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Berkeley AC Transit Bus Rapid Transit The latest phase of the AC Transit Bus Rapid Transit issue is that Berkeley's City Council's 4-2-2 vote that effectively reject the kind of study that AC Transit wanted to do in connection with the environmental report for a dedicated-lane Bus Rapid Transit Route was confusing. The vote, which got 4 yes decisions, just one less than five needed, reflected Berkeley's overall lack of understanding of what Bus Rapid Transit was and the many ways that it could be done. There was concern about a hypothetical loss of parking spaces when BRT becomes a reality. However, AC Transit did make it very clear that any parking spaces that are displaced to mark off the dedicated bus - only lane would be mitigated. AC Transit told the East Bay Express that it is ready to build parking lots and to work closely with these people who are concerned to find solutions that work for them. Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland’s At-Large member of the City Counc

WIth more and more celebrities adopting children from different racial and/or cultural backgrounds than themselves, some of you may be wondering what experts say on inter-racial, or 'transracial' adoption, and what laws pertain to this issue. This article serves to briefly summarize key points on this issue. "What is transracial adoption? Transracial adoption is the placement of infants and children of one race with parents of another race. Black children are more likely to be in foster care than white children, stay in foster care longer, and thus, are more likely to undergo multiple placements. Due to the developmental risks associated with long-term residence in foster care, a few strategies have been attempted to reduce the number of children in the welfare system (Taylor&Thornton, 1996). Transracial adoption is one of the most controversial methods currently being utilized to improve the welfare of black children" (from Issues in Transracial Adoption, Mauree

Last week this blogger wrote that Chevron and Richmond needed to "kiss, make up, and think. Well, it seems all the time both parties were doing just that. Communications from the Richmond Progressive Alliance and from Chevron report the completion of an amicable agreement that stops the chance that Richmond will lose millions due to a June ballot measure that looked like it was going to pass, and Chevron stopped paying out $15 million more than it had annually given to the City of Richmond. The Chevron press release neatly bullet-points the resolved issues: • Chevron will pay an additional $114 million to The City of Richmond over the next 14 years. • The City of Richmond will stop its ballot measure to change the Utility Tax and Chevron will remove its proposal. • The City of Richmond will drop its appeal of the Measure T Ballot measure, which was ruled unconstitutional. • Chevron would wave $1.2 million it sought from the City related to Measure T. • Chevron will ma

Dallas Braden  The Oakland Athletics Dallas Braden became the 14th player in Oakland A's history to throw a no-hitter or a perfect game, and just the second A's player to pitch a perfect game - the other being Catfish Hunter in 1968. Braden led the A's to a 4-0 win against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Oakland on Mother's Day. Now lost in all the celebration is what a "perfect game" in baseball is. It's not a "no-hitter"; it's beyond that. It's a game where no player from the opposing team gains a hit or gets on base in any way, even by a walk or a hit batter. Nothing.  Nada.  Zip. Here's the video : That's what Dallas Braden did today. Braden's the first Oakland A's pitcher to throw a perfect game in 42 years. That's incredible. Much has been made of Braden's feud with The New York Yankees' Alex Rodriquez, who's behavior has been rather salty since he was dumped by Kate Hudson afte

Suburban Atlanta, GA - Happy Mother's Day everyone! I can't remember missing celebrating Mother's Day and it was vitally important for me to give my Mom the gift of my help here in Georgia. See, my Mom still insists on working, and I see that as a personal failure on my part because I believe if I made enough money she would not have to work. I give her money each month, as of this writing it helps but not enough to compel her to just stay at home. Yet as I write this, i'm not sure that would keep her at home cooking and tending garden. While she does do that - tend garden and cook - I really think working around people is Mom's way of staying connected. She's a United Airline retiree but if United called, she'd answer it in a heart beat. Mom's tried working for me but following Internet trends can be boring if you really like being out and about with folks. Not that I don't, but that's my Mom. It's good therapy for the passing of

This isn't something that calls for the amount of time that Oakland Local's given to it , but there's someone in Oakland who has this silly idea that Oakland Local's going to "gentrify" the web. The idea is that Oakland Local will take traffic away from his website. Well, there's one answer: make a better site. The web is a wide open space. Not that there's room for everyone, but there's a lot of room. If the person who's concerned about losing traffic wants to have more of it, all they have to do is learn Search Engine Optimization. And if they're concerned about Oakland Local, study how the site is designed and go from there. But calling Oakland Local a name or saying that it's going to "gentrify" the World Wide Web is just plain silly. Not something to Rock The Casbah about.

