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So many things to do in Oakland, so little time-you can check this report from Pamela Drake on some you may have missed: If you’re active in the life of this city, there’s a plethora of ways to keep informed. I found both our special talents and serious shortcomings on display this recent winter week. On Saturday and Sunday the East Side Arts Alliance, the National Lawyers’ Guild, the New Year’s Movement for Justice (for Oscar Grant), and a host of other civil rights and media groups sponsored A People's Hearing on Racism & Police Violence in a chilly auditorium in central Oakland. On Saturday I heard heart wrenching testimony from parents’ who had lost their children to police violence, and on Sunday young people who have been stalked by the police bore witness to being singled out for their activist activities since the murder of Oscar Grant. More testimony was given describing the profiling of Muslims and other immigrant groups targeted by US officials and the gr

Over the years and before Oakland had an elected lawyer starting in 2000, one of the main complaints was that an appointed Oakland City Attorney was too much the shill of the then-powerful Oakland City Council.  Of course, it was Oakland's mayor who made that complaint more often than others. At times, given that the Mayor couldn't trust who was talking, the lawyer or the council, the complaint was just. But all have agreed having Oakland's top lawyer at the hands of the Mayor would be equally disastrous, which is why it was not don when Oakland had the chance. Now, with a massive turnover in institutional memory, comes newly-elected Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, pulling a fast one in suggesting Oakland have an appointed and not elected lawyer.  That can't be allowed to happen; here's why. Mayoral Impulse And Oakland's Lawyer I remember when, in 1997, and during the time I served as Economic Advisor to Mayor Elihu Harris, Elihu called then-Oakland City Attorney

I’ve been reading and listening and thinking about the proposed new gang injunctions and the fate of the existing one. I’ve also been thinking about the fates of the proponents and opponents of said injunctions, City Attorney John Russo, OPD Chief Batts, and local legal beagles and civil rights attorneys, Siegel, particularly the younger Siegel, Michael, someone whose courage and heart I’ve long admired. John Russo was my council member before becoming the City Attorney. He fought against the loitering ordinance because of its pre-emptive and racial profiling components. I always thought gang injunctions were some of the weird and slightly scary things that happened in LA, a weird and somehow scary place with all those manic freeways and seedy strip malls (even the term is seedy). Now they’ve come to Oakland and the injunctions as well as the gangs seem to be tearing our political community apart. Today (Feb. 16th)a judge will decide whose career might be promoted and whose might be d

Natalie Munroe is a teacher at Central Bucks East High School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia who got so fed up with her kids, she decided to blog about it. And now, while all that blogging may cost Ms. Monroe the job she's held, she's still blogging. It brings up the question "What if Oakland Teachers blogged like that?" And the other question: "When will Natalie be the subject of a TV show?" First, Natalie Munroe has taught English since 2006 and has a reported salary of $54,500 (not bad considering the cost of living there) according to Phillyburbs.com. Her blog Natalie's Handbasket contains (well, contained, since she's taken some entries off public view but the one I'm about to post is still cached as of this writing), some really candid thoughts about the little ones she teaches. Here's a sample direct from her blog post from fall 2009: A Big Problem Today Kids! I don't know what's wrong wi

Ok, for all practical purposes, Valentine's Day 2011 is here, (or if you did it on Saturday, gone) even though it's really on Monday. And while I am in suburban Atlanta doing what I'm supposed to do at this stage of life - keeping my Mom company (she's in good health, thanks for asking) I have a life in Oakland, too. For all of my complaints about Oakland, it's a wonderful, beautiful city, that too often takes itself for granted. So, on Valentine's Day 2011, I ask you to please keep your money in Oakland.  Don't go over to San Francisco, as I often do, or jet off to LA or New York or Chicago or Atlanta.  And it's nothing against SF or LA or New York or Chicago or Atlanta; I go because I know a lot of people there and Mom's here in the ATL.  But the more time you spend in Oakland, the more you realize it's a massively cool place to be. I got a message from beautiful, dear friend, that she was going to try Miss Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant at

