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The City of Oakland and Alameda County must reject AEG, the Anschutz Entertainment Group, from being even considered as stadium manager for the Oakland Coliseum, and for one reason: AEG does not have the best interest of the Oakland Coliseum in mind. Why would an organization openly court the Oakland Raiders to move to Los Angeles, work to buy a portion of the team at a cut-rate price (something that Colts Owner Jim Irsay has threatened to block), and yet turn around and even think to ask to replace SMG (Spectacor Management Group) as manager of the Oakland Coliseum? A one-word-answer: power. And its that interest in power that would wreck the Oakland Coliseum for the foreseeable future. Right now, the Oakland Coliseum, and the City of Oakland, is under a wave of negative sports industry PR not of its own making. The Oakland A's were making noise about leaving for San Jose. The Golden State Warriors have made noise about wanting a new stadium in San Francisco. And Oaklan

In an action that comes as no surprise to anyone, an Ecuador appeals court confirmed the decision by Ecuador to award an $18 billion damage award to Ecuador. Ecuador's court, long accused of bribery and beset with scandal, would not dream of going against the wishes of that country's President Rafael Correa. Consider that President Rafael Correa recently sued a popular local newspaper and its columnists and editors for $80 million, as I explain in this video, when the cost was just $10 million.... ...then took the "pledge" (if you will because those news guys don't have $80 million in their pockets) and attached it to the $116 million that he said would stop Ecuador from drilling in the Yasuni park region. And Correa has allowed his state-run oil company Petroecuador to continue oil drilling and environmental damage, and to the point where it and other foreign oil companies have committed over 100 oil spills since Chevron left the country in 1992. St

[caption id="attachment_14777" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sanjiv Handa"] [/caption]Sanjiv Handa, RP? Still can't believe it. It's a good idea to blog to get out of my head the idea that in my reality Sanjiv Handa, Oakland's Gargoyle - head of the East Bay News Service, expert on Oakland Government, gossip about Oakland's elected officials, and source of intel on the next local government party - is putting together his next newsletter, all set to tell us the whole matter was all a mistake, he's just fine, and that the effort to recall Mayor Quan was going slow because of disorganization and lack of money (which is true). But what's true is that Sanjiv is gone from our physical presence. I've never used the term "gadfly" because I never saw Sanjiv as an irritant, and I have little respect for those who describe him that way anyway. Why? Because some of those same people either wrote about o

Oakland Food Truck Pods Coming to a Neighborhood Near You! After three years of sometimes contentious discussions, the Oakland City Council is poised to propose a pilot plan to allow Oakland’s numerous and varied food truck offerings a chance to set up in “pods” that is, groupings where few restaurants or other food services already exist, and be permitted as a group. [caption id="attachment_14012" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Karen Hester"] [/caption] Karen Hester, long time event promoter, said that it will allow Oakland entrepreneurs like her to plan ahead knowing how many trucks will be allowed and what will be required of them. Previously, food trucks were only allowed in the Fruitvale district where Taco trucks have blazed a trail of high quality, less expensive offerings in areas where people are comfortable walking up and taking their food elsewhere to eat. But, as a result of some problems encountered in the Fruitval

(First posted at http://zenie62blog.com ) [caption id="attachment_13222" align="alignleft" width="235" caption="Oaklland Mayor Jean Quan"] [/caption]Is the Oakland Business Community really behind the planned recall effort of Mayor Jean Quan? As one blogger who's lived in Oakland since 1974, it's easy to gain the temperature around town because people either call or talk about the matter every day, including today. Let's say this: the issue of the recall of Mayor Jean Quan is not being officially driven by any recognized Oakland large business organization, as of this writing. Indeed everyone who's talked to this blogger, and in total, that's adding up to about 50 people so far, has said that, while they don't want to be quoted for political reasons, they're "on the fence" about supporting a recall effort against Mayor Quan. Here's my video on the Quan recall details: A large reason for this i