The battle between Waste Management and Recology for garbage supremacy in San Francisco has an interesting twist. To recap, Houston-based Waste Management has owned the contractual right to collect San Francisco's waste and dump it in a place called the Altamont Landfill, which is located in Livermore, California. NorCal Waste, now called "Recology,' has been the company that collects garbage in San Francisco, then hands it over to Waste Management for storage in Livermore. But Recology wanted to have the piece of the business Waste Management held for years. To that end, the upstart San Francisco-based firm submitted a bid for the contract this year, and to the San Francisco Commission on the Environment, and to the surprise of many, beat Waste Management. So it's all over, and Recology gets to work, right. No. Both Recology and the San Francisco Commission on the Environment unknowningly swatted a giant bat at a hornet's nest of interlocking interests c

The Oakland Museum on 10th Street next to Laney College in Oakland, California had a great all-night block party that was a ton of fun. You know it was a perfect Oakland event when you run into people you know from all over the town, as was the case for this blogger. Before I install the video from that fun event, this post was necessary if only to gush about how nice it was to see a free Oakland event that reflected the true sprit of the City. Yes, the Museum looked great, but the people looked even better. The drinks flowed, the food was good considering much of it was either free to cheap, and the artwork was excellent. I didn't stay all night because my dear friend insists on getting up early to do her endurance training. Were it not for that, I'd have stayed until 3 AM; the party closed at 6 AM. We spent time with Susan Mernit and Amy Gahran, and Editor and Publisher and Senior Editor of Oakland Local (who had staff all over the Museum) as well as a number of

The annual May Day march in Oakland began at the Fruitvale BART drew an energized crowd that grew to over 3,000 by early afternoon. Filipino Advocates for Justice Executive Director Lillian Galedo was a featured speaker facing a crowd who gathered under the slogan, "We are all Arizona". On stage, organizers invited City Councilmembers Jean Quan and Jane Brunner to announce their proposal for a city boycott of Arizona and Arizona-based businesses. (The full City Council will consider the proposal this Tuesday at a 5:30 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza.) But talk soon turned to national immigration reform issues. Lillian Galedo addressed the congressional immigration reform proposal introduced late last week, which emphasizes enforcement over legalization. A move, Galedo said, "basically puts legalization on hold". According to an article in today's Washington Post , the proposal takes a Republican "secure the border" approach.

Continuing the run of stupid statements made by GOP representatives, we have Carly Fiorina. (As a note before this blogger continues, it's important to get out of the way that Carly Fiorina's successful battle against Breast Cancer is an inspiration to others suffering from this awful problem. I wish Fiorina continued success in that area, but not in politics.) In a grilling of an interview by Wolf Blitzer on CNN's The Situation Room, Carly Florina, running against U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer in an election battle for Boxer's California seat in The Senate, said that she understood and supports Arizona's controversial illegal immigration law. NNow the catch is Carly didn't say "I support and understand" in one sentence, she danced around the admission but then after Blitzer pressed her finally said "I understand why Arizona" passed the law and said it was because of "fear and frustration." Carly agreed with Wolf's question t

Yesterday, this blogger filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the City of Oakland and to the following offices: The Oakland City Attorney, the City of Oakland Office of Economic Development, The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority, The County of Alameda County Administrator's Office, and The City of Oakland's City Administrator's Office. The email with letter attached stated: Pursuant to the state open records act, I request access to and copies of all emails, written letters and correspondence, and studies of any kind regarding the budget and operation and management of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, and future development plans for baseball, football, and basketball stadiums in Oakland and over the time period from today back to 1/1/2008. I ask that the agencies wave fees for copies of studies and emails (which can be printed out from a computer) and to avoid charging greater than the the cost to make a black and white copy of a document.

Chevron's part of Richmond in that it's the city's largest employer. Richmond needs Chevron to provide not just jobs but help for the many non-profit community service programs that Chevron's in position to help with. Chevron lost a court battle regarding its environmental impact report. What Chevron must do and reportedly will do is comply with the courts request to the letter. Chevron should also stop making noises that it will leave Richmond in the city's time of need. What certain Richmond elected officials and so-called activists need to do is stop with the emotional saber-rattling that reads like a Fox News Cable program but from the left, and start with smart deal-making that gets to a win-win for both the City of Richmond and Chevron. That has not happened under the current political leadership in Richmond. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, while being a very nice person, is more of an activist than a deal-maker. The good Mayor does not seem interested in

The location at 389 Grand Avenue of what was once my favorite Oakland, California hang, The Golden Bear, has been closed for what seems to be about a year now. It was most recently called "Dapper" which was an odd name for a bar to this blogger. It was a nice place that seemed to cater to one type of young, black, Hip Hop-oriented audience. Dapper had a weird vibe: if you weren't exactly and narrowly from that group, you could feel uncomfortable. It's almost like how Cafe Van Kleef in downtown Oakland has changed. It seems to fit a young, white grunge artist crowd and if you're not part of that group, it can feel weird. But, I must confess to some interestingly fun one-night stands out of Cafe Van Kleef. Being bald is fun, but I digress. Someone has filed an application to reopen Dapper bar and some residents in Oakland's Adams Point neighborhood are upset about it. One person just didn't see the reason for a bar there. I disagree. Bars i