The Oakland City Council District Two seat held by Abel Guillen has a new challenger: Kenzie Smith. Now, the most likely Oakland voter over 50 might be saying “Who’s Kenzie Smith?”, the one under 50 but older than 40 may react with “The BBQ Becky Guy?”, and someone under 40 in Oakland might say “dude’s … Read more
Sheng Thao lands Oakland Union Local 21 Union endorsement. Sheng Thao, who is currently and as served as the Chief of Staff to Oakland At-Large City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, is running for the Oakland City Council District 4 seat that’s going to be vacated by the retiring Annie Campbell Washington. In this battle, Ms. Thao … Read more
The Oakland City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee voted to advance an an ordinance to help tenant relocations last Tuesday, June 30 2018, and on to the full City Council for final passage July 10 2018. Under the ordinance proposed by Oakland Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney (District 3) and Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, (At … Read more
Libby Schaaf , The Mayor of Oakland elected (no pun intended) to release her annoucement of 2018 Oakland City Council Race endorsementss early. Check the date: June 29th 2018 – the election is November 6, 2018. But, from The Mayor’s perspective, it gives her room to hold events and fundraisers for her choices for Oakland … Read more
Pamela Harris? Oakland City Council? Who’s Pamela Harris? UPDATE: Pamela Harris Gets Nancy Skinner Endorsement for Oakland City Council District Four Seat. Well, Pamela Harris is one of the nine names of people who have thrown their hat into the ring for the seat that’s to be vacated by the incumbent Oakland City Councilmember Annie … Read more
Natasha Middleton, who is a candidate for the Oakland City Council District 6 seat held by Councilmember Desley Brooks, sent over this announcement that she’s landed the endorsement of the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union 104. The Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union 104 is located in San Ramon, California. “Natasha Middleton is the best candidate … Read more
Rebecca Kaplan, the Oakland At-Large Councilmember, would not have taken time to have a neat logo made that reads “Rebecca Kaplan for Mayor of Oakland” if she had no intention of running in the Oakland Mayoral Election for 2018. Originally, and about four weeks ago, Councilmember Kaplan was to have a kind of joint … Read more
Hungry, it seems, to push out poor people of color, (just being honest) The City of Oakland and the Oakland City Council has embarked on a sad pattern of selling public land for the good of a private organization, and not the public. The latest example of this problem involved something called The Derby Parcel, … Read more
Chris Young, who this blogger has known since the 2008 Obama For America campaign, threw his hat into the ring for the nine candidate (so far) 2018 Oakland City Council District 4 Race. His determination, out of the gate, earned him the endorsement of the incumbent District 4 Representative Annie Campbell Washington. UPDATE: Chris Young … Read more
The City of Oakland Rules and Legislation Committee of the Oakland City Council will hear two important items this Thursday, June 29: a resolution urging the Oakland City Administration to continue to work with public labor unions post a Janus decision, and a proposal to tax Transportation Network Company (TNC), such as Uber and Lyft … Read more
Oakland – It was a weird chance meeting, tonight. At Oakland City Hall, I just finished interviewing Mark Everton, the President and CEO of Visit Oakland, at the side of the outer entrance landing in front of the Council Chambers at at the Oakland City Council that’s closest to the Mayor’s Office, and was headed … Read more
Wow. The City of Oakland Department of Transportation is just about two years old, and it’s already gaining media – the negative kind and from Oaklanders. The Oakland DOT was started as part of the City of Oakland’s 2015-2017 Budget, and came with lofty goals of providing a kind of center of decisions for public … Read more
Oakland District Three Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney issued her newsletter for the week, and in it, pointed to the June 19th Oakland City Council Meeting as the first one where the mid-cycle review of the 2017-2019 Biennial Municipal Budget will be held. The 2017-2019 “Biennial Municipal Budget” is another way of referring to the two-year-budget … Read more
News from The City of Oakland in the form of this press release on seeking Oaklanders input for capital projects. Zennie62Media posts this in service to the Oakland Community: The City of Oakland is updating our process to identify and select capital projects for funding. Capital projects improve and maintain Oakland’s public facilities and infrastructure. … Read more
The 2018 Warriors Parade starts in Downtown Oakland at 11 am, just hours from now. If you’re wondering what to expect, or you own a business and and didn’t get the memo, here’s your chance to catch up. Oakland Distruct Two Councilmember Abel Guillen posted this livestream of Monday’s Oakland City Hall briefing for the … Read more
If you drove by Oracle Arena and had no idea the Warriors won the 2018 NBA Finals, you would probably have thought World War III was breaking out with all of the fireworks there. That was just one of a nunber of ways Oakland celebrated and partied the win in four games over Le Bron … Read more
The City of Oakland’s Oakland Police Commission is the focus of an event produced by the Coalition for Police Accountability (CPA) (the organization that called for Oakland voters to vote for its creation via the Measure LL initiative in 2016) so you can meet all of the commissioners and staff. UPDATE: City of Oakland Seeks … Read more
According to Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority Board Member Chris Dobbins, and on Zennie62 YouTube Live on Wednesday night, June 6th (the City of Oakland will not only file a lawsuit against the Oakland Raiders and the National Football League for not acting in good faith in the process leading to the league’s approval … Read more
The City of Oakland has finally hired a replacement for the retired Assistant CAO, or City Administrative Officer , Claudia Cappio. She is Maraskeshia Smith. According to the City of Oakland Oakland City Administrator Sabrina Landreth, who, on Monday June 4th, announced that she has appointed Maraskeshia Smith as her new Assistant City Administrator, (Ms. … Read more
It was a sad chapter in the story of AC Transit, a well-meaning but by turns bullying board director with progressive democratic political ties helps an company new to Oakland push an AC Transit bus stop away from its new store, and right on the door-step of a long established business: Summit Bank at 2969 … Read more
