Oakland got $65 million in Economic Stimulus; where's the jobs?

I received this email from Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' Oakland Community Task Force late Sunday night:

Hear Mayor Dellums report on stimulus funding (some of which will fund task force-related recommendations). Oakland has received $65 million in stimulus funding, including half from competitive grants.


A preliminary review of selected cities indicates that this makes Oakland second after Chicago (my emphasis) in the amount of competitive funding received. And Oakland is not, by any means, the second largest city. Congratulations to the Mayor, the wonderful city staff led by task force member Margaretta Lin, and other task force members who participated in the planning process and grant writing.

Ok. Great.  The Mayor's giving a City Council report tonight on Economic Stimulus money to Oakland for ...$65 million?  Wow. 

But here's the question: where are the jobs?

Oakland is a city of just around 400,000 people; the Chicago Metro area's about 4 million. To compare Oakland to a much bigger city in terms of monies received is one thing but it also means what's done with the cash is to be questioned.

$65 million is a lot of money.

I check the City of Oakland's Economic Stimulus Website and found something disturbing: a list of program grants applied for that had not been updated in months. Under the estimate of jobs to be created most of the boxes had TBA which I guess means "To Be Added".

And for those areas where jobs were listed, the total was just over 2,500 positions.  But 1,750 of those were from a block grant program that the website doesn't report the City got money for.   It doesn't read that the City of Oakland was rejected either - it really doesn't tell you much of anything beyond the application due date and the program description.  

Yikes.

This website has not been updated in months!   Terrible!  

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is scheduled to present the Oakland Economic Stimulus report tonight, Tuesday, at 7 PM at Oakland City Hall. Ask him what happened to the $65 million.

He will tell you that most of the money has not been claimed, but how much has not? Also, when will the jobs become available? Now, or in stages over the next year? And if it's in stages will that be enough to offset projected higher unemployment rates?

And then ask him with $65 million, why does the City of Oakland gouge its residents with high parking ticket costs and overly aggressive enforcement?

Geez.