Talk about the bad business practices of sensitive bar workers, and the Kona Club comes to mind. This only because of the Club's unbelievable-but-true act of asking Aimee J to leave simply because she made a Twitter Tweet against them. What good asking Aimee to leave the Kona Club - formerly the legendary King's X Bar on 4401 Piedmont Ave, between Pleasant Valley Ave and Ramona Ave (and not far from where my grandfather rests at Chapel Of The Chimes) - was going to do, I have no idea.  It certainly did a lot of bad, including a bunch of tweets that can be seen on Twitter if one does an "Oakland" search today, and this blog post.  Aimee took to Yelp to complain about the action : Against my promises i would NEVER return to this place, I did, because friends were there and I am not to proud to bend to the will of my friends. And SHOCKINGLY i had just as horrible time as ever. I actually had this conversation- I CANNOT BELIEVE IT. them: "Are you the Aimee

Just got this press release announcing the Oakland Zoo's new board members: Sebastian DiGrande, Daniel Boggan, Jr., Cassady Hudson, Mark McClure, Lora Tabor and Jim Wunderman. To them all, and to one of them, I say congratulations. To my friend amoung, them, Mark McClure (pictured in an Oakland Chamber photo), let me say not only congrats, but maybe this is a good time to get off the Ron Paul bandwagon, eh? Just kidding, sorta. But back to the Oakland Zoo. The rep for the Board of the East Bay Zoological Society (EBZS) was good enough to send over full bios of all of the new board members, so here they are: Jim Wunderman is the President and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a business-backed public policy organization. Since becoming CEO in 2004, Wunderman has significantly helped increase the council’s advocacy efforts. A couple of the accomplishments under his leadership include: expanding the reach of the Bay Area Council with the opening of its first overseas office in

Today's the day that we'll learn the fate of several University of California sports slated for reduction to reduce a large annual deficit that, in point of fact, has existed for over a decade. It's just that, in the past, the University could afford to carry it; not today. Still, faced with the prospect of losing men's and women's gymnastics, women's lacrosse, and baseball, you'd think there would be massive alarm bells going off. You'd expect this to be a front page issue on the Cal Athletics website . You'd think " Save Cal Sports " would be a rallying cry for the University itself, and not just a set of concerned alumns. It's not.  And the Cal Athletics website doesn't ask you to donate money for any one of the sports on the chopping block. I get the impression the University of California at Berkeley just really doesn't give a damn.  Cal lacks the fight required to maintain its athletic programs; it's just not

I wrote this piece on why Batts and other chiefs often don’t last long in that job. Though Batts may be staying, the issues remain. Local pundits, Chip Johnson and Tammerlin Drummond, have weighed in on why they think Anthony Batts wants to leave his post as our new Chief of Police. I’m confused by some of the assumptions they make when trying to second guess the Chief. For one, Drummond and Johnson seem to think that Oakland is suffering from more severe budget problems than other cities. But we also know that San Jose came very close to laying off over a hundred of its officers last year before the San Jose Police Officers Association offered to share in pension costs. If you read the news about San Jose today, you will find that continued budget woes are causing their mayor to consider imposing police layoffs again. Secondly, Johnson and Drummond like to promote the idea that Mayor Jean Quan has always had a “testy relationship” with the police so that’s why Batts might be thinking

Oakland City Councilmember Jane Brunner (District 1 - North Oakland) is unfortunately just plain wrong in her comments on Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts, and shows why many say there has been a "leadership void" that Oakland's elected officials have not effectively filled. This is what Cecily Burt quoted Councilmember Brunner as saying in The Oakland Tribune regarding why Batts elected to try and leave Oakland: "I don't even know if that is the reason. We don't know if there are other issues, it's not clear...He is very popular, we think he is a good chief, but in my opinion, he needs to want to be here. And if there are things that are preventing him from wanting to stay, he needs to be in the room to have that discussion...If he's going to stay, he needs to work with us as a team." No. Councilmember Brunner has it backwards.   It's her job to make sure working conditions are excellent for a person who is essentially one of her

