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Ok, Rosati's Pizza is the best in my World, but what's the difference between it and Zachary's Pizza? As this blogger writes this post, it's Tuesday morning at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near O'Hare Airport. It's snowing outside. And I'm looking at the remains of a Rosati's Deep Dish Pizza I ordered last night. I grew up in Chicago, so Zachary's Pizza in Oakland's a welcome reminder of Chicago-style pizza. That is, until you've had Chicago-style pizza. The difference between the Rosati's Pizza and Zachary's Pizza? The sausage. The Rosati's Deep Dish Pizza has that insanely great Italian sausage and a lot of it and in large portions. That's it. Really. That's it.   Other than that, So, come on Zachary's Pizza in Oakland, up that Italian sausage count!

Well, here's another blog post in the annals of Zennie's air travels: stuck at O'Hare Airport (again), but this time in a Crowne Plaza where the room phone doesn't work. That's right: this blogger can't call out or in. Thankfully cell phone and Twitter make up for the phone fail. What happened was United Airlines flight UA 102 made it to Chicago from San Francisco and landed in what at first was a relatively typical snow for Chicagoland. That was 6:12 PM CST; as the night got older the snow got worse, and eventually O'Hare took on the look of The North Pole, complete with sightings of Santa Claus outside. And, yes, the weather outside was somewhat frightful. A good 24 degrees. Yes, it's been colder than that with the wind-chill, but the snow's snarling travel. And as is my generally bad luck, the connecting flight I was to get on to Atlanta was delayed. And then delayed. And then the United gate reps explained the airplane we were t

The first review of TRON from this space was more about its similarities with 2001 A Space Odyssey , and called Tron Legacy: 2010: A Digital Odyssey , and why it was disturbing to this blogger.   But this is to explain that TRON is a good movie, not a great one, but good, and that you should see it at The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA. The Grand Lake Theater, at Grand Avenue and Lake Park Ave near Oakland's Lake Merritt, has existed since 1926 and features an enormous main viewing room that represents the best of the old theaters. The friends I saw it with thought TRON was outstanding and, as the video shows, would definitely see it again. However, the 3D element was disappointing. Again, converting a 2D movie to 3D is something that should be done with care and consideration. It had to add something to the film experience. The TRON 3D effects don't add much to the film. I was constantly moving my 3D glasses up and off and back over my eyes again to tel

This video blogger talked with Oakland City Attorney John Russo about his response to a video featuring Michael Siegel of the Oakland civil rights law firm Siegel and Lee , and the focus of a blog entry of last week. One that got under the skin of Russo and his assistant Alex Katz. Within two days, John and Alex called to ask for this blogger to come and conduct a video interview to get their side of the Oakland Gang Injunction issue. The result is the 20 minute video. In 2010 Oakland became the third city in the San Francisco Bay Area to implement injunctions against a specific set of street gangs, the North Oakland Crime Organization and another called The , which, according to Russo, is a terribly violent gang. What Is A Gang Injunction? To start, we got out of the way just what a gang injunction is. "A gang injunction is a civil court order that the city pursues against a uh, known criminal enterprise," Russo said. "It's defined, the term "gang"

Yelp has become the go-to site for ratings on businesses of all types, including the "City of Oakland Parking Service System." That's everything from the Parking Department Office at City Hall Plaza, to the parking enforcement employees on the street, and everyone in between. The collective gets a nice "one-star" rating on Yelp . And the comments are something to read. Here's a sample: Several weeks ago I received a parking ticket for parking at an expired meter in Oakland. When I went to pay it today, I was surprised to see another citation that was past due associated with my license number... Then I remembered: many months ago, I found a parking ticket on my car when I failed to move it for street sweeping. The next day, I tried to pay for said ticket, both online, and using the over-the-phone method. Neither worked. Several days later, I tried once more to pay the ticket, again to no avail. I was told several times that no such ticket existed in t

This is yet another email sent to this blogger about the Oakland Parking problem. From the way it reads, Oakland, CA's predatory parking practice (say that three times fast), where the city aggressively tickets and tows cars, is still with us. Hello, I am speaking out because this just started this past Tuesday. Please see all the pictures and my letter to the Parking Citation place. thank you.There are 6 - 12 cars parked here 7 days per week. i have lived here for 6.5 years and NEVER gotten a ticket here until NOW. we all are getting tickets daily. Double Parking in a Culdesac? this is unjust. how do we fight this now? How sad that the City Of Oakland would stoop this low to get money. and calling the number to get help is a waste of time. Please let me know if you can help or what we can do. There are a few of us here in the neighborhood that are disabled. AND people who work and visit people at Highland Hospital park here. they also get tickets. hmm.. the parking people ON

ALERT! A's Stadium San Jose vs. Oakland update. A quick follow-up on yesterday's post r egarding opposition to the San Jose effort to build a stadium for the Oakland A's (Athletics): the San Jose City Council passed it's much discussed amendment to its General Plan. What that means is more housing where industrial property is currently situated, and more urban costs and less tax increment revenue generation from a tax base that some San Joseans feel has already suffered a "death by a thousand cuts." This decision is a major blow to the city's ability to afford a stadium for the Oakland A's. That is, of course, assuming San Jose withstands a court challenge from both the San Francisco Giants and The City of San Francisco, as well as The City of Oakland. Stay tuned.