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
Comcast Outage is Oakland? For the most part, yes. Approximately two hours ago to this point in time, Comcast, the giant Internet Service Provider (ISP) and self-described “global telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” had a service outage that impacted major cities nationwide – including Oakland. Comcast issued this statement via Twitter two hours ago: … 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
What to do about Community Funds LLC and Lela Madison? Can a real estate company be fined for evicting an elderly woman, even though she’s just a month behind in paying the rent on her home? That’s the question that must be applied to the situation of Richmond, California’s Lela Madison and Community Funds LLC. … Read more
UPDATE: In 2019, after delays, the Oakland Raiders restart Coliseum JPA Lease Extension negotiations. The Oakland Raiders Coliseum Lease Extension to 2020 is almost finished. The Oakland Raiders are one big step to playing more NFL football games at the Oakland Coliseum beyond this 2018 NFL Season. This morning, a special meeting of the Oakland-Alameda … 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
Oakland, California has been a “union town” for as far back as I can remember, and I’ve been in Oakland since April 8th of 1974. You can’t build anything in Oakland, or have any hope of getting elected, without the backing and involvement of unions. And over time, even the City of Oakland’s own workers … Read more
In an Oakland that seems to be bent on giving away the development store to tech companies, guess what the second largest employer is? Give up? It’s tourism-related activities, according to Mark Everton, the President of Visit Oakland: The Oakland Convention and Visitors Bureau. He talked with this vlogger just after his presentation to the … Read more
LakeFest Oakland was an attempt to restore the fun brought to the Lake Merritt neighborhood, and in particular Adams Point, by the great event of the 1990s Festival At The Lake. The big difference between LakeFest Oakland and Festival At The Lake is the former was just one day, and the latter was three days: … Read more
Oakland Lake Merritt is slowly being cleaned up and transformed by the large number of projects big and small that comprise Measure DD. Measure DD is a198.25 million bond measure that was passed by Oaklanders like this blogger in 2002. Think about the Oakland back then (chances are you weren’t here). The Mayor was Jerry … 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
Federal Judge William Alsup dismissed Oakland, San Francisco climate change lawsuit. The City of Oakland and City and County of San Francisco’s very misguided attempt to penalize oil companies for alleged damages tied to global warming was thrown out today by United States District Court for the Northern District of California Federal Judge William Alsup, … Read more
This blogger was personally informed today that The City of Oakland is still working with famed sports lawyer Jim Quinn on the paperwork associated with filing a lawsuit against the Oakland Raiders and the National Football League. A source too close to the matter to mention (and not with or part of any Oakland Raiders … Read more
UPDATE: Can Community Funds LLC be fined for evicting 92-year-old Lela Madison? The news brought to me by Richmond Councilmember and California Assembly District 15 Candidate Jovanka Beckles was horrifying: 92-Year-Old Lela Madison was locked out of her home she has owned since 1960. The organization responsible for the action, according to Mrs. Madison in … Read more
At this week’s City Council Meeting, which lasted well past midnight, the Oakland City Council and grassroots community advocates accomplished some major milestones. The Council passed the midcycle budget amendments for the 2018-2019 fiscal year, including significant improvements that we advocated for. We made important progress on independent community oversight of the police department, and … Read more
The City of Oakland has announced that it’s celebrating its home-grown, Cal-Berkeley star, NBA legend, and now NBA Hall of Fame member Jason Kidd. The location, date, and time for the event is 1075 62nd Street, Oakland, CA, Saturday, June 30, 2018, 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Here’s the details from the City of Oakland … Read more
Oakland and its Mayor Libby Schaaf took a major step toward construction of a new ballpark. A new baseball stadium for the Oakland A’s with the passage of AB 734 (Bonta) today in the California State Senate Environmental Committee. The legislation, if passed by the full legislature (and that’s a certainty) will streamline the environmental … Read more
I met Buffy Wicks, who’s running for the California Assembly District 15 seat that was occupied by Tony Thurmond, today, at my favorite place to talk politics, Lakeshore Cafe at 3257 Lakeshore in Oakland. Since we’ve been friends for a long time, going back to the historic Obama 2008 campaign days, we had a lot … Read more
