Comment Archives: stories: News: Feature
Re: “Cracking Oakland's Code”
Great article, great mission. It should be amazing watching this develop over the next few years.
Re: “Cracking Oakland's Code”
Great article about a very layered situation. Civic hacking holds promise for resource-strapped cities like Oakland, yet triggers hot buttons around technology democracy and access in a diverse community.
Re: “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0”
After 6 months of advertising on yelp, during which time I saw no business coming through their site, but 8 good reviews filtered while two bad ones were posted (for a total of 3 bad reviews, 1 good one I cancelled my advertising then put the reason in my feedback section as "not sure why you keep filtering my good reviews". Yelp's reply? The very next day, the one good review they had kept on the site was promptly filtered away, so that now I am left with 3 bad reviews and no good ones, with 9 excellent reviews hidden by their so called computerized filter. Someone needs to start a class action suit. I would join that!
Try us instead: http://www.yelpdeceives.com/
Re: “Treasure Island: A Radioactive Isle”
I just found out about all of this. Me and my family lived at 1323-A Westside Drive just a couple of units down from housing unit 1321 which the article stated contained the highest levels of radiation found.
Keith G.
Pensacola, FL
Re: “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0”
YELP creators - are genius !
They created way to make millions of dollars without any responsibility.
If you think that is fraud - blame not YELP creators, but special FILTER.
What is the filter ? Its secret formula by which negative or positive reviews
disappear, depends of somebody's interest. So, Yelp creators NOT responsible
of filter decision. How is filter work ? Its secret.
Even, if Yelp stop advertising - current filter do not make any sense.
Statistically for each 100 happy visitors must be one unhappy.
Statistically from 100 happy people only 5 make positive article, but
from 1 unhappy person we have 1 negative article.
I am agree that it make sense to design filter to sort legitimate
article to filter out friends, neighbors, relatives, competitors.
If somebody will create such filter, I think, he will deserve Nobel Price.
But Filter, designed by Yelp working in opposite direction. Filter
Formula kept in secret, that nobody can challenge it, but result is
in opposite direction.
After filtering out
5 Legitimate positive articles, on my page I have :
3 positive NOT legitimate articles from my daughter, son in law, and friend.
1 negative NOT legitimate article from competitor.
1 negative legitimate article from unhappy person.
Its a prove that filter do not work. Its not a filter. It must be put
off until somebody invent real filter.
YELP must be closed immediately.
They ruins more and more businesses every day .
Re: “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0”
If you're having Yelp review issues then just have a good look at unyelpme.com It is quick and easy and designed to quickly fix your reputation AND make you permanently immune to Yelp and others, damaging your business.
Re: “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0”
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Re: “Getting Away with Murder”
For people who wonder about Charlie Pine's assertion that elected Oakland city politicians shovel millions of dollars raised by taxing Oakland residents (via "Measure Y/BB") to politically-connected non-profits with no track record of lowering Oakland's violence rates, see this here blog by Marleen Lee:
http://defendingmeasurey.blogspot.com/
Re: “Richard Aoki: Informant Turned Radical?”
It ain't just a river in Egypt. Nobody likes being taken for a fool. Who wants to admit that a trusted, loyal comrade was an informant? People go into denial rather than think their judgment may have been off, or that they were fooled by a con artist--not saying Aoki is any of those things. Just explaining how denial works. Also, these things tend to reflect badly on the community, so people deny them rather than admit that these things happen to the best of us. Anyone can go into denial. It is human.
Re: “Richard Aoki: Informant Turned Radical?”
Is it just me, or are there too many True Believers out there?
Christianists, Islamists, fundamentalists of all sorts, Penn State alumni, Truthers, and on and on. The interesting thing about the Aoki story isn't him; spies usually have divided loyalties else the subterfuge would never last. Fool yourself, fool others. But why whole groups of people refuse to see the truth gobsmacking them in the face is marvelously mysterious. Is there something about strong beliefs that makes one impervious to facts?
Re: “Richard Aoki: Informant Turned Radical?”
Watch Peralta TV’s Exclusive 2008 Interview with Richard Aoki at
http://www.youtube.com/user/peraltatv
In 2008, Peralta TV produced an award-winning documentary on the origins of the Black Panther Party at Merritt College. As part of the documentary, “Merritt College: Home of the Black Panthers,” Peralta TV interviewed Richard Aoki, who for many years worked for the Peralta Community College District as a teacher, administrator and counselor.
Although regarded by many as a leader in civil rights and activist circles, recent evidence suggests that Richard Aoki may have been an FBI informant. Peralta TV conducted an exclusive 90-minute interview with him in October 2008, just months before he died in 2009.
Re: “The Oakland '09ers”
Awesome article. Thanks! Go Oakland!
Re: “Dianne Feinstein's War”
Thank you, East Bay Express for a balanced and well written article showing both sides of the argument. Yes it's unfortunate that a 100+ year establishment has been shut down, but their poor business and environmental practices led to their own demise. Farming invasive species without a permit, c'mon! That's like someone growing a cockroach farm next door to you with out any safety precautions.
The bottom line is that Drakes Bay Oyster Co. bet the farm to expand operations on an expiring lease where it was stated that it would end. Period. That's such a risky move no matter how you're politically connected. And it sounds like they don't have a Plan B. The buck stops with the leader of company, and there is no one else to blame, and accept responsibility, but owner Kevin Lunny.
