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Sunday Movie In SF: "Medicine For Melancholy" At Embarcadero Theater

I just got an email regarding the screening of a new movie called "Medicine for Melancholy" which is tommorrow at 7:20 PM.  You can RSVP via their Facebook Page but here's some basic info: The Osiris Coalition and Citizen Hope are proud to sponsor a special screening of Medicine for Melancholy THIS SUNDAY AT 7:20pm at Landmark Embarcadero Cinemas. The crowd-pleasing love story set in San Francisco confronts the issue of race and identity in the wake of the African American exodus from San Francisco. Sunday March 8, 2009 @ 7:20pm DIRECTOR BARRY JENKINS WILL BE ON HAND FOR Q & A SESSION This film is getting incredible reviews and we have this awesome opportunity to support a San Francisco director and dialogue with him about his work. The film is set to show in San Francisco for one week only--but if it gets a great turnout this weekend, it could be here for longer. So even if you can't make our screening, please go out and see it this weekend.

Bar Lata and Adesso: Two Oakland Eateries To Open Next Week

More at Eater : “First, Bar Lata—the Oakland tapas bar from Daniel Olivella of B44—has pushed back its debut to next Wednesday. Elsewhere in Oaktown, Dopo spinoff Adesso continues to feel the frustration surrounding the liquor licensing red tape. Sources there are still unsure as to when exactly they'll open, but fingers are crossed for next week.” -- Eater reports that even in this economy, and with the opening of Side Bar three weeks ago on Grand Avenue, Oaklanders will have two more new gourmet places to much opening next week: Bar Lata on 4901 Telegraph, and Adesso on 4293 Piedmont Avenue. Can all of these businesses hold up by year's end? If so, then things aren't as bad as they seem.

San Francisco-Based New America Media Talks to Spot.Us

This is an interesting video that shows where media is headed in America. It's by Spot.us and is about the story investment needs of New American Media, but it also shows what's on the minds of the editors of this ethnic-based journalism non-profit organization: the alarming number of arrests of Blacks and Latinos in San Jose, often for "disorderly conduct" crimes. The future of the SF Chronicle. And it gives a window into the growing concern for how law enforcement is done in America and the World.

Oakland Rezoning Planned According to STAND Email

I just got this email from STAND on the Adams Point Messge Board: Sent: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 9:10:52 AM Subject: RE-ZONING OAKLAND A New Look for Oakland? Did you know that the City is working on plans to change the zoning for all of Oakland? (This will govern how the new buildings look and how they impact the surrounding community.) It may seem odd at a time when almost all development has halted. However, as everyone knows, this area will recover. And, when it does, what the City decides now will be what we live with then. STAND has representatives on both the Commercial and Residential zoning task groups and is attending all meetings. We are hoping that the outcome of these meetings will be to encourage moderately scaled projects that preserve our light, air and views, while bringing us sustainable growth. We want to be proud of, and enjoy, the projects these new rules give birth to. Ideally, we want to preserve or enhance what is best about Oakland now. We are wary, however,

Increasing The Oakland Hotel Tax Is Rather Silly - Who's Staying In Them?

I just saw this: Subject: City's Hotel Tax (Transient Occupancy Tax) - Ballot Measure From: Councilmember Jean Quan Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Submitting, On The Council's Own Motion, To The Electors At A June 2, 2009 Special Election, A Proposed Ordinance Amending The Oakland Municipal Code In Order To Provide For A Two Percent Surcharge To The City's Transient Occupancy Tax (Hotel Tax) To Support The Oakland Zoo, The Oakland Museum of California, Chabot Space And Science Center And The Cultural Arts Programs And Festivals.. And had to react.  Who's idea was it to have an increase in the Hotel Tax in the middle of a recession in a town not known for tourism?  I'd bet the revenue projection was a rosy scenario that will never soon come to pass. Now the City folks might say "Oakland has the highest hotel use rates in the State" but that comes from data that's almost three years old.  This is a new world.  Why charge a higher tax that will

Who Says The Oakland Redevelopment Agency Is Broke?

With actions like this $7 million purchase proposal that was on the Council agenda Tuesday night, the Oakland Redevelopment Agency clearly has some fiscal life in it: The February 26, 2009 Finance and Management Committee approved recommendations; 4 Ayes S-10.13-C C Subject: Real Property Purchase - 905 66th Avenue From: Community and Economic Development Agency Recommendation: Adopt An Agency Resolution Authorizing The Purchase Of Real Property At 905 66th Avenue, From The Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District For $7,747,102 Less the Cost Of Any Environmental Site Remediation And Authorizing Up To $12,000 For Real Estate Closing Costs, $60,000 For Property Inspection Costs And $1,000,000 For Demolition Costs

