Bouncing In Boots For Your Booty

HI Your Fit Day Friends!

Hey! Do you still want to get that sexy summer bod?

Or, maybe you're on the rebound from a joint injury...

Or, maybe you're just looking for that cool piece of equipment that is super fun and will get you fit and lean in a short amount of time...

Or, you just like toys!

OK! So, remember I told you that I would find ways to work out to keep me in super duper shape before my pending hip surgery?

Well, I had this super idea that I could design running shoes with springs on the bottom that would take the impact off my joints and it would be less painful to walk and super fun to use, as well as keep my booty in shape. But then I said, "Hmm! Why invent the wheel when somebody else has done the work for me? Why not ask the Kangoo Jump people to help me?"

So that's what I did.

And I think these Boots were made for YOU!



Boots Not Just Made For Walking!

My first try with the Kangoo jumps was back in June. It had been raining the last couple weeks in May so I had to put trying the boots out on hold. But finally the clouds separated, and the sun shined through and I got off my ball ( I use a stability ball as my desk chair) and decided to hop down to the Lake. No, I hadn't put the boots on just yet. That was actually a pun. And since it takes too long to hobble on my hip, I got in my car and headed 4 blocks to Lake Merritt.
"Another Lake Merrit July Drama Sunset"

But something compelled me to take a detour and instead I drove over to the Piedmont High School track where there wouldn't be any stray ducks, dogs or pelicans underfoot; I could count on level ground; and there was no chance of bouncing into the lake...with the pelicans.

"Pelicans at Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA"

I'll tell you this: in retrospect, walking down the steps to the track in my Chaco sandals and getting onto the track was actually the hardest part. Because once I put on the Kangoo Jumps it was shear joy to 'walk' and 'run' and just be able to amble pain free.

Check These Out

All Kangoos are a cool, ninja, space age ski/roller blade-like boot design with cambered curved springs on the bottom. And they're reasonably light, and lighter than roller blades-well, at least my roller blades-with just enough weight to give you the right amount of stability and a good workout. I mean, you're still lifting boots with every hop!

"My feet in Kangoo Jumps"

Getting into them was pretty quick and easy. Adjusting the cleats no problem. Figuring out the pressure to secure them was hit or miss and I probably will need a few more romps before they feel comfortable around the shin.

The track wasn't crowed but just carrying the boots in my hand drew attention to me. I wasn't going to complain about that. I'm a fitness diva, remember!

In fact, I'm hoping that I can get more people involved in using these boots and coming to my bootcamps. (HA! HA! Boot Camps! Kangoo Style!)

Once I had them securely on my feet I was like the Jolly Green Giant. I was amazed at how stable they were. Everyone kept asking me if I felt like I would topple over or twist my ankle. Absolutely NOT. Have you ever felt like you would fall over in ski boots? (assuming the ski is not attached to the boot and you're not ripping down a mountain). There is absolutely no inclination to fall over. And that is a good thing! seeing that I'm only planning on having ONE surgery.

Giving It a Go On My Kangoo Jumps

Because this was my first adventure out in my Kangoos I didn't want to over do it. They say to hop around, up and down, break them in. So I tried that, but was pretty tentative, babying my hip. But I soon realized that the boots actually roll you forward and the impact isn't directly on your hip. So I became more bold, and set off down the track... at a slow run. And behold, I was bouncing with no burn in my joint.

The track is 1/4 mile around. After three times around-running, walking, hopping, and repeating that-I was already working up a sweat and I could feel my running muscles in my legs-the ones I hadn't worked in that running way since December '10- start to come alive. I felt alive! And free........

I spent 15 minutes Kangooing and by the time I stopped I felt like I had instead sprinted up a mountain. It was that good of a workout and my legs and glutes felt pumped. All without any pain in my hip joint. In fact, my hip feels better in these boots running and walking than I do ambling, or more like hobbling right now, on my own two feet, whether in my shoes or Vibram 5 Fingers.

