economic development

Loren Taylor ‌Oakland Councilmember East Oakland Equitable Economic Development Agenda

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Loren Taylor Oakland District Six Councilmember

ACTION ALERT – Support Councilmember Taylor’s East Oakland Equitable Economic Development Agenda From the Office of Councilmember Loren Taylor ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Dear Zenophon, Thank you for your continued support! Through your partnership my office has been able to secure much-needed resources for East Oakland, including increased investments into our diverse small businesses, … Read more

Howard Terminal Oakland Athletics Ballpark Community CBA Update: Draft EIR Friday, Transit Concerns Shared

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Oakland-As-Howard-Terminal-Ballpark-Interior

Howard Terminal Ballpark update with the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Report, here. The last OaklandNewNow.com blog post update on the process toward building a new ballpark for the Oakland Athletics at Howard Terminal, revealed that the City of Oakland was in search of a new consultant to focus on the work of the … Read more

Oakland Mayor Schaaf Should Focus On Affordable Housing Needs, Not Victory Laps During Pandemic

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City of Oakland

The Office of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf just sent an email that is a kind of victory lap for the production of affordable housing in Oakland. What’s bothersome about the message is the total lack of attention paid to what the total picture looks like. Here’s what the good mayor sent: Oakland Produces Most Affordable … Read more

Oakland Finance Committee To Discuss Councilmember Kaplan Idea To Use Coliseum Surplus For Shortfall

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Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Oakland Finance Committee to Discuss Informational Reports on Budget Shortfall & My Proposal to Use $10 Million Surplus to Save Vital Community Programs & Services Oakland – Today at 1:30pm, the Oakland Finance and Management Committee will receive budget informational reports from the Administration that I requested regarding: the implementation of administrative corrective actions to … Read more

Dave Stewart: Oakland Athletics Star Submits Letter Of Intent To Buy Coliseum Land For $115 Million

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Dave Stewart: Oakland Athletics Star Submits Letter Of Intent To Buy Coliseum Land For $115 Million

The baseball great and his development partner wants to team with a tribal lands developer for the light-on-specifics proposal focusing tribal casino and hotel development on the Coliseum land. Livestream above at 4:20 PM EST December 26th 2020. A source who wished to remain anonymous sent to this vlogger a seven-page copy of a document … Read more

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris Announce Additional Members of National Economic Council

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Joe Biden and Kamela Harris

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris Announce Additional Members of National Economic Council Washington – – Today, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced additional members of the National Economic Council (NEC). These qualified and talented individuals represent the incoming administration’s commitment to having a team of diverse experts ready to … Read more

Don Perata Interview – 2010 Oakland Mayor’s Race Interview With The Man Who Almost Won

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Don Perata Interview – 2010 Oakland Mayor’s Race Interview With The Man Who Almost Won But for rank-choice voting, Don Perata, and not Jean Quan, would have been our Mayor of Oakland. Don, best known as President pro tempore of the California State Senate, and later President of Perata Engineering (a lobbying company), was the … Read more

Berkeley Councilmember Ben Bartlett Sworn In – Reimagining Public Safety

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Ben Bartlett Berkeley Councilmember

Berkeley News from The Office of Councilmember Ben Bartlett The City of Berkeley is updating our COVID-19 Health Order to align with the State of California’s regional stay home order, effective 12:01am Monday, December 7. Under the New regional Stay at Home Order, California is split into 5 regions, with the Order being triggered if … Read more

Oakland City Council’s Natural Gas Ban Would Be More Gentrification As Costs Go Up

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City of Oakland

The Oakland City Council’s set to consider legislation by District One Councilmember Dan Kalb District Two Nikki Fortunado Bas, and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to ban the use of natural gas in new buildings. But they’re doing so without any concern for how their legislation will impact your ability to live in Oakland in the … Read more

How Oakland Chinatown Fire and Pandemic Stopped Shopping In Heartbreaking YouTube Video

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Shop 疫情中購物 Chinatown of Oakland in May-Jun-Nov 2020 pandemic屋崙華埠 From YouTube Channel: November 17, 2020 at 04:07AM ONN – How Oakland Chinatown Fire and Pandemic Stopped Shopping In Heartbreaking YouTube Video This video by Wy Woo on YouTube shows the before and after story of what happened to a once-thriving 8th and Webster Oakland Chinatown … Read more

A National Fund For Restaurants And Bars That Faced Pandemic-Related Damage And Loss Is Needed, Now

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Zennie Abraham with giant burrito at Oakland Connies Cantina On Grand Ave

Now that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are President-Elect and Vice President-Elect, we can focus on programs to get America’s economy back on its feet. The Payroll Protection Program was a good start, and while it helped, it missed the mark in many ways. What is missing are economic development programs specific to The Pandemic. … Read more

Oakland Economic Recovery Advisory Council Interim Report Shows Major Problem: Analysis Paralysis

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Oakland Economic Recovery Advisory Council Interim Report Shows Major Problem: Analysis Paralysis

Oakland Economic Recovery Advisory Council Interim Report Shows Major Problem: Analysis Paralysis ONN – Oakland Economic Recovery Advisory Council Interim Report Shows Major Problem: Analysis Paralysis – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube The Oakland Economic Recovery Advisory Council Report was released October 26th and to zero fanfare. No press conference. No major effort to tell Oaklanders. … Read more

Oakland Economic Recovery Council 1st Meeting Monday, May 18, 2020

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Oakland Economic Recovery Council 1st Meeting Monday, May 18, 2020 The City of Oakland reports: The Mayor and the Vice Mayor/Chair of the City Council Community and Economic Development Committee are inviting Oakland community and business leaders to participate in an Oakland Economic Recovery Council. The Advisory Council is co-chaired by Mayor Schaaf and Vice … Read more

Oakland City Council’s Weird Agenda: Oakland A’s Coliseum Closed Session Thursday Is Black NFL Group

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Oakland Coliseum City

Oakland City Council’s Weird Agenda: Oakland A’s Coliseum Closed Session Thursday Is Black NFL Group

ONN – Oakland City Council’s Weird Agenda: Oakland A’s Coliseum Closed Session Thursday Is Black NFL Group – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube

Oakland City Council’s Weird Agenda: Oakland A’s Coliseum Closed Session Thursday Really Black NFL Group

The Thursday October 29th, 2020 Special Oakland City Council Closed Session Meeting is worded as if the attendees would be representatives of the Oakland A’s. But the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG) headed by Ray Bobbitt was under the impression the meeting was supposed to be a first-introduction of their proposal and a progress report to the Oakland City Council.

So, the naming of the meeting is a head-scratcher to the group – and to this vlogger.

According to one person connected with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG), Oakland District 7 Councilmember Larry Reid told them that the title of the meeting was “a place-holder”. That would seem to imply the name would be changed to point to the business of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG). But there’s another complication.

Rick Tripp, a man with a history of trying to get involved in sports economic development in Oakland, and whom I talked about in this livestream, wrote on his Facebook page that…

First response is already in regarding our Oakland stadium redevelopment proposal. For those of you who might be interested, I’m going to be a bit more diligent about posting the progress of the proposal. With that said, a multi-term Councilmember emailed me today that he had passed the proposal on to staff in the Economic Development Dept. That’s it for now. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

On top of that, Tripp explained that he was asked to submit a proposal, but he wrote that he could not say who asked him to do so. On Sunday, Councilmember Reid revealed that it was he who advanced Tripp’s proposal to Oakland’s economic development staff.

But why?

Why is an African American Oakland Councilmember advancing Tripp’s proposal and allowing by appearances others to think, or at least me, that he’s not for the African American Sports and Entertainment Group? Knowing Larry, my spider-sense tells me he’s a bit miffed that African American Sports and Entertainment Group did not include him directly in the group, from the onset. I want to be wrong here. I hope I am. Larry should be concerned about African American economic development first, even beyond matters of protocol.

Oakland has to rid itself of its crabbarrel mentality, especially where it applies to us: to Blacks in Oakland. Too often we’re ready to not support each other economically, and for the most ridiculous reasons. Too often, too many Blacks in Oakland have been all too willing to do anything to discredit someone else who’s black, even if it’s “Oh, he can’t do it” or “She doesn’t have any money”. Why do I think the reasons behind black-on-black crime are the same ones causing the Oakland crabbarrel problem? (And for the record, neither me nor Zennie62Media has either Ray Bobbitt or his group as a client. But, we are all friends, and I once worked for Robert Bobb when he was the Oakland Chief Administrative Officer. Bobb put me in charge of Oakland’s Super Bowl Bid Project. Given no chance to win, Oakland emerged from 11 cities to be one of three finalists for the right to host The 2005 Super Bowl that eventually went to Jacksonville.)

