Comment Archives: Stories
Re: “A People-Focused Solution”
Thanks for this thoughtful, in-depth story. Wondering how to influence decisions to find funding for this program. Any thoughts?
Re: “Medical Marijuana Bill Passes California Senate”
California should watch for doctor shopping and the doctors that push pills, but should realize that pain patients have few choices. The Feds keep pushing opiate pills, but stop people from using safe medical marijuana for pain. Marijuana works very well for pain management. Unless someone has tried cannabis for pain, they should not venture the opinion that it doesn't work for medical purposes. Pain management with cannabis requires the right dosage. Using marijuana edibles is the right way to maintain pain reduction. This book has great recipes for edible marijuana that are easy, small and cheap to make: MARIJUANA - Guide to Buying, Growing, Harvesting, and Making Medical Marijuana Oil and Delicious Candies to Treat Pain and Ailments by Mary Bendis, Second Edition. Only 2.99. Learn to make marijuana oil, delicious Cannabis Chocolates, and tasty Dragon Teeth Mints. goo.gl/iYjPn goo.gl/Jfs61
Re: “Medical Marijuana Bill Passes California Senate”
Give a copy to the pig feds>so they can have a good laugh.
Re: “Tuesday Must Reads: Bridge Expert Says Bad Bolts Should Be Replaced; State Control of Oakland Schools Failed to Fix Financial Problems”
Can you please do some research on what worldwide what bridges cost in other country's and post a list. Already this seems incredibly long in terms of time, high in expense, poor in quality but I really would like to know where we fall in the continuum. Then maybe we should decide other massive projects like high speed rail.
Re: “Summer Camp for Grown-Ups”
As the owner of Swift Nature Camp, we have considered this sort of program before, but believe it would be much harder than a children's camp. It would be filled with adults acting like children rather than children trying to act like adults.
http://www.swiftnaturecamp.com/minnesota.h…
Re: “Letters for the Week of May 15, 2013”
Regarding handicap placard abuse: ENFORCEMENT! Yesterday at lunch NINE out of the ten cars parked on the south side of the 2200 block of Webster had placards. Most of the vehicles were also FBI agents' cars and that's crazy... the parking garage for their building has an elevator but the street spaces they are parking in are as far away from their office's entrances as you can get.
Re: “Occupy Oakland's Livestreamer Controversy”
Photojournalists (and now DGR reps) are routinely assaulted by violent elements of (A)narchist sympathizers/activists.
http://amicuscuria.com/wordpress/?p=9505
They (and their mentors) also continue a campaign of thinly veiled threats, bullying, and intimidation:
http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/content/ma…
Re: “It's Time for the Union Fighting to Stop”
“Ryan Martin” you are entitled to your own opinion but NOT to your own facts. In addition, your comments would have more credibility if you use your real name as opposed to a fictitious one and if you focused on facts as opposed to name-calling and personal attacks.
On your first paragraph, you contradicted yourself by stating, “we didn't make GM cars. We made Corollas and Tacomas and the Pontiac Vibe (25% at its height)” GM owned the Pontiac brand, therefore, we DID built GM vehicles, according to your math, 25% of NUMMI’s production. (contradiction.....!!)
But lets focus on the subject being discussed on this post as opposed to your own agenda. The comparison of the auto industry and NUMMI to healthcare and Kaiser should be explored.
In the mid 1990s, NUMMI entered a different business practice. The contract started changing and at each bargaining year there were more concessions being made by the union. The employer’s attempt to do more with less intensified. Temporary workers were introduced on 2003; this meant that labor with no benefits, raises, or seniority replaced the conventional 90-day provisionary period for a benefitted employee. Attendance policy became extremely strict and it terminated more seniority employees than any other issue in the facility……. (Sounds familiar?)
What did the union do? We focused 90% of our resources on representation. Year after year at the bargaining table, being faced with a challenging business climate and rising cost of healthcare, we took steps backwards for fear of losing jobs. On 2008, NUMMI had beaten every record in the industry by producing more vehicles with less people than any other auto plant in the nation. The vehicles we built had the best quality and were in higher demand than most vehicles in the world. Toyota was making record profits and was expanding; then 2009 and the Housing Bubble came, GM and Chrysler were seeking Federal aid in order to prevent bankruptcy. Toyota stopped production in some of their plants for the first time in history, and Ford was on the verge of financial ruins as well.