Here's a video of me in San Francisco bouncing in my boots:



Putting The Spring Back Into Your Life

The Kangoo Jumps are designed to take up to 80% of the impact off your joints. So for those of you who have osteoarthritis in your hips or knees (I'm not sure about back pain but you can check out their website) and have had to give up your favorite sport or activity you may have a second chance. So I highly recommend these Kangoo Jumps for anyone who has had to give up their favorite impact activity, things like hiking, trekking, and even martial arts, due to joint pain in their knees and hips and possibly back. Because you can do all of these sports in Kangoo Boots. Obviously do your research and consult with your doctor first. I certainly did before I started using them.

In fact, I contacted one of the leading hip surgeons in the world, Dr. Koen De Smet, to get his opinion and approval. And after he reviewed the website he said that they were suitable for what I wanted to do, and as long as it I didn't hurt I was fine.

Boots for your Booty

I have to admit I was getting a bit soft in the inner thigh and butt since I wasn't able to run in the hills or do any of the sprint training that I love to do for the past several months. But in the past month I have seen a noticeable difference in the tone of my inner thighs, quads and butt and the Kangoo jumps have miraculously toned up my legs in just this short amount of time.

And here's a bonus for those of you who have some extra weight to lose: They say that you burn twice as many calories using the Kangoo Boots and that 30 minutes in your Kangoos is like an hour in your normal training shoes. That's not hard to believe. After bouncing around San Francisco and Lake Merritt for just 30 minutes a pop these past few weeks it felt like I had done a six mile trail run in the Berkeley hills.

So, not only are these a great workout, burn calories, tone up your booty, and are a hoot to use, they are a time saver as well. What's not to like about them!

What's Next ?


So, my game plan is to Kangoo Jump for the next two months which will take me up to the week that I leave for overseas for my hip surgery. There will be no more Kangoo jumping for at least 10 months after surgery. But I'll have other exercises that I will be doing to keep our butts in shape, literally!

So be sure to follow my blog, and watch the videos, for more cool stuff that will keep your legs toned, your booty nice and round, and your body fit and lean.

Stay tuned for more Kangoo Jump videos so you can get the 'JUMP on fitness!'

Your Trainer, and Nutrition and Wellness Coach,

DebbyK!

Make it Your Fit Day...

Top Ten Reasons to Hella Love Oakland in 2009

[by Aimee Allison, Executive Producer OaklandSeen]

By now, you've likely seen the whining from a certain columnist calling 2009 one of Oakland's worst years ever. Um, no. The OaklandSeen team compiled our own list and we're happy to report that good news abounds.

Here are OaklandSeen's top ten reasons to Hella Love Oakland in 2009.

1. Schools Comin' Up: East Oakland's Urban Promise Middle School and Fruitvale's International High School were nationally recognized. The School of the Arts gets a new home at the Fox Theatre and a waiting list around the block.

2. Better Democracy: Oakland finally gets instant runoff voting – now, you'll get to rank your choices in the November election, saving the city 800k, bringing in more candidates and making incumbents play nice or be #2.

3. Good Times ahead for BART: The Bart Police Chief Gary Gee is gone. He should've been fired for his mismanagement of the department, and mishandling after the shooting of Oscar Grant. Instead, he retires silently into the night. Good riddens and we welcome to the opportunity to pick a new and better head of this troubled department. This goes double for the Oakland Police Department.

4. How We Roll: Town Park opens in West Oakland, the city's first skate park. Kiddie skaters all over Oakland are aglow. Just look at what committed community and generous donors can do; thanks to K-Dub and other amazing community organizers.

5. Finally, Oakland is a Destination with big “D”: Uptown is hot: Somar, The Ave (2022), Mimosa, New Parrish, Mua all give us something to do after dark. The new nightlife in Oakland does us proud. Incidentally, a recent visit to the Mission in SF was a stark contrast. The neighborhood was dead, ChaChaCha empty by 10pm on a Thursday. Where are they? Yeah, across the bridge.

6. Government Sometimes Works: It's mostly a secret, but the city economic development team successfully attracted green business First Solar(www.firstsolar.com).