California Governor Jerry Brown is known for attacking sacred cows but sometimes he does so without a clear vision of the real objective and how to achieve it. Such is the case with California Redevelopment Agencies (CRAs), which Brown wants to do away with as part of his State of California Proposed Budget. Governor Brown thinks the move will return $1.7 billion to the general funds of California cities; but such a claim shows Brown doesn't understand Redevelopment, how it works, and what it's supposed to do.  The real objective of returning $1.7 billion will not be done in the way he says, and for several reasons. First, California Redevelopment is designed such that it allows cities to establish redevelopment areas to keep property taxes. And contrary to popular view, redevelopment revenues from project areas can be used to provide services in those project areas. Many cities have done this, including Oakland. Indeed, California Redevelopment Law was used by the C

Pork Loin at Plum in Oakland , originally uploaded by zennie62 . Last night, I paid a visit to the new Plum Restaurant on Franklin near Broadway. It's a new addition to the Uptown Oakland food scene, joining Luka's, Osumo, Pican, Vo's, and Bakesale Beattie's, as well as Farley's Cafe and forming a nexus of food places at Broadway and Grand. Now, I'm not a restaurant reviewer. In fact, I was spurred to try Plum because of Michael Bauer's review at SFGate.com. Plus, living in Oakland, I think its important to support Oakland business whenever I can. Now, I've got to put this in perspective. The Pan-Roasted Half Chicken at The Wood Tavern is the best in the SF Bay Area. It's a 23 dollar meal that will more than fill you up; you'll have to take some of it home. I asked what the most filling dish at Plum would be and the patron next to me recommended the Pork. So I ordered it. I inhaled it. It's $18 and yet is the size of a small

This edition of Oakland News has a lot of information for you. First, if you've ever eaten at the North Oakland restaurant called Wood Tavern at 6317 College Avenue (with the best half-chicken in Oakland, if not the SF Bay Area), then you'll be able to picture it's new spring-off called "Southy." Why that name? Because it's going to be right next door and south of The Wood Tavern. Set to open in about 10 days, Southy's going to cater to a younger crowd. There's going to be a sliding door to deliver take out orders, to which I suggest offering sliders to go with that slider! Also, on the Oakland / College Avenue restaurant gossip beat, if you're wondering how some eateries are doing, I understand that one of them, once a large, popular place this blogger visited regularly, eventually fell off and started "floating" its liquor accounts. Let's say you own a restaurant in Oakland. As I understand it, if you purchase beer, you

In this San Francisco News, construction of The Transbay Terminal is under way. This space will have updates from the newsletter of the Transbay Terminal organization. If you're wondering what this is all about, the idea of a new transportation terminal in downtown San Francisco started almost 20 years ago. It culminated in this design competition: From the newsletter of The Transbay Terminal organization: This week at Transbay... Weekend Work (1/7/11 - 1/9/11): This weekend, work will take place on Saturday, between the hours 7:00 AM and 11:00 PM. The contractors will move the crane known as “Big Red” into the west portion of the old Terminal footprint in order to continue demolition of the West Terminal building. Weekday Work: Weekday work between Monday, January 10, 2011 and Friday, January 14, 2011 will focus on the demolition of the West Terminal building using the wrecking ball. Work began on Thursday, January 6, 2011 to demolish the ramp between Howard and Natoma an

Oakland, CA: Live From The Fox - Today's a special day in the City of Oakland, because Jean Quan, formerly District 4 Councilmember, then the (to some) surprising new Mayor-Elect of Oakland after beating front-runner Don Perata thanks to Ranked Choice Voting, today becomes Mayor of Oakland. Quan started the day with a walk from Chinatown through Oakland, and ending at the Fox Theater, where we are for the inauguration ceremonies. She held an inpromptu "thank you" chat with supporters and onlookers in front of the Fox, and was joined by Assemblyman Sandre Swanson. Sandre, a protege of former Congressman and now outgoing Mayor Ron Dellums, issued what in retrospect, was the first sign that Dellums wasn't going to run for reelection: he announced his support for Quan. Moreover, Sandre's support for Jean never wavered. Now, today, he looks like a proud papa, grinning from ear-to-ear. Libby Schaaf, Pat Kernighan, and Courtney Ruby Take Office Today's