Toward A New Oakland Sports Economic Development Process

The problem is that, absent a process, other competitors like Tripp will step forward and claim they have a proposal – and many of them will be white, if not all of them. So, all of this should go through a task force within the office of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (which technically includes the Oakland Chief Administrative Officer). Oakland has to take a pro-active stance and say that it wants to see the first black NFL ownership group represent Oakland. That can’t happen just by words – it has to happen by legislation, too. (And since this does not involve public contracting, one can’t claim such a focus violates California Proposition 209. Moreover, the group Bobbitt’s formed includes black millionaires and billionaires, so it would stack up to any other team, regardless of color. That said, given the history of racism that’s clouded NFL team ownership and blacks, a coherent process is needed.)

Given that there’s a ton of case law favoring an elected official publicly stating they want a particular developer for a project (and with that rules against “pay to play” relationships) what the City of Oakland should do is draft a new agreement structure that recognizes the Oakland A’s first, and then the African American Sports and Entertainment Group as a subordinate, and then a process where any other interested developer or investor has to send their materials to a designated person at The Oakland Mayor’s Office, who then informs both the A’s and the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, and goes about a process of vetting.

That would help bring clarity to the Oakland Coliseum Stadium and Coliseum City issue, and at the same time, reduce the ambient political noise that’s already audible with Ray Bobbitt’s effort.

Stay tuned.

Note from Zennie62Media’s Zennie62 YouTube and Oakland News Now Today Blog SF Bay Area: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.

via IFTTT
https://youtu.be/izwJ3TajGmI

Go And Bug Oakland Mayor Schaaf And Councilmember Taylor About Coronavirus Aide Today

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Oakland's 50th Mayor Libby Schaaf

COUNCILMEMBER LOREN TAYLOR PRESENTS COMMUNITY DISCUSSION IN EAST OAKLAND WITH RESIDENTS AND MAYOR SCHAAF REGARDING COVID-19 CRISIS AND OTHER CONCERNS

Oakland Councilmember Loren Taylor District Six
Oakland Councilmember Loren Taylor District Six

Since the Mayor and Councilmember Loren Taylor are asking you to miss important football programs on a Sunday, make it worth your while and ask them about the many economic development programs available, and ask about what they’re doing to lobby for more financial aide.

Here’s the press release that was sent:

Who:

City of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Councilmember Loren Taylor, District 6, and the Black Cultural Zone

What:

Oakland Councilmember Loren Taylor will host Mayor Libby Schaaf in a socially distanced community circle conversation with East Oakland residents at the new Akoma Outdoor Market located in Oakland’s Liberation Park (6955 Foothill Blvd). The discussion will be guided by the priorities of attendees, and is expected to cover topics ranging from (a) addressing the disparate impacts of COVID-19, (b) tackling illegal dumping and neighborhood blight, (c) solving the city’s homelessness crisis, and (d) increasing economic opportunities for East Oakland residents. Media are invited to experience the Akoma Market and observe the community circle.

The Akoma Outdoor Market – This new weekly market launched at the beginning of September to fill a major gap in access to healthy foods, local business opportunities, and positive COVID-19 compliant community gathering during the COVID-19 shelter in place. The market is operated by the Black Cultural Zone, with support from the City of Oakland and Councilmember Taylor. At this formerly vacant lot, the overgrown weeds and litter have been replaced by a array of booths featuring Black businesses and community resources ranging from fresh produce from local farmers to health and beauty products, to freshly prepared foods such as cakes, teas, cajun food, and empanadas.

In addition city and nonprofit resources are featured and distributed for free including children’s arts kits and books, housing security and eviction protection resources, information to help community members beautify our neighborhoods, and vouchers for low-income residents to purchase produce from vendors at the market.

To ensure COVID compliance and to minimize the risk of spreading the virus, all residents are temperature checked prior to entering the market and they must wear masks. Also, there is a handwashing station at every booth.

Where:

6955 Foothill Blvd (73rd and Foothill Blvd) Oakland, CA 94605

When:

12:30 PM, SUNDAY, October 18, 2020

Stay tuned.

Moms 4 Housing Now A Community & Land Trust-Owned Home – Oakland Councilmember Bas

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Nikki Bas Oakland City Council District Two Councilmember

Oakland District Two Councilmember Nikki Bas’ Digitized Newsletter

Last week, I was so moved to see #MomsHouse on Magnolia Street finally become community-owned as permanently affordable, transitional housing for unsheltered mothers.

Congratulations to Dominique Walker, Tolani King, Misty Cross, Sameerah Karim and Carroll Fife for leading this movement to end corporate speculation and house more Oaklanders. I am proud to have stood with them over the last year to call attention to making housing a human right, together with Council President Rebecca Kaplan, Councilmember Dan Kalb and Assemblymember Rob Bonta.

Moms 4 Housing
Moms 4 Housing

Sustainable, Healthy Use of Lake Merritt – Lake Merritt Vending Pilot Program Update

Coming out of the second weekend of our Lake Merritt Vending Pilot Program, we were excited to be joined by Parks and Recreation Advisory Commissioner Dwayne Aikens, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kev Choice, the Oakland Black Vendors Association and neighbors to:

• Promote health and safety during COVID-19,
• Support struggling small businesses and entrepreneurs in this difficult time, and
• Ensure sustainable, equitable and inclusive long-term use of the Lake.

This pilot program for merchandise vendors will take place through November 22nd on El Embarcadero and along Lakeshore to Beacon from 10am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
This weekend, Community Ready Corps (CRC) will be joining the pilot to promote public health during COVID. Volunteers will distribute COVID kits that have face masks, hand sanitizer and gloves to help promote compliance with the County Health Order.

My team is grateful for the collaboration of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission (PRAC), the Oakland Black Vendors Association, James “Old School” Copes, city departments, and the community to ensure access, safety and equity at the Lake for everyone in our city.

This is what an Oakland for all of us means to me — working with a coalition of diverse stakeholders to ensure the Lake, as our city’s pride, is an enjoyable public space that each of us can use.

Moms 4 Housing
Moms 4 Housing

TUESDAY 10/20: Oakland City Council Meeting Preview Homeless Encampment Management Policy and Community Safety

Tuesday, October 20th’s 1:30pm City Council meeting will include the following important agenda items:

Item 6: COVID-19 Emergency Response And The Creation Of Clean Air Buildings For Use Of The Community During The COVID-19 Shelter In Place Emergency.

Thanks to our awesome District 2 constituent and outgoing Cleveland Heights Neighborhood Council Co-Chair Rachel Broadwin for introducing us to Dr. Rupa Basu, Section Chief for the Air and Climate Epidemiology Section of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment at CalEPA. At our September Council meeting, I expressed concern that our air quality and temperature triggers were too high to fully protect the health and safety of our most vulnerable residents. At my urging, our Fire Department staff met with Dr. Basu to discuss recommendations for activating extreme weather Emergency Respite Centers (ERC) in Oakland. As an outcome of the conversation and further discussions with internal stakeholders and community feedback, the activation triggers for the City of Oakland have been lowered to an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 200 – Very Unhealthy (versus what was previously 250) and temperatures forecasted to reach/exceed 95 degrees for 2 consecutive days or 100 degrees in one day. We are grateful for Dr. Basu and Rachel’s important expertise as we navigate these challenging times!

Item 7: Gun Violence Top Law Enforcement Priority resolution from President Kaplan to prioritize the decrease in illegal guns and gun violence by increasing gun tracing, improving response time to shooting notifications, and prioritizing response to gun crime.

Item 8: Homeless Encampment Management resolution, which proposes to designate priority areas for encampment management and outlines actions including the criteria for assessing what locations will be prioritized for enforcement or other homelessness interventions from the city.

Item 14: Adopt either the resolution proposed by the Oakland Police Commission or Oakland Police Department banning the carotid restraint and all forms of asphyxia.

Item 16: I’m co-sponsoring with President Kaplan, a resolution Terminating the Oakland Police Department’s Participation In The Joint Terror Task Force to ensure compliance with our local and state laws and focus on threats based on evidence, not bias or racial profiling.

 

See details to join the meeting and provide public comment. You can also share e-comments here.

TUESDAY 10/27: Community & Economic Development Meeting – Impact Fees, Economic Recovery Recommendations

 

On Tuesday October 27th at 1:30pm, the Community and Economic Development Committee will discuss two important items:

 

Item 2: Informational report on Impact Fees for Affordable Housing, Jobs/Housing, and Transportation and Capital Improvements, and
Item 3: Informational report on the Economic Recovery Council’s Draft Recommendations.

 

Oakland Workers, Know Your Rights! COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave

Oakland Workers Rights
Oakland Workers Rights

 

Thank you to East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) for creating Know Your Rights materials on the emergency protections for Oakland workers passed by Council earlier this summer, which I was proud to co-sponsor.

 

The City’s Emergency Paid Sick Leave policy requires certain employers to provide leave to workers who test positive for COVID-19, present symptoms, are caring for family members who were exposed or present symptoms, or are at high risk from an infection. Check out and share the flyers in English and Spanish so that Oakland workers are aware of their rights!