Rebecca Kaplan’s doing what Oakland Mayoral Election Candidate Nancy Sidebotham said the Oakland At-Large Councilmember was going to do earlier this week: announcing she’s running for Mayor Of Oakland. She’s even got a logo saying so (look below). Plus, she’s teaming with Oakland Activist Cat Brooks. In an email announcing her decision and sent to … Read more
Hey Oaklander! So, your friend tells you to vote for City Of Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan for Mayor of Oakland or Cat Brooks and Saied Kamarooz, but you don’t know where to look for official fundraising information about any one of them? Or you have another friend who swears by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, but … Read more
On Tuesday, May 29th, the City of Oakland’s Oakland City Council quietly approved what’s called a “revenue anticipation note” of $105 million. The resolution clearly states the following: WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 53850 et seq. Of the Government Code of the State of California (the “Law”) contained in Article 7.6 thereof, entitled“ Temporary Borrowing,” on … Read more
Nancy Sidebotham is running for public office in Oakland, yet again. The long-time tax specialist has ran for some seat on the Oakland City Council, councilmember or Mayor, seven times now. To take a look working backward, Nancy (who’s lived in Oakland since 1962 and is 69 years old) is running for Mayor of Oakland … Read more
The City of Oakland has announced its intention to file an appear to the ruling rejecting the Oakland Coal Ban. Oakland media relations representatives sent a press release to Zennie Abraham of Zennie62Media that read as follows: Oakland, CA – On the recommendation of City Attorney Barbara J. Parker, the City Council today voted unanimously … Read more
I saw (most of) Zennie Abraham’s recent video critiquing Marisa Raya’s presentation to the Oakland Community and Economic Development Committee on May 8th, and think that it does merit consideration in a number of areas, most specifically for me, regarding the lack of attention paid to Oakland’s unrealized regional mandate as the epicenter of “The … Read more
Oakland At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan is expected to announce she is running for Mayor of Oakland this week, if not within the next two weeks, according to three conversations this author had with sources: two with the Oakland tax consultant and candidate for mayor herself Nancy Sidebotham, and another with a well-known former Oakland elected … Read more
Update: Rebecca Kaplan to run for Mayor of Oakland for third time. Click here for more information. Editor’s note: Mr. Kenzie Smith is the Oakland man who was harrassed by Jennifer Schulte just for barbecuing on Lakeshote Avenue, nest to Lake Merritt on April 30th, 2018. The resultant video made by his wife sparked a … Read more
Recently, throughout the nation, there have been a variety of incidents which received media attention, in which African Americans have been subjected to police intervention, while engaged in ordinary every day activities. In most of these cases, it has turned out that White people called the police, and asked them to intervene, when seeing Black … Read more
Cat Brooks Runs For Mayor Of Oakland. She came into Oakland’s public eye via three high-profile actions: the attempted recalls of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff, and then her visit to Mayor Schaaf’s home, wanting to have homeless Oaklanders camp out in front of it. Now, (and after encouragement from a … Read more
Oakland District Four Councilmember Annie Campbell Washington responded to my video-blog asserting that Desley Brooks was not the reason for her decision to quit the Oakland City Council via text and then via Twitter. This one: Before I present what she wrote, the back story is that Councilmember Brooks got into a dust-up with former … Read more
Oakland Councilmember Annie Campbell Washington fashioned a story where she was leaving the Oakland City Council because of the toxic, corrupt environment hallmarked by Oakland Councilmember Desley Brooks. This was the claim made two Thursday’s ago. But it was revealed to me and the Goldman School article shown in the video and that you can … Read more
In 2013, then Oakland District Four City Councilmember Libby Schaaf, was all set to support an effort started by now former Oakland Auditor Courtney Ruby and now former Oakland District Two City Councilmember Pat Kernighan to oust Oakland District Six Councilmember Desley Brooks and District Seven Councilmember Larry Reid for, of all things, doing some … Read more
Atlanta GA Cyber-link to Oakland, CA – The Friday April 20th morning meeting of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority (Coliseum JPA), consisted of an impatient group of people minus Oakland District Three Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney. That’s too bad, because the Downtown-West Oakland-Adams Point rep who’s showed up for what I’m told is … Read more
Oakland, CA – On Tuesday night April 17th, The Oakland City Council passed Resolutions to do the following: 1) Cause the community development of expanded housing options in the City of Oakland; 2) Add more crossing guards to Oakland schools; 3) Support California Assembly Bill 2020, which would allow local governments to decide where and … Read more
Joe Tanios is one of those Oakland individuals who knows everyone of note (and how you define “note” is up to you) in our town. Mr. Tanios, who’s worked for the City of Oakland for 17 years, is one of those people who really does know ‘where the bodies are buried’ in Oakland. Now, the … Read more
Annie Campbell Washington Not Running For re-election? Annie Campbell Washington, the popular Oakland City Council District 4 Representative, has announced she is not running for re-election in 2018. The news shocked Oakland’s political establishment, and has led to speculation on both why she made the decision, and who will replace her. Councilmember Campbell Washington had … Read more
OAKLAND, CA – Oakland At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan is the only Oakland councilember who sends out regular press releases, and Monday, April 9th is no exception. Kaplan reports that “on April 10, the Community and Economic Development Committee and the Life Enrichment Committee will hear Oakland City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan’s Resolution to encourage the … Read more
Early this year, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and UN Special Envoy Leilani Farha reacted to their separate visits to the new homeless “Tuff Shed” shelter “community” (formerly called “encampment”) at the corner of 6th and Castro streets. One cannot help being struck by their personal perspectives that are as diametrically opposed to each other as are … Read more
