Letís Look At This My Way by Jane Powell

Hereís why you should never discuss Oakland politics with your editor right before going to sleep, especially after having attended a Planning Commission meeting the same night. I awoke at 4:30 this morning after a bizarre and distressing dream,

and, unable to go back to sleep, am writing this at an hour I wouldnít normally be conscious. Thus there is no guarantee that it will make any sense. Here is the gist of the dream: I went to a local pizza parlor and as I waited for my pizza, I paraded around the restaurant with a sign making fun of the Mayor. In the Oakland of my dream, this was some sort of capital crime, of which I was aware, having done this as a non-violent protest. After I left the pizza parlor, an APB was put out for my arrest. In spite of this, and having made no attempt at hiding or disguising myself, the police were unable to catch me until I returned to the restaurant for about the fourth time. I was arrested by the City Manager, who took me downtown in his SUV. As we drove I explained to him the theory of churning property for the highest possible rate of economic return without regard to the consequences for the city, the environment, or anything else (as detailed brilliantly by Gray Brechin in his book Urban
Paradise, Earthly Ruin, which I highly recommend). Basically itís like Monopoly: first you build a house, then you get rid of that and build an apartment house, then a bigger apartment house, then a skyscraper- without regard for the fact that it might be a single-family neighborhood, an environmentally sensitive area, or whatever. This all seemed to be news to Mr. Bobb, but sensing that perhaps I had something on them, he offered to
drop the charges AND offered me a bribe: an 8 horsepower chipper-shredder, newly painted shiny black, making it look like it REALLY meant business. I took the bribe, though I didnít promise to keep my mouth shut. Then I was stuck downtown, trying to get home. Eventually I ended up at someoneís house near the Leona Quarry. I was explaining to someone there who happened to own a lot of property on my street my concerns about the inappropriate density he was planning to build and its impact on my
historic house. His response was to suggest that my house was blighted. Someone offered me a ride home. I got into her car on the passenger side and discovered it had right-hand drive, the parking brake hadnít been set, and it started to roll down hill. I was trying to control it so no one would get hurt but the controls were weird. Somehow I ended up going the wrong way on Lakeside Drive, then around the lake onto Lakeshore and Lake Park Avenue. I got the car stopped there and was arrested for drunk driving, after answering yes when asked if I was inebriated. (In reality, I donít drink.) Then I woke
up.

Whatís it all mean? Hell if I know, but letís hit on the major themes: making fun of the Mayor is not allowed (does the Kije Project know this?!), the City Manager realizes that the administration is culpable for economic shenanigans on some level, inappropriate density and its impact on MY HOUSE (am I Everyman for every Oakland homeowner?) and the fact that this discussion took place near the Leona Quarry, politically motivated
accusations of blight, I take up drinking afterwards (or pretend to).

Now consider reality. After the last few months we have discovered what we already knew to be true about Enron (they WERE screwing us) and other companies (they lie and the accountants cover it up for them)- friends, weíve known deep down that corporations were lying, cheating, and screwing us since the invention of corporations, we knew the rich were getting richer and politicians were all bought and paid for, but I think we thought that when we got proof weíd feel vindicated instead of depressed. We thought
there would be outrage, and maybe thatís the depressing part- there isnít enough of it.

Which brings us to the Planning Commission and the Leona Quarry. As I predicted last summer: neighbors unanimously opposed, inadequate and self-serving Draft Environmental Impact Report, eventual lawsuit. But everyone is well-trained, and dutifully lined up to point out inadequacies in the EIR, as though that would stop the tsunami that is about to engulf us. The commissioners, with the exception of Michael Lighty, all spoke as if the project was a foregone conclusion. Which it is. The votes on the council were bought and paid for long ago.

For those of you who have been following my predictions on this matter: SURPRISE! Suddenly there is consideration of widening Edwards Avenue, though Claudia Cappio assured us that option was not on the table at the direction of the Council. Like hell it wasnít.

