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When I got the news that the Oakland Tribune was no more, I could not understand why the reaction expressed above just came out, as "Yipee," but it did. Spontaneously. Then I had to admit that it was because, from my perspective, the real Oakland Tribune died a long time ago. It passed on the moment we lost people like Chauncey Bailey, my friend who was always on top of what was going on in the Oakland flatlands, and who was wrongly, awfully, gunned down . The Oakland Tribune passed when my good friends Monte Poole and Dave Newhouse's work started showing up in the Mercury News. It was no more when legendary Columnist Peggy Stinnett, who really took time to sit down over lunch with me and just talk about Oakland, passed away. Really miss her, I do. The Oakland Tribune was gone when it left the Tribune Tower at 13th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland. The Oakland Tribune I knew had a "pro-Oakland" sprit. It was the paper that was brought back t

The Oakland murder of 3-year-old Oaklander Carlos Nava sparked an outpouring of emotion appropriate to the tragedy ( Take guns off Oakand's streets! ). But only to a certain point. There are graphic videos of the scene just after he was hit by a stray bullet allegedly produced by 26-year old Lawrence Curtis Denard (who did not enter a plea in court). Oakland videos that have not seen the light of media coverage, even by blogs - until now. For that, you can credit Oaklander Max Allstadt for doing what he does best: righteously bugging the crap out of people he thinks can make a difference if they take action. This blogger's going to skip what would be an off-the-track explanation of how that happened, and just say "Max. You are correct." At first, I objected to his plea because I felt it was sensationalizing a tragedy. But then, I realized I was going against my own belief that digital media is a mirror of our times, and to not show something is to deny other

UPDATE: Chief Pete Sarna quit before he could be fired. According to Matier and Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle , Oakland, California School Police Chief Pete Sarna went out on a charity golf tournament, and, well this is how Matier and Ross explain it : The district is looking into accusations that the chief, who is white, let loose July 18 with a half-hour tirade loaded with racist epithets against his two sergeants and a police driver - who apparently was called to the event at the Sequoyah Country Club in Oakland so no one would be driving drunk. Sarna allegedly told the African American sergeant, who lives in Orinda, that "the only good n- is a dead n- and they should hang you in the town square to prevent any other n- from coming in the area." That's racist. Pure and simple. Racist. (As a note, we're talking about the Oakland Public School's Police Chief, not the Oakland Police. But to someone like Oakland Tribune Photographer Jane Tyska, tha

As the San Francisco Bay Area talks about the economy, jobs, and spending, or more to the point wasteful spending, here we have the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the MTC, in the Oakland office that's just a brisk 70-foot walk from Lake Merritt BART, moving out of that cool building on 8th and Oak Street, and spending, according to Oakland Local , $150 Million to build a new place - in San Francisco. Oh, and a place that's so far from BART, compared to its current home, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission might as well change its name to the Boonies Transportation Commission. What does the MTC have against Oakland? Drive-by shootings and robberies happen in San Francisco, too. You just don't read about them because the local media's brainwashed against reporting them. There is much to like about Oakland, not to mention the fact its more racially diverse than San Francisco, and finally has a decent set of restaurants and bars to frequent. A

Yesterday's action where the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area Rapid System took the step of interrupting or blocking cell phone service has increased from the first blog post on this, the one in this space, charging that BART's act was not legal, to a much Twitter-tweeted matter where BART's action was consistently said not to be legal. While BART charges that the action was legal, but has not given concrete evidence to support the claim as of this writing (and this blogger has called BART), a look at recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) actions shows that BART's response to the feared protest was not illegal. According to sources, BART's complaint about what this blogger installed rests on the idea that it did not use a cell phone jamming device, but simply turned off the cell phone antenna system serving certain San Francisco BART stations. That was not my point. My point is that, according to a number of online sources, BART's attempt to int

HI Your Fit Day Friends ! Hey! Do you still want to get that sexy summer bod? Or, maybe you're on the rebound from a joint injury... Or, maybe you're just looking for that cool piece of equipment that is super fun and will get you fit and lean in a short amount of time... Or, you just like toys! OK! So, remember I told you that I would find ways to work out to keep me in super duper shape before my pending hip surgery? Well, I had this super idea that I could design running shoes with springs on the bottom that would take the impact off my joints and it would be less painful to walk and super fun to use, as well as keep my booty in shape. But then I said, "Hmm! Why invent the wheel when somebody else has done the work for me? Why not ask the Kangoo Jump people to help me?" So that's what I did. And I think these Boots were made for YOU! Boots Not Just Made For Walking! My first try with the Kangoo jumps was back in Jun

