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It's agreed that the planned March 2010 closure of the Fremont New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant is a huge economic loss, but the elimination of 4,700 jobs only scratches the surface of the problem. That coupled with the stoppage and possible closure of the Chevron Richmond refinery, which already cost 1,100 jobs and we have a total of 5,700 direct jobs lost and over 29,000 total people thrown out of work or unable to get work in a San Francisco Bay Area that can't afford this economic hit at this time. 23,000? Yeah. 23,000 jobs. See, there's a multiplier impact with business operation such that an office or a manufacturer contracts with other businesses for supplies and services. The action of a small business owner walking down to the local store to buy printer paper is part of the multiplier effect because that small expenditure helps the retailer run his or her business. Or that person's employee - even if it's just the owner - eating lunch

Zennie Abraham shows Lanita Pace-Hilton his Flip camera , originally uploaded by allaboutgeorge . This was at the Blogger meetup at the Berkeley J School. Here's the video from that event:

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Ha! This is the beauty of being a local in Oakland and the Bay Area. Having friends who have old photos of you and them in action. In this case the photo below is one of Lars Frykman, Bill Boyd and myself on BART in 1975. (In case you're wondering where Bill is, he's the photog here.) Zennie and Lars - 1975 Bill found this photo and put in on his Facebook profile page; now it's on mine too. But I couldn't resist sharing it as it's a small window into the Bay Area of the past. I mean, I had a small "'fro" and Lars was sporting the Rolling Stones' hair look. But that was as much hair as I wanted; no longer. No big 'Fro for me! The only place I can think of where we may have been going at the time was Berkeley and to the Federation Trading Post (FTP) on a weekend or San Francisco just to ride through the then-new BART tube. That

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Nicholas Kristof has a great op-ed piece in today's New York Times where he explains... California spends $216,000 annually on each inmate in the juvenile justice system. In contrast, it spends only $8,000 on each child attending the troubled Oakland public school system, according to the Urban Strategies Council In a pointed critique of our seeming blood lust in spending money on prisons and locking people up over health care and education. While one may quibble with the estimates, there can be no disagreement that California has lost any desire to maintain the vast education system that it was known for. When I was little, California schools were considered the best in the country, and while Oakland had its challenged programs, it had gems like Skyline High School where I graduated. Not any more. The "me generation" brought us Proposition 13 and dramati

Vlogger Sarah Austin - who looks like a (she's gonna kill me for this) kind of cross between Britney Spears, Chelsea Clinton, and Heidi Montag - invited me to her coming back to San Francisco party Monday evening. (Yes, yesterday!) Now, you may be saying "Who's Sarah Austin" - good question. She's a micro-celebrity tech vlogger who gained her fame from appearing first on Justin.tv and now has a livecasting show on Mogulus. The difference between what I do and what she does is she's not a political commentator and focuses more on tech. To that end, she started her own site Pop17.com and has drawn a range of guests from the tech industry and has Ford Motor Company (she's an "agent" of The Ford Fiesta Movement ), Virgin America, Perkett PR and TechCrunch news blog as sponsors. Sarah is a study in how to make vlogging a business and her party was no exception to her example. Held at the office of ZaudHouse Design Group in Portrero Hil

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com YouTube , Metacafe and DailyMotion Rosemary Port is the blogger (and fashion model student) who for some reason believed it was ok to call fashion model Liskula Cohen a "psychotic, lying, whoring...Skank," under the blog post title, "Skanks of NYC" and from under the cover of a name not her own. On Wednesday August 19th, a U.S. Federal Judge ordered Google to identify the name of the person who we now know as Ms. Port.   Rosemary Port But for some weird reason I can only attribute to a lawyer with a super large ego, Rosemary Port thinks she can win a lawsuit against Google for $15 million . No way. And it's not because she's suing Google; it's because in using her blog to make malicious fun of Cohen, Rosemary Port unknowingly violated a provision of "Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act" that wa

Even though vlogging - video blogging - can be considered a self-indulgent practice, vloggers are fans of others who vlog. In my case, I'm a fan of several - Paul Robinett, or "Renetto" is one of them. Renetto's YouTube's first big vlog star just from the simple practice of posting videos consistently of him talking into a camcorder about something . But after developing a great following - 41,000 subscribers on YouTube - and a "name", Renetto's concerned that he's not serving his fan base, so my idea is that he shorten his video time . What makes Renetto popular is he talks to you through the camera . It's not so much lifecasting as leaving a message for the World. But they tend to go on for seven or eight minutes, where I've found that people tend to drop out of a video after about 2.15 minutes. I don't always like making such short videos, but I've slowly adopted this rule: me talking should be up to four minutes

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Now that the long-awaited Lake Chalet is open, one would think everyone in Oakland's happy that it's done and the boathouse is restored. But no. I'm told some Oakland councilmembers are still upset over a vote that took place three years ago. So much so they won't even set foot in the Lake Chalet! Let's go back three years to 2006, when San Francisco restaurateurs Lara and Gar Trupelli, known for the Beach Chalet and Park Chalet restaurants, were selected over the always good and very popular Everett & Jones Barbeque, in Jack London Square. The Oakland City Council was deadlocked four in favor of the Beach Chalet proposal and four against it. Specifically, Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland), Oakland Councilmembers Larry Reid (Elmhurst-East Oakland), Desley Brooks (Eastmont-Seminary), and Jean Quan (Montclair-Laurel) against the Beach Chalet pro