We also got the good news that food manufacturers are making a comeback - manufacturing that's lifeblood in our city. Plus, the first crop of green jobs training graduates complete their innovative course. We gotta put our hands together for Oakland taking a national lead on the new economy. Good use of our tax dollars.

7. We Eat Good: Despite suggestions to the contrary, Oakland has eaten well many years. Now we have even more good restaurants to add to the mix: Camino, Pican, Ozumo, Commis, Adesso, Sidebar, Marzano on Park, Barlata, Burma Superstar, Cafe Trieste. For those “discovering” Oakland – welcome and enjoy the food coma.

8. Festivals are Back, Big Time: The Eat Real Festival found a new home in Oakland (relocated from windy Fort Mason, SF). It went from a pricey fete to a free festival infused with the Oakland vibe. Oakland at it's very best.

OaklandSeen is a compelling mix of radio broadcasts Friday 8am on KPFA-FM 94.1, social networks on Facebook (www.facebook.com/oaklandseen) and Twitter(www.twitter.com/oaklandseen), and a group blog rolling out in February 2010.

Michelle Wie channels Miley Cyrus in new blog

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The drive for young women to be like Miley Cyrus continues with golf star Michelle Wie and her new blog that's caused quite a stir online.  I received an email tip and had to check out the latest buzz on Wie, which I did with my friends who own the Lake Merritt Cafe in Oakland, CA:



Michelle Wie's  blog, called "A Black Flamingo: a mindless blog about life and the stuff that doesn't quite fit in" is the platform for her many talents, from painting to fashion and modeling:

so i took a calligraphy class in high school and i reallly loved it. i would love to learn how to do asian calligraphy again. classic asian art is beautiful. love

Folks Wie's art work is fantastic. I don't know what it would fetch in the open market, but I'm sure the price tag would be substantial.   She has everything from calligraphy to stencil and her talent's to be seen.   Then there's her modeling career:

 

Here Michelle Wie shows her Miley Cyrus side showing a lot of skin and the color black.  While I'm tempted to make fun of her desire to "show some skin" and do with my Lake Merritt Cafe owner friend in the video, I've got to note that Wie made the clothes she models herself.  By contrast, Miley's modeling what someone created.  Wie reports:

my cousin showed me how to use a sewing machine last week and its sooo awesome! so with my new knowledge, we ran to the fabric store and got some fabric. i got some leather looking material, black jersery fabric, and zippperrs. so i made a dress... i feel like with this one, you can either wear it without anything inside and be uber sexy with the exposed skin, or you can layer it up..

You go girl!

Seriously.  Wie's an amazing genius, who's full range of accomplishments should be on display for all to see.  At the age of (well, she's about to turn) 20, Wie's discovering that she's more than just a golfer, and she's pretty good at that too!

I wonder if Miley would consider sporting the latest in "Wie Wear."  

Hmmm....

Stay tuned.

Oakland parking ticket last straw for Michael Caton

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My friend, fellow Oakland blogger, and valued guest blogger at Oakland Focus Michael Caton has had it with Oakland, and to my surprise wrote a stinging blog post on my Oakland Focus Blog that detailed the reason for writing that he would never return to our city in the future: the parking problem.

 

An Oakland parking enforcement official

Michael has a blog called "An Oakland Citizen" where he opines about political and social issues in Oakland and gives a comprehensive view of how people of different stripes interact in our town. He's headed to medical school in San Diego, but it could be said the Oakland dog "bit him" on the way out of the civic door.

Since he wrote the blog post exclusively on my Oakland Focus site and part of my blog network, I cross-posted it here below:

A Fitting Send-off - Michael Caton in Oakland Focus

I have a note to add to the farewell-to-Oakland parking post I left on my own blog some time ago. To the merchants who feel like the City of Oakland is hell-bent on destroying local businesses with draconian parking policies, I can add a personal experience that has removed me from the Oakland economy permanently.

I moved to San Diego last week to start medical school. For one day, I had the U-Haul trailer I'd rented parked in front of our building - the three story one at the corner of Broadway and Oceanview. There is a stretch of red curb there that is a) out of the way of traffic and b) always, always used by everyone moving into or out of the building.

