Doesn’t Oakland PD have something more important to do?

This morning, as I was pouring myself a cup of tea, I got a call: the DEA was raiding Compassionate Patients’ Cooperative, a medical marijuana dispensary in Hayward. After doing some work to get the word out, I hopped in my car and drove down to Hayward. I was greeted immediately by yellow police tape [...]

No More Driving to Emeryville, Now that there’s a Trader Joe’s Down the Street

As I’ve written here before, I used to make the drive out to Emeryville periodically to stock up on cheap goods at their Trader Joe’s, but I was never happy about it. So I got worried back in June when I heard that permits to sell alcohol were being held up by the planning commission [...]

BRT Project in Danger?

I hope I’m wrong, but I left the Berkeley City Council meeting last night feeling like BRT with dedicated lanes had little chance of being approved by the city. The council did unanimously vote to pass the project to the Planning Commission “to hold a public scoping session on the proposed BRT to identify [...]

Why I’m Ready for BRT & Why Berkeley Should be Too

So far, I’ve been quiet on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project being proposed to replace the 1R that travels through San Leandro, Oakland and Berkeley along International and Telegraph. V Smoothe has done a fantastic job explaining the project over at Novometro and responding to complaints about BRT at A Better Oakland. Robert in [...]

Los Angeles/Oakland Reflections: Privatization of Urban Public Space

My trip to LA last week made me reflect a lot on the differences of urban planning and living in Los Angeles and Oakland. Part of my thoughts reflect on my experience growing up in LA, and other thoughts might be influenced by a book I’m in the middle of reading, City of Quartz: [...]

Three reasons to stay in Oakland this weekend…

Unfortunately, I have three more important reasons to go to LA this weekend (a rally, a conference, and to see my family) so I’ll be missing out, but I thought I’d share these three great events:
1. Thursday, October 11th: Mix It Up East Bay
I wrote about September’s Mix It Up East Bay and plan to [...]

What’s Happened to the Jack London Square Farmer’s Market?

As you might already know, I religiously wake up on Sunday mornings and walk down to the Temescal Farmer’s Market. Though some think it’s small, it’s the perfect size for me, and I can almost always find what I need (except on those days I sleep too late and arrive when the best stuff has [...]

Flooding the Market with Oakland Pride

Yesterday, I walked down to “Rockridge Out and About,” a street fair that closed off about six blocks of College from Claremont to well past the BART station.
The event was great. It was a beautiful, sunny and breezy afternoon. All three music stages were loud and lively. Cars were stuck trying to circumvent the major [...]