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Getting Out Late In Oakland After Too Much Work: A Brief Report

This phase of work, work, work is not done (and this is part of it) but not yet taking its toll. To make sure that doens't happen, I did two things: 1) I went to the gym and 2), I went out to just relax. The first thing, the gym, I do every day, or try too. I'm working to keep by weight below 200 pounds. I find I feel best at less than 196. Yesterday I was at 198. The second act was just plain going out. I wound up, as they say, at Luka's and ran into my neighbors and their friend who can dance up a storm. So, for the first time in a a while, I danced to some combination of "house" and reggae. Then, once enough sweat was produced to make think of my desire not to sweat a lot, I stopped, and fortunately so did they, and left. That was fun. It's also a blast to do it with people from your hood. Then I wound up at another place called Mua and ran into a couple I generally see at Cafe Ven Kleef. They had a friend in West Oakland who had a story tip f

Oakland A's News: Potential Wolff Firing? Coliseum Plan. Wolff Calls Dellums. Boxer Sends Letter To MLB

UPDATE: Oakland Tribune online poll "Should Oakland build new stadium for the A's" has "yes" leading 52 to 48 as of this writing but just 235 votes, which means it's too small a sample not to be "gamed".  (I did not link to the front page because the Oakland Tribune will not have the poll up long enough for many to respond and the poll is poorly positioned on the site.) I took this screen shot of the poll: To say that this was an important week in the matter of keeping The Oakland Athletics in Oakland is an understatement.  To illustrate this I combined three blog posts from our Oakland Focus , San Francisco Focus , and Zennie62.com blogs on this matter containing "breaking news" -- all from this week.  Developer Reveals  Oakland Athletics Stadium Plan For Coliseum  The Commissioner of Baseball on Monday March 30th announced a new committee devoted to determining the viability of baseball in the East Bay. In his statemen

Mayor Dellums And Congresswoman Lee Snubbed At Oakland Police Funeral; Black Oaklanders Are Asking Why.

Video Commentary : MySpace , Metacafe , Blip.tv , Crackle , Stupid Videos , Sclipo , Viddler and Howcast John Burris is a well-known Oakland attorney representing the family of Oscar Grant in the wake of the shooting of Grant by Johannes Mehserle on New Year's Day. Burris attended the funeral last Friday, March 27th of the four Oakland Police Officers who were murdered by Lovell Mixon on Saturday March 21st in Oakland. I unfortunately did not attend the event as I was sick, but I did watch it on television. Burris brings up a point that I noticed but given the weight of the matter, put on the back-burner of my mind because I didn't want to think the unthinkable: that not only was the Mayor of Oakland not allowed to speak but Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who was in attendance, was not even acknoweldged by the presenters. That's a huge no-no. Congresswoman Lee is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. Both are African American. All of the elected offici

Oakland A's Ownership Rumored To Consider Firing Lew Wolff

The above headline will catch you by surprise, but the wind is blowing in that way.  The point is that several people behind the scenes, in touch with the ownership group, and around the Bay Area are talking about how Oakland Athletics Managing Partner Lew Wolff has, as one person put it "blown $20 million" on the effort to find a new home for the Oakland Athletics. Another contact told me one would be "fired" if they lost even $8 million on such a development project so early into the process.  But the concensus for now is to let Wolff continue to do his work, but he's on a short leach.  The main problem is Wolff fell in love with the "baseball village" concept, where the ownership has to buy a lot of land not just for a baseball stadium but for residential development in the hope that the improved land sells for more than the group bought it for.  That works in a credit-health, prosperous economy, but in today's recessionary and deflationary wo

Promise Technology Announces New ServicePlus On-Site Parts Replacement Program for US and Canada

First I take a stance on how backing up data is a personal responsibility and how Carbonite - a data protection company -- should take the rap for losing its customer's data, then I get comments on the San Francisco Blog about it, and from some high level folks, and now a press release?  Interesting.  It means our blogs matter in the tech world after all.  Here's the release I got on Promise Technology's news about an onsight parts replacement program: Promise  Announces New ServicePlus On-Site Parts Replacement Program for US and  Canada   Industry leading support program expands to include on-site component  swap offering MILPITAS, Calif., April  1, 2009 – Promise Technology Inc., a leading supplier of  sophisticated RAID storage solutions for enterprise and SMB customers,  today announced general availability of the Promise ServicePlus parts  replacement plan for their VTrak enterprise class RAID storage subsystems.  The ServicePlus program is an avai

"Save The Parkway Theater" Oakland Meeting Of 3-29-09

On March 22nd, the Parkway Theater in at 1834 Park Blvd in Oakland played its last set of films to a large audience, then stopped after 12 years of operation and a lot of memories. This is the video story I made from that night: A victim of the economy and a landlord seeking higher rents, Parkway Owners Catherine and Kyle Fisher made a decision to close the legendary business just four days before the last opening night. But no sooner did that happen than a group of concerned Oaklanders sprang into action. They set up a website called http://iliketheparkway.com and a facebook page called "Save The Parkway Speakeasy Theater", then held now three meetings. This video presents much of the action and talk from the second meet: a large event at Roos Cafe on Park Avenue, just three doors from the Parkway itself. Here's the video from the meeting: The meeting attendees divided into several sub-groups and determined possible future programming and business models fo

Sean Maher on How Oakland Potholes Point to Larger Problems

Saen Maher wants to have his story idea on Oakland Potholes funded. Here's what http://www.Spot.us writes: If you live in Oakland, you'll be lucky to see the street your house is on get repaved during your lifetime. The city's 2,300 miles of road are on an 85-year resurfacing cycle, more than three times slower than the industry standard. City engineers grade a third of Oakland's streets in poor condition or worse. Facing serious budget cuts, the Public Works Agency has left three of four supervisor jobs vacant, including those overseeing heavy paving, pot holes and concrete repair. A story should detail the challenge Public Works is facing, including its momentum, scope, and possible solutions.

