte junior high school and Skyline High School-- car salesman (I bought mine from him, as did KNBR's Gary Radnich), actor, and all around "Man about town" Richard Liberman is going to be the online columnist for "Matier and Ross", the popular muckracking columnists of the San Francisco Chronicle. I am very proud of Richard, and as I told him, they're grooming him to become the next Herb Caine. People -- like me -- are already sending him items. You may remember that for a time, Richard played "Big Vinny" in the Round Table Pizza commercials of about four years ago. There was even talk of Richard playing a role on "The Sopranos." Richard was born to be a star. I can remember when he talked the Women's Pro Tennis reps into letting me onto court to photograph Margaret Court in a tennis match while we were in high school. Richard's always had great media connections, and even L

I was reading the SF Chronicle at Gold's Gym yesterday, and noticed that Ron Oz took out an entire page in the news section to tell people why he's the best choice for Oakland Mayor. The problem was that he had too many words. I wonder who's going to read it. He should have had big 64-point letters reading "Ron Oz For Mayor of Oakland." That's enough.

I just read Bill Bradley's new west notes which report that Jerry Brown's being outspent by his AG challenger Rocky Delgadillo on TV ads by $2 milllion to just $400,000 for Jerry Brown. That's a dangerous stat for Jerry, and I hope it's not borne of some arrogance on his part. He says he's being "frugal" -- only Jerry could turn an obvious fact that he just plain thinks he can beat Rocky into yet another personal branding effort, where someone will come away saying "Well Jerry Brown thinks small is beautiful, so that's the reason." Oh, brother.

I found this news posted on the Adams Point Yahoo Message Board. I really believe that renters should invest in alarm systems. Thw noise would deter the criminals over time. Imagine hearing the loud siren for blocks. You'd know something was wrong right off the bat. Today, Memorial Day, sometime between 9am and 3 pm, a back unit in apt. bldg. where I live, was broken into and a laptop computer stolen. The robber(s)got in by pushing a green "yard clippings" bin just under the bedroom window and climbing in through a window that had been left slightly ajar. Robber(s) exited through main door of apt. This was in broad daylight, and in full view of a number of condos and apts., plus a house to each side with "vision access." It seems reminiscent of burglary reported for 362 Euclid Ave. on May 20th.

I wish we had this kind of contest when Jerry Brown ran for his second term. But now, we've got a good one and the fur will fly in the next week. Ron Dellums is still the best choice over the two candidates most responsible for Oakland's governmental morale problem. Oakland mayoral candidates making final push De La Fuente, Dellums, Nadel pound pavement to win over undecided voters By Heather MacDonald, STAFF WRITER, OAKLAND TRIBUNE OAKLAND — With less than two weeks to go until the election, mayoral candidates Ron Dellums, Ignacio De La Fuente and Nancy Nadel are all working at breakneck speed to convert undecided voters and mobilize their supporters. While Dellums, a former congressman, and De La Fuente, the president of the Oakland City Council, talk of winning outright June 6, most observers of the race expect the close contest to result in a November runoff — and Nadel, an Oakland council member, should not be counted out. "I'm pounding the pavement," sai