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 [...]

November 9-15 Oakland Political & Community Events

Monday, November 9th – Town Hall with Mayor Dellums and Police Chief Batts

Come hear Mayor Dellums and Chief Batts share their vision of public safety. Topics include:

Mayor Dellums — public safety strategy: PIES (Prevention, Intervention, Enforcement, Sustainability)
Chief Batts — vision for the Oakland Police Department
Crime statistics: crime is down double digits citywide,but more must be [...]

What’s going on with instant runoff voting? Registrar Dave MacDonald explains… sort of

Last night, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Dave MacDonald came to the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee meeting to discuss instant runoff voting (IRV), which is a hot topic in Oakland right now.
MacDonald started off by making it very clear that he wasn’t taking sides on IRV, but that the Registrar was just implementing what [...]

Expanding and moving our apartment garden

After years of maintaining a small garden on our apartment balcony, we finally decided to ask our apartment manager if we could move our garden to the benches at the back of our garage, which we can see from our balcony. He of course said yes so we moved most of our edible plants out [...]

Tonight’s Council Meeting: World Cup, billboards, and performance measure tracking

Remember about a month and a half ago when I asked you if you wanted more City Council coverage and promised I would provide it? Well, things got busy for me after that, and then I took a couple week break from blogging, so I’ve yet to follow through on my promise to cover some [...]

November 2-8 Oakland Political & Community Events

Monday, November 2nd – Town Hall with Mayor Dellums and Police Chief Batts

Come hear Mayor Dellums and Chief Batts share their vision of public safety. Topics include:

Mayor Dellums — public safety strategy: PIES (Prevention, Intervention, Enforcement, Sustainability)
Chief Batts — vision for the Oakland Police Department
Crime statistics: crime is down double digits citywide,but more must be [...]

When BART reaches capacity, Oaklanders will be the first to suffer

For anyone who commutes between Oakland and San Francisco, I’m guessing this has been a bit of a chaotic week. And at some point, if not every day during the closure, you probably took BART across the Bay. And I have no doubt that it was beyond crowded in the stations and on the trains. [...]

Rules for running for Mayor of Oakland – Rules #1 & #2

I know I announced a few weeks ago that I was taking a break from blogging, but I expected to be back in the full swing of things this week. Little did I know how difficult it was to start blogging once you’ve stopped! I have a couple posts I’m working on, but they involve [...]

John Gatewood: Oakland is a Rust Belt City and what the Zoning Update can do about it

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.
Oakland is a rust belt city that just [...]

October 26-November 1 Oakland Political & Community Events

Tuesday, October 27th – Walk Oakland Bike Oakland Meeting
You may not have thought about it this way, but walking and biking are climate action! Attend WOBO’s October Volunteer Meeting this Tuesday night to discuss opportunities for advancing walking and biking within Oakland’s Energy and Climate Action Plan. The discussion will be led by WOBO Board [...]