 

City of Oakland; District 2 News and Resources
County Reopening Updates, Small Biz Legal Support, Grants for Home-Based Business

 

New County Health Orders Allow Additional Business Operations: Effective October 9, Alameda County now allows: hotels & lodging for tourism with their fitness centers and indoor pools restricted; museums, zoos & aquariums indoors at < 25% capacity; personal care services indoors with modification (services requiring removal of face covering still prohibited); gyms and fitness centers indoors at < 10% capacity with restrictions on aerobic exercise and classes. While the update allows partial reopening of libraries, Oakland Public LIbrary will remain closed for indoor services until plans are in place for safely reopening the buildings.

Beginning Friday, October 16, Alameda County will permit additional outdoor activities, including playgrounds, that follow the State’s guidance. Additionally, Alameda County is preparing to update the local Health Officer Orders to permit additional activities during the week of October 26. These activities will include: indoor dining up to 25% capacity or less than 100 people, whichever is less; indoor worship services up to 25% capacity or less than 100 people, whichever is less; indoor theaters up to 25% capacity or less than 100 people, whichever is less; expansion of indoor retail and malls at up to 50% of capacity and permitting limited food courts.

County Guidance on Safe Halloween Practices: Bay Area health officials recently released guidance on how to celebrate Halloween and Dia de los Muertos safely. Gatherings, celebrations, events or parties with non-household members are not permitted unless conducted in compliance with local and state health orders. Please avoid participating in traditional trick-or-treating where treats are handed to children who go door to door and do not have trunk-or-treat where treats are handed from car trunks lined up in large parking lots.

See also this guidance from the CA Dept. of Public Health:

Many traditional Halloween celebrations, such as parties and door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose a high risk of spreading COVID-19 and are strongly discouraged by CDPH
Not only do traditional celebrations pose a spread risk, they would also result in great difficulty in conducting appropriate contact tracing
Local Health Departments may have additional, more stringent restrictions
CDPH recommends that families begin planning for safer alternatives.

Legal Help for Oakland Small Businesses with Lease Negotiations: Oakland has allocated $150,000 of California CARES funding to the nonprofit Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the SF Bay Area to provide legal advice and assistance on lease negotiations to small businesses that have suffered revenue losses due to COVID-19. Business owners can access these free, multilingual legal services here, such as commercial leasing webinars through mid-December, 1:1 one-hour consultations and longer-term assistance which may include lease negotiation, pre-litigation and settlement negotiations or representation in a court proceeding.

$2-4K Grants for Home-Based Businesses: Income from a home-based business is often a big source of household income for our city’s entrepreneurs. The Oakland CARES Act Home-Based Business Grant program will distribute $500,000 to home-based, for-profit businesses. Apply here by 11:59pm on Monday, November 2 in 4 languages. Priority will be given to businesses representing a broad geographic diversity in Oakland, especially those located in low-income areas or otherwise historically vulnerable communities; those who have received $4,000 or less in funding from the Paycheck Protection Program; and those with annual gross business revenue under $150,000.

Several Grants Extended:

The Oakland CARES Act Small Business Grant Program will accept applications until 5 p.m. on Friday, October 23. This program will provide $10,000 grants to qualifying Oakland small businesses that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 and have gross revenues under $2 million. Online applications and eligibility requirements in four languages are available at: mainstreetlaunch.org/oakland-cares-act-grant/
The application deadline for the Oakland CARES Nonprofit Grant Fund has been extended to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28. This program will award grants of up to $25,000 to qualifying community-serving nonprofits with annual budgets of less than $1 million that address the impact of COVID-19 and the needs of low-income residents and businesses in the following areas: Health & Human Services; Economic & Workforce Development; Legal Support; Food Security; Homeless and Renter Support Services; and Education. Online applications and eligibility requirements are available at: communityvisionca.org/oaklandcares/

The application deadline for the Oakland CARES Fund for Artists and Arts Nonprofits impacted by COVID-19 has been extended to 1pm Friday, October 23. The program will distribute awards of up to $20,000 to arts nonprofits with annual budgets of less than $2.5M, while supporting individual artists with grants of up to $3,000 each. Learn more here.

Oakland Parks & Recreation Foundation’s 1st Citywide Parks Workshop: Whether you’re an experienced community leader or a new volunteer, join this free workshop taking place on Saturday, November 14, from 9:00am to 1:00pm to collaborate and learn about strategies and tools to improve Oakland parks. Learn more and register here.

East Bay Community Energy’s Resilient Home Program: Oakland has partnered with nonprofit public electricity provider East Bay Community Energy to launch a solar + battery backup program for homeowners. EBCE has partnered with Sunrun to provide no-cost / obligation-free consultations and will provide a proposal for your consideration. If you decide to move forward, there is a $1,250 incentive to homeowners that enroll their battery in the program and share power with EBCE during peak times when there isn’t a power outage. Since launch in August, nearly 700 homeowners countywide have registered for consultations. Sign up for your consultation and learn more at upcoming webinars.
Voting Reminders
Vote Early!

Given the pandemic and the threats to our democracy, please vote early. All registered voters will be sent an absentee ballot automatically to limit COVID exposure. You must register to vote to receive an absentee ballot!

You can vote in person or drop off your ballot at the Alameda County Registrar of Voters: 1225 Fallon Street, Room G1, Oakland, or put it into one of the official, free 24-hour drop boxes anytime by November 3rd 8pm. If you use a USPS mailbox, postage is free, and it’s critical to vote early!

You can also sign up to track your ballot.

October 19th is the last day for regular online voter registration.
October 20th – November 3rd, you can do same day voter registration.

On November 3rd, you can vote in person or drop your ballot off at your polling place by 8pm.

With many measures on the ballot, my go-to guides are Oakland Rising’s Voter Guide and the CA AAPI Voting Guide in seven AAPI languages.

With Oakland Love,

Nikki Fortunato Bas
Councilmember, City of Oakland, District 2

Ray Bobbitt, Bill Duffy, Robert Bobb, Alan Dones, Loop Capital: Black Developer Group Bidding $92 Million For Oakland Coliseum

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Ray Bobbitt Oakland

Oakland News: A letter was passed to me moments ago that outlines the interest of the African American Sports & Entertainment Group in purchasing the Oakland Coliseum site for $92 million. The group consists of Ray Bobbitt, who spearheaded the African American Oakland NFL Expansion effort, which is part of this group’s focus, famed sports agent Bill Duffy, who was also part of the Ronnie Lott Group development team that tried to retain the Raiders in Oakland but lost them to Las Vegas, Oakland developer Alan Dones, former Oakland City Manager and one of my mentors Robert Bobb, and Chicago’s Loop Capital, where a family friend of mine, Darrell Williams, is good friends with former President Barack Obama, and is in the photo below with Loop Capital’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Reynolds.

UPDATE: An Old Personality From Oakland’s Problem-Laden Sports Stadium Development History Is Back: Rick Tripp

I also know through a source that Oakland District Seven Councilmember Larry Reid has talked with Ray Bobbitt about this proposal as recently as last Friday. Here’s the letter, below, after the photo.

President Barack Obama and Darrell Williams Of Loop Capital
President Barack Obama and Darrell Williams (right) Of Loop Capital

AFRICAN AMERICAN SPORTS &
ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

ECONOMIC EQUITY THROUGH SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT DEVELOPMENT

1423 Broadway #183, Oakland, CA 94612

October 6, 2020

The Honorable Mayor Libby Schaaf

& Members of the Oakland City Council
City of Oakland, California

One Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, CA 94612

Dear Mayor Schaaf and esteemed Oakland City Council Members,

The African American Sports & Entertainment Group (“AASEG”) has been working over the last several months to lay the groundwork for bringing a National Football League (“NFL”) franchise back to Oakland. One of the critical factors in our ability to attract a new NFL franchise is a viable home field location for the team. As well, we recognize the interests of city leadership in the holistic redevelopment of the Coliseum area consistent with the vision articulated by the 2015 Coliseum Area Specific Plan. We also recognize the City of Oakland’s interest in maintaining a home for its Major League Baseball (“MLB”) franchise, the Oakland Athletics. We believe that all these objectives can be achieved and to these ends, we have assembled a Master Development Team well-capable of marshalling the resources and expertise necessary to transform our mutual interests into reality. Our team, described as the “AASEG Team”, is pleased to submit this non-binding, indication of Interest, proposal to purchase the City of Oakland’s interest in the Coliseum property for a total of Ninety Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($92,500,000), payable per the schedule provided in Exhibit A.

The AASEG Team

In addition to the enormous community support for our mutual vision, AASEG has assembled a Master Development Team fully capable of executing the development of the Coliseum property (the “Project”).

Bill Duffy With Yao Ming
Bill Duffy With Yao Ming

▪ BDA Sports Management – Led by respected sports agent Bill Duffy, BDA is one of the world’s top ranked sports agencies focused, specifically on basketball. Bill has agreed to apply his extensive network and decades of experience toward execution of the Project, including assembling some of the leading names in sports and entertainment in support and endorsement of the Project. Bill was one of the architects of the Ronnie Lott/Fortress Capital plan that offered a viable option to build a stadium on the Coliseum site.