Mayor Ron Dellums to Meet With A's Lew Wolff After Spring Training

I have it from several sources that Mayor Ron Dellums plans to meet with A's Owner Lew Wolff after Baseball Spring Training.  That's an expansion on the other story that the City was making moves to contact the A's and present a plan.   What's good about this bit of news is the Mayor and not the Vice Mayor's doing the apparent heavy lifting. Nothing against Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, but it's time Oakland sent a clear leadership message to sports business owners, and that means the Mayor.  Period.    It also means we fall in and help him, and that organizations like the Chamber of Commerce avoid this knee-jerk tendency to form their own task force and try to get what they want, which is the ego-satisfaction of being involved at a major level.   What the Chamber has done is made it's own group in the past which has always made politics more complicated. Please, not this time.  That's Joe Haraburda's set of orders I write: stay home and wo

Rush Limbaugh Is Wrecking The GOP And I LOVE IT!

http://www.zennie62.com -- Rush Limbaugh's idiological rants are out of touch with an economic reality that will keep The Democrats in power for at least the next 10 years. The reason is the economy itself and the need for government investment. Between 1960 and 1999 the U.S. Economy added 20 million new jobs every 10 years, but from 1999 to today, only about 4.7 million new jobs. What happened to the 15 million jobs? They went overseas to countries like India, France, and north to Canada. And with jobs goes wealth. It's a key reason America's now the 3 largest exporter whereas we were number one for years, until 2004. We're now behind Germany and China. All of that wealth lost has resulted in wrecked credit over time. We have to have jobs to afford our mortgages and our population did not stop growing through this period. But what happened was that we started to lose jobs from the remaining stock of them. Remember, we have millions of people that aren't e

Oscar Grant Family files $50 million Lawsuit Against BART

More at Oakland Tribune : “OAKLAND — The family of Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old man shot and killed by a BART police officer early New Year's Day, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit for $50 million against BART in federal court Monday. The shooting prompted massive public outcry and protest in Oakland, and Johannes Mehserle, the BART officer who resigned in January rather than submit to questioning in BART's investigation of the shooting, is charged with murder in the incident. "This is the most egregious police shooting case that I've been involved in," said John Burris, the attorney representing Grant's family who has been involved numerous high-profile police-misconduct cases. Burris filed a $25 million tort claim against BART and Mehserle in January. He said he increased the dollar amount after learning more about what happened before and after the shooting, as well as learning more about the officers who were at the scene and about Grant and his family.” -- A

Zennie 62 on the untold story of Oakland

Dave from Spot.us and I finally met, totally by accident, at a meeting regarding the permits for the Bay To Breakers race. You know, that infamous meeting where protesters came to express their frustrations with the race organizer because the race people wanted to officially ban public urination and drunkeness, which I already thought was illegal. Whatever. My take I gave Dave was I expressed concern over how Oakland has become racially fragmented in a way I've not seen in a while. Perhaps then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown considered it noble to take on the Black Power structure as he said he did, but I considered the act racist. Sorry I did. A lot of people of various backgrounds were excited to have Ron Dellums as Mayor, but he's failed to live up to the promise his own legacy established. Now we have an Oakland that's the home of a kind of "downer mentality" that is in the very DNA of the culture. There are places too where Oakland is almost all White and n

Mayor Dellums' Sports and Entertainment Task Force Met Again Last Thursday

I attended my first meeting of the Sports and Entertainment Task Force last Thursday, and which was its second meeting.  It appears that we're on track to produce a document by the April deadline, and I don't write this because I'm on the task force.  I do want this thing to work, and by that I mean we have to create a set of recommendations for the Mayor that's workable and doable.  But I must explain many of the task force members fear the "politicians" will not do anything.  More on that in a bit. This is where we are:  the first meeting was used to explain what the task force is, and what the Mayor expects to see.  We're a collection of concerned citizens who represent various concerns and backgrounds, from restaurant owners, to Internet business owners (me), to activists like Steve Lowe, and journalists like Chris De Benedetti, who's the chairman, to the Mayor's office, who has a staffer that records the action.  What the Mayor expects to s

Deputy Paul Schene Shown Kicking Black 15-Year Old Teen Girl

From the AP: Surveillance video released in an assault case against a King County, Wash. sheriff's deputy shows him kicking a young girl, slamming her to the jail cell floor and striking her repeatedly. The deputy has pleaded not guilty in case This is racist and terrible. She's a 15-year old girl. Deputy Paul Schene apparently claimed she kicked a shoe but the tape does not show that. Another "Oscar Grant" example of a cop acting out of racist intent. We must punish officers who behave this way with jail time of their own. She is defenseless and did nothing wrong.

Oakland Crime: Shootings On Ninth Street and On International Bolevard

More at Inside Bay Area” : “OAKLAND — A rash of shootings struck the city over the weekend, leaving several injured and at least one person with life-threatening injuries, police said. Two people were shot around 2:15 a.m. Sunday in the 1700 block of Ninth Street. One victim suffered a minor wound to the hand, but the other took a gunshot wound to the back that police said is life-threatening. Police have three suspects in custody in connection with this shooting. The department's felony assault section has been called out to investigate the incident. At about the same time, a shooting in the 5800 block of International Boulevard left a victim with a gunshot wound to the face, though that injury does not appear life-threatening, police said.” -- And this will only get worse with the economy.