Comments for Oakland North

Comment on School Board confronts rally, budget shortfall, school closures by Lillian R. Mongeau

Lillian R. Mongeau — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:45:46 +0000

Curious,
I called the district spokesman, Troy Flint, today who said no CDC’s have closed this year. He is looking into whether there have been any announcements about closures for next year. If you send me the address of the particular CDC you are interested in I can look into it further in April. You can email me directly at lillian.mongeau@oaklandnorth.net.
Lillian

Comment on Gang Wars Oakland on Discovery Channel by Maria

Maria — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:49:24 +0000

Ive lived in Oakland my whole life, im 18. And i know the Nortenos that came on gang wars. And yeah there are areas where its known as a “gang territory” but if you dont want to run into gang members, just dont go to those places. Simple as that. And if you do that you wont have any problems and it will be like any other city.

Comment on School Board confronts rally, budget shortfall, school closures by Curious North Oakland Mom

Curious North Oakland Mom — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:18:20 +0000

I’m wondering if there’s any update on closures — I ask because at least part of the child development center (CDC) near us seems to have closed. I didn’t notice the change for a while because there have been so many rainy days; I assumed the kids were being kept busy inside. Now it’s sunny and there are still no little kids. I checked the OUSD website, but there’s no update specific to CDCs. Any news from your sources? Thanks very much.

Comment on 3.15.10: Oakland residents, 100 years ago by Erik Kengaard

Erik Kengaard — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:11:10 +0000

Years ago Oakland was a fine place, safe, healthy. People could and did go hiking in the hills every weekend and walk around Lake Merritt in the evening. Children could safely walk to school.
What happened?

Comment on Timeline: California public school funding decisions by Erik Kengaard

Erik Kengaard — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:04:38 +0000

The time line began with Serrano v. Priest in 1968.

Comment on New law intensifies penalty for trafficking minors by As more Oakland youth join the sex trade, law enforcement explores alternatives to incarceration – Oakland North -- North Oakland News, Food, Art and Events.

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:04:52 +0000

[...] California Assemblymember Sandre Swanson (D-Alameda) celebrated the signing into law of the state Human Trafficking Accountability Act, which Swanson wrote. The law strengthened the penalties for traffickers, raising the fine from [...]

Comment on Student perspective: Change is in our hands by Cheng

Cheng — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:25:28 +0000

Great article! I absolutely concur about the indifference. I think it stems from the kids of the current generation seeing their parents generation being beaten back by the government during the student movement(gakusei undou) of the 60’s. The kids now have smartened up and gotten more street-wise when calculating to see whether the battle can be won(and decided otherwise) and have become less naive in believing that they can actually change something. The system has worked and is too entrenched in people’s mind now to make them challenge it. Japan only changes in times of great upheaval(Ishin維新, sengo戦後)and only then will all this pent up energy be unleashed in a tidal wave of change,usually for the better if history is any judge.

They have also seen how their parents get a steady income from lifetime employment by following rules and not getting on the bad side of the boss which is similar throughout the world except that the stakes are higher here in Japan because during the previous generation where lifetime employment was the norm, job hopping was relatively rare. That means if you are fired, you can’t feed your family because the job market is illiquid.

In that sense, the government has done an effective job of pushing it’s citizens down and as long as people’s voices are not heard (not that they are indifferent), they will be taken advantage of by the government.

The Japanese bond story is a classic case. The most likely way the government is going to pay of all that national debt is most likely to increase taxes because 90% of the bonds are held by the Japanese people. And who will be footing the bill? You guessed, the public.

There are 4 solutions to getting rid of the national debt burden but in 3 out of the 4 cases, the common man on the street is the patsy. You watch news on how the debt burden is bloating but the Finance Ministry carries on it’s pork barreling and the politicians go to Ryotei’s for Dango’s(談合) on OUR MONEY(I pay tax in Japan).

Voting in the DPJ was a good first step but we will see what they can do.

Anyway, great article for articulating what I too felt when I was an undergraduate student here as well. Brilliant job!

Comment on School board denies Cox Academy’s charter, hears from low-performing schools by OUSD Board Highlights – March 10, 2010 « Great Oakland Public Schools

OUSD Board Highlights – March 10, 2010 « Great Oakland Public Schools — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:23:16 +0000

[...] Click here for a more detailed article on the board meeting by Lillian Mongeau from Oakland North. [...]

Comment on As more Oakland youth join the sex trade, law enforcement explores alternatives to incarceration by Bayareamom

Bayareamom — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:37:52 +0000

This seems like the perfect “fix” for the problem, but let me tell you from experience, these services & Alameda county probation are non-existent!
My daughter was tricked by one of her girlfriends to take a ride to tracy, they took my child to Santa Ana, southern california, she was missing for 2 months. When the police called me, from down there, the call was….Your daughters been reported missing with NCMEC, yes I replied, well ma’am your daughters a prostitute in so.cal are you coming to get her!? That was just the 1st round.
When she was transfered to JJC in san leandro the judge asked my child who her pimp was?! It was like he put a knife in my heart. She comes from a 2 parent home, honor roll and had great self esteem until her friend tricked her. She was 14 at the time. Shes 15 now, GPS and electronic montioring are a joke, they’re understaffed & no one is notified when they go out of the boundries! I was the one calling & telling. As we kept going back forth to court and explaining who took her, and what happened, her self esteem started disappearing…
So why they’re saying they’re helping these kids, is trivial to me! Shes been in more trouble on probation than before this mess started. I’ve contacted the FBI due to the people who took her to so.cal are over 18 and they prey on children at the mall & movies. It’s not the “pimps” recruiting, it’s their bottom bitches. I’ve become semi obsessed in bring this to light. In fact when they arrested my daughter, they let the adult female go?!
So unless another parent has a better & different experience with these so called services, I’m calling it as I see it and have lived it.
Oh, and saying that all the girls are abused is incorrect too…My child didnt fit the description to any of the above statements & it happened to her. BUT I promise it will not happen again.

Comment on As more Oakland youth join the sex trade, law enforcement explores alternatives to incarceration by Alan Harewood

Alan Harewood — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:47:03 +0000

Of course, the pimping of underage girls is a serious crime and should be dealt with. And the girls of course are victims and not criminals. HOWEVER, it seems to me the answer in this article is more and more money for bureaucrats and more and more money for law enforcement, who of course have a history of taking a somewhat small problem and blowing it WAY out of proportion in order to milk the taxpayers out of more and more money.
I’m just sayin’ – we already have enough cops and enough social workers – this is already part of their job description –
So far, it seems, they have been doing a very poor job of dealing with pimps and thugs,so why do they deserve even more money?