Don Perata will not be the only one running for mayor

As no doubt you’ve heard by now, Don Perata officially announced today that he will be running for Mayor of Oakland. My thoughts of Perata aside, his entry into the race was well timed and reminded me how well he knows how to play the game of politics:
Former state Sen. Don Perata said the events [...]

Rediscovering Downtown Oakland: Sushi

It’s been far too long since I’ve done one of these posts, so I thought I’d jump back into this series with a post on one of my greatest culinary joys in life: sushi. Yeah, I know it’s weird that I love sushi so much, considering that I’m a non-fish eating vegetarian, but, what can [...]

Imagining an alternative to a surface parking lot in Uptown

UPDATE: The Community and Economic Development Committee will be voting on this issue on Tuesday, April 28th. Check out my action alert to find out how you can influence their vote.

As dto510 mentioned in a post about Uptown, he and I and a couple other advocates testified last week at a Council committee hearing against [...]

March 30-April 5 Oakland Political & Community Events

Tuesday, March 31st – Oakland City Council Meeting
Believe it or not, the Measure OO repeal ballot measure will be brought before the Council yet again (yes, this will be the third time). The short story is that at the last council meeting, votes were tied 4-4 on two motions – one to entirely repeal OO [...]

Translink finally implemented on Muni & BART

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about the delay of implementing Translink on BART, Muni, and Caltrain:
Back in October, I noticed a Translink reader on a Muni bus so I naively thought it wouldn’t be long before I could forget about the change and get rid of my BART card. But, I guess I shouldn’t [...]

Joel Young, AC Transit’s new at large director

Tomorrow, Joel Young will be sworn in to the AC Transit Board of Directors as the at large member to serve the rest of Rebecca Kaplan’s term. Though he was appointed to the board a month ago, I’m guessing most know little about him, since the media largely ignored the appointment process. To fill this [...]

March 23-29 Oakland Political & Community Events

Monday, March 23rd – East Bay Young Dems Monthly Meeting

Join the East Bay Young Dems for an in depth discussion about the California Democratic Convention and to endorse key races that directly impact young people: California Democratic Party (CDP) Controller and California Young Democrats (CYD) President. Candidates for CDP Controller were invited to make brief [...]

A bittersweet morning in Oakland

I woke up this morning feeling good. Maybe a bit fuzzy from all of that bourbon tasting, but I was still reveling in Pican’s grand opening party that I attended last night (thanks dto510 for inviting me!). Pican is  gorgeous, large, and comforting, yet elegant. I think it will soon become a destination restaurant.
But then [...]

Balcony garden harvest

It’s been a while since I’ve written an update on my balcony garden, and a lot has changed since the last update. The sad news is that most of the veggies we were growing didn’t do so well this winter. The lack of direct sunlight really stunted their growth. All of them are still healthy, [...]

AC Transit’s ideas for making the 51 faster and more reliable

Here’s part two of my posts about the 51 open houses and planning process. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend first reading the previous post on the reasons the 51 is so slow. These recommendations probably won’t make much sense otherwise. Also, if you’d like to learn more, read the entire AC Transit [...]