Last August, more than 100 Oaklanders met at St. Theresa’s Church to form Make Oakland Better Now!, a grassroots issues and advocacy organization devoted to improving public safety, public works, transparency and accountability in the City of Oakland. Make Oakland Better Now! was formed by Oakland residents, many [...]
Oakland is full of superfun stuff to do during the holiday season. Shopping districts host festive street fairs. Normally-cool institutions like the Dunsmuir-Hellman Historic Estate, the Oakland Zoo, Children’s Fairyland become even cooler when they get all gussied up with lights and decorations. The [...]
I get so frustrated with the City sometimes. Okay, most of the time. Following Oakland government as closely as I do, especially in dire times like these, can be completely maddening. I am often tempted to just throw my hands in the air, declare the City hopeless broken, and like, [...]
It isn’t news for this blog’s readers (or, well, for anyone, really) that AC Transit is facing a looming (and significant) budget deficit, or that to deal with the deficit, the agency will soon be making some dramatic cuts to bus service. But what some of you might not know [...]
Amber Tree Apartments lay behind a fence along 200 feet of the south side of Foothill Boulevard between 25th and 26th Avenue. I first noticed them last summer when I was on a walking tour of the 23rd Avenue area with other members of the Central City East Redevelopment [...]
2009 is quickly coming to a close, and if things keep going the way they have been, it looks like we’re going to end the year with a substantially lower number of reported crimes than last year.
When compared to the same date in 2008, reported crimes have been down pretty [...]
As we saw last week, Oakland’s budget problems are ongoing. The City is currently anticipating an $18.87 million deficit in the General Purpose Fund by the end of the year (plus a $25.4 million shortfall next year) due to a combination of revenue shortfalls and overspending.
The City Council will [...]
Condo conversions were a big controversy a few years ago, but since then, have pretty much faded off the radar of everyone but professional affordable housing activists and developers. Now the issue is back, sort of.
Councilmembers Pat Kernighan and Rebecca Kaplan have introduced a proposal to make some [...]
Monday night, I attended the Town Hall meeting with Oakland’s new Police Chief, Anthony Batts, at Prescott Elementary in West Oakland. It was okay.
I did enjoy listening to Batts speak, but everything else about the night was annoying. Before the Chief started talking, we had to listen to a long [...]
Do you guys remember back in June when the Council was putting together the budget? And they kept talking about how this is just a temporary solution, and that they would be back constantly making more cuts, and adjusting this and that. Council President Jane Brunner, a couple of times, [...]
V Smoothe, Tom Thurston, League of Women Voters, Bruce Nye, John Klein
