Take Action: Ensure Top-Rate Management for Oakland

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who contacted the Council. Unfortunately, they voted unanimously today, February 5, to confirm Lindheim’s appointment (Larry Reid was absent).
As you might have heard by now, Dellums has finally appointed a new city administrator, Dan Lindheim. What you might not know is that this decision is not yet final. Much like Congress [...]

Obama: Thankfully, not at all like Dellums

A year ago, after the 2008 State of the City address, I wrote a post expressing my concern that Obama would turn out to be much like Dellums:
Just as Dellums campaigned on making Oakland a model city, Obama is heavy on the rhetoric of hope, change, and unity. But what does this really mean, if [...]

Rediscovering Downtown Oakland: Vegetarian Restaurants

This is the second in a series about downtown Oakland. Last week, I covered Thai food in the DTO, and this week, by request, I’ll be covering vegetarian restaurants.
Being a vegetarian in Oakland is just about the easiest thing to do. Nearly every restaurant has extensive vegetarian options (except Flora, which makes me crazy), and [...]

Dellums’s State of the City in 100 Words

A few years ago, in a writing class I took at the Writing Salon, we had to do an exercise of writing about something in 100 words exactly. It was one of my favorite writing exercises so I thought I’d do it again today, with Dellums’s State of the City address. It’s kind of amazing [...]

A week full of politics, planning & transit

If you are interested in politics, planning, or transit, there are several events happening this week that you should consider attending. Tonight, Mayor Dellums will be giving his annual State of the City address. V Smoothe shared her predictions of what Dellums will say tonight, and last year, she wrote an incredibly thorough report of [...]

Rediscovering Downtown Oakland: Thai Food

For a long time, I’ve been meaning to write a series about places to eat, have fun, and shop in downtown Oakland (I even have a bunch of draft posts written that include stores and restaurants that have long since closed). But since dozens of downtown establishments were vandalized after the Oscar Grant protests, there [...]

East Bay Young Dems know how to party

Last night’s Barack n’ Roll Inauguration Party went even better than I could have hoped for. Throughout the night, about 800 people came to Z Bar to celebrate Barack Obama’s election, and to eat, drink, dance, and generally have a good time. We reached capacity at 7:30pm, just an hour after opening the doors, and [...]

Happy Inauguration Day!

I don’t have much more to say as I sit here waiting for Obama and Biden to be sworn in. Instead, I’ll share the message I received this morning from Rocky Fernandez, President of the California Young Democrats and AC Transit Director:
With America watching today, I hope that President Obama’s first words to our nation [...]

Things that make me smile part 2

It’s been a heavy week, but in the midst of frustration and concern, there have also been some happy moments. Here are some of the things in Oakland that made me smile this week:

Seeing a woman pick up trash on 14th Street. There’s trash everywhere in downtown Oakland so it was great seeing someone doing [...]

More destruction, more businesses to support

Earlier this week, I felt very concerned about the Oscar Grant protest that was to take place last night. Though I knew the organizers meant well and would attempt to keep the peace, a smaller faction of protesters was distributing this flyer, featuring an image of a brick breaking through a window.
I got so worried [...]