OAKLANDISH PRESENTS THE 4th ANNUAL RADIO REGATTA When: TODAY! Sunday, August 23rd, 1:00-7:00pm Where: Lake Merritt Sailboat House, 568 Bellevue Avenue (inside Lakeside Park) What: Oaklandish's biggest event of the year! Inluding DJ's, free gondola rides, and half-priced boat rentals. "The music the DJ's will be spinning in the Boathouse will be micro-FM broadcast out across the lake, so folks can tune in and enjoy it while out on the water in the summer sun. Bring a portable radio if you have one, and money if you want to pick up an Oaklandish tee from the Mobile Ops truck, make a donation to support free events like this, or buy artwork from the Innovators winners. We will enjoy beer from Linden Street Brewery, Pacific Coast Brewing Co., and the brand new Lake Chalet. There will be Lanesplitter pizza, and other food thanks to Noah's Bagels, Bacheesos, and Semifreddi's Bakery. This event is also sponsored by Hard Knock Radio and will feature some of the 2009 Oa

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com     Last night I saw the incredible sci-fi movie "District 9" at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland (and the line for it was out of the door and around the building). Without giving too much away (and that's a matter of opinion) for those who've not seen it, the movie produced by Peter Jackson (of Lord of The Rings and King Kong ) and directed by Neil Blomkamp, concerns a giant alien spaceship that has parked itself over Johannesburg, South Africa. Over the course of the last 28 years - over a generation - over one million aliens, called the derogatory name "Prawns", were placed in an area of the city called "District 9", and that zone became a giant slum. Some say District 9 is the best science fiction movie of 2009 if not the best one ever made. That question will be the focus of my poll below, but let's focus on the movie more b

From: NewsPaperOnline....What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But what if you haven't even gotten there yet? A Southwest flight with 108 passengers headed from Oakland, Calif. to Las Vegas turned around this morning after a 300-pound man punched a woman on board and then stripped naked. Both were taken More.. off the plane and taken away in ambulances. One of the passengers, Steve Lichliter, was on the plane accompanying his daughter to college at Penn State. She took a photo of the man -- sans clothing. Here's Lichliter's story, according to an email forwarded to NBCBayArea.com: Well our flight started ok but about 30 minutes out of Oakland a big guy started hassling other passengers then took off all his clothes. A posse of redneck vigilantes was quickly formed by the stewardesses and they were given restraining devices and taught how to tie the guy up after they got him pinned face down in the aisle. I offered to sit on top of him afterwards, as long as he was face down

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Last night, Wednesday, August 19th at 6 PM (well, I got there ay 6:38 PM) Paul Grabowicz, the Associate Dean and New Media Program Director at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, hosted the second meetup of local bloggers in the school's library. It was a great event. The idea of these meetings is, as the email put it, ... "so people can get together to socialize, share ideas, solve common problems and explore ways we might collaborate. We also want to find out what kind of training people might be interested in through the UC Berkeley J-School's Knight Digital Media Center" And really that's what happened. The meeting itself, which I did not video as some people don't want to be on camera, started with the idea of breaking into groups around "editorial" concerns and "business" issues, but that was jettison

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com YouTube , MySpace , Metacafe , DailyMotion , Blip.tv , StupidVideos and Sclipo I couldn't wait to visit the new Lake Chalet Restaurant at the restored Lake Merritt Boathouse, so I made a plan with my friend Gab to be there when the doors opened for the first time right at 5 PM last Monday, August 17th.  As you may recall, I recently posted a video-blog of the day the ribbon was cut to dedicate the boathouse and Lake Chalet owner Lara Truppelli and Executive Chef Jarad Gallagher were kind enough to give me an interview at the bar as the eatery was under construction.  Now, it's open and man is it terrific!  What's so exciting is the setting.  The Boathouse is right on the shore of Lake Merritt and a seat at the "Pumphouse Bar" section of the place on a sunny day as Monday was is a treat to the kind of Oakland many of us have wanted to see and c

I had the pleasure of meeting Gabrielle today, who lives in Oakland and is an artist with a special interest in reforming arches. For more on this check out her blog and stay tuned here!

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Robert Bobb, the former Oakland City Manager, possible candidate for Oakland mayor, and currently Emergency Financial Manager for The Detroit Public School system is on CNN now regarding the identification and arrest of employees in the Detroit Public School system (DPSS). Bobb already made headlines when he had the DPSS file for bankruptcy; now there's more news and while it's not good for the system , it's good for Bobb. Bobb said got a tip regarding embezzlement of funds from the system's new hot line installed to identify such problems, but what is being done to monitor employees in the future? "We have already implemented a very strong monitoring system," Bobb said. "Individuals who would be cheating the system will be caught." CNN's Kyra Phillips is hailing Bobb with what is a "great job" salute. It's still not cle

If you bank with Bank of America in Oakland, be careful because according to the Oakland Tribune, BofA branches are being robbed of late . First there was the Diamond District, then just this week East Oakland. Who's next? No branch I hope. Be watchful.

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com In the wake of my interview with Chevron employee Dennis Roos I've gotten a number of email and calls updating me on the matter of the negotiations to restart the stopped construction of the improvements to the Richmond refinery. One of them was this "Meet The Mayor" community meeting held Friday, August 7th at 5:30 PM. Here, one could ask questions of Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin for one hour, but my intent was to attend, film residents who were concerned about the project, pro and con, and after it was over, get the Mayor's direct point of view if she would give it to me. (Take note of that.) To review, Chevron's planned upgrade of their giant Richmond oil refinery was stalled because environmentalists sued them in court regarding what was viewed to be an inadequate environmental impact report (EIR) regarding how emissions were going to be lesse

By steveinmarquee66 who writes: The Rolling Stones performing Satisfaction, live at Oakland Coliseum 9 November 1969(second show). Soundboard recording Jumping Jack Flash Carol Sympathy For The Devil Stray Cat Blues Prodigal Son You Gotta Move Love In Vain I'm Free Under My Thumb Midnight Rambler Live With Me Gimme Shelter Little Queenie (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Honky Tonk Woman Street Fighting Man