2008 March | A Better Oakland (via Mowser)

Archive for March, 2008

Begging for money

oakland, Ron Dellums | March 31, 2008

This is exactly what’s wrong with Ron Dellums’s approach to governing Oakland. It explains why he’s eager to bankrupt our fund reserves and spend...

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Hodge back on ballot!

elections, oakland, oakland city council | March 28, 2008

Three way race in District 3 after all. From the ruling: While the City Clerk did not act in an improper manner, the applicable ordinance required Petitioner’s...

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The sad story of subarea 8

Dan Lindheim, development, east oakland, industrial land, Larry Reid, oakland, oakland city council | March 26, 2008

People will tell you that the new industrial land use policy is about providing certainty and predictability to developers, business owners, and property owners....

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Industrial Land Use: So what just happened?

CEDA, Dan Lindheim, industrial land, oakland, oakland city council | March 25, 2008

Better late than never, right? Okay, so last week I talked about what the Council has been doing with respect to industrial land retention for the past few years....

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Victory for smart growth

development, local newsmedia, oakland | March 24, 2008

STAND lost their lawsuit. The group was suing the City over approval of a new building at 4801 Shattuck, claiming that the project needed an Environmental Impact...

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Think before you write

elections, oakland, oakland city council | March 23, 2008

So the Uhuru Movement is, unsurprisingly, opposing Patrick McCullough’s candidacy for District 1 City Council. I find this neither newsworthy nor interesting,...

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CBD at the ZUC

chinatown, development, downtown, oakland, Planning Commission, Rebecca Kaplan, zoning | March 20, 2008

I apologize for the lack of posts this week, and for the tardiness of the continuation of my industrial land series. Work has been killer lately. Tomorrow. Anyway,...

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Zoning from Mars

development, downtown, oakland, oakland city council, zoning | March 17, 2008

So there’s a community meeting tonight to solicit input on the downtown zoning update. (Ironically, the meeting isn’t downtown, but instead at the comparatively...

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Industrial Land Use Policy: How did we get here?

CEDA, development, east oakland, industrial land, oakland, oakland city council, planning, west oakland, zoning | March 17, 2008

The LUTE, as I explained last week, divides Oakland’s land into 14 different categories, two of which are reserved for industrial uses. Of course, zoning for...

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Random Saturday thoughts

fruitvale, Ignacio De La Fuente, oakland, public safety, worth reading | March 15, 2008

So, I didn’t end up getting to do my series about industrial land this week as I had hoped. Real work and life obligations were particularly time consuming....

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What does the DA do with cases we give them? Nobody knows.

district attorney, oakland, oakland city council, public safety | March 14, 2008

So, I mentioned on Wednesday that the District Attorney’s office is unwilling to provide information about the outcomes of charged cases to Oakland’s...

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Employment in the Oakland MSA

economy, employment, oakland | March 14, 2008

I’ve been wondering about Oakland’s employment ever since I read that New York Times story set in Oakland about the bad economy two weeks ago. So this...

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len raphael: Unconfirmed that MJQ laid off 100 employees today, blaming RDA court case. How much did she and the CC waste in legal fees betting against Jerry’s lawyers?

ralph: No, Livegreen, Occupy Oakland is doing plenty good. They are the poster children for the new, “This is Your Brain on Dope” Campaign.

Livegreen: They seem to b determined to shut down Oakland and little else. They’ve forgotten Wall St. I can’t help but think the Officers who were preventing them from breaking in to City Hall could have spent...

gregory mcconnell: The Occupest disrupted City Hall today. They managed to make it difficult, but not impossible, to go into City Hall. They demanded that people who accosted cops on Wednesday should be released. I was out...

livegreen: I watched the M-Y mtg last night, & it was painful. Jose is a nice guy, but he has difficulty running a meeting that gets anything done. They debated for about 1 hour whether they should discuss recommendations...

len raphael: The murder of 5 year old Gabriel Martinez. Got a call from an acquaintance who lives in East O and often gets supper at his family’s taco stand. She asked where she can sign up to help on the recall.

Ravi: I’m sure that all of those Quan diehards (“a recall would be a waste of time and too expensive”) are very gratified that this lovely and deserving woman is having such a good time. No doubt they prefer...

len raphael: JQ “”I’m actually having a lot of fun,” she said after rehashing many of the lower moments from her first year in office.” “http://www.insidebayare a.com/news/ci_19651889R...

Ravi: And regarding police reform and the crime thing, Judge Henderson could decide to put OPD under Federal jurisdiction because the terms of the NSA haven’t been fulfilled by the City Administration. Those folks in City...

len raphael: Harbinger of things to come to the City Council when they eventually have to make similar decisions. But they won’t. The Fed bankruptcy judge will do it for them.

livegreen: Yeah, but OUSD has to do something. There are way too many schools for the school population. There’s simply no choice. At least they’re willing to make the tough decisions. Unlike the City of...

len raphael: Are those school board recalls entirely over the school closing decisions? Different groups or one umbrella?

Ravi: Two recall petitions for Quan; five recall petitions for five school board members.

len raphael: City says there are now 7 concurrent recall petitions. Not clear how many are for Quan and how many for Council Members. Direct democracy at work.

Ravi: Can the Oakland City Council lead? Nope, nor can the Mayor. It’s up to the citizens, who are deeply divided and have been for a very long time.

len raphael: Oakland Local is the only on or offline general circulation media that shows understanding of the depths of our fiscal situation and understands that it’s causes precede the real estate crash. One of these...

Mkilian: Related to the Cal Supremes haircut to Oakland with respect to RDA and the immediate need for a “fiscal operations plan” is another issue put forth in Oakland’s internet newspaper, Oakland Local, is...