In the past months, and going back to April 2017, this blogger has asserted that the Clark County Stadium Tax Rate of .088 of 1 or 88 percent of one percent is not adequate to finance the bond issue of $645 million for the Oakland Raiders Las Vegas NFL / UNLV Stadium. The general consensus … 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
The man in the video above is Andrés López, Community Manager with co-working startup HIVEN. While I was visiting Perch, a local Oakland Adams Point cafe, a man walked around handing out cards to an event. When he came over, I said “Want to vlog it? I’ll put it out on my network.” So, he … Read more
The Oakland Grand and Bellevue Intersection Traffic Control Lights are on, and click here for an update. On September 17th of 2017, this blogger made a Zennie62 on YouTube vlog calling for traffic lights at the very dangerous intersection of Grand Avenue and Bellevue Avenue near Lake Merritt in the Adams Point neighborhood. The reason … Read more
This November, residents in Oakland and other California cities and towns will have a chance to alter the market that’s created housing costs so high, the population of homeless people is larger than ever. The California Secretary of State’s office informed county registrars and backers and proponents of the California Affordable Housing Act that Michael … Read more
Jovanka Beckles forgot Buffy Wicks. Jovanka Beckles and her campaign staff were so happy to win the race for second place in the “top two” California Assembly District 15 Primary, they forgot there was a number one, and sent a press release that said, well, they won – save for the little mention of a … Read more
The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority plans to hold a “special meeting” on the proposed extension of the Oakland Raiders lease at the stadium. As to when that would happen, the answer this blogger received is “soon”, and that was from Scott McKibben, the Coliseum JPA Executive Director. That news came after this blogger … 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
UPDATE: Oakland Coliseum JPA to set special meeting date on Oakland Raiders lease. The planned meeting to review the Oakland Coliseum JPA / Oakland Raiders Proposed Lease Extention was cancelled due to a lack of a quorum. As I understand it from one Coliseum JPA board member who did not wish to be quoted, the … Read more
The producers of an Oakland Museum of California event called “Beyond Imagining – a Virtual Experience of Justice and Healing” have asked me to tell you about their event tomorrow, Saturday, June 16th from 3 pm to 6pm. Dr. Shakti Butler and World Trust Organization will premiere its first-ever film in the VR (virtual reality) … Read more
UPDATE: “Beyond Imagining” Oakland Museum Event In VR Saturday June 16th The Oakland Museum of California (where our fearless leader Zennie Abraham is shown above at the “At Oakland Museum Off The Grid” event from 2016) announces its events and special programs in July and August, including events to celebrate the final weeks of major … Read more
UPDATE: Oakland Coliseum JPA Meeting on Raiders Lease cancelled until July. Raiders remain without an agreement beyond 2018. A cat-and-mouse game and odessey that started last year when the National Football League granted the Oakland Raiders the right to officially relocate to Las Vegas, and after what the organization worked on allegedly behind the collective … Read more
Thanks to a tip from a viewer via Facebook, Matt McDuh, this blogger learned that Henry William Sintay AKA “Jogger Joe” was released from jail in Oakland early this morning. A check of the Alameda County Inmate Database reads that the name “Henry Sintay” is not there, whereas it appeared there after he was … Read more
Best breakfast restaurant in Oakland? That’s a personal question. This post is meant to start a fight that needed to happen long ago. What’s the best place for breakfast in Oakland, California? Everyone has their favorites, and for reasons as different as the people who give them. But for this blogger, who’s lived in Oakland … Read more
Given the success of Uber and Lyft ride-share tech companies (or what are called “transportation network companies”) more and more cities, towns, and municipalities have looked for ways to extract tax dollars from them. Now, Oakland is set to consider a way to earn revenue from riders using Uber, Lyft, or any other transportation network … Read more
Henry William Sintay AKA “Jogger Joe” was arraigned in Oakland this Wednesday June 13 morning on one count of 1st degree robbery. If you recall, Henry William Sintay is also the man who, last Saturday June 9, took the possessions of a homeless African American man named “Drew” and insensitively tossed them into Lake Merritt … Read more
It’s nice to see that soon-to-be Oakland-based company Blue Shield of California is a major sponsor for the fourth year in a row of the 2018 San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade also called SF Pride. As a nonprofit health plan with 4 million members across California, Blue Shield says it is dedicated to supporting … Read more