Time to take guns away from Oakland's youth. 3-year-old Carlos Fernando Nava died as the result of a stray bullet fired from the gun of one Oakland Gang Member to another. The flood of news about this tragedy just plain ruined my Wednesday. Oakland murders are not something this blogger likes to mention, but this was the exception. We really have to take guns out of the Oakland equation. What I could not stop thinking about was that 10-year-old boy of about four years ago (from memory), who was also hit by a "stray" bullet near 51st and Pleasant Valley, miles and Worlds away from East Oakland, but still in Oakland. How many Oaklanders young and old, must this happen to before we actually do something to stop this? Who's next? Me? You? Who's next? Oakland must take action. And I hope those who were against Oakland's Gang Injunction Program re-think their position after this incident. We have to take Guns off Oakland's streets

The controversial proposal to build a new, expanded Safeway Rockridge Oakland complex has gone on for something like five years and three major design changes. The last time I weighed in on this design, it was because the product was awful. This time that's changed, as has the economic climate. I talked to Ken Lowney, of Lowney and Associates Architects about what I think is an exciting new design that adds up to be a net plus for Rockridge. It also has the added advantage of having been created by a person in Mr. Lowney who actually lives in Rockridge. Because of that, "it's a very personal project for me," he says. As the video shows, the new Safeway Rockridge Oakland is a far cry from the original plan. It actually fits and conforms to its surroundings, and provides a gift in the form of a triangular over-look cafe on the corner of Claremont and College Avenue. But that's design; my background is in city planning, and my specialization is in urb

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Sushi Girl is a "grindhouse" style movie best, which this blogger is dying to see, and is best described as a dinner over a naked chic that ends badly. My objective at the Sushi Girl Red Carpet held at Comic Con 2011, was to find out how badly the movie ends! Getting an answer out of Jeff Fahey, Tony Todd, and Mark Hamill was as hard as the abs on its lady star, Cortney Palm. But I did learn that, according to Mark Hamill, Sushi Girl will make Tony Todd a "really big star." Todd plays the lead role, a guy named Duke, who he says has the kind of "switch" in his head such that if you say the wrong thing, he will "just snap," but who, Todd says, is "charming." In other words, Tony Todd plays a lovable sociopath. Unlike the epic, must-see Bellflower movie meetup , this was a standard Red Carpet, which was fine, but the problem was once you got into a talk with, say, Mark Hamill, a PR rep would come by winding her hand as if

There's a lot going on in Oakland, but I'm figuring out that, frankly, this city of mine isn't as socially connected as it likes to think it is.  There are only a handful of bloggers, a small group of people who read them, and few, considering the total population, who use Twitter to tweet or any camcorder to vlog. In short, a lot of information about what happens in Oakland goes without matching content.   Just saying - though I'll say more about this later. One small Facebook Page group of people is growing organically. Called " Terrorized by CEDA Oakland, CA ," it has about 198 "likes" and it's not going to reach massive proportions unless someone connects Oakland's Economic Development boss, Walter Cohen to a sex scandal; I'm just kidding, of course, but you get the idea, given media today, and my opening paragraph. A problem at the Community And Economic Development Agency CEDA, first reported here and at Oakland Focus by Gwilly

Spanatix.com , simply described, "is a social platform for sports fans to engage and connect online" and that's actually the "25 words or less" pitch line used by its co-founder, Marlon Sullivan. In the video above, I talked with Mr. Sullivan and he gave a demonstration of how Spanatix.com work. Let's just say that if you play it, you'd better know your sports info stuff. Spanatix.com consists of two parts in its online space: a social network designed such that if you pick your favorite team or player, you can see what has been written and add to the conversation, and a unique fanometer that's coolly addictive. With the fanometer, you can gain points for what you know about your team. You can pick a game and if you guess the correct winner you gain points. You can challenge friends in "one-on-one" competition, or go into what's called a "pool" challenge. It's a really great social network game, that makes a

