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Not soon after this space blasted Oakland for not having enough bars and restaurants showing World Cup Soccer matches, and slammed Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums for not hosting an Oakland City Hall outdoor viewing party for World Cup Soccer, did an email fly in from some where in Oakland. This one: Zennie, With as much as you follow Oakland business, I find it hard to believe you aren't following the Heart and Dagger Saloon on Lake Park Avenue. Since you didn't list it in your post and lamented how Oakland isn't with it, let me fill you in. Heart and Dagger is opening early on weekends (11am) for the games and are offering drink specials. Follow them on Facebook, they post about it all the time . Natalie Okay! The Heart and Dagger Saloon is located at 504 Lake Park Ave, where the quirky Seranader bar was located, which is that little street that starts where the Grand Lake Theater is at Grand and Lake Park and extends to Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland. Here's a

For all of its claims to be moving ahead as a city, Oakland, California is still light years behind it's neighbor, San Francisco, and other cities like Atlanta and Seattle in World Cup Soccer viewing opportunities. If you don't have a television or happen to live with roommates who don't care about World Cup Soccer 2010 (boring people they must be), you're almost out of luck in Oakland. There are only eight establishments showing World Cup Soccer, and spread out between North Oakland and the Claremont District of the Central Oakland Hills. The one I most recommend is Barclay's at 5940 College Avenue. Why this blog post? I just got this email: Hi there, I just came across your video shot right after the game on Friday, and I noticed you were in Oakland. I'm originally from Germany (another lucky team that day...), and none of my roommates give a damn about the World Cup, so I was hoping you could point me in the right direction, as to where in Oak

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' head of communications Paul Rose is leaving Oakland City Hall for a new jobs with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. As I told Richard Parks of The Bay Citizen.org, and who called for my opinion of Paul's move, it does not mean Mayor Dellums isn't running for reelection. Now, Richard called me because I worked for two Mayors of Oakland, Elihu Harris and Jerry Brown, so because of that, and a lot of friends, I have some idea of what happens in that office in Oakland City Hall. Frankly, Rose has found it hard to get Mayor Dellums to come into the New Media landscape. Mayor Dellums' Old Media idea of withholding information only has served to allow the development of a negative media pool around Dellums. I know Rose tried like heck to change that, but in the end, Rose has to consider his future. Of all of the staff that worked for Mayor Dellums, Rose is one who gave it a good go. Still, I think the best staffer is the on

On June 8th 2010, election day, and the same day of the Angry Luxor Cab Driver incident, the San Francisco 49ers scored and important and this blogger thought impossible victory in getting Santa Clara County to give the go-ahead to build the 49ers new stadium. But in the wake of the victory, knifes are coming out from all over because of the very valid claim that Santa Clara can't afford to pay their share for the stadium. This email, the name withheld, and which will be expanded on in the coming weeks, is telling: Hi Zennie, Re: your interview with Mr. (Don) Perata and that both of you were surprised that the 49ers won the stadium vote. I live in Santa Clara and I'm on the board of the grassroots organization that was opposed to the stadium subsidy. If you want to know how they won, you can contact me. They spent >$4.1 million on a saturation campaign of misinformation to tell the voters that the stadium won't cost residents anything. We have a mayor and 4 c

If you live in Oakland, or were just visiting from San Francisco on Wednesday night, perhaps you saw the flames coming up from a building on Grand Avenue, just up the street from the Grand Lake Theater. What happened was an apartment unit at 3323 Grand Avenue and in the same building as the famed bar and grill called The Alley, caught fire. While the flames rendered the renter of the unit without an apartment, the good news is The Alley is still open, operating, and undamaged. It's a blessing because the fire could have spread to The Alley itself; it did not. How the fire started is not certain, but sources told this blogger, who visited the establishment last night three hours after the fire, the unit was owned by a patron who allegedly has a drinking problem and was drunk before the fire started. Once the fire was discovered patrons of The Alley worked with others who lived in the building to quickly put out the fire. All that remains is for fans of The Alley to com