▪ Strategic Urban Development Alliance – One of Oakland’s largest African American real estate development firms, SUDA has executed millions of dollars’ worth of projects in the Bay Area. SUDA Chief Executive Officer, Alan Dones, has led development projects both in the United States and Africa. He will provide development consulting to the Project.

▪ The Robert Bobb Group, LLC – With specialty capabilities in economic development, urban planning and community and neighborhood engagement, RBG is an African American owned national consulting firm to both public and private sector clients. Chief Executive Officer Robert Bobb will provide consulting services to the Project.

▪ Loop Capital – The largest African American owned, full services investment banking brokerage, financial advisory and investment management organization, Loop Capital boasts a 23-year history of developing financial solutions for America’s largest public sector institutions and private sector firms. In addition to its global capital markets, Loop Capital is an experienced advisor on Public-Private-Partnership and infrastructure transactions. As well, Loop Capital is part of a team developing a 100+ acre parcel owned by the City of Chicago and the Metropolitan Pier Authority. Finally, Loop Capital’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Reynolds is a partner in JLC Infrastructure, a private asset manager with over $800 million under management targeting investments in various publicly owned assets. Loop Capital is the capital partner for the Project.

Stakeholder Interests

The AASEG Team is well aware of the aspirations of the citizens of Oakland and other stakeholders with respect to the Project and is prepared to engage the City as a partner in the execution of a mutually-agreed upon vision embodied in a Community Benefits Agreement that includes:

• Local hiring with priority on racial equity

• The engagement and inclusion of local and small business contractors
and businesses

• Environmentally friendly landscaping and sustainable, energy efficient
design

• Anti-displacement assistance and housing preservation policies for
residents in the development area

• The inclusion of affordable housing

• Project Labor agreements and labor peace

• Local employment and job access provisions, workforce training,
retention of existing workers, and apprenticeship policies

• Living wages, benefits, and stable employment opportunities

• Environmental mitigation measures

• Open space elements

• Sustainable and healthy development

• Transportation infrastructure and transportation demand management
programs, including transit affordability and accessibility

• Potential impact fee’s (housing, transportation, capital improvements)

• Other community benefits as needed and feasible, to be negotiated

Finally, we are keenly aware of the interests of the Oakland Athletics organization in a second option for a baseball stadium should current objectives not come to fruition. The AASEG team is prepared to maintain development space in the Project toward those ends and looks forward to engaging the A’s to fully understand and address their interests.
The AASEG Team is excited to work with the City of Oakland to develop a definitive agreement for the purchase and Master Developer control of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex and is prepared to engage staff and leadership to craft an agreement that reflects the provisions in this indication of Interest. We are eager to begin due diligence activities and formal discussions upon the City of Oakland’s acceptance of this non-binding offer. We believe that this historic undertaking will be a perfect example of the African American community being supported by the larger community in achieving economic equality. We are extremely grateful to be in a position to provide jobs and housing for the citizens of Oakland, and to continue to provide world-class sports and entertainment facilities for the entire East Bay region.

As America wrestles with social change, social justice, and economic justice, Oakland can lead the way in demonstrating what real impact is. As proud Oaklanders, it is a part of our DNA. It is simply who we are, and what we do best. We look forward to helping lead that change in the City of Oakland.

Sincerely,

Ray Bobbitt

African American Sports and Entertainment Group

cc: The Honorable Rebecca Kaplan, Council President

The Honorable Councilmember Dan Kalb, District 1

The Honorable Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas, District 2

The Honorable Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, District 3
The Honorable Councilmember Sheng Thao, District 4

The Honorable Councilmember Noel Gallo, District 5
The Honorable Councilmember Loren Taylor, District 6
The Honorable Councilmember Larry Reid, District 7
City Administrator Ed Reiskin

AASEG, LLC

BDA Sports
7

The Robert Bobb Group
SUDA, LLC

Loop Capital

Exhibit A

AASEG Team

Oakland Coliseum Property Purchase Proposal
Schedule of Proposed Payments

Schedule of Proposed Payments:

At closing: $10,000,000

At the end of year one: $10,000,000
Year 2: $12,500,000
Year 3: $15,000,000
Year 4: $17,500,000
Year 5: $15,000,000
Year 6: $12,500,000

Again, with respect to the NFL, the same lawsuit that Ray Bobbitt invested $40,000 to start and against the former Oakland Raiders now Las Vegas Raiders and the NFL is not only still active, but restarts October 8th. For the group to have a snow-ball’s chance in hell with the NFL, that lawsuit would have to be dropped.

That said, if the group can gain some kind of joint control with the Oakland A’s, then the prospect of the NFL returning to Oakland becomes that much more realistic. Why? Because they will have control of land to build a new stadium for an NFL expansion team, or an existing organization.

Stay tuned for updates. Here is the letter on file:

AASEG Formal Letter of Intent to City of Oakland by Zenophon Zennie Abraham on Scribd

2020 Election: Re-Elect Oakland City Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney For District Three

by
Oakland Councilmember Lynette Gibson Mcelhaney

Oakland City Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney has served the residents of perhaps the most complicated Oakland City Council District in our city very well. Understand that while District Three is commonly thought of as being only West Oakland, in reality it’s also Downtown Oakland, Uptown Oakland, and Adams Point / Lake Merritt, where I live.

So, Lynette has a big job, and on balance has served all of the residents well. She deserves to be re-elected, and particularly at a time where Oakland, Alameda County, California, America, and The World is in the clutches of The Pandemic. Changing horses in the middle of the stream is never a good idea, so why do it now? Besides, the reasons I’m hearing why some are not voting for Lynette are such that I’ll bet no one else will fair better.

The specific reasons are these:

1) Lynette is not accessible, and her aide responds rather than her – As one who represented Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris from 1995 to 1999, I find that aides to elected officials get treated like crap by Oakland residents far too often. The job of the aide is to represent the, in this case, Oakland City Councilmember. And Lynette’s aides have done that very well. News-flash: she can’t be everywhere, and her representatives help her.

2) She wasn’t present for Moms4Housing – As Lynette told me during our interview of 10 days ago now, the Moms4Housing Representatives did not approach her ahead of time with their plans, even though the entire matter happened in her council district. The full interview:

The ultimate sign of disrespect is for someone to launch a campaign around the issue of housing that focuses on a property in an Oakland City Council Member’s district and not consult them. The reasons can’t be good ones, because, by design, they are assumptive. How does anyone know she would not have been receptive to their objectives of a type of taking of property, and tried to help so that they would not be framed as criminals?

Lynette believed that, because they did not approach her, to then show up at their events uninvited would cause her to be seen as trying to steal their message. My take on Moms4Housing was that their effort pointed to a giant problem, but did nothing to solve it: the market failure that’s still with us in super-high-housing-costs and illegal evictions of black Oakland residents that a sustained California Redevelopment Law would have thwarted.

Instead, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan allowed former Mayor of Oakland Jerry Brown to get rid of California Redevelopment Law, and now Oakland’s once formidable affordable housing construction budget of over $100 million annually was cut off in 2011, never to return and at the time of SF Bay Area Tech Boom II, from 2012 to 2019.

In the middle of this, Moms4Housing tried to pick sides prematurely. For example, from my perspective, it’s minders failed to respond to my request to run their press releases or interview them, so I had to end-run them many times using tech. Their idea seemed be to try and paint me as against them, when my thoughts were the opposite. That said, I did run press releases from their opponents, and because they sent them. It’s called news. Moreover, I’ve never been a fan of what’s called a “taking without just compensation” (and the U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow it either), and that, in effect, is what Moms4Housing tried to do.

Their assumptions amounted to a type of picking of fights that are not there, and their words, more often than not, were hurtful. And, on top of that, we’re talking about a black-on-black affair, where folks like Lynette and myself were the focus of wrongheaded derision, and by some other folks of the same skin color. And on top of that, many of the folks are ones I really like, just to be real here.  In my view, anyone white was treated better, for the most part – even those who openly opposed them.

The fact is that in Oakland, we as black folks are far too willing to assume something negative about someone else who’s black, but not in what’s perceived as that person’s group. It’s a horrible crab-barrel social problem that has plagued Oakland for decades, and with no end in sight. Moms4Housing spotlighted that problem that the white media missed, even as it was in their face.

What Lynette Did Was Spot Light The Violence Problems Black Women Face In Oakland

What Lynette does not get credit for is spotlighting the problem of violence against black women. That was the focus of her push to establish the Oakland Office Of Violence Prevention. And while I remain assertive that the real problem is lack of good jobs and an economic development effort that’s dead, I have seen the advantage of the Oakland Office Of Violence Prevention: it gives a much-needed place in Oakland government for people, and again in particular black women, to go for real, comprehensive help. That this is forgotten that Lynette created the Oakland Office Of Violence Prevention is one more example of the many actions that, collectively, caused a performer like Megan Thee Stallion to get on Saturday Night Live and point to the consistent disrespect and disregard black women receive in America, and that includes Oakland.

