Whether you have a backyard, front yard, balcony, porch, or just a window sill, Oakland is a perfect place to grow produce so consider giving it a try. We give our plants minimal care and they’ve been thriving so I’m sure anyone could do it, though it might seem intimidating at first.
We all know why a glut of foreclosed houses has saturated the market. Either through greed or ignorance, people got into mortgages they couldn’t afford. DataQuick Information Systems, a real-estate research firm, reported Tuesday that 63,061 houses were lost to foreclosure in the second quarter of this year — the highest level in 20 years.
The result is that some communities, mostly poorer ones, are drowning under the weight of neglected, abandoned homes.
The City Council rejected the idea of a compromise ballot measure Tuesday that would have increased funding for youth programs, but not as dramatically as a separate initiative expected to qualify for the November ballot.
About 100 residents and faith leaders gathered in front of City Hall on Tuesday evening to confront city officials about their unfulfilled promises to support a comprehensive approach to end gun violence.
While utilizing a military model, OMI is not a soldier factory, it’s not a recruiting arm of the military, and they’re not teaching warmongering there. I was very direct in my questions to the commandant on this topic, and his answers were equally clear. In addition to academic subjects OMI teaches leadership, it teaches respect, it teaches self-discipline, it teaches peaceful resolution to problems–values sorely needed given the environment so many of the students come from. Uniforms, formations, military-type discipline–these are just effective tools, very efficient tools, for instilling those values in students. They are merely a means to an end, and that end is college.
In recent years, some 40 percent of Oakland’s new teaching hires have come from across the country through programs such as Teach for America and Oakland Teaching Fellows.
Now, to create a more stable teaching force, the school district is trying to recruit more home-grown talent.
At closed session this morning, the Oakland City Council acknowledged that the renewal of the Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District failed. After the city announced the assessment district passed in June, ORPN activist David Mix claimed that the consultants who ran the election miscalculated the proper voting weights of different parcels, including the decisive vote cast by the Port of Oakland. While the Council accepted their loss this morning, there is likely to be finger-pointing between the city and the outside consultant over who made the mistake.
The vote was 6-2, with only Jean Quan and Nancy Nadel voting in favor.
Pat Kernighan and Ignacio De La Fuente patiently provided the large audience of extremely rude teenagers very clear explanations of why the City simply cannot afford the increase, although Pat said that she would be requesting the Council increase the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth funding to either 3% or 3.5% of the unrestricted General Fund (up from 2.5% currently). I’m not entirely sure how that’s going to fly in light of a budget deficit rumored to be around $90 million, but I guess that’s an issue to be worked out later.
Children playing along a Dimond Park creek found a man Monday afternoon who may have hit his head and drowned in the shallow waterway between late Sunday and early Monday morning.
The Oakland Cal Ripken-Babe Ruth Baseball League fills that gap for dozens of Oakland kids each summer. And last week, the 9-year-old team won the state tournament and advanced to the Pacific Southwest competition in Panguitch, Utah. The coaches said they just learned, however, that the team would have to come up with the money for the trip.
Not even a week after a minor fire, MoNO is reopening tomorrow for lunch and dinner.
Show them some support and go by for a drink, if not a full meal. I especially recommend the Agua Fresca and the Peach Martini’s…
I agree that the Council doesn’t meet often enough. Meetings that routinely drag on until after 2 AM limit citizen participation and engagement in government, and there’s just no excuse, when agendas are this heavy, to maintain a bi-weekly meeting schedule.
But I am not upset that the Council, following today’s meetings, will be beginning their summer recess.
The owner of the Leona Heights Sulfur Mine faces a fine for allegedly failing to file reports under a regional water board’s cleanup order.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will join a coalition of labor, environmental and community leaders today to push for policies at the Port of Oakland to reduce diesel emissions and boost living conditions for thousands of independent truckers who move goods to and from the West Oakland facility.
Oakland Residents for Peaceful Residents is reporting that the City Council voted not to collect the $12 million LLAD tax that was passed via a rigged election. The council members did not admit any wrongdoing at the meeting, which was held early this morning (Tuesday, July 22, 2008).
Two people were shot and killed and three others were wounded during a violent night in Oakland, police said today.
The two overnight slayings bring to 76 the number of killings in the city so far this year. The spate of shootings come as the Oakland City Council prepares to take its nine-week summer break, which has prompted a local community group to blast city leaders for not doing enough to stem the bloodshed.
The FBI is busier than you might think these days in places you might not expect - city halls across America. There, agents are working to root out corruption in addition to probing state officials such as state Sen. Don Perata of Oakland. According to its…
So I’m a bit late on this one, but last week OakPAC endorsed Rebecca Kaplan for the the at-large city council seat. For the June election, OakPAC had endorsed Clinton Killian, who came in third so it was unclear whether they would endorse Kaplan or Hamill for November.
I don’t know what the hell’s going on, but the City of Oakland’s looking real bad in this matter with Oakland Community Housing’s attempt to unlawfully evict the tenants of the California Hotel. Moreover, and I really like and support Congresswoman Barbara Lee, but her office is not looking good in this matter either.
The City Council has a big decision to make tomorrow that is very similar to the decision last week to place a parcel tax on the November ballot. At the behest of Jean Quan, Nancy Nadel and Pat Kernighan, the Council will have a special session to discuss a ballot measure sponsored by Ms. Quan that will permanently allocate up to $23m General Fund dollars to the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth. According to the OakBook, this fund last year spent $10m in 138 grants to outside nonprofit groups, with extremely poor accounting for outcomes.
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