Sparky Carranza noted the similarities between Edwards and Tunnel Road, saying that widening Tunnel Road would never be considered no matter how bad the traffic gets. And thatís true, because unlike Edwards, Tunnel Road is lined with homes which belong to wealthy (and primarily white) homeowners, many of whom are lawyers, living in houses which are inarguably historic, even in terms of Oaklandís now gutted Historic Preservation Element . (It still does not have the zoning text required to implement it, the staff being too busy enabling stupid developments and chasing Jerryís little fantasies). Edwards Avenue, on the other hand, is lined with small homes from the early 20th century: Tudors and bungalows and 40s tract houses which belong mostly to people of color who are not wealthy and are not lawyers. Not to mention that Tunnel Road is in Berkeley, where a ridiculous concept like building 545 units and a small shopping center in a quarry on an earthquake fault, whose only access was to be Tunnel Road- well, that
would have been killed before it ever left the Planning Department.

Hereís an interesting thing about CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act): an EIR could be absolutely perfect, it could correctly identify all impacts, there could be an environmentally and financially feasible alternative to the project, but the City is absolutely free to completely ignore all of that and approve a project that has huge negative environmental impacts. Even a successful CEQA lawsuit can only force them to
re-visit the EIR. There is no mechanism to force them to choose a feasible alternative. Let me re-phrase that: They can do whatever the hell they want. The law was set up (after much lobbying by developers, Iím sure) with lawsuits as the only enforcement mechanism, and not much teeth even in that.

Clearly developers knew that neighbors wouldnít be able to afford many lawsuits. Of course, many cities are not as corrupt as Oakland, and when presented with a feasible alternative with fewer environmental impacts, they go for it. A recent headline in the Oakland Tribune could be applied to just about everything that goes on in this city:

ìPoll: No tax funds for ballpark
ìCity Manager discounts 60% rejection by residents

Can you see others?

Poll: No housing at Leona Quarry
Planning Commission discounts 100% rejection by residents

Poll: Fire Jacques Barzhagi
Mayor discounts 99% negative approval by residents (the other 1% live at the commune)

Do you wonder why thereís no outrage in Oakland? I think involved residents are all suffering from the equivalent of Battered Spouse Syndrome. Weíve been beat up, screwed, and abused so many times, that weíre starting to either believe itís our fault
(because we didnít show up for a key meeting or our EIR comments werenít insightful enough) or weíre just too damn tired to fight back, especially since the very people
who are supposed to protect us are the ones beating us up.

And now, an attempt to be cheerful. The only good thing to come out of the time and resource wasting battles over the Fire Alarm Building and the Cathedral was the Lake Merritt Boulevard Plan, which was adopted almost wholesale into the Lake Merritt Master Plan. For once, we have a chance to actually IMPLEMENT a plan for the Lake, instead of just sticking it on a shelf and waiting ten years and then paying a high priced consultant to do another one, and that is to pass the bond measure for the Lake, Estuary,
etc. on the November ballot. Unfortunately, to get the support of other council members, Danny Wan had to load it up with bullshit like the East Oakland Sports Complex, but what the hell. Itís not perfect, but itís the best chance we have ever had to get rid of that damn freeway at the south end of the Lake, open up some access to the waterfront, AND retrofit Studio One to boot. Itís a lot better use of tax dollars than building a freaking baseball stadium. And hereís a good thing about bond money- it has to be spent on the things in the bond, so they canít divert it to some other harebrained scheme of the month like they do with the general fund monies.

In other news, my column has been AWOL for a while because I have been busy moving to my new house in District 5, just a block from the new Black and White Liquor store recently approved by the Planning Commission at East 27th and Fruitvale. Not surprisingly, drug dealing continues to be a problem. I drive among drug dealers every time I leave my house, because there is no alternate route.

My column will continue to be intermittent as I work on the house and my next book.