Comment Archives: stories: Blogs: Seven Days
Re: “Monday Must Read: Bay Area Traffic Now As Bad As LA's; Toxic Emissions Rise in the State; Asthma Rates Worsen”
What is equity? This is a great networking event to attend in San Francisco to learn about the topic and how it affects you. http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5059553260
Re: “Oakland ‘Bomb Plot’ Raises Questions of Entrapment”
How come the FBI dude doesn't get charged?
Re: “Oakland ‘Bomb Plot’ Raises Questions of Entrapment”
The FBI has done this before. Many times in New York. With the Underwear Bomber. With the Shoe Bomber. All to create the illusion that this country is under constant terrorist attacks and threats so they (TSA, DHS, FBI, ICE) can ask for more money, more militarized equipment, more civil and constitutional liberties stripping laws.
Re: “Oakland ‘Bomb Plot’ Raises Questions of Entrapment”
The FBI hire mentally ill patsies to create disasters to increase "security" to take away rights.
The CIA smuggles the drugs into the country.
Re: “Oakland Cops Point Guns at Sleeping One-Year-Old”
cop aims at my toddler, he's gonna have a small hole on one side of his head and a large one on the other.
Re: “Thursday Must Read: Two Councilmembers Push to Curtail First Fridays; Barbara Lee Challenges Obama’s Assassination Memos”
Rather than downsizing First Fridays we should downsize both Brooks and Reid who have been virtually useless in helping Oakland deal with its many serious problems. These two should be retired which will help get some new faces with some new ideas on the Council. Rather than limit the positive changes in Oakland we should extirpate the long-existing negative forces.
Re: “On Violence, Oakland, and the Future of First Fridays”
"Mostly, I'm reeling, and I'm thinking, and I'm wondering how we can reconcile this city's very real problems with its equally real potential."
This is Oakland's total situation in a nutshell--it's not just about First Fridays. Oakland's historically poor governance has kept this city for decades from full membership in the Bay Area's robust economic and social/cultural developments.
There is no simple solution, but the route to change depends chiefly on getting rid of the remainder of our electeds who have hung around for so long doing absolutely nothing about our very real problems.
Re: “On Violence, Oakland, and the Future of First Fridays”
I believe that the reason why this particular shooting stands out among others, is not because it occurred in the "gentrified" and precious Uptown neighborhood, but because the City was warned, over and over and over again, by many of us who participated in the organizing and producing of the original event (on 23rd St.), that the event was becoming unmanageable and many of us feared for our safety, and for the safety and security of the public in general. Every single individual whom I have spoken with since last Friday (including a group of OSA teenagers) has said something along the lines of: "it was just a matter of time". The Mayor's comments: "the City is taking immediate action to assess the security and overall nature of the event and will meet with our community partners to determine the needed measures to make sure First Fridays will continue to be safe and successful moving forward", is not only a little too little, too late, but it also smacks of disingenuousness to me. The Mayor knew full good and well what the risks were. There were a number of formal meetings that took place to discuss the risks, concerns and "measures" that should be taken for moving the event forward in a safe and sustainable way. But those discussions were for nothing. I feel very strongly that the event NEVER should have blown up from a one-side-street, well-managed and thoughtfully-planned event, to a 9 block free-for-all, all at once. As Karen Hester points out, the planning for, and preparation of such large events requires a LOT of time and effort by professionals, a shortage of which Oakland does not suffer, and many of whom, as Karen also points out, offered and strongly encouraged the city and participating business districts to carefully consider. It's a flatly ridiculous idea to think that the huge and sudden expansion would work, even if we lived in Mayberry, and we don't live in Mayberry, do we. How it is that scads of us, regardless of our connection with the event, saw this coming, but those who are elected/appointed officials; whose actual job it is to ensure that this kind of event is well-planned, and well-managed, and supported, somehow ignored the obvious, is to me, at the heart of the failure of these so-called "leaders". The event very, very quickly turned from something grass-roots and art/culture-based, to a big mess that I wanted nothing more to do with. I no longer felt safe after dark there, I hated the energy and the mish-mash of activities, and I forbid my 13-year-old from going. Many of my friends feel the same, and now with this tragedy, I can't imagine who, or what it will take to recover. And that is another damned shame in a long list that the City of Oakland, and the rest of us who love it, will now have to live with.
Re: “On Violence, Oakland, and the Future of First Fridays”
Thank you Ellen for a fair and thoughtful summary of a complex situation. Danielle Fox (ED, Oakland Art Murmur).
Re: “On Violence, Oakland, and the Future of First Fridays”
I agree with Karen and she knows what she's talking about. I also want to mention that tomorrow night, the Oakland School Board will probably vote to close down the last vestige of adult school. I hope that the community colleges will be able to take up the slack but it may not work for our former students who have no hope or future right now. For folks who scream at the CC about crime, talk to the board about what some youth may still desperately need.
I am trying to raise the idea and get some organizational buy-in to pairing an elder with a youth both of whom have been trained in short term conflict resolution to help at these events. By that I mean, many folks who are trained who will volunteer to keep tabs on tensions and try to help ease them.
The other thing to remember is that the violence usually happens after the event so that these volunteers could also help to move folks along and urge them to go in or home (The FF committee is apparently trying to plan more youth events).
