Weekly events listing on hiatus

As you can probably imagine, the weekly events listing takes a fair amount of time to put together, and since there’s not much going on in the next couple of weeks due to the holidays,  I thought this was as good of time as ever to take a two-week break. I will resume the events [...]

Yesterday’s budget meeting via Twitter

I had hoped to write a real blog post yesterday or today, but yesterday flew by and today I woke up with a nasty cold and I can’t really focus. So you won’t get a super-excited post from me about City Attorney John Russo’s opinion, issued yesterday, that clearly states that the Council must implement [...]

Budget meeting this Thursday, no thanks to Jean Quan

Somehow I totally missed this when putting together the weekly events listing, even though I was looking for it, but there’s a special budget meeting tomorrow, Thursday, December 17th at 10am. I might have missed it because I naively thought it would be held in the evening, when working people could attend, especially after many [...]

December 14-20 Oakland Political & Community Events

Wednesday, December 16h – AC Transit Meeting on Service Adjustment Plan
At AC Transit’s regular Board meeting, the Board will be voting on final approval of the service adjustment plan. They also will be voting on changing transfer policy so that transfers would be valid for 2 hours, instead of the current 1.5 hours. This was [...]

Believe it or not, the final Oakland Airport Connector project is even worse than expected

UPDATE: Unsurprisingly, the BART Board voted earlier today 7-1 to approve the project.
Tomorrow, the BART Board of Directors will vote on approving the contract to begin construction of the Oakland Airport Connector. And believe it or not, the project has gotten even worse.
Remember at that late night City Council meeting in October when BART and [...]

Tonight’s Council Meeting: Mills Act, Solar Financing, Stimulus Update, and Legislative Agendas

Tonight’s Council meeting will cover a large array of issues, some of which I’ve described below.
Item 14.1: Eleven Mills Act Contract
Ignacio De La Fuente has forged an uncommon alliance with historic preservationists to propose the approval of eleven properties under the Mills Act two-year pilot program and the expansion of the Mills Act. Via the [...]

John Klein: The Public Ethics Commission Plods On

This guest post was written by John Klein, a resident of Oakland for over 23 years. His sense of ethics was formed as full-time volunteer for 12 years during the 70’s and 80’s with Nyingma Centers, a Tibetan Buddhist community in Berkeley and Sonoma County, and more recently as a legal assistant in large Bay [...]

December 7-13 Oakland Political & Community Events

Monday, December 7th – Oakland LGBT Roundtable

From Jean Quan’s newsletter: “Topics to be discussed include  Port of Oakland Commission appointment; report back on Chicago LGBT Community Center visit; Oakland LGBT Community Center next steps and Oakland Pride Update. Bring unwrapped NEW toys to support the Oakland Mayor’s Community Toy Drive.” This meeting takes place from [...]

November 30-December 6 Oakland Political & Community Events

Note: Due to the holidays, there are dozens of events happening in the next couple of weeks so I’m picking and choosing a bit. For a more complete list of Oakland holiday events, check out City Homestead’s comprehensive listing.
Tuesday, December 1st– AC Transit Community Open House for Revised Service Adjustment Proposal

Via Ride ACT: “On November [...]

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 [...]