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According to Forbes , San Francisco and Oakland rank #4 as the best place for singles. Now, they ranked such amenities as nightlife and culture, and I'll say that it's certainly gotten better even over the last two years. It seems that -- from my perspective -- diversity is less of an issue now, even than two years ago. Plus, well, there are a lot of single people here. But what's cool is that Oakland's part of the index, and it's reflection of the growing number of places to go here. Personally, I've always thought of San Francisco and Oakland as one big city, anyway.

According to today's Oakland Tribune , the Wayans have dropped out of any futher development discussions with the City of Oakland regarding the path of West Oakland land that I've long considered really under Port ownership. They ceased talks because the Port's plans would get in their way. The land near it has been part of the redevelopment plans for the Port for decades, al the way back to when I was Economic Advisor to Mayor Harris. The Wayans proposal is really not well suited for that part of town, but for Third and Linden Street, near Jack London Square.

This is a shocking report delivered as a video by me and about a document and its findings called "Violent, Property, Crime & Arrest Rates" in Oakland. The video has the details and I'll lay them out in a text fashion in another blog post.

I just went over for a quick visit and yep, post after post on crime in Oakland. Vsmoothe will eventually be driven to deep depression over this -- best to stop before it's too late. That's what I did!

From the Oakland Tribune Oakland newsman Bailey to be laid to rest Wednesday By Kristin Bender, STAFF WRITER - OAKLAND TRIBUNE Article Last Updated: 08/07/2007 02:47:50 AM PDT It was in 1973 when Chauncey Bailey asked his journalism teacher at Merritt College for some career advice that would forever change the coverage of African-American issues in Oakland and make Mr. Bailey a noted and constant presence in print, radio and television here for the past 15 years. Back then, Mr. Bailey had recently earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from San Jose State University but, not unlike many young people, he wasn't quite sure what to do next. "He asked me, 'Should I join the Black Panther Party or go into the newspaper business?" said Bailey's former journalism instructor Charles Aikens, who worked as a sports writer for the Oakland Tribune in the late 1960s. "I said, 'It would be better to get that daily newspaper experience and bring the skills you

Oakland journalist shot dead in street Motive not known in slaying of Post editor By Harry Harris and Angela Hill, STAFF WRITERS Article Last Updated: 08/03/2007 07:33:11 AM PDT Unidentified mourners observe a moment of prayer at the spot where Oakland Post editor Chauncey... OAKLAND — In what police called a targeted killing, longtime Bay Area journalist Chauncey Bailey was ambushed and fatally shot Thursday morning at 14th and Alice streets in downtown as he walked to the Oakland Post, where he recently had been named editor. Investigators so far have only a vague description of the gunman and no motive in the shooting. "We have not ruled out anything, including whether it was work-related or a personal dispute," said Oakland homicide Sgt. Derwin Longmire. "But this was no random act. He was the target of a deliberate murder." About 7:25 a.m., Bailey, 57, a former Oakland Tribune reporter, was walking to work from an apartment where he had recently been living nea

I am in the process of uploading a video question for the CNN YouTube Debates and all of a sudden the whole place shook violently for about five seconds, which really seemed like an long time. Maybe it was a "4" on the Richter Scale? The Earthquake website had a ? by it which means the size of this things' not yet known. I'm sitting here wondering if the earth's going to shake again. I hope not, but you never know... Ok. It came in as a 4.2 quake. Here's the information: Magnitude 4.2 - regional moment magnitude (Mw) Time Friday, July 20, 2007 at 4:42:22 AM (PDT) Friday, July 20, 2007 at 11:42:22 (UTC) Distance from Oakland, CA - 4 km (2 miles) ENE (69 degrees) Piedmont, CA - 4 km (3 miles) ESE (113 degrees) Moraga, CA - 7 km (4 miles) SW (234 degrees) Alameda, CA - 8 km (5 miles) NE (51 degrees) Coordinates 37 deg. 48.4 min. N (37.807N), 122 deg. 11.3 min. W (122.188W) Depth 5.8 km (3.6 miles) Location Quality Excellent Location Quality Parameters Ns

From The Yahoo Message Board For 14X NCPC You are cordially invited to a NEW NEIGHBORHOOD EVENT Adams Point Social Hour Los Cantaros Restaurant & Taqueria 1st Friday of every month 6:00-7:00 p.m. Stop by Los Cantaros, 336 Grand Avenue, and look for your neighbors with the Adams Point Stickers. Meet your neighbors, buy an evening treat, and maybe top the night off with a walk to Art Murmur, Oakland's free art gallery night (http://www.oaklandartmurmur.com). Cheers! From, The Adams Point Action Council Board

Greetings Neighbors! We need some people to step in and help Hoang Bahn, our public services coordinator, run Wednesday's quarterly neighborhood meeting. I have to phase out my involvement in the group, and thanks to the efforts of various people in the community, we have some very good proactive plans underway for improving the neighborhood and making it safer and more enjoyable. But this does require people to get involved, if nothing else to bring our needs to the attention of the city. So, please, I know everyone is busy, but if you are at all interested in getting more involved in improving the neighborhood, please email Hoang at: HBanh@oaklandnet. com. She has been working super hard for us, but she only can do her work with our input and help. So, please, drop her a line and let her know you want to help. Take care, Charles

From Stu Sweetow SECOND ANNUAL GRAND NATIONAL NIGHT OUT BLOCK PARTY The Grand Avenue Business Association will hold its Second Annual Grand National Night Out Block Party on Tuesday August 7, 2007 from 6:00p.m.- 8:00p.m. To thank residents, Grand Avenue merchants will set up tables outside their stores to offer food, snacks, and soft drinks plus discounts, demonstrations, dance lessons, music and much more. It will be an evening of enchantment and entertainment. Merchants on Grand Avenue from the Grand Lake Theater up to Wildwood and on Santa Clara near the freeway entrance, will be hosting the party to demonstrate their appreciation to their neighbors. Bring your families and friends for a feast of fun. For more information contact Nicholas Eveleigh, GABA President at 510-654-3112, or Stu Sweetow at 510-839-2020.

I've never ever liked the Waste Managment contract and believed it was the best example of the worst of privitization, the next being SMG, which manages the Oakland Coliseum. Sorry, but I'm no far of privitization. Residents fume over stinky garbage Reports of restored service a bunch of trash talk, they say Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, July 19, 2007 Talks in the drawn-out East Bay garbage-hauler lockout recessed Wednesday without breakthroughs, while Waste Management Inc. said service was restored to pre-lockout levels but many customers complained they were still getting partial or no service. "It's a mess," said Pamela Drake, director of the Lakeshore Business Improvement District near Lake Merritt, where cans in the shopping district normally emptied by Waste Management were overflowing. "They haven't been doing any pickup at all," she said. Drake said she drove to Waste Management's headquarters on 98th Avenue on

It's one thing to have one writer like me take a break and work on other aspects of a several thousand page site, but it's quite another when a website with a group of writers doens't make a single post but once in three months. I'm writing about The Grand Lake Guardian. Unlike this blog, which is part of a 50-blog network, I never believed the Grand Lake Guardian got much traffic at all, even though it's insider fan(s) objected to this point-of-view. When I checked the traffic using Compete, there wasn't enough activity for it to register stats. On Alexa, the only report was that it ranked 6,944,395 of all websites, but there was no 3 month average for it. What this means is that the site's traffic is so low, it's difficult to register. This blog's part of Blogger, so it's harder for those systems to measure Oakland Focus Traffic. But I can say that the blog is read each day or some posting is -- between 5 times and as many as 200 times a