Of all the candidates in the Oakland Mayor's Race, Former California State Senator Don Perata, a Democrat, is the one who has the mosts: most experienced, most talked-about, and most controversial. Don Perata  Don Perata's controversy and scandal has been so well-reported it seemed the East Bay Express' Robert Gammon paid his bills from it. Indeed, Perata's controversies have clouded his ability to explain his case to be Mayor of Oakland, which is what this video interview is about. This video interview is Perata's platform, just as I've created for every other Oaklander running for any office. I've known Don Perata for at least 17 years, and have seen a different side of Perata than what's painted elsewhere. When I was a columnist for The Montclarion, Don Perata was an Alameda County Supervisor, and before that he was a school teacher. Then, as I worked for the last two Mayors of Oakland before Ron Dellums, Perata became California Ass

On Monday, Greg Harland, a candidate in the Oakland Mayor's Race, was kind enough to open his Oakland Hills home to talk about why he's running for Mayor of Oakland and his view of how Oakland needs to be changed. The full 23 minute interview is on video above; what's presented are some highlights of our discussion. Again, the style of this blogger is to give a candidate a platform, not to attack them. Greg Harland is a mild, smooth, white, bespectacled business man who grew up in Oakland, California for most of his life, since 7 years of age. Harland graduated from Oakland High School, class of 1964. He lost his father, a pilot on the USS Yorktown, in a crash at Alameda Naval Air Station when he was a boy. Harland grew up from hard times that he's reluctant to openly talk about, to, with the help of friends, the business entrepreneur he is today. Why run for Mayor of Oakland? Harland got the idea to run for Mayor of Oakland while sitting at the dinin

An update in the case of the Angry, Violent, SF Luxor Cab Driver who tried to physically remove this blogger from Luxor Cab #1046 License number CA 8L46060, a white Ford Crown Victoria. The assault report was filed and San Francisco Transportation Authority staffers reported that it was sent to the San Francisco Taxi Cab Commission. As of this writing, there has not been a follow-up phone call, but the report was filed on Friday and today is Tuesday. But given this blog series was first posted last Wednesday and it's six days later, and information to me explains that Luxor has seen the blog post, there has not been an apology from anyone representing Luxor Cab in San Francisco. Meanwhile there has been a sudden development of comments from the same person using different YouTube accounts. Cool, but if this person represents Luxor Cab San Francisco, they're advocating against free speech rights (in this case, the right to say the cab driver's problem was he wanted

San Francisco TV Station KPIX Channel 5's Mike Sugarman discovers the Sony camera at BART . On Friday of last week, on the way to Cafe Americano to meet a friend, Mike Sugarman - the long-time San Francisco KPIX Channel 5 (CBS) News Man, who interviewed this blogger when the focus was bringing the Super Bowl to Oakland in 1999 - was struggling with a new Sony Betacam camera that he was given to use for a story about the planned BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) 15 cent fare decrease (which he and I disagree about.) I stopped to help Mike and suggested he restart the Sony camera; he did and it worked. So, in turn he interviewed me as part of his segment. That was Mike's first time with the camera on his own. For 31 years Mike Sugarman worked a story assignment with a camera person. But in the age of smaller media budgets, reporters like Mike Sugarman are learning to be, well, something like video bloggers, using the camera to make the news themselves without a came

This San Francisco event annoucement comes from Gary Meyer, the owner and operator of The San Francisco Balboa Theater and the Co-Director of The Telluride Film Festival, who you may remember from this video interview earlier this year : Sent a press release announcing the exclusive debut of a new concert film featuring Bruce Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band this Thursday June 17th at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco with two shows at 7:15 PM and 9:15 PM. This YouTube video gives you a preview. It's from the very show the concert film is based on: Here's the extensive press release: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND CONCERT FILM PREMIERES AT BALBOA JUNE 17 TO BENEFIT MELANOMA RESEARCH Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band in "LONDON CALLING: LIVE IN HYDE PARK” will have it exclusive San Francisco area Premiere on Thursday, July 17. This one night only benefit will have two showings at 7:15pm and 9:15pm. The showings will benefit th