On October 7th, 2010, Oakland's Tiki Tom's Restaurant burned down in a blaze of fire that rang up an estimated $750,000 worth of building damage. There was, and still as of this writing, no known cause of the fire. According to several sources, the building was chain locked, and while the power had been turned off, PG&E reported it wasn't their doing. The fire was officially labeled "suspicious." Everything was burned, including the boat, a Tampa 66 Chris Craft according to Tom Davies AKA "Tiki Tom", docked on the Oakland Estuary, and in back of the eatery. The restaurant that was located at 329 29th Avenue with the frog on top was at the center of what it's owner, "Tiki Tom" called "The Oakland Riviera" during a video tour. This blogger was taken there the day before my 48th birthday on August 4th, and by long-time friends Bob and Barbara Schock, who are new Oakland District Four Councilmember Libby Schaaf'

This year, 2010, once again this blogger is following (kinda) the Santa Tracker, but while tree trimming, wine drinking, and talking, and listening to Nat and Frank (Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra).  But here's my NORAD Santa Tracker Video, because I just had to! This business of going to the NORAD website to track Santa Claus' trip around the World is rather cool, but I'm in the middle of watching It's A Wonderful Life , so I decided to embed the tracker right here in my blog: As of 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST, Santa Claus is , well, he's moving really fast! (If the embed doesn't work in your browser, click on the NORAD link.) Merry Christmas!

Sad news. According to the San Jose Mercury News , veteran Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente (pictured) was arrested for DUI (Driving Under the Influence) Thursday night at 7:30 PM. Nacho was arrested, booked, released, and given a future court date to appear. The CHP (California Highway Patrol) Officer said something that can and should do him in, in court: that "he believed De La Fuente was speeding" and that the officer "noticed impairment." So, let's see here. First, the CHP officer didn't have a speed gun to have evidence to back his claim of speeding. Second, the officer didn't have a Breathalyzer to record Ignacio's blood - alcohol level to back his claim that Ignacio was "impaired." What the hell was this CHP officer doing?  No speed gun.  No Breathalyzer.  And he just hauls Ignacio in, anyway.  Near Christmas.   Nuts. I don't care - not a big rats butt - if it happens to everyone; it's not su

Merry Christmas Oakland! Normally, this would be a "top 10" list, but we have so many well deserving Oaklanders, and people who do business in Oakland, that I expanded it to 21. Why 21? Because once I started thinking about who deserves an Oakland Christmas Gift, the list just kept going on and on. It's the by-product of knowing a lot of people in this town. A lot of people who deserve positive recognition. I could have gone on to 40, but had to cut it off at some point. Here's the list! 1. For former Oakland Mayor and now California Governor-Elect Jerry Brown: patience and focus. He's going to need both. 2. For Oakland Teachers: $500 more per teacher, per month. That would help many, many well-deserving and hard working teachers in Oakland. 3. For Mayor-Elect Jean Quan: A Green Oakland Mayor's Bus so she can travel free of parking ticket worry, and get around in a socially-responsible way! 4. For Al Davis and The Oakland Raiders: A N

Presenting the Santa Baby 99ers Christmas Unemployment Song , or The Santa Baby 99ers Song , on Christmas Eve. Donalee King (in photo from Zennie62.com), who goes by Paladinette, at Zennie62.com , created this variation of the classic Christmas Song Santa Baby. King, a blogger who also has her own blog called Jobless Unite ,  is one of the so-called "99ers," those who's unemployment benefits have ran out after the 99-week limit, and seek an extension of benefits, or better yet, a job. In seeking both, the San Diego resident has become a tireless advocate for the jobless. Her work on this song landed her notice by the LA Times . The video is below, followed by the lyrics, which are graphic but worth reading and singing...if you dare! (In fact, if you're in Oakland, California, print out the lyrics, take them down to The Alley at 3325 Grand Avenue , present them to Rod Dibble at the piano, and ask he would accompany you in song. Santa Baby is a song he k