It’s worse when other blacks in Oakland don’t give Lynette that credit. That’s got to stop.

Lynette Makes Her Case For Re-Election And It’s Worth Reading

In her most recent campaign newsletter, Lynette made her case for re-election. It’s worth a read, even though she left out the Office Of Violence Prevention. But, overall, one has to ask, what does she have to do? It’s as if some people want to find some reason to oppose her.

For example, some will mention the Oakland Public Ethics Commission’s recent investigation not of her, but mentions alleged laundered money given to her campaign in the past, as well as that of Oakland councilmembers Sheng Thao and Dan Kalb. Well, I challenge any candidate to prove that they know anything about who gives them money, why, and where they got it from to give. Moreover, why would the Oakland Public Ethics Commission choose an election period to release news about a lawsuit and investigation that’s not primarily focused on Oakland councilmembers, but names some? That action, alone, is illegal in several states – it looks like the Oakland Public Ethics Commission and the Oakland City Attorney are trying to influence voters. Not a cool look.

What does Lynette have to do? Well, she’s done this, from her newsletter:

Partnered with our County Supervisor Keith Carson to pioneer the Compassionate Communities initiative
Co-authored Measure JJ – expanding Just Cause Eviction and Rent Increase protections
Secured 10s of millions of dollars in new homelessness funding by pushing to include $150 Million for Affordable Housing in the Infrastructure Bond (Measure KK) and the Parks Measure (Measure Q) – offering amendments that guaranteed set asides for no and extremely low income housing
Engaged Congresswoman Barbara Lee and led the effort to turn back draconian reductions in Section 8 vouchers
Pushed to protect single room occupancy transient hotels – housing of last resort that does not discriminate for credit worthiness or for lack of substantial deposits
Demanded increased coordination to respond to encampments and improve service delivery to the unhoused.

As your representative on the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) I have:

Helped pass AB1487 (2019) the bill that established the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA). BAHFA, and the expanded regional housing portfolio, is rooted in the “3Ps” framework that comprehensively addresses the housing crisis through a combination of production, preservation and protection. Specifically:
Production of rental housing for lower-income households (at or below 80% of the area median income or AMI)
Preservation of affordable housing for low-or moderate-income households (up to 120% of AMI)
Protecting tenants from displacement and preventing homelessness
Stopped an effort to impose a regressive sales tax on Oakland households, demanding that large employers pay their fair share to fund housing and relieve transportation stress caused by job growth

I am currently working with OUSD on a plan to house all homeless students and their families and this year I was selected by ABAG President Jesse Arreguin to serve on the newly established Regional Housing Committee. In this capacity I make sure Oakland’s needs are at the center of identifying regional solutions. And now, after five years of persistent advocacy, the Council is now positioned to take action on many of the efforts I have championed.

COVID19 lays bare the dire needs for housing security and hunger – two issues that have begged for attention amongst the organized campaigns for many good causes. By partnering with my Council colleagues that represent Oakland’s flatlands, I was able to direct nearly $30 million of CARES ACT funds to addressing these critical needs in the flatlands, allowing the City to purchase hotels and an abandoned dormitory to house more of our houseless constituents.

If the challengers think they can match her, I would offer that we as Oaklanders would have to sit and wait for that person to learn the Oakland legislative ropes before they could be effective, whereas the saying “been there, done that” applies to Councilmember McElhaney.

Re-elect Councilmember McElhaney for District Three.

Oakland Misconceptions About Coal – “Coal Can’t Be Clean”

by
Misconceptions About Coal – “coal Can’t Be Clean.”

Misconceptions about coal – “Coal can’t be clean.”
From YouTube Channel: March 13, 2020 at 07:10AM

ONN – Oakland Misconceptions About Coal – “Coal Can’t Be Clean”

This is related to the matter of Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal and Insight Terminal Solutions. Insight Terminal Solutions is a Zennie62Media content client.

The World Coal Association wrote:

The technology exists to address our environmental challenges.

The WCA’s membership is made up of global companies committed to advancing clean coal technologies for sustainable economic development.

Stay tuned.

Read more about clean coal technologies like CCUS here: https://ift.tt/2RSIKy7

Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.

via IFTTT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuCxcggyWCo

City Of Oakland, Main Street Launch Open Grant Program For Oakland Small Businesses

by
City of Oakland

Oakland – The City of Oakland received $36.9 million in State of California CARES Act funding. More than $4 million of those funds will go to the Oakland CARES Act Small Business Grant Program to support Oakland small businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program anticipates distributing $10,000 grants to 402 Oakland small businesses.

Grants may be used to cover day-to-day operating costs, such as worker payroll, rent and fixed debts. The application period for the small business grants opened today (Tuesday, September 22) at 1 p.m., and ends at 5 p.m. on Monday, October 12, 2020. Online applications in four languages are available at: https://mainstreetlaunch.org/oakland-cares-act-grant/

“Many Oakland small businesses that employ our residents and provide vital goods and services for us all have suffered greatly during the closures to combat the spread of COVID-19,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “These CARES Act-funded grants are meant to help sustain the local, independent merchants that add so much to our community as they pivot to new business models for the pandemic and post-pandemic economies.”

Eligibility requirements:

· Be an existing for-profit business since March 1, 2019 with a commercial location in Oakland

· Be able to demonstrate adverse business impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic

· Have gross revenues under $2,000,000 in 2019

· Have a current City of Oakland business license

· Have no City of Oakland life safety code violations

· Be in compliance with all County Health Orders and State Regulations

· Have not received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of more than $10,000

· Have not received a grant from the Oakland CARES Fund for Artists and Arts Non-profits

· Have at least one, but no more than 50 full-time equivalent employees, including the business owner(s)

The following businesses are not eligible for funding through this grant program: Nonprofits, passive income real estate businesses, cannabis-related businesses, adult entertainment businesses, franchises, any business involved in bankruptcy proceedings or religious organizations (See FAQs for complete list).

Disbursement of grants funds to the selected recipients is anticipated to be completed by Friday, October 30, 2020.

The grants will help prevent displacement and closures of small businesses that contribute to the City’s diversity, vibrancy and character. Distribution of the CARES Act grants for small businesses is through a partnership between the City of Oakland’s Economic & Workforce Development Department and Main Street Launch. A trusted intermediary focused on equitable economic development, Main Street Launch is administering the Oakland CARES Act Small Business Grant Program.

“Main Street is looking forward to helping Oakland’s small businesses at this critical moment in the city’s recovery from the pandemic,” said Jacob Singer, CEO of Main Street Launch. “By helping the City provide these grants to support Oakland’s dynamic small business community, we collectively envision a time when we will all be able to gather together again in support of the businesses that make Oakland a unique and lively place to work and live.”

To assist applicants, answers to frequently asked questions have been posted at: https://mainstreetlaunch.org/oakland-cares-act-grant/ Support for technical questions is also available by emailing [email protected].

To align with the Oakland City Council’s direction and equity goals, the funds will be allocated to prioritize both geographic diversity throughout Oakland, and districts containing vulnerable communities, as represented by the Opportunity Zone-qualified and Opportunity Zone-designated census tracts. $2 million of grants have been specifically earmarked for businesses located in Opportunity Zone-designated census tracts. These historically vulnerable communities were selected based on aggregated demographic characteristics of each tract’s resident population as reported by the U.S. Census.

This is the latest CARES Act-funded grant program launched by the City of Oakland. Grant programs for low-income renter and homeowner relief and artists and arts nonprofits as well as an RFQ to fund support for low- and moderate-income renters and homeowners were announced earlier this month. Learn more about the $36.9 million in CARES Act Funding at: https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/coronavirus-aid-relief-and-economic-security-cares-act-funding

Oakland Forgot Economic Development And It Shows In The Very Condition Of The City

by
City of Oakland

The Oakland that I knew is dead. It was a city that had over 100 job training programs and several low interest loan and grant programs for businesses. It was a city that was unafraid to embrace manufacturing, transportation, and heavy industry, as much as it demanded and caused the development of an economy comparatively cleaner than most. It was a city that knew how to fix its economic problems. That Oakland is gone.

The Oakland that replaced it is one that’s marked by growing ranks of people sleeping on the streets because no one will help them. It has many who were just one lost paycheck away from eviction, and their ranks so great, a moratorium on evictions was in place before the Pandemic.

It has some who would even resort to an attempt to take property not their own. And do that thinking it will solve an overall problem that is obviously beyond their desire to deal with: an economic design that lacks the use of tax increment financing to fuel the business assistance and job training and affordable housing programs Oakland was once known for. This Oakland lacks people who want to fix the economy and far to many people who want to protest against the economy.

The fact is, we have had march after march and activist after activist, and the problems have only gotten worse. The protests have become nothing more than theater for the media, and tools to be used as part of a campaign strategy by a President who, himself, does not seem to care.