The Oakland Parking problem of high ticketing rates, high parking ticket prices, and aggressive parking enforcement practices in low income areas continues. This blogger just received an email from Nick Mitchell, a PhD. candidate at UC Santa Cruz, that he asked me to print in full. Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, who's defended Oakland's parking practices very loudly in the recent past, should read and explain this one. I also have a somewhat nightmarish story about Oakland parking drama. I live in West Oakland, and I love my neighborhood, but the parking ticket situation is starting to get absurd. Last year, my registration sticker got stolen. I didn't notice this until I received a ticket for not displaying it. Never mind the fact that my registration was fully up to date. Having one's sticker stolen, I guess, is a ticketable offense, and one that resulted in my receiving $70 tickets on two different weeks. The thing is that the CA DMV is slow and

For this blogger, 2010 California Primary Election Night will be remembered for an emotional, stirring speech by Kamala Harris, now the California Democratic Representative in the race for the Attorney General seat now held by Jerry Brown, and an angry, irrational, and racist cab driver who really should be off the streets of San Francisco , or at least not allowed to drive a cab. It started at 9:15 PM PDT as I walked up the escalator at The BART Embarcadero Station to Market Street on the side in front of the San Francisco Federal Building. The initial plan was to walk over to the cab stand on Drumm Street in front of the Hyatt Regency. Then I saw a white cab drive slowly by, so I yelled "Hey taxi" and on cue, the cab slowed more and turned from the second lane to the first lane and to me. I clapped my hands in delight, opened the door, and got into the cab. That was the end of my joy. Angry Luxor Taxi Driver  I told the man to take me to Delancey Street w

The latest news from the Oakland Mayor's Race comes in the form of a communication from Don Perata's Office specifically stating Perata's intentions with respect to participation in Oakland Mayor's Race candidate debates or forums. The letter states the following: I regret that I will not attend any mayoral forums until the official filing deadline for mayor has closed and the full field of aspirants is known. Holding mayoral debates before all candidates are declared is undemocratic and misleads voters. In particular, Mayor Dellums has yet to announce his intentions as is his right as an incumbent. The mayor is running for re-election until he says he's not, or when filing closes in August. Ron Dellums has served our community for almost four decades. He's well entitled to such consideration. Sincerely, Don Perata. Presumably, Perata's statement also applies to Oakland At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, who's not offically said she&

California Attorney General Candidate Chris Kelly's people have smartly bought up a lot of Internet ad real estate in promoting Kelly's run for the seat currently held by Jerry Brown. But enough is enough. Chris Kelly's ad appears on the top of this blogger's SFGate.com / San Francisco Chronicle website blog. It wasn't placed there after consultation with this space, so here's the message: ZENNIE ABRAHAM IS NOT VOTING FOR CHRIS KELLY. I'M VOTING FOR KAMALA HARRIS. Ok. And yeah, screaming. Chris Kelly does not have the connections or the experience to be a good top lawyer for California; Kamala Harris does. Being California Attorney General is not an issue of evaluating the legal impact of Facebook code, as was the case when Kelly was Facebook's legal representative. Being California Attorney General is about knowing who to call, when, and why to accomplish an objective for people in a region. There's little if anything in Chris Ke

Make it seven competitors in the Oakland Mayor's Race upcoming debate as Don Perata bows out of the Thursday, June 10th Oakland Mayoral Candidates Forum sponsored by 100 Black Men of The Bay Area. But what's interesting behind the reason, according to a very good source , is that the Perata camp gave a weird reason for not wanting to participate in what they thought was going to be an Oakland Mayor Candidates Forum in September, even thought the source claims Perata was not asked officially to do so. The Perata Camp said that as current Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums had not actually announced what he was going to do, run for another term as Oakland's Mayor, or not (even as some have told this blogger he was going to run again), Perata didn't think it was fair to participate in any forum. Seriously. At the time, the source was surprised Perata was going to be in the 100 Black Men-sponsored forum. Perata is not going to be there as of this writing. That's a mi

