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In the following interview, Renay Jackson discusses his new book, Sweetpea’s Secret, addresses the controversy surrounding the genre of urban lit, and talks about keeping it real by representing the poverty, crime, hopelessness, and despair of inner city life. read more | digg story

In the following interview, Renay Jackson discusses his new book, Sweetpea’s Secret, addresses the controversy surrounding the genre of urban lit, and talks about keeping it real by representing the poverty, crime, hopelessness, and despair of inner city life. read more | digg story

After much study, I've come to the conclusion, which I present in this video: ..that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is stabbing Senator John McCain in the back. Often, Palin has approved of views that were taken by Senator Barack Obama, causing McCain to rein her in with a press statement that makes the campaign look like a keystone cops routine.   Consider how Palin has went against McCain in these following examples.   1) Pakistan - Palin favored the Obama-Biden assertion of going into that country to "get" a known terrorist even if that government would not cooperate.  2) Bankruptcy - Palin favors the Obama-Biden approach of allowing the homeowner to be protected against losing their dwelling after filing for Bankruptcy.   3) Korea - Palin agrees with the current action of the U.S. dropping Korea from the state terrorist list, even as McCain opposes this.  Obama also backs the Bush Administration action. 4) Palin Administration - Governor Palin has referre

1. Portland, OR - 85.08 2. San Francisco - 81.82 3. Seattle - 79.64 4. Chicago - 70.64 5. Oakland - 69.18 6. New York City - 68.20 7. Boston - 68.18 8. Philadelphia - 67.28 9. Denver - 66.72 10. Minneapolis - 66.60 read more | digg story

Black Rock City Ballet was born of the imaginations of several professional dancers from Bay Area dance companies: Smuin Ballet, Sacramento Ballet and the Oakland Ballet Company in an effort to bring the dance for to a new audience and debunk ballet's elitist image. read more | digg story

Just one week after a projected $42 million deficit prompted Oakland officials to announce the possible layoff of 200 city workers and the closing down of city services on Fridays, Mayor Ron Dellums jetted off to Palm Beach, Fla., for a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting on arts and tourism. read more | digg story

A planning student at U.C. Berkeley wrote a 19 page paper about the Oakland General Plan and the Design Review Committee. I don't know who the student is, because they didn't put there name where it could be easily noted. It's worth reading; so much so I posted it here for you to see and evaluate: Oakland: report on General Plan and DRC - Upload a Document to Scribd

I can't disagree more with my friend Chip Johnson on the idea of replacing district elections in Oakland with an all-at-large system. The simple reason is that having people represent a district means that economic resources are better targeted and people are more engaged than in an at-large system. Think about it. While the current system certainly has problems, what Chip forgets is that the ability to influence councilmembers in an at-large system will be left more to the rich and powerful than to small neighborhood activists and groups. What did he say? That's right. If you think that politics exists without the need or attempt to influence is some way, then you're dreaming. Big time. The fact is that the district process brings power closer to the common person. It takes less money, effort, and time when the geographic area is smaller and that produces better and more engaged citizens at the grass roots level. There's a reason the district election sy

With all of the crime problems Oakland faces it's almost funny to think that cutting police overtime charged would actually cause the city's $42 million deficit to decrease. It will not over a period of time because the workload that is attached to police overtime will not magically go away. Indeed, the move could result in more work not done or crimes not solved or criminals not apprehended, which means that the problems that exist will not go away. I have another solution: merge ALL of the City of Oakland Redevelopment Project areas and release some of that money reserved for projects to pay for police overtime. Between the Coliseum Redevelopment Area, the Downtown Redevelopment Area, and the West Oakland Redevelopment Area most of Oakland's flatlands are under the view of the Redevelopment Agency. Before someone says "you can't use Redevelopment revenue for services" that's simply not true; such can be done if the money is declared for such

This video posted today features a news story on a growing contributor to Oakland's homicide rate: the emergence of Latino gangs.