The UAW negotiated a deal with GM and Chrysler over the retirement plans in which the UAW became part owner of the companies with 17.5% ownership of GM, and 55% ownership of Chrysler. However, this deal did not stopped plant closures or a two-tier wage system negotiated on 2011 by the UAW. In addition, the UAW continues to drop in membership to an alarming rate.
The lessons I learned in my tenure with the UAW and the NUMMI plant closure are that the world can change in one second, and that unions are not truly representing its membership well if they continue to show up at the bargaining table with no ideas or solutions to the challenges of tomorrow. Calling the employer names and pointing at record profits did not work for the UAW and it’s not working for other unions throughout the Nation.
On June 4th 2013, SEIU-UHW will be mobilizing 10 thousand people to the state capital to rally against a one billion dollar in cuts to Medical. These cuts affect working families, low-income Californians, Hospital Administrators, Healthcare workers, Insures, etc. While Kaiser and other Healthcare giants are affected by these cuts, they’re unable to mobilize thousands of people like we are, thus stopping the cuts from materializing. It is these actions we are taking that generate strength to our union, political power, and results at the bargaining table.
It is shameful that NUHW and CNA spent over 10 million dollars in a second failed attempt to destroy the best contract in the industry while they could have focused on organizing the unorganized or fighting cuts to Medical. It is a shame that NUHW calls itself “the workers” union while NUHW and CNA are doing nothing to prevent cuts to Medical. Who are they really looking out for……?????
Ryan Martin, or whatever your name is, if you really care about labor and working families, join me on June 4 to stop cuts to Medical………..
Re: “Three Awesome Bike Day Trips in the Bay Area”
Noooooo! Please, please don't bring portable speakers "for extra fun," especially out in dangerous Wildcat Canyon. You need to be able to hear what's going on around you (such as that car approaching from behind), as do the other cyclists around you. Safety first!
Re: “Are More Cops the Answer?”
Bob, your explanation of how Richmond can afford the equivalent per capita of what would be 770 cops in Oakland makes more sense than the RPD chief's explanation about RPD cops paying in to their pensions many years earlier than Oakland cops.
The ad valorem property tax rate in Oakland is now about 1.4057% vs 1.3738% for Richmond. The rate for SF is only 1.1691%.
Parcel taxes and direct assessments are 820, 1018, and 247 (!) respectively for a single family residence.
Would like to ask one of the several "urban economics" staff if any are left at City Hall now that Redevelopment is gone, if they ever ran the numbers comparing increased tax revenue per capita from adding more residential housing vs industrial vs commercial real estate.
Adding more residential might lower the cost of housing, but it might also be chasing our tail in trying to get more tax revenue per capita regardless of what we want to spend that on.
Re: “The Best Chinese Restaurant in Oakland That You've Never Heard Of”
I've been going to Ben's for a year, the food is delicious and inexpensive but what keeps me coming back is how fresh it is. They are located in the produce district and it shows. Ben knows how to cook vegetables, not overcook them like most restaurants. Expect warm service, great inexpensive food and don't forget to bring cash.
Re: “Are More Cops the Answer?”
As somewhat of an aside, at the last Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board (LPAB) meeting, CalTrans presented their plans for the rehab of the Posey & Webster tubes. Plans call for replacing the boarded-up windows in the towers with Plexiglass or a similar material.
As a board member, I asked about why they were not planning on retrofitting with more historically-appropriate and presumably much less expensive glass. While I was expecting to hear about seismic requirements or durability or some-such, the answer was to meet the requirement of bullet-proof material.
Apparently the maintenance personnel who work in the towers insist on bullet-proofing because the towers get shot at so frequently. While I have no idea if these concerns are substantiated, I find it interesting that CalTrans is willing to acquiesce so readily.
In Oakland, apparently it's taken as a given that people will blindly shoot at a tower that might have someone working inside.
Re: “How the IRS’s Nonprofit Division Got So Dysfunctional”
Thanks for publishing this! I had been confused about this issue. But I still wonder how any non-profit that engages in political action, right or left, including churches that push for a particular party or candidate can have a tax exempt status. My father was a minister and when I was growing up, it was a no-no for him to opine on any party or candidate.
