Joel Young: The hidden costs of health care

This guest post was written by Joel Young, a lifelong Bay Area resident and a member of the AC Transit Board of Directors.
As the raucous health care debate plays out in Washington DC, I have become increasingly aware of the stakes for the Bay Area. Skyrocketing health care costs touch us all, and in ways [...]

November 23-29 Oakland Political & Community Events

Monday, November 23rd – Meet Oakland’s New Police Chief

All community stakeholders are invited to come to this introductory gathering with Oakland’s new Police Chief, Anthony W. Batts, to hear how he plans to approach the complex issues in Oakland.  Former Berkeley Police Chief Douglas Hambleton and Oakland’s former Acting Police Chief Howard Jordan will also be [...]

Ofrendas Para los Muertos – from Oakland, with love

Last night, before heading to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting and then the Walk Oakland Bike Oakland meeting, I stopped by the opening night of Ofrendas Para Los Muertos, an exhibit in the atrium of the State Building. I only had 10 minutes to enjoy, since my bus was extremely late, but it [...]

Safeway on College – The cost of doing nothing is not nothing

Last night’s Planning Commission hearing on the College Avenue Safeway went well overall. Sure, the neighbors showed up in force to try to stop the project or at least to greatly reduce the scale of the project. But it was just a scoping session so staff and commissioners repeatedly reminded them to stick to scoping [...]

Fight against Oakland Airport Connector leads to FTA civil rights investigation of BART

I didn’t expect to be writing about the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) anytime soon, and I certainly didn’t expect to be sharing good news about it. Well, ok, maybe it’s not good news about the OAC, but I do have some incredible news to share about the outcome of our efforts to stop the OAC.
Today, [...]

Tonight’s Council Meetings: Budget, billboards, and OFCY

UPDATE: The budget workshop just ended, but you can follow the City Council meeting on Twitter #oakmtg. I finally gave in and joined Twitter, after months of being harassed, just so I could get in on the discussion there. You can find me @oaklandbecks
Tonight there will be not one but two Council meetings, and plenty [...]

November 16-22 Oakland Political & Community Events

Monday, November 16th – Oakland Local Community Meetup

Via the Facebook event: “Oakland Local is one month old! Come join us at our first community meetup in downtown Oakland–community partners, OL bloggers & reporters, people interested in being involved with OL and anyone else who wants to support us are invited to our first meetup at [...]

Don Perata: Message to City Council: Instant Runoff Voting: Protect Our Civil Rights

This guest post was written by Don Perata, who was the President pro Tem of the California State Senate from 2004-08. He chaired the Senate Elections and Redistricting Committee in 2001 charged with protecting the Voting Rights Act when drawing congressional and legislative districts following the 2000 census. There were no allegations of minority voting [...]

John Gatewood: Safeway at College @ Claremont – Opportunity to Enhance an Urban Village

This guest post was written by John Gatewood, one of the co-founders of ULTRA (Urbanists for a Livable Temescal Rockridge Area), which supports higher density mixed-use development along the major transit corridors of north Oakland. John works in the Graphic Arts Industry and is a resident of Temescal.
Safeway is in the planning stages of replacing [...]

Rules for running for Mayor of Oakland – Rule #3

A couple weeks ago, I started a new series about rules for running for Mayor of Oakland. Today I’ll share the third rule and will continue with this series in the coming weeks and months.
Rule #3: Do not do anything that is or appears to be illegal or unethical

Sounds pretty obvious, right? I thought so [...]