You already know where this is going. I was riding the elevator back up to my floor, and, tired and sweating from dragging furniture out to the truck, I happened to glance down to the street out through the clear wall to see the parking enforcement vehicle pull up in front of my worldly possessions. I got off and hurtled down the stairs to the street; the parking guy couldn't have been there more than 60 seconds. "I'll move the truck. I'll move it right now," I said breathlessly.

"Sorry. Ticket's already issued." He had his little parking-fascist computer and was waiting for the ticket to print out.

"Is there any way it can turn into a warning? I can really move the truck right now." I had the keys in my hand. We were 10 feet from my car and trailer.

"No," he said, and handed me an eighty dollar ticket. He stood there waiting and watching until I'd moved the trailer.

No, I don't think I'm special, and yes the law applies to me - and I was indeed in a red zone - one that, to my knowledge, had never been enforced, and that I offered to move out of immediately. I think you can understand my frustration. And God forbid Oakland devotes resources to getting criminals off the street - one dead, one paralyzed and critical, one badly beaten in this taco stand robbery a few days after I moved - but hey, at least Oakland is safe from people with U-haul trailers. Guess what I could do in my new, safe place in San Diego? Find parking easily and unload the truck with no tickets!

Although I don't like leaving anything on negative notes, the end of this anecdote will do just that to my brief participation in the Oakland blogosphere. That said, I truly wish the best for Oakland and for its committed residents who are working hard to make it a place to be proud of. Understatement of the year: you have some challenges ahead of you.

The last words between myself and this "public servant", were: "Hey, thanks for sending me off in style." And, standing there and waiting for me to move the trailer before he would leave, he grumbled, "You're sending yourself off."

Yep, I sure am. Once I'm practicing medicine, I will certainly come back to the Bay Area. I will not come back to Oakland.

This is not the first time I've learned of Oakland Parking Officials being nasty to Oaklanders. The worst case I know of other than Michael's is story told to me by a third party where one Oakland Parking Officer told a person trying to get into a wheelchair on Grand Avenue "Have your driver put a quarter in the meter or I'll give him a ticket."

Now, a decent person could have 1) let the disabled person and his driver go on with their business, or 2) put the quarter in the meter themselves! But this action? It's the talk of the Grand Lake business community.

Let's get something clear now: violence against parking enforcement officials is just plain wrong. Oakland parking officials showing disrespect to Oakland's people is equally wrong. It's hard enough to get an $80 ticket - harder still if one's out of work or on a fixed income. A public official being mean to someone in this position - heck in any walk of life - is an abuse of power the City of Oakland must stop now!

Oakland Mai-Tai Day Party at Conga Lounge in Rockridge today

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Last night I happened by the Conga Lounge Tiki Bar in Oakland's Rockridge District and the owners Mano and Michael Thanos treated me to a great Mai Tai and a cool t-shirt, and informed me that on Sunday (today) they're having a party to celebrate the creation of that tasty cocktail.

The party runs from 5 PM to 10 PM at 5422 College Ave (above Cafe Rustica), and Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan (At-Large) will arrive to official read the proclamation proclaiming The Mai Tai "The Official Drink of Oakland" but here's some background.

According to Mano Thanos, the Mai Tai was created in Oakland in 1944 by Victor Bergeron, the owner of the famed Trader Vic's Restaurant chain. His experiment, which you can read about in detail on the Trader Vics's website, and the growth of his restaurant chain led to the word-of-mouth re-creation of the drink around Oakland and eventually around America and the World.

Last night, Thanos said that with all of the bad news about Oakland and crime, it was necessary to have something that presented a fun and good side to Oakland. I agree. Oakland's chronic low self esteem has presented this news from reaching the general public for decades. No more. The Mai Tai was born in Oakland. Time to celebrate today! Come to the Conga Lounge for $5 Mai Tai's, hula dancers, free appetizers, and fun (don't drink and drive)!