We have people who are willing to say “no coal” but not even asking “can we do coal, clean air, and jobs?” In fact, it seems like it’s just easier for them to just say no, then to try and fix anything.

Where we are is beyond sad.

It has been advanced by some media infected with the same anti-intellectualism – and worse because they believe their approach is smart. It is the complete and total lack of knowledge of where we are as a society, and to such a massively alarming point, that both the activists and that media don’t even bother to read about the past, and learn about the first publication to point to the climate change problem: The Limits To Growth. That was way back in 1971, but don’t tell that to the so-called climate change activists, they think all of this started after they hit puberty, and after 2010.

Oakland Created Its Own Problem And Now Can’t Wake Up To Fix It

What is so awful is that we in Oakland created this problem. Yeah. That’s right. Us.

I recall a 1996 meeting I sat in on, and on behalf of Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, about the then-new concept of the “jobs / housing balance”. The meeting was at the offices of my long-time friend Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. Unfortunately, I have to write that this happened.

The meeting included a number of officials, including Sunne Wright McPeak, then a Contra Costa County Supervisor and main advocate for the idea that there should be a jobs / housing balance. The problem with the concept is that it asks a City like Oakland to be able to have more employment for workers to “balance” the housing in it. The problem is that the idea calls for an industry to be grown in that city to get those workers. Or, let me put it this way: it allows for gentrification to set in, though that was not the word flavor of the day in 1996.

In the meeting, I asked how Oakland was to make sure it followed “Oakland first” jobs policies for its current workers if they did not have the skills necessary to land the biotech jobs that Keith and Sunne, and the others in the meeting prized so much and wanted for Oakland? They collectively looked at me as if I had grown the ears of a Vulcan. I must now admit that I left the meeting out of pure disgust for the lack of any real thinking – it was the typical, Bay Area, “let’s make up something that we think is smart” crap.

It’s the kind of approach that is unconsciously born from the time when white supremacists like John Muir were creating social clubs like The Sierra Club. It’s an approach that calls for the development of an amount of what the person thinks are facts that are undeniable – and so that person is hardened in their beliefs to the point where communicating with them to get them to see another way becomes folly. It’s caused a lot of problems, and in particular, in the East Bay of the SF Bay Area, where the black population is the largest of any other place in my region of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The people who have this sort of tick have become and in many cases still are elected officials and friends of mine – and Democrats. They have allowed the complete destruction of Oakland’s economic development, and allowed it to happen with a nod. They have proven that they are the latest in the long line of people to drink the kool-aid established by John Muir. When he and his friends like famed UC Berkeley Professor Joseph Le Conte formed The Sierra Club, and his ideas of preservation that gave it life, he and they did not have black people in mind. They regarded us, folks who look like me, as “dirty” and “savages.”

Indeed, Joseph Le Conte is also identified as a white supremacist.

John Muir (photo courtesy peoplelooker.com)
John Muir (photo courtesy peoplelooker.com)

I write that because the Oakland that I came to know in 1974 was increasingly one that was called a “chocolate city” but the real problem is Oakland was consistently apologizing for being just that. It always embraced outside white male developers and never, then later seldom, gave a black developer a chance, and a person who was Asian (like my friend Phil Tagami) didn’t fare much better unless he worked himself to near death for ten years just to land the Oakland Rotunda Project (as Phil did with the help of a number of people, including me and Elihu Harris). That problem still exists today, and points to a real problem.

We all know the ranks of those who are jobless and homeless in Oakland are mostly black. We all know that the ranks of those suffering from COVID-19 are more likely to be black. But what we have not done in Oakland, is simply create a black-focused answer to these problems. So, for the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (for which its co-developer Insight Terminal Solutions, is a Zennie62Media content client) there’s the largely white “No Coal In Oakland” group just saying no, and not doing anything to try and get to yes.

They openly do not care about the same jobs problem that disproportionately hurts black folks in Oakland. Then, they try and make you believe (with the help of irresponsible media) that they have a large young black membership, when the truth is just the opposite. We need a black economic development agenda that is formed in harmony with concerns for the environment. Don’t count on No Coal In Oakland or The Sierra Club, because they’ve drank John Muir’s racist elixir and are too drunk to realize it.

Meanwhile, there’s Tom Steyer, the former coal investor and hedge fund manager who’s now (I contend) trying to hedge the western United States and as much of America as he can into a thought ethic that just says invest in renewables, and not fix the damn traditional energy pollution problem. Tom’s got a number of Oakland elected officials so scared they won’t get his money, they parrot his view about the environment, and don’t care about developing jobs at all, and mindlessly pat themselves on the back for such things as “climate action plans” that lack any interest in economic development.

On top of that, the same Oakland elected officials that signed development agreements to allow Mr. Tagami and Insight Terminal Solutions to build the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (knowing it was designed to handle bulk commodities like coal in a low emissions way), then set about a process of trying to back out of them just because Steyer started influencing them with money.

Take the example of Tom Steyer investing $500,000 in the Mayor of Oakland’s Oakland Promise program, and allegedly with the quid-pro-quo that Oakland would get involved in a lawsuit against American oil companies that was so silly it was tossed out of court. Why Libby didn’t get Tom to try and jump start Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal is a good question, considering its low emissions design, Oakland’s need to create low-skilled, well-paying jobs, and the now decades-long tardiness of replacing the jobs lost due to military base closures.

It’s as if Oakland just plain stopped caring about creating jobs. Even Oakland economic development director Alexa Jeffries, who was hired last year, has no formal background in economic development!

This is Oakland, folks. In other words, for economic development in Oakland, a cuss term is appropriate: we’re fucked.

In Oakland Economic Development Has Reached The “We’re Fucked” Stage

Yep. We’re fucked, folks. The City of Oakland knows it and you know it. We can get out of it, but we have to admit it, first, fast, then take action, and fast. We had the blueprint for the economic engine that can help us in the future and that’s the redevelopment laws of the past. There was no real good reason to get rid of Redevelopment, and since it was terminated, Oakland’s economic divide has only worsened and the Pandemic just made it worse.

And blacks in Oakland need to stop supporting The Sierra Club and form a new approach that fits the needs of the African American community. The problem is too many of us are trapped in thinking about us in a negative fashion, so city policy is focused on crime only, whereas in the Oakland between 1980 and 2010, the policies (like Hire Oakland First) were geared toward the economic needs of black residents. We let that go, and it’s time to bring it back. If you agree that blacks in Oakland are being harmed by a lack of programs and a lack of the social infrastructure that once made sure blacks had greater wealth, then take action. If you believe that you are only as strong as your weakest neighbor, then the only logical action is to help that neighbor, and go tell John Muir what to do with his racist ideas. I know he’s long passed on, but his point of view still holds way too much sway.

Time to wake the fuck up.

Stay tuned.

Sanpete Utah Needs Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal For Jobs

by
Manti Lds Temple In Sanpete County, Utah, Usa

Sanpete County Utah has a population of over 27,000 people, and is located 122 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah. Of late, in the ongoing push to build the much-needed Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal and replaced the lost low-skill, well-paying jobs that went away with the closure of the Oakland Army Base in 2000, Sanpete County has come into focus.

The reason is that Sanpete County is one of four Utah counties (which are Sevier, Carbon and Emery), which intend to provide financial support of $20 million from a $53 million state economic development fund.

The $20 million in support for the Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal is to come from the Utah Permanent Community Impact Fund Board (CIB).

The media consistently gets what the Utah PCIB does completely wrong. In all of the explanations I have read from traditional news organizations, they express surprise that the Utah Legislature (at least the Republican side) would think of using funds from the Utah Permanent Community Impact Board for the ITS Oakland Bulk and Oversize Terminal.

Without spending more time on revealing those words from traditional media, let’s jump right to the real explanation of what the Utah Permanent Community Impact Board does – right from its own grant and loan program page:

The Permanent Community Impact Fund Board (CIB) is a program of the State of Utah authorized in Section 35A-8-301, et seq. The goal of the CIB is to maximize the long term benefit of funds derived from these lease revenues and bonus payments by fostering funding mechanisms which will, consistent with sound financial practices, result in the greatest use of financial resources for the greatest number of citizens of this state, with priority given to those communities designated as impacted by the development of natural resources covered by the Mineral Leasing Act. TheCIB’s source of funding is a portion of federal mineral lease royalties returned to the State by theFederal Government. https://jobs.utah.gov/housing/community/cib/documents/cibreport.pdf

And the real reason the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal has come into focus is because the words “greatest use of financial resources for the greatest number of citizens of this state, with priority given to those communities designated as impacted by the development of natural resources covered by the Mineral Leasing Act” translate to “we need the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal to help save coal industry jobs, by allowing businesses in our counties a better way to get their coal product to the overseas markets that demand them.” If you understand that, then you do understand why the fund was tapped.