My heart goes out to their customers, employees, and their families.
Re: “Little Miss Murder”
It is very said to say that katie belflower is my cousin and though she is i hope she rots in prison what she did to that girl was well there are no word i can think of to decribe how wrong it was I wish she would have gotten the death penelty but because of her age she didnt she is disgrace to my family i feel deeply sad for the family and friends of jenna i know no amout of word can take the pain away for what happend but i am still sorry for the loss..... May jenna R.I.P and my kaite rot in hell sorry for the languge....
Re: “Getting Away with Murder”
Oakland is beset by a number of cultural problems. First of all it has a rough reputation that is statistically accurate, drawing aspirants to the violent lifestyle. Secondly people stay in their homes after dark, leaving the streets free of witnesses. Thirdly people have largely resigned to 100-150+ murders per year. Fourthly, there is a huge cultural divide between Rockridge-Hills-Piedmont and that area referred to derisively as "the flats". It is a classic war between the haves and have-nots. You have an iphone. I have a gun. Now your iphone is mine.
We cannot incarcerate our way out of this. Prisoners are released onto the same streets that resulted in charges in the first place. Ron Dellums was criticized by many as being a part-time mayor but he had a clear spiritual message directed towards those who do crime. Not the tired rant about lock em up. Look at his numbers. Considerably fewer homicides than under Quan.
At least he projected a certain human passion and the message "let US stop killing each other."
There has to be more respect. More respect between every ethnicity, and all economic classes, as well as age groups, people of different sexual orientation, different religions, different educational backgrounds, and different criminal records.
As long as criminals are simply jailed and released they are coming right back and they might not have a sunny disposition.
Guess what? They have a right to be here too.
Policymakers have to assemble a credible plan to bring criminals to the table and make them part of the community.
Like Einstein said, you cannot solve a problem by bringing the same way of thinking to it. All this talk of hiring more police ignores the political reality that such measures are incremental and ineffective.
They are expensive and in this town unpopular in the wake of historical police issues. Eventually we will hopefully get past that pall. Building bigger prisons and hiring more police is too expensive, too punitive, and not civic minded. It is collectively a force similar to the very street violence it aims to quash. It is also the reason why the United States is the best at locking up criminals. Too bad it leaves its residue of violent hatred, giving the unintended consequence of what we have today.
Re: “Confessions of the Beirut Bandit”
To say he's charming and intriguing is to say the least, because just from reading this article I want to meet him!
Re: “Dianne Feinstein's War”
if the lease is extended, expect a law suit from the Johnson's. They were told that there would be NO EXTENSIONS on the lease by the park service before they made there decision to sell to Lunny. The "no extensions" clause was one of the main reasons that they sold it in the first place.
Re: “Getting Away with Murder”
I appreciate that the East Bay Express has devoted this much time and print space to addressing Oakland's number one problem: public safety. At the same time, I'm not sure I follow your central premise--that this is somehow a cultural problem specific to OPD. As your examples make abundantly clear, this is a problem of resources--we simply don't have enough officers to do the job in this city. That is a political problem--not a police culture problem.
We do not have leadership at either the mayor's level or within the city council that does anything more than make unkept promises about police staffing. Think police officers are expensive? Of course they are--but who negotiated (and negotiates) those contracts? City officials. Think pension costs for city workers--and especially safety workers are huge? Of course they are--and unfunded pension liability is a serious drag on the financial health of this city. But pensions are calculated to reflect base salaries. Who negotiated the deal for these things? Our city officials. And who continues to see pension obligation bonds (borrowing money to help pay off our pension obligations) as a solution--even though it means we will owe more in the long run? Our city officials. Think police overtime is a huge expense? Of course it is--but when you have fewer officers, they have to do more overtime to cover the same work. And then they do it poorly (as this article demonstrates). But who created a situation in which there would be fewer officers (thus more overtime) in the first place? Once again--our city officials.
You have done a truly commendable job in this article analyzing the specifics of our police department's shortcomings. But you need to do another article and take a good look at our city government--and the elected officials responsible for contributing to this mess. And while you're at it--how about including a discussion of Measure Y? This will sunset in about two years, and by that time we will have spent nearly 200 million dollars that were supposed to fund more police AND social programs to reduce violent crime. Did that funding produce more police officers? No. Did all the social programs make a meaningful reduction in violent crime? Seriously, you know the answer to that question. The sad truth is, more officers alone will not solve the problem; some social programs do work--although the metrics they are judged by do not include a direct reduction in violent crime. That needs to change, but voters will likely not trust our electeds when it is time to re-up Measure Y. And they are right to be cynical. After all that time and all that money, do any of us feel safer here?
Finally, how about including a more thorough examination of our city's crime fighting policies? Oakland has no comprehensive plan to address violent crime. Instead what we have are a series of initiatives--some of which (like the 100 Blocks) were more fantasy than factual. Others--like Cease-Fire--have potential, but require consistent, reliable political leadership, and application of resources. Absent that, what we have is a hodge podge of programs. Not connected, and not consistently applied.
Re: “Getting Away with Murder”
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Re: “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0”
When two dogs disappeared at Bad Rap in Oakland after the Spindletop raid, an article was written and posted on Yelp:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/20…
Bad Rap had the post removed amidst much name calling and accusatory slams. What is the big secret and where are these dogs? How is Yelp involved with Bad Rap?
Answers, please!