Last year, San Francisco Magazine devoted an e ntire issue to Oakland . It was a great work and I don't write that because I was in it. It did try to cover the base, although I felt it could have focused more on Oakland's African American businesses than it did. My overall impression was that the publisher wanted to present Oakland to the monied White establishment of San Francisco. I kind of said that in this video: But still it was a great work. One of the articles was on Mayor Ron Dellums and there I said that the good Mayor could do more. So Friday, I was contacted for my comments in preparation for this new article and I pretty much said the same thing. But what was of interest to me was what the reporter said OTHERS were saying about the Mayor. His supporters feels Dellums is doing a good job but that others don't know it. But what they point to are small projects, when Oakland really needs big projects and a coherent downtown development plan (We ha

When I worked for Elihu Harris as Economic Advisor between 1995 and 1999, Goldman Sachs responded to an RFP issued by our then-treasurer Jan Myzck to issue municipal bonds for Oakland projects. At the time, Goldman was competing with an organization I favored, the minority firm Pryor McClendon Counts (PMC). Goldman proposed using a kind of "swap-option" bond, where our payments were essentially swapped with those of another party -- a counterparty -- with the idea that we would be under the rate of interest of the other bond when it was lower. I prefered PMC's more basic proposal because it had less risk attached, but Goldman won the competition and was the sole-source organization with zero minority participation -- a situation I just plain didn't like at all and since Jan was Black, I was really steamed that she handled matters the way she did. PMC had a good -- great =- proposal but she was in Goldman's back pocket. Elihu hated the outcome of the dea

Does PG&E wanto to screw San Francisco? If you consider that the utility doesn't back using clean energy sources and has not met State of California guidelines for renewable energy, it sure seems so. You can change that with the passage of Proposition H - "Yes on H." It's the first initiative of its kind; tell your friends around America about it and have them call friends in San Francisco and tell them to vote "Yes On H".

Sarah Palin thought it was a good idea to hire Liddy to promote drilling in ANWR. Did she know Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, wiretapping, contempt of court and contempt of Congress; was willing to kill a janitor and a journalist as part of the Watergate break-in; admitted plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution? Kidnap plans? read more | digg story

Proposition H on the November 4th ballot would put San Francisco on the path to 100% renewable energy. Don't buy PG&E's lies. Learn more about Prop H at http://www.sfcleanenergy.com/ read more | digg story

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who after a quarter century on Capitol Hill surely knows the political etiquette, did not refer to Senator Obama as respectfully as he would would any other colleague. If Obama had referred to McCain as "that one," he'd have been attacked for showing disrespect or ridiculed. THAT ONE? No wonder Obama is America's choice read more | digg story

This video was created just before the debate, but my prediction seems to have held and for the reasons I state here. This American Economy is in trouble. It's in bad straights for three basic reasons: 1) According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate topped out 10 years ago and then decreased and continued to do so through to present day. What that means is that more and more people basically stopped looking for jobs and working at jobs than ever before for the first time. 2) The total rate of job growth started to increase at a rapidly smaller rate in the late 1990s and that continues today. You can see the BLS data I collected right on the video. We added about 20 million jobs each decade from the 60s to the 90s, but again in 1999, the job growth party stopped cold. We added just barely 5 million jobs in ten years, that's a drop of 75 percent over what we've produced in the past. 3) During the period of the job los

This is from the Adams Point Yahoo! Message Board. Hello. On very short notice, City Attorney John Russo's office was able to arrange for Mr. Russo to join us at our meeting next week. He will take questions, and present some information about a new joint effort between the OPD, the Alameda County DA's office, and the Oakland City Attorney's office to crack down on "chronic non-felony crimes" such as disorderly conduct, illegal dumping, drug-related offenses, disturbing the peace and selling stolen property. See the website for the City Attorney: http://www.oaklandcityattorney.org/. Beat 14X Problem Solving Officer Madlansacay will be joining us for the first time in a few months as well, so if you have questions about recent crimes or related matters, please bring those to his attention during the Q&A with him. Below is the text of the meeting agenda. I will also post a copy in Word Document format in the Files section of the Yahoo Group. Incid

Here is the text of a letter provided by the Oakland Raiders that owner Al Davis said he gave to Lane Kiffin on Sept. 12, telling him that if he violated terms of his contract he would be fired for cause. read more | digg story