On The Supposed Reason For The Opposition To Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, Climate Change, And System Dynamics

Before I continue, let me get this out of the way: climate change is not something new, and because the fact is that climate change has been with us as a problem for most of my 58 years on this planet. I was born August 4th, 1962, in Chicago. That year, we had an estimated 180 million people in America and about 2.6 billion on the Earth, as a whole. Since then, the United States has expanded to 330 million people and the Earth is just over 7 billion people – we’ve added 4.4 billion more people in my 58 years.

There’s one fact in all of this: as we add more people to a room, the temperature in that room increases.

In 1979, and via a family friend, I was introduced to The Limits To Growth: a book by Dennis and Donnella Meadows, and The Club Of Rome-financed MIT Project on the Predicament Of Mankind (that was the title). It was written in 1971, and introduced to me the problem-framing concept called System Dynamics (I am now an expert in System Dynamics). System Dynamics was originally created by MIT Professor Jay Forrester and introduced in a book called Industrial Dynamics. But that was based on one kind of model made in a programming language called DYNAMO.

What the The Limits To Growth presented was a much more advanced System Dynamics model called World 3. As Magne Myrtveit put it in his paper “The World Model Controversy”:

Limits To Growth MIT Team
Limits To Growth MIT Team

In 1971 Jay Forrester published his book World Dynamics, where he presented a high-level simulation model of the socio-economic-environmental world system. The main purpose of the model and the accompanying book was to encourage an open debate about the long-term future on our planet. The World Model was created in a time where pollution and other negative effects of industrialization and economic growth started to become recognized. Forrester made the assumption that life on earth is bounded within certain limits, such as available space and resources. Based on this he concluded that exponential economic growth cannot continue forever; sooner or later one or more limits will be reached. The question, then, is how mankind can manage its own future in ways that can avoid an unpleasant encounter with the limits to growth.

Since then, a number of researchers have concluded that constant increases in population growth have caused global warming. The World Models forecast that, eventually, population will fall. Indeed, the World Models presented in the book The Limits To Growth, and then Beyond The Limits in 1993, both originally predicted that would happen in the year 2000 and then the forecast was adjusted for 2010; this is 2020. We’re 10-years into living on borrowed time, because the World’s population is still growing, and with it the rate of change in the climate.

Systemdynamics Limitstogrowthgraph40yearcomparison
Systemdynamics Limitstogrowthgraph40yearcomparison

The scientists who have emerged to publish on this and point the finger singularly at traditional energy as the cause of climate change are not trained in system dyanamics. Thus, they collect data, but lack the right paradigm from which to think about what numbers they gathered. World modeling using a system dynamics approach consistently shows population growth to be the problem. Moreover, The Limits To Growth models and books, introduced the concept of climate change decades ago. And in this, a number of scientists who are more focused on ecology have said this:

The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. People around the world are beginning to address the problem by reducing their carbon footprint through less consumption and better technology. But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we not only need smaller footprints, but fewer feet.

And to bring the point home, zero-emissions will not stop climate change pressures unless population growth slows. The good news, from every indicator, is that the gradual lessening of the rate of growth of population slowed from just over 2 percent 50 years ago to about 1.05 percent, today. So, from this, we have another 50 years of time. The “10 years from now” forecast of climate change impact should have happened in 2000, but it did not. But, the cold fact is the result, a reduced rate of growth in population, is the desired one. The point is, low emissions operation is the focus of the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, but the opposition to it, as well as the reasons for it, are unrealistic.

To better understand the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, listen to then-Oakland Economic Development Director Fred Blackwell talk about it with me in 2012:

Note that, at the video’s 3:14 mark, Mr. Blackwell says that the use of rail rather than trucks supports the West Oakland Environmental Justice Movement (which he shorthand refers to as “things going on there”).

If Climate Change Due To Global Warming Is Here, And OBOT Is Low Emissions, Why Stop People From Working?

Now, the opposition to the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal has made a lot of wild and completely baseless comments about it. For example, some claim that it will cause coal in open hopper cars to go through poor neighbors in Oakland. Not true. First, OBOT will use covered hopper cars. Second, the rail lines used run through Port of Oakland land and Jack London Square, where the dwellings are for middle to high-income residents for the most part. Third, still others say that they don’t want coal to be delivered to China and other nations that rely on traditional energy.

The fact is that traditional energy is still cheaper to produce than renewable energy at this point, and efforts are being made to make it more environmentally friendly. Our focus should be in encouraging increases in rates of education as a way to cause a reduction in world population growth, faster. But robbing the workers in Sanpete County, Utah from jobs today because of a future that’s already here in climate change, and one that’s going to come in reducing rates of population growth, is nothing less than evil.

Indeed, Robert Stevens, Managing Editor Of The Sanpete Messenger, wrote this in support of the Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal:

The four counties invested in this project all have strong economic ties to coal. With the demand for domestic coal dropping all the time, but booming in countries like Japan, the coal industry in Utah could stand to benefit a lot from access to an export terminal like the one ITS is developing.

The unique location of the port, which is being built at a former Army base on the Port of Oakland, has the two important components to make it all happen—a deep water bay for heavy coal ships, and a rail line connection. If the terminal is realized, 10 million tons of Utah coal could come in via rail each year, get loaded on ships and be exported to Asia.

Yet, with that, we have some in Utah, at the Salt Lake Tribune, openly saying that coal workers in Sanpete County should be transitioned to other supposedly “cleaner” jobs. The problem is we are in the middle of a Pandemic that has caused the elimination of many service jobs, while manufacturing and transportation positions largely remain. The Salt Lake Tribune seems more interested in driving support for businesses that the Huntsman Family has an investment in (they own the news organization), than saving the coal industry jobs in Sanpete County, Utah.

The reason I sought Insight Terminal Solutions as a client for Zennie62Media was not just that I have a history with OBOT that goes back to 1991, or because I have a network of 100 blogs and hundreds of social media and YouTube platforms, but because my formal training is in economic development. In other words, job creation for an urban area.

Sanpete County, Utah needs the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal for jobs, just as the homeless in West Oakland do. To deny both for flimsy reasons that crumble when someone asks why 18-wheel trucks are still running through West Oakland neighborhoods is criminal, or should be considered that.

Stay tuned.

Fred Blackwell On Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal OBOT Oakland Army Base Project By Phil Tagami

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Fred Blackwell On Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal Obot Oakland Army Base Project By Phil Tagami

Fred Blackwell On Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal OBOT Oakland Army Base Project By Phil Tagami
From YouTube Channel: August 16, 2012 at 08:19AM

ONN – Fred Blackwell On Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal OBOT Oakland Army Base Project By Phil Tagami

In 2012, Oakland Economic Development Director Fred Blackwell introduced what is now The Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Army Base Project – Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal. Oakland Global.

In this video, reposted as part of Zennie62Media’s engagement by its client, Insight Terminal Solutions, and to get out the real truths about Oakland’s involvement in OBOT and the bulk terminal itself, you will see and hear that the City of Oakland was the partner with Mr. Tagami and his California Capital Investment Group.

Stay tuned.

Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RumLZYQxiGQ

Oakland, Utah, Wyoming: Subsidize Coal – Climate Change Is Due To Population Growth, Not Energy Type

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Negative Population Growth

The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. People around the world are beginning to address the problem by reducing their carbon footprint through less consumption and better technology. But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we not only need smaller footprints, but fewer feet.

– The Center For Biological Diversity

Oakland, Utah, Wyoming, and other parts of America involved in the debate over coal need a wake up call. In the ongoing policy debate about the Insight Terminal Solutions’ Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, the words of America’s Power President Michelle Bloodworth are a sober reminder of the need to maintain the reliable and affordable source of energy provided by coal.

In The Washington Times (sad that Michelle has to go to a conservative publication to address a problem that should not be a political issue), she wrote:

Policymakers know that our nation’s fleet of coal-fired power plants play an indispensable role in powering our lives, helping ensure that the electricity grid is both reliable and resilient. The coal fleet contributes to the nation’s fuel security and diversity, and serves as an insurance policy against electricity shortages and price spikes.

These are the functions of critical infrastructure during the best of times. In the face of the current, unprecedented crisis, the role of the coal sector assumes even greater importance.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has jurisdiction over the criteria that most of these policymakers rely upon to determine which segments of our economy represent essential enterprises, listed coal power as “uniquely critical” in guidance issued in March. Essential critical infrastructure like coal, DHS said, is “imperative during the response to the COVID-19 emergency for both public health and safety and community well-being.”

And while the nation’s power grid is diverse, no fuel source is more resilient than coal in the face of unexpected or extreme events. During the Bomb Cyclone of 2018, for example, more than 60 percent of incremental electricity demand was met by coal, while natural gas, wind and solar power faced outages.

Today, our fleet of coal power plants are playing an essential role in our nation’s response to the pandemic.

The Real Climate Change Problem Is Not Energy But World Population Growth

What is bothersome right now is that mob rule has come to have some say over America and the World’s energy future. What the mob should pay attention to is the very growth of, well, the mob. And by that, I mean world population control.