Oakland's Lake Chalet has some Oakland Council haters

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Now that the long-awaited Lake Chalet is open, one would think everyone in Oakland's happy that it's done and the boathouse is restored. But no. I'm told some Oakland councilmembers are still upset over a vote that took place three years ago. So much so they won't even set foot in the Lake Chalet!



Let's go back three years to 2006, when San Francisco restaurateurs Lara and Gar Trupelli, known for the Beach Chalet and Park Chalet restaurants, were selected over the always good and very popular Everett & Jones Barbeque, in Jack London Square. The Oakland City Council was deadlocked four in favor of the Beach Chalet proposal and four against it.

Specifically, Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland), Oakland Councilmembers Larry Reid (Elmhurst-East Oakland), Desley Brooks (Eastmont-Seminary), and Jean Quan (Montclair-Laurel) against the Beach Chalet proposal. Then Oakland Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (Glenview-Fruitvale), Vice Mayor Jane Brunner (North Oakland), Councilmember Patricia Kernighan (Grand Lake-Chinatown) and then-Councilmember Henry Chang Jr. (At-Large) voted for it.

It was left to then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown to cast the tie-breaking vote, selecting the Beach Chalet proposal. Why? Because the Trupelli's proposal called for them to spend $2 million of their own money to create the new eatery, a sum Ms. King could not match at the time (her proposal called for $1 million in spending.

The City of Oakland's plan was to use $12 million to refurbish the boathouse; some councilmembers believed that expenditure should be coupled with "capacity building" an Oakland business, in this case, Everett and Jones.

The outcome caused King to charge that racism was the reason for the vote outcome, and that then-Mayor Brown promised to give her the lease if she would defend him from charges of racism; Brown vehemently denied King's claim calling it "crazy". Councilmemeber Reid also disagreed with King's claim, stating that race was did not play a role in the vote outcome.

The controversy also helped to cause the petition drive that caused Ron Dellums to run for Mayor of Oakland. Because De La Fuente voted against King, it was believed by some that he would not be supportive of African American business interests. He lost to Dellums, who's now Oakland's mayor.


King was not notified of the competition

King said she learned about the restaurant competition after seeing it advertised at the boathouse and called Mayor Brown. The submission deadline had past, but the process was restarted to give her time to submit the appropriate documents and review her proposal. In all, 10 proposals were considered; the Trupelli approach won.

It's over; enjoy the result

It's sad to learn that some councilmembers can't even bring themselves to visit the Lake Chalet and congratulate Gar and Lara for the work they've done. It's an incredible place with great food at the right price. We've always talked about increasing investment in Oakland, but when it happens, some of us seems to take pleasure in finding something wrong with the result.

If those councilmembers are so concerned with building the capacity of women and minority businesses in Oakland, they need to set up a program that does just that. But what's happened historically is Oakland gives out loans - not grants - to such businesses then makes public examples of them when they can't pay them back.

The City of Oakland needs to put its money and effort where its mouth is rather than pay lip-service to a problem that needs to be addressed and indeed should have been a long time ago.

Britney Spears must visit Oakland's Lake Chalet Restaurant!

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YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos and Sclipo

I couldn't wait to visit the new Lake Chalet Restaurant at the restored Lake Merritt Boathouse, so I made a plan with my friend Gab to be there when the doors opened for the first time right at 5 PM last Monday, August 17th.

As you may recall, I recently posted a video-blog of the day the ribbon was cut to dedicate the boathouse and Lake Chalet owner Lara Truppelli and Executive Chef Jarad Gallagher were kind enough to give me an interview at the bar as the eatery was under construction. Now, it's open and man is it terrific!

What's so exciting is the setting. The Boathouse is right on the shore of Lake Merritt and a seat at the "Pumphouse Bar" section of the place on a sunny day as Monday was is a treat to the kind of Oakland many of us have wanted to see and cause to happen for a long time. That's where we sat after we arrived.  The interior is both modern, futuristic in a way, and warm.

Lara came over to say hello and check on us; she and her husband Gar Truppelli really deserve all the accolades they get for creating a new destination place in Oakland right where it should be at Lake Merritt. As Gar said "It's wonderful. Three-and-a-half years it took to get to this."

