Posts Tagged ‘Op-Ed’
You Tell Us: Oakland can’t afford the risk of the pension bond refinance deal
Besides obligating all of us to a big financial risk that a city as poor as Oakland cannot handle, it is not OK to burden younger and future residents and businesses with the huge retirement costs of city employees who never served those future and younger residents.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Is Goldman Sachs holding Oakland hostage?
One of the largest banks on the planet, Goldman Sachs refuses to let the City of Oakland refinance the municipal bonds it owns. Holding onto these “toxic assets” has allowed the company to pocket almost $30 million of our money – and to keep profiting at a rate of $5 million a year.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Local food banks can’t shoulder $33 billion in food assistance cuts
The burden of $33 billion in federal assistance being shifted to a network of non-profits is nothing short of preposterous. That $33 billion is equal to the budget of nearly every food bank in America, six times over. This isn’t a cut — it’s an amputation.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Questioning the medical marijuana crackdown in California
Going forward, raids on places like Oaksterdam will likely continue, but it is unclear for how much longer they will be tolerated by the public. The raid on Oaksterdam was met with a great deal of public resistance, and it is not just providers and patients who are upset; public support for marijuana legalization has never been higher, especially for medical marijuana.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Are gentrification and media attention good for Oakland?
It’s good to see Oakland in a positive light, and to get excited about new opportunities in our city, but do extreme media representations fuel change that is beneficial to the whole community or just for some?
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Recall campaigns agree to disagree, but why?
Here, to me, is the best current illustration of Oakland’s fractious politics. The people who want to recall Mayor Jean Quan can’t even agree to run a single campaign. There are two separate campaigns collecting signatures for a recall measure.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Don’t raid the Occupy Oakland encampment
Permitting a permanent encampment is a far better solution than waging war on the Occupy Oakland supporters. Looking back to history, during the Great Depression we had Hoovervilles that lasted for years. Central Park was “occupied.” The only thing that enabled these shanty towns to be destroyed was an economic recovery.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Is Oakland worth it for businesses?
Many Oakland business people are asking whether Oakland is still a good place to invest. When I talk to people working for big and small businesses around the city, I hear this question constantly: “Is it time to pack up and leave?“
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Why Santa Fe Elementary School should not be closed
My concern is for those children who are rejected by the local charters and private schools. Either their parents don’t have the savvy to get them in, or once they fail there the charters and private schools send them back to us.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Why I oppose Measure I
Measure I will do nothing to solve Oakland’s fiscal mess, or to address the fact that Oakland is over $450 million in debt for pension obligations it can’t afford.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Give Oakland a chance
Are you an Oakland local and find your invitations to hang out in your beloved city turned down purely based on the location? I know I can’t be alone.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: What happened to the love of the game?
What has happened to us as a culture and people when we enjoy watching a fight, more concerned with videotaping on a cell phone than calling for help, and take a national past time and turn it into something ugly?
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Crossing the street in Oakland
If you walk every day, like I do, then you’ve probably had a few near-death experiences while trying to overcome what is probably the biggest barrier in pedestrian safety: crossing the street.
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Oakland, gentrification, and the hunt for cool
We not only need to ask why it is that the city of Oakland’s Black population is shrinking, but, just as crucially, why is it that so many non-Black people are coming to Oakland from other places? Why the reversal?
Read MoreYou Tell Us: Save Oakland’s libraries
What does it say about a city of Oakland’s size to have only four libraries left? What does it say to propose closing the Oakland History Room and the African-American Museum and Library? Does it say to the world that our history is not worth preserving and sharing?
Read MoreYou Tell Us: An argument against urban animal agriculture
We have an overburdened animal shelter and a police department that is in no position to enforce new animal welfare laws. Oakland doesn’t need policies that encourage people to breed, kill and eat animals for nothing more than gastronomic gratification.
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