Would You Buy A Used Car From This Man?

Just in case you thought our capacity for outrage here at OaklandNews would be subsumed by our grief over our dearly departed Editor, well, we’re sad, but we’re still mad. Political corruption persists, bureaucrats keep on being inept, and Oakland’s citizens continue to be screwed in numerous ways by our elected officials. For our part, we are instituting a new phrase, courtesy of Ralph Kanz, that all citizens of Oakland should use when dealing with City Hall. You know how the right-wing religious zealots like to say W.W. J.D. (“What Would Jesus Do?”)? From now on, whenever faced with a politician, a bureaucrat, a Planning Commissioner, or an inept city employee, just say to yourself, “W.W.J. D.? What Would Jeannette Do?” (See, I’ve probably already offended somebody- Jeannette would have liked that.)

The City Council adjourned last Tuesday night in Jeannette’s honor. Unfortunately I was in the other room at the time, making something to eat, so missed the pained look on the faces of certain councilmembers. But I was there to watch the Mayor read his State of the City address to all ten members of the public in attendance. And he did just read it, didn’t even make a pretense of actually giving a speech. Because why bother- it’s not like we’re the Chamber of Commerce or anything. Did you know that “Oakland Is On The Move?” If that’s true, why haven’t we gotten anywhere? Haven’t we been on the move the whole time he’s been Mayor? Mostly he cited housing developments being built, half-heartedly talked about how getting people to live downtown will lead to downtown’s revitalization. He never really believed that, but now he can’t even fake it.

 
He mentioned that design was underway for turning the south end of Lake Merritt from a freeway into a landscaped boulevard, using Measure DD funds. Well, let’s consider that for a moment. If it had been up to the Mayor, there would be a twenty-four story high-rise at 14th and Oak, and a Catholic Cathedral at the south end of the Lake. So let’s give the credit where it’s REALLY due: To the Oakland Heritage Alliance for spinning off the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM) to fight the proposal for the Fire Alarm Building site and the Cathedral, and to Alan Dreyfuss, Mike Pyatok, Chris Patillo, and Cathy Garrett for designing the Lake Merritt Boulevard Plan as a response to the Request For Proposals (RFP) put out by the city, an RFP which was specially tailored for the Catholic Cathedral. The cathedral is now planned for a parking lot at Harrison and Grand.

 
The Mayor also mentioned that the neighbors were suing over the proposed project at 14th and Madison, next to the Islamic Cultural Center (see “Will the Planning Commission Do The Right Thing?” from the September 2003 Snooze Archives). Hooray for them! They have retained environmental attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley for the suit. (Susan is the reason the University High School/Old Merritt College site on MLK is now the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute instead of a strip mall.) I suggest you go to the Lakeside Apartment Neighborhood Association website at www.oaklandlana.organd find out how to contribute.

 
Oh, but we are getting a strip mall at 880 and Hegenberger! With a Wal-Mart! I seem to recall a great deal of Council posturing regarding Wal-Mart and non-union labor and Iggy swearing Wal-Mart would never be allowed to open in Oakland. But of course it’s Port land, so it wasn’t really the council’s decision. Still after all their protestation, I think we could at least expect them to go and lay in the mud in front of the bulldozers.

 
The Mayor did his best to gloss over the violent crime issues, muttering something about continuing challenges, or some such. He did voice a little bitterness over the failure of his cop bond measure. Yeah, like it’s OUR fault. Don’t forget, Jacques Barzhagi’s salary would pay for two more cops.

 
I don’t have a lot of answers for what to do about crime. I can only report my personal experiences. My house has been broken into twice in the last year, there was an armed robbery on the next street, my housemate was the victim of an armed robbery about five blocks from here, and by the way, our dearly departed editor was the victim of an attempted break-in on Christmas Day. And neither of us live(d) in what would be considered the really high crime parts of Oakland.

 
The Mayor made no mention of his firing the City Manager, the Planning Director, and a few other people. Where is the new “hands-on” strong mayor? The only place any of us citizens have seen him is on TV and in the paper urging us to buy cars in Oakland. Well, those of us who have jobs and might be able to afford cars are probably spending our money on luxuries like rent, food, mortgage payments, health insurance, and ridiculously high property taxes for which we receive little in the way of City services. I did actually try to buy a car in Oakland, but guess what? I got a much better deal in San Jose. I can’t see donating $2000 of my hard-earned money so Oakland can receive a couple hundred bucks in sales tax money. Still, you’ve got to admit, Jerry’s really just a used car salesman at heart. He sold the not-too-savvy majority of voters in Oakland a lemon with the odometer turned back to when he was supposedly “progressive.” Told us he was only driven back and forth to church by a little old lady. Yes, if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you….

 
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The Tribune noted that Henry Ka-chang! has raised more money than any of the other candidates. Long-time readers of the Snooze will hardly be surprised- Henry has been bought and paid for by downtown interests and developers for a long time. And he suddenly has opinions on the State grabbing money from the cities, and suddenly he’s holding “office hours” at various public places. While Chang has been on the council (8 years), I personally have lived in Districts 3,4,5, and 6, been involved with neighborhood stuff in all of them, and I have never, NEVER, seen Chang at a public meeting, at a neighborhood meeting, at anything. His campaign signs say “A Record of Service”, so you might want to ask, who exactly has he been “servicing?” Who he’s been screwing is pretty clear- that would be the citizens of Oakland. And how many trips to China does it take to get freaking pandas?!!!! And why would a city in deep budget merde want to spend millions on pandas?

 
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Meanwhile, the first Iggy for Council sign appeared in my neighborhood- in the window of the liquor store at  E. 27th and Fruitvale. Yup, ol’ Ig is a friend to liquor stores all right. And they named a street at the Fruitvale Transit Village after him, Avenida de la Fuente. But we can call it Avenida del Cerdo.

 
I continue to be stunned whenever the Planning Commission approves new liquor stores. It is SO OBVIOUS that liquor stores create problems- isn’t that why we have the Deemed Approved Ordinance? The rationale is always something like “it fills a need in the neighborhood.” Don’t they understand that it isn’t a need that needs to be filled?!!! Somehow people in Montclair manage to get by without having two liquor stores on every corner, I believe people in the Oakland flatlands could manage as well. But no, we can’t deprive the poor of their right to buy overpriced liquor and then get shot on the way home. Or in the liquor store. Or outside the liquor store. Because a liquor store just really spruces up a neighborhood like no other business can.

 
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Yeah, I know. I’m not Jeannette. God, I miss her.