The Problem of Potholes in Oakland

www.Spot (dot) us has a great set of videos on the Oakland Pothole problem. They write: Oakland has a serious problem with potholes. If you are a biker, auto-driver or pedestrian, it is a problem we all have. It can cause material or physical harm - as this individual describes. Help us report on the potholes in Oakland

Fallout from Oakland Massacre - Clinton Killian

Fallout From Oakland Massacre The Mixon massacre brought out the best and worst in Oakland. Like any other tragedy, peoples’ true character and resolve, or lack thereof, came to the forefront. This tragedy will have repercussions in Oakland for years to come. First, you have to admire the courage of our police force. They responded immediately to this tragedy, secured the neighborhood, and pointed out, again, the dangers of their jobs. Other heroes were the Oakland residents in the area impacted by the shootings. Many showed bravery by aiding the officers throughout this tragedy. They risked their lives to comfort the wounded and to stop the killings. Oakland citizens showed their concern, mourning and gratitude in many ways. They organized a vigil at the scene to honor the fallen officers. The Oakland clergy stepped forward and offered comfort for the city and the families, including the Mixons, who were severely impacted by this senseles

BREAKING: Senator Barbara Boxer Sent "Keep A's In Oakland" Letter To Baseball Commissioner Selig

I just received this letter copy via email.  It comes on the heels of the news that A's Owner Lew Wolff called Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums to request a meeting regarding keeping the A's in Oakland.  SEN. BOXER WORKS TO KEEP A’S IN OAKLAND Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today sent the following letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig: March 31, 2009 Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner Major League Baseball 245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor New York, NY 10167 Dear Commissioner Selig:             I appreciate the announcement you made yesterday that you are forming a committee to review the various proposals regarding the future of the Oakland Athletics.  As your committee does its work, I urge you to do everything possible to keep the team in Oakland.             As you may know, Oakland has recently gone through some difficult times and families there deserve some good news. As someone who splits her time between Washington, DC,

BREAKING: A's Owner Lew Wolff Calls Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums To Request Meeting

I have it from a very good source that Oakland Athletics Owner and Managing Partner Lew Wolff called Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums today to request a meeting to "explore options to keep the A's in Oakland".  That's great news and it comes on the heels of Monday's report that Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig formed a committee to determine why a baseball stadium deal was not struck in Oakland, and Selig did so with wording that could have been read as a forecast of a move to take the A's out of Oakland.   But Wolff's phone call to Dellums today signals a new start to a recommittment to Oakland by the A's owner.  Meanwhile here's the stadium proposal the Mayor's Task Force saw last Thursday:

Coliseum Stadium Plan For Oakland Athletics Revealed

The Commissioner of Baseball on Monday announced a new committee devoted to determining the viability of baseball in the East Bay. In his statements Commissioner Bud Selig said that the A's owners have exhausted their efforts in Oakland. But really, they have not. Here's an example in this plan for a new Coliseum baseball stadium on the parking lot land of the facility. The plan, created by architect Frank Dobson and Retail Leasing expert Bob Leste with Oaklander Steve Lowe was first introduced in 2004 and while it was presented to the then-new ownership group and A's Managing Partner Lew Wolff, it went largely ignored by them. Wolff was known to be in love with a concept called a baseball village and needed a lot of land to make that work, hence the Fremont land chase. But the idea called for hundreds of acres of land, more than the A's organization could afford given the economy and so needing public money turned to Fremont, which turned a deaf ear to their request. W

Don Perata's Risky Run For Mayor Begins Today - Knifes Out Already

No sooner after San Francisco Chronicle Columnist Chip Johnson wrote that California Senator Don Perata's running for Mayor of Oakland  , did the written attacks start and right on SF Gate's website.  Here's what's been written in the comment section of Carla Marinucci's column : georgedb 3/31/2009 7:37:49 AM Great. One more 'career' politician as mayor of Oakland. The residents should be just thrilled. Recommend:     ( 10 ) ( 1 ) [Report Abuse] moto1 3/31/2009 8:15:11 AM Sweet! Another criminal in office. Recommend:     ( 5 ) ( 1 ) [Report Abuse] moto1 3/31/2009 8:17:48 AM Isn't that the guy who's wheels were stolen after he stole them from taxpayers? Recommend:     ( 7 ) ( 1 ) [Report Abuse] historybuff 3/31/2009 8:23:03 AM Don Perata has been investigated but never charged; a person is presumed innocent until found guilty by a jury. While not perfect, Perata is at least highly competent and would be a vast improvement over Dell