Re: “Tuesday Must Read: The Fate of Medical Pot Is In the Hands of State Supreme Court; Yosemite Glacier Appears to be Melting Because of Climate Change”
Medical marijuana should be available to all counties and cities in California! 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.
Re: “On Violence, Oakland, and the Future of First Fridays”
WHY CAN'T WE HAVE A PLACE TO CHILL WITHOUT THE VIOLENCE ALWAYS TAKING IT AWAY! I WENT 2 ONE OF THE 1ST FRIDAYS & HAD A BALL1 I MET A LOT OF PPL THAT WERE VERY CREATIVE AT WHAT THEY DO! I HAD PLANNED TO START MAKING IT A ROUTINE THING TO DO WITH FRIENDS. NOW I HAVE 2 THINK TWICE ABOUT IT! I DONT WANT TO END UP SIDEWALK CHALK!
Re: “On Violence, Oakland, and the Future of First Fridays”
Thanks so much for this thoughtful post as most of us who love First Fridays are also reeling. As you so aptly note, the shooting could have happened anywhere and the fact that it happened at First Fridays will test the mettle of everyone who cares deeply about Oakland, the Uptown and how we go forward. I have been one of the public pushing the City to close down Telegraph because the event had gotten too "big for its britches" and was spilling out into Telegraph and the street where it's a miracle no one had gotten run over by a car. I have been saying publicly for months that the City and the two business improvement districts of KONO and Uptown/Lake Merritt need to put more resources (money and personnel) into the event to ensure its sustainability and safety. I'm a professional events organizer (Temescal and Rockridge festivals) and I believe First Fridays is sustainable if Oakland puts in 1/3 of the costs (they have already been paying most) the BIDS 1/3 and the rest comes from grants, charging food trucks a percentage etc. The volunteer group who has tried to manage the event needs to see, now more than ever, that they need the professional help of the City. The event can still be edgy and grassroots but enough security, toilets and trash cans/recycling will make it possible for it to succeed as the economic engine it is for Oakland and Uptown.
Re: “Monday Must Read: Feinstein Pushes to Close Gun Loopholes; But Assault Weapons Ban Seems Unlikely”
Unions may have spent 85 Million but what I want to know is how much did Corporate sponsored PACs and Super PACs give.
Re: “Scientists Investigate Possible Connection Between Autism and Vitamin D”
Autism prevalence in the United States with respect to solar UV-B doses: An ecological study
Downloads and Tools
This is an open access article.
Volume 5, Issue 1
Keywords: 25(OH)D, African American, Asian American, autism, ecological, pregnancy, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, ultraviolet-B, vitamin D
Authors: William B. Grant (San Francisco) and John J. Cannell (San Luis Obispo)
Abstract:
Evidence is mounting that vitamin D deficiency is intimately involved in autism. We report on autism prevalence by US state for those aged 6–17 y in 2010 with respect to indices of solar UV-B (UVB) doses. We calculated autism prevalence rates for white, black and Asian Americans by using total prevalence and relative populations of minors for each ethnic group by state. Analyses omit AK and HI (considered extreme cases), WY (no data), along with AZ and ND for black Americans (low numbers) and DC, ME, MT, ND and SD for Asian Americans (low numbers). For white Americans, the regression coefficient for solar UVB doses and autism prevalence ranged from -0.52 in January to -0.57 in October. For black Americans, the regression coefficient for latitude was 0.61, whereas those for solar UVB ranged from -0.55 to -0.61. For Asian Americans, the values for solar UVB ranged from -0.28 to -0.38. The inverse correlation between solar UVB and autism prevalence is similar to that for many types of cancer in the US. The journal literature indicates that adverse effects on fetal brain development during pregnancy due to vitamin D deficiency can explain these findings. However, we cannot rule out a role of vitamin D deficiency in early life. These results add to the evidence that vitamin D deficiency may be an important risk factor for autism and suggest that pregnant women and autistic individuals raise their serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations above 30 ng/ml.
Re: “Scientists Investigate Possible Connection Between Autism and Vitamin D”
Research has begun: Ha!
Here is a summary of 32 published papers on Autism and Vitamin D
http://www.vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php…
Re: “Drakes Bay Oyster Company Turns to Koch Brothers-Linked Group”
Above you can see the multiple violations this company has been sited for in last 7 years. This is NOT a sustainable business.
Re: “Drakes Bay Oyster Company Turns to Koch Brothers-Linked Group”
Would you be happier if George Soros were helping this family business?
The environmental study done did not take all of the facts into consideration, and used data from years that this family did not own the company.
I don't mind the jobs and business going to northwestern oyster farmers - Oregon is, after all, in the midst of a major depression - but I think that driving small, environmentally responsible businesses out of business is poor government policy.
All I've seen hear is a lot of guilt by association; let's face it, a drowning person would accept a life line from a Somali pirate if that were the only one available.
Re: “On Violence, Oakland, and the Future of First Fridays”
City Hall practices official tolerance of thug culture. We've seen it time and again, from throwing more money at the Youth UpRising program for its coddling of criminal rappers to handing over National Night Out venues to thugs.
In this tradition, one person who gets himself quoted as a spokesperson for First Fridays, Eric Arnold, proposed after the shooting to add (!) programming that appeals to thug culture. The fact that he could make this proposal and not get a public rebuke from mayor Quan nor any other City leader seals the point. Oakland government is dysfunctional when it comes to public safety.