Re: “Are More Cops the Answer?”
Len,
Richmond spends more on policing per capita than Oakland because it has a higher revenues per capita than Oakland -- so it has more money to spend.
According to Richmond's financials, it collects about $1,298 a year per person in taxes for its general budget each year. Oakland, by contrast, collects about $1,050 per person in taxes each year (about 19% less) for its general fund budget. More overall revenues for Richmond result in more money available to spend on cops:
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/index.aspx?ni…
If Oakland collected as much taxes per capita as Richmond, it's general fund would be about 19% larger than it is now. And assuming Oakland would spend the same percentage of its budget on police that it does now, then its force would currently have about 770 cops (as opposed to about 645 that it has now).
So really it comes down to tax revenues. And the difference isn't that Oakland has a lower per person tax rate than Richmond. The difference is that Richmond is a wealthier city on per capita basis (large revenues from Chevron and other big employers helps Richmond's bottom line quite a bit).
Re: “Occupy Oakland's Livestreamer Controversy”
The SAME PATTERN (assaulting photojournalists) is going on in the Pacific NW. See: TESC 4-20-13 Strong (A)rm Robbery-Assault on Photojournalist
http://amicuscuria.com/wordpress/?p=9505
Also see: (LEO being mobbed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MtzijlUmu…
Then see how certain (A)narchists stalk those whose speech/1st Amendment activities they can't stomach on:
http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/content/ma…
Re: “Are More Cops the Answer?”
Karen, did anyone ask City officials how they expected to pay the bills three years from now when the City's five year plan forecasts large deficits even without adding a bunch more cops or paying down the long delayed retirement and infrastructure obligations? Paying those down would create massive deficits according to the City's forecast.
Or was the focus entirely on the two years covered by this budget?
Re: “Are More Cops the Answer?”
I attended the Oakland budget meeting yesterday for District's 1 and 3 with Councilmembers Kalb and McElhaney as well as Mayor Quan and City administrator Santana and about 10 other senior City of Oakland staff there. I was the 2nd person who commented and when I did about funding or not funding OPD to levels over 700, I referenced this article and cheers broke out as so many appreciate the serious investigative reporting that Gammon has done over the years. Know that this type of reporting is noted among the City staff and residents and knowledge is power. We need to keep hammering home the message--fix OPD and its culture before we keep throwing our hard earned $ down a deep hole--OPD may be understaffed but it is certainly overpaid.
Re: “Are More Cops the Answer?”
Ellen Cushing's article was worth reading. http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/what-richmonds-getting-right/Content?oid=3524859
Looking at the Contra Costa Times list of employee total cost of compensation for 2011, and backing out the even higher than Oakland OPD overtime that Richmond cops were paid, there was no difference in base pay (as expected) and no obvious difference in cost of benefits either between OPD and RPD. if anything, Oakland cops seemed to cost a bit less than Richmond cops.
Richmond's police chief's point that RPD cops have been contributing to their pensions since the 1990's vs OPD only started a year or so ago would explain how Richmond might be in better overall fiscal shape cumulatively than Oakland. Without looking at Richmond's budget, couldn't say whether they have relatively more money avail to support a police depart staffing level that seems equivalent to about 760 cops in Oakland on a per capita basis.
From the article Richmond doesn't appear to spend higher percentage on social programming of any sort, including job training ones, than Oakland. Hard to say though.
Darwin, if income inequality was the factor explaining much of the difference between Oakland and Richmond crime rates, I'd expect that Richmond's crime rates had been consistently lower than ours for the past decade. But I'm thinking Richmond's crime only starting dropping in the last two or three years after Magnus was hired?
Eric, as others posting here have pointed out, no one is expecting more cops or a better run OPD would do anything more than reduce crime down to the rates typical of neighboring similar cities. Yes, those rates would still be astronomical in absolute terms. But the likelihood of what Oakland city funded economic development doing anything to affect underlying poverty is hard to see when most job training programs are garbage, and most city government driven economic development = real estate development.
Re: “Are More Cops the Answer?”
The LA Times looks at the problems understaffing are causing inside OPD instead of looking at some study that has nothing to do with OPD.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oa…
Re: “Unveiling a Secret City”
Who is Scott Mclure?