We were like kids in a candy store, my friend and I, trying to figure out what to order. So, we turned to Gallagher who said he wanted us to try "something that we normally would not get" and offered several suggestions. Out of those, we ordered two dishes: Brandade Fish Sticks and Herloom Tomato and Buratta Cheese. We also elected to go on a kind of tour of Lake Chalet's cocktail offerings starting with me and Old Whiskey and a kind of mint drink Gab had that I can't remember the name of and I'm not going to bug her to ask about it.

Then Gallagher brought over a nice surprise: his special English Pea Soup.  Now I haven't eaten pea soup since I was six, but I never had English Pea Soup with White Truffle Oil, (and found this great blog post about making it!).  I hated pea soup; not this time.  Not this kind.  

The soup and the Herloom Tomato and Buratta Cheese were out of this world!  Gallagher said he had the Buratta Cheese delivered from Italy and so wanted us to give him our impression of it and the tomatos. As we said in the video, just great.  The meal dances in your mouth. 

Since we were part of the first set of patrons to arrive at the Lake Chalet it was a perfect place to talk and to just stop and admire the place. Then the rush came in and the Lake Chalet became a kind of cool center of Oakland.

It seemed as if almost everyone in the town walked in at some point that night: people who live around the Lake, folks young and old, and even celebrity politicos like California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who, Lara told me, was really helpful in helping them get a good lease agreement, my friends the ever-energetic Oakland builder Mike Baines, and Bob and Barbara Schock (Bob's a well-known Oakland-based lawyer), and of course Helen.  I think we ended up closing the place down.

Yeah. We did.  Thanks Lara and Gar! 

Folks, I love this place. You've got to visit it. Soon.

Welcome William Wong to CityBrights on SFGate.com

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I write this with a large degree of bias because he's my friend, but I'm welcoming William Wong to SFGate.com and the CityBrights blogger section. "Bill", as I call him more than deserves to be here. He's written expressively about his Asian American culture and in the process has given all of us a great window into a world too often ignored in America.

Bill wrote for the Oakland Tribune for more years than I can remember and offered views on everything from Oakland politics to sports and of course his life. But Bill's also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, too. His work has received much attention. But his best stuff in my view is in Images of America: Oakland's Chinatown and in a multi-part series ran in the Oakland Tribune about his trip to China and a rediscovery of his roots.

I'm a big believer in celebrating great people while they're here, and that should be done for Bill Wong. Please join me in welcoming Bill to SFGate.com and CityBrights!

Oakland Boathouse and Lake Chalet Restaurant now open

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On Thursday, August 5th, a well-attended dedication was held to honor the newly restored Oakland Boathouse and welcome a much needed shot in the Lake Merritt arm, The Lake Chalet at 1520 Lakeside Drive. The event, which you can relive minus the long speeches, in this video, attracted about 300 people just by eyeballing it.

It was a kind of reunion of Oaklanders. There was Mayor Ron Dellums, the Oakland Rowing Club (The Oakland Strokes) members, staffers from the City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department and other offices and a lot of onlookers on a sun-drenched day. But the feature attraction was the Lake Chalet.

If you've been to the famous Beach Chalet and Park Chalet in San Francisco and enjoy the fun, festive indoor-outdoor setting, then the Lake Chalet will be like Heaven. Unlike the other two great eateries, it's right on the shore of Lake Merritt at the dock, basically part of it. Inside, the room is marked by a very long bar.

The bar's estimated to be the longest one in Oakland, if not the East Bay or the Bay Area (well, ok, someone go on a tour and check!). But take a look for yourself and let me know. As a whole, Gar and Lara Truppelli, the owners and operators of the "Chalet group" as I call it, hit this one out of the park. It's right for Lake Merritt and fills a need a long time in coming.

Food wise, Executive Chef Jarad Gallagher promises offerings that are as diverse as Oakland itself. I'm headed over there now to meet a friend and check it out; all this blogging's making me hungry.