Don Perata  The Oakland Mayor's Race which once featured ten candidates - Ron Dellums, Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell, and an tenth person who's still not ready for prime time - is now down to nine. Sources who know her told this blogger Maya Dillard-Smith has elected to drop out of the race. Not to be mean, but to be critical, Maya Dillard-Smith stood a better chance in the Oakland Mayor's Race with a real website and a good Internet strategy. She did not have one. Her only real Internet marker was a Facebook page called "Maya for Mayor." The problem with the growth of Facebook is anyone thinks that a Facebook page can do as a serious Internet marker. It can't and it doesn't. When you do a Google search for Maya Dillard-Smith, a website that reads "Maya Dillard-Smith for Mayor of Oakland" should pop up. It doesn't because there's not one. A simple website, or a free

The Oakland Mayor's Race finally has its first official candidates forum. This Thursday, May 10th, 100 Black Men of The Bay Area will host the "Oakland Mayoral Candidates Forum" at the First Unitarian Church at 685 14th Street in Oakland from 6 PM to 9 PM. Yes, all of the candidates will be there as of this writing. If Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, who has not made an official statement on his future in or out of Oakland, does not show up, don't take it as a sign he's not going to run. It's June and we've got a lot of time before November. We also have a lot of candidates: ten. So many that my sources tell me 100 Black Men almost made a mistake in not inviting all of them. At first, 100 Black Men extended invitations to three Oakland Mayor's Race participants: Don Perata and Oakland Councilmembers Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan. But the other candidates got wind of the event and literally raised hell, threatening to crash the party and present th

The spaces available on Union Street The 2010 San Francisco Union Street Festival is history and while it was an overall success, the crowds Sunday were less than in the past and once the tents were folded and the people went home, the empty store fronts were on display once again. To be sure, new and great restaurants like the home-away-from-home eatery called The Brick Yard at 1787 Union St (at Octavia) , and replacing The Bayside Bar and Grill at a space that sat empty for two years, and the upcoming "Unwind" just down the street, promise a brighter future for Union Street, the way still has a long trek to make to recover its past luster. There are over 20 spaces for lease along Union Street as of this writing, and overall it looks like a ghost town almost totally devoid of the vibrant street scene that once attracted thousands of people. Union Street lacks a book store and a movie house. The Apple Store was not aggressively pursued by the neighbor association;

Social Broadcasting OK. To the view of this blogger, the term "Social Networking" is not only inappropriate, it's illogical. The correct term is really "Social Broadcasting" and if more people thought that way, they would understand how media has really changed over the last two decades and how to take advantage of the tools available to them. Two events led to the use of the term Social Broadcasting for this blogger. First, on April 10, 2008, James Earl Buck used Twitter to get out of an Egyptian jail. What happened was that Buck, a University of California at Berkeley, or "Cal student", was in Mahalla, Egypt reportedly covering an anti-government protest when he and his colleague Mohammed Maree were arrested. While being transported to jail, James Earl Buck used his cell phone to send a message that read "Arrested." (If it were me, I'd have sent a tweet rather than a message.) Eventually, bloggers and friends at Cal and

On Wednesday, Oakland City Attorney John Russo sat down to talk about the need to legalize marijuana use, the Golden State Warriors, the Oakland A's, and World Cup Soccer. The result is this 14 minute video interview , the latest in a string of nine videos Russo has done with this blogger, and friend. In this one, John Russo talks about his support for the legalization of recreational marijuana use in California. The vote to cause the legalization of marijuana use is on the November ballot in California. According to a recent poll, 37 percent of potential voters use marijuana. John Russo is the first elected official to openly support the legalization of marijuana use in California. Why does Russo support legalization? "Well, Russo said, first, number one I think marijuana prohibition has been a demonstrated failure at this point, no different than alcohol prohibition in the 1920s." Russo says it's also "cooler" for the young to use marijuan