On July 1st, The Port of Oakland quietly issued a long press release announcing its 2011-2012 Budget. The release reports that "revenue from the Port’s aviation, commercial real estate, and maritime businesses has been recovering modestly," but that tenants remained concerned about the overall economy. The Port also explains that it brought $462 million in taxes to the City of Oakland over the last fiscal year, and that it has a $40 million "pipeline" of new projects that will come under the consideration of the Port Of Oakland Board Of Directors. Here's the full press release: For Immediate Release July 1, 2011 Port Of Oakland Adopts 2011-2012 Budget $296.6 Million Budget Represents Port's Aggressive Focus on Business, Competitiveness, Positive Economic Impact, and Environmental Stewardship Oakland, Calif. - July 1, 2011 - The Oakland Board of Port Commissioners just adopted a 2011-2012 fiscal year (FY) operating budget of $296.6 million. This

If anyone had a doubt that the City of Oakland was in financial trouble, one look at tonight's Oakland City Council meeting should change their mind. Watching via live stream from Georgia, this blogger has never seen so many Oakland workers come before the City and beg to have their jobs maintained. And these are good, long-serving, proud Oakland workers, like Brenda Franzel. Really sad.   Brenda Franzel,a revenue officer with the City of Oakland, just took the unusual step of coming to the Oakland City Council tonight and having her daughter speak before the Council first, and then and asking for "justice." This as the Oakland City Council considers various budget options placed before it. "I refused to participate in the slurs about who brings in revenue for the City, and by that, I mean money," Franzel said. "I blame the culture in which we serve for even considering cutting people who raise revenue for the city. It creates a hostile envir

Just got an interesting email from Don Macleay, last year's Oakland Mayoral Candidate, who is urging Oaklanders to come to Tuesday night's Oakland City Council Meeting. But before we get to his, and the Oakland Greens, issues, a comment. The City of Oakland must agree on a budget plan by July 1st, and that day is this Friday. There has been a lot of focus on and discussion over a process that, long ago, this blogger knew was insular, and because the public doesn't have all of the past budget information, and because the arguments about the budget are within the margins and not about how to extend the margins . What do I mean by extend the margins ? One problem is that of each property tax dollar collected, the City of Oakland gets to keep just 26 percent of it. The other problem is much of Oakland's revenue-producing land is controlled by the Redevelopment Agency, which is a good thing, because that's the only way Oakland itself can collect 100 perce

This blog post comes as an advisory to the Oakland Mayor's Office, and it's done not for malicious intent, but to bring a stop to a growing problem that's reared its head twice in five days. To cut to the chase, the Oakland Mayor's Office needs to determine what it's going to sent out in a communication to this blogger, and then make sure that message is consistently delivered, and without potential for misunderstanding, or appearance of subterfuge. First, I must take time to thank the Oakland Mayor's Office under Jean Quan for at least trying to communicate with the public - it's a far cry from the previous administration. But, Mayor Quan's approach still appears as if it's confused and all too reactive to what's written in the press, well, OK, what's blogged by this blogger. After trying to deal with this behind the scenes, I've just plain had it. The first episode started when I received an email from Susan Piper, Mayor Qua

HI Your Fit Day Friends: I hope you're all enjoying the spring weather. Here in the Bay Area we've had some pretty picture-perfect days. And the days are still getting longer. Hey! You know what that means, don't you? More daylight hours... for... ex-er-cising! So no excuses; at least for the next 6 months, anyway. Go enjoy the great outdoors and make fitness fun. Grab your kids-or someone else's-and Go Go Go. Visit your National parks, (hurry, while you still time, since many are set to close in September). Play on the swing-sets. Bike the trails, and run in them thar hills!! Hey! Speaking of running...that's something I won't be able to do for a while, and I wanted to give you an update on your trainer's life. My Hippy News In my Part I of Key to Pain Free I mentioned seeing a second surgeon after I was 'misdiagnosed' by the first. The first surgeon, let's call him Dr. Compassion (not!), advised Motrin daily; told me to

Car In Lake Merritt Oakland, Saturday Morning , a photo by zennie62 on Flickr. According to social media reports, a woman, unidentified, apparently, accidentally drove her car into the waters of Lake Merritt in Oakland, California. The accident was reported on Twitter and this blogger found it via the use of the social search engine SocialMention.com, and during a search for "Lake Merritt." The photo was placed by @BarakaBlue and them retweeted by @TjaderDaRaider on Twitter and with this tweet: : "Yes that is a car upside down in lake Merritt." That it was a woman was reported by @MissKimmie123: @MissKimmie123 Miss Kimmie Action by the lake I heard a crash then a splash then hella oh my gods, a woman just drove her car in to Lake Merritt never a dull moment UPDATE: According to @BarakaBlue a "heroic dude" jumped into the waters of Lake Merritt to pull the woman from her car. Then Oakland Police and what was described as "medic and f