The simple fact is that climate change is due to a large and increasing Earth population density. Few want to pay attention to the real truth: we have to control future population growth. That has not been done, or pushed – reducing coal production and dreaming of a shift from traditional energy will not solve the problem; population growth control will. Calling for the “end of coal” is a silly pipe dream advanced by those who fear to see the real truth.

Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups that addresses the link between population and climate change in its work, said: “If we don’t address population growth, our efforts to reduce that pressure on the climate and habitat and water resources will always be an uphill battle.”

And the report called “Why PoPulation Matters to Climate Change” by Population Action International, had this to add to the discussion:

Areas of high population growth and high vulnerability to climate change impacts overlap. Evidence suggests that the poorest countries and poorest groups within a population are most vulnerable to climate-related hazards such as floods, droughts, and landslides.2 Many developing countries are currently experiencing rapid population growth, increasing the number of people who will be exposed to projected impacts of climate change. Other demographic trends, such as urbanization in coastal areas and encroachment of populations into ecologically marginal areas, such as hillsides or degraded land, can exacerbate climate risks.

Zennie62Media is proud to have been commissioned by Insight Terminal Solutions to use its vast media platform and technology to get out the truth about climate change, and de-politicize energy economic development so we can maintain an affordable and safe standard of living. Further, I am personally committed to an effort to change the argument to save the World. The current over-politicized energy policy environment dooms the World to an uncertain energy future amid constant climate change, completely undisrupted by decline in the use of transitional energy sources.

It’s possible to have what we are already creating: a cleaner traditional energy industry. But killing traditional energy will not solve the climate change problem – population control will. Any claim to the contrary is baseless. The simple fact that a room gets warmer with more people in it is all of the model evidence one needs to show the larger global problem. We have to stop dooming traditional energy jobs and start saving them via improving the plant and equipment used.

In closing, if you have never seen the 1973 movie Soylent Green starring Charlton Heston, that film provides a more realistic model of a future we don’t want than any other popular culture has provided:

Soylent Green is a 1973 American science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Charlton Heston and, in his final film, Edward G. Robinson. The film overlays the police procedural and science fiction genres as it depicts the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans, and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect. Much of the population survives on processed food rations, including “soylent green”.

Stay tuned.

Policing Can’t Be Reformed: Why Defunding and Abolishing is the Common-Sense Approach

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Policing Can’t Be Reformed: Why Defunding And Abolishing Is The Common Sense Approach

Policing Can’t Be Reformed: Why Defunding and Abolishing is the Common-Sense Approach ONN – Policing Can’t Be Reformed: Why Defunding and Abolishing is the Common-Sense Approach Communities across the country are rising up and demanding that policymakers reallocate budgets by divesting from the police and investing directly in Black communities. This webinar will explore what … Read more

Oakland Councilmember Sheng Thao, With Gallo, Kalb, Community Leaders, Write Right To Return To Work

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Oakland News Now Blog

Oakland Councilmember Sheng Thao, With Gallo, Kalb, Community Leaders, Write Right To Return To Work ONN – Oakland Councilmember Sheng Thao, With Gallo, Kalb, Community Leaders, Write Right To Return To Work Law For Special Oakland City Council Commitee Meeting June 29th 2020. OAKLAND, CA – In partnership with Councilmember Dan Kalb, Councilmember Noel Gallo, … Read more

Oakland City Council President Kaplan Proposes Budget Funding For Fire Works Response, More

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Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Proposing Budget Funding To Provide Fire Works Response, Fire Safety, Education, Drive-In Theater and More Oakland, CA – In recent weeks, there has been an increase of people setting off fireworks throughout our community, often late at night, and extensively. Fireworks are not permitted, they are disrupting our community, and also create a growing risk … Read more

NFL Considering Black Investor Group Proposal To Bring Pro Football Team To Oakland

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Nfl Considering Black Investor Group Proposal To Bring Pro Football Team To Oakland

NFL Considering Black Investor Group Proposal To Bring Pro Football Team To Oakland ONN – I received a call and an email from someone who’s been involved in Oakland sports development in the recent past. He told me that a group of African American investors sent an introductory letter of intent to the National Football … Read more

Another Oakland Coal Ban Try Is Stupid: Is City Of Oakland Driven By Ego Vs. Phil Tagami?

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OBOT

The City of Oakland has lost yet another legal battle against the bulk terminal project it helped create, and against Phil Tagami, the man it once tried to get out of the project via The Tioga Report in 2011. Overall, The City of Oakland has racked up approximately $10 million in legal fees to date. … Read more

On Insight Terminal Solutions OBOT, Oakland Jobs, Extreme Left Fake News On Coal, COVID-19

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China-Demand-Boosts-U.S.-Coal-Exports

Oakland from a distance – Even though we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, some people insist on maintaining their pre-pandemic behaviors and won’t get a clue: such is true for the extreme left in Oakland and the SF Bay Area, who are starting to look like the extreme right in rural Florida and … Read more

Port of Oakland Looks To Lead East Bay Rebound From COVID-19 Says Danny Wan

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Port Of Oakland

‘We will be on forefront of economic recovery,’ Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan tells business and civic leaders Oakland, Ca. – This region’s economic rebound from coronavirus would most likely start at the Port of Oakland. That’s what the Port’s Executive Director told East Bay business and civic leaders this week while seeking … Read more

Mayor Of Oakland Economic Recovery Council Shows She Doesn’t Get The Immediacy Of Our Problem

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Mayor Of Oakland Economic Recovery Council Shows She Doesn’t Get The Immediacy Of Our Problem

Mayor Of Oakland Economic Recovery Council Shows She Doesn’t Get The Immediacy Of Our Problem   ONN – Mayor Of Oakland Economic Recovery Council Shows She Doesn’t Get The Immediacy Of Our Problem The Mayor of Oakland sent a press release via her assistantpress release via her assistant that I still can’t get over. It … Read more

Mayor Schaaf, Vice Mayor Reid Announce Oakland Economic Recovery Advisory Council

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Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

Mayor Schaaf, Vice Mayor Reid Announce Oakland Economic Recovery Advisory Council In my humble opinion, forming a “Economic Recovery Advisory Council” at this stage is late. By now, we know enough for the City of Oakland to write a plan in one day, and then launch the plan the next day. Advisory Council will identify … Read more

Las Vegas Raiders Allegiant Stadium Ticket Sales Upstage LA Rams So-Fi Stadium: Mark Davis’ Revenge

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Allegiant Las Vegas Stadium Dusk Tour During Ces 2020

Las Vegas Raiders Owner Mark Davis got his stadium (Allegiant Stadium) revenge against L.A. Rams Owner Stan Kronke and L.A. Chargers Owner Dean Spanos with the initial ticket sales data released this week and after the announcement of the 2020 NFL Schedule, and fans were able to snatch up the chance to go to pro … Read more

City of Oakland Economic Development Failing Oaklanders, Must Set-Up #KeepOaklandGoing

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City of Oakland

Walden Pond Books, Gaylord’s Ice Creamery, and more well-known small businesses are suffering and closing due to the necessary shelter-in-place policies installed to combat the Global Pandemic. There are scores of GoFundMe campaigns to help these institutions survive, but not a peep from the Oakland Office of Economic Development, save for a pop-gun program of … Read more

City Of Oakland Plans Parks & Rec Employee Cuts After Voters Approve Measure Q

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City Of Oakland Plans Parks & Rec Employee Cuts After Voters Approve Measure Q

City Of Oakland Plans Parks & Rec Employee Cuts After Voters Approve Measure Q ONN – City Of Oakland Plans Parks & Rec Employee Cuts After Voters Approve Measure Q Sad news: according to a well-placed news source, the City of Oakland plans to cut Parks and Recreation Department staff, after voters approved the controversial … Read more

Maraskeshia Smith, Oakland Assistant City Administrator, Left The City Of Oakland This Week

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Maraskeshia Smith: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Must Make Her Cao To Correct Ed Reiskin Pay Issue

Maraskeshia Smith, Oakland Assistant City Administrator, Left The City Of Oakland This Week ONN – Maraskeshia Smith, Oakland Assistant City Administrator, Left The City Of Oakland This Week Breaking News: Maraskeshia Smith, the former 18-year veteran of the City of Cincinnati who took the job of Oakland Assistant City Administrator June 5th, 2018, has reportedly … Read more

Rumor: Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick Fired By Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

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Rumor: Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick Fired By Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

Rumor: Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick Fired By Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf ONN – Rumor: Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick Fired By Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Rumor: Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick Fired By Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf UPDATE: • Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick Fired By Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf • LeRonne Armstrong For … Read more

City Of Oakland Was Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal Co-Developer

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City Of Oakland Was Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal Co Developer

Oakland Bulk & Oversized Terminal Called Envrionmentally Friendly By City of Oakland In 2012 ONN – The planned Insight Terminal Solutions and California Capital Investment Group with Managing Partner Phil Tagami-developed Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal has been the focus of a mainstream-media effort to tell what is a fake news. The fake news is … Read more