LakeFest Street Fair in Oakland, CA - August 1st 2009

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On YouTube.com

LakeFest is a street fair that was held last Saturday and Sunday August 1st and 2nd on Lakeshore Avenue between Lake Park and Mandana near the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. After a long absence, it's back for its second year and with great bands and vendors selling clothes and representing everything from the new Lake Chalet restaurant to "Friends of the Oakland Public Library."

I talked with a number of Oaklanders about the festival because there was a long period of time that, well, there was not an event of this kind at this location. That is until Helen Wyman stepped in.

Helen Wyman is an event producer currently best known for the first, successful Uptown street fair held June 18th of this year. She explained that this event has nothing to do with the version of year's past and is brand new. "'LakeFest' was a concept we came up with through my company Oakland Events. We decided that Lakeshore was a great spot because of the community and the neighborhood, location and the weather and so many people that can walk here. And they didn't have a festival so we wanted to bring the festival back here."

But what happened to the first version of what is now called "LakeFest"? For the answer to that question I turned to long-time Oaklander Pam Drake, who is Executive Director of the Lakeshore Business Improvement District (LBID). "WE had put it on with an art organization that didn't work with the vendors and it ended up costing us a lot of money and didn't involve our stores as much as it should. So the businesses, we weren't really sure if we wanted to go on with it.

"So, we hadn't done anything in a while and we felt like even though we have the wonderful farmers market, that people wanted to see Lakeshore on the map again. So Helen Wyman, who's someone who I worked with her mom, came up and said 'We've done all these events and I'd really like to do an event for this district.'"

LakeFest was Wyman's first independent event so she wrote a proposal to the LBID's Drake and she liked and endorsed Wyman's idea. Last year was the first one; this is the second year in a row for Wyman's festival concept.

Personally, I love what she's done. It captures the feel and the sprit of Oakland without really any "trick" other than organizing businesses and entertainment and booths. But with that, I have to complement Oakland Events on taking steps to guard against overcrowding. Many street fairs in San Francisco have the booths so close to the side walk that its hard to walk back-and-forth because folks are pressed so close together; not so at LakeFest.

LakeFest also helped the businesses along Lakeshore, especially Easy Lounge, which was perpetually crowded with a great mix of people and Starbucks and Noah's Bagels, which benefited from being near the music stage at the Mandana Avenue end of the street fair. Combined with the Grand Lake Farmers Market, the whole neighborhood was just one big party.

So, congrats to Wyman and Oakland Events for a fun time. But I look forward to the day when both Grand Avenue and Lakeshore are both closed down for one big Grand Lake Festival.

Parkway Theater / Cerrito Theater - Catherine and Kyle Fisher

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On YouTube.com

In the ongoing gaga of the Parkway and Cerrito theaters in Oakland and El Cerrito respectively we have read or heard the views of many people over the past seven months except two: Catherine and Kyle Fisher, who created both the Parkway Theater in Oakland, California and the Cerrito Theater in El Cerrito, California.  I was honored to be given the exclusive first video interview with the Fishers over brunch at the Lakeshore Cafe in Oakland.  

They talked with me on video for 19 straight minutes - nothing edited - about what happened that led to the closure of the Oakland Parkway Theater and that led to the current very messy relationship between the Fishers and the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency (ERA) regarding the Cerrito Theater, a situation which saw the Fishers lose that business too, and watch as the owners of the Rialto stepped in to take over. 

First, some house cleaning: this is the Fisher's platform. The interview style was to give them a place to explain what happened in their own words and with comfort.  This blog entry is not a text transcript for the video: I'd prefer you watch or listen to the video because how anyone says what they say is as important as what they say.  Got that?   Lastly, I do have my views on this matter - no surprise there - which I present at the end of this post.

Regarding what happened in El Cerrito, the Fishers said its hard to expand a business and especially do when you can't rely on all of the players involved in that process.  Kyle Fisher said that they were approached by the City of El Cerrito in 2001 with the idea of starting a new theater in that town.  The Fishers said "no" because they didn't have the financial resources required to open a second location.  The agency came back to them in 2002, and had what Kyle Fisher called a "back and forth"  such that the Agency said "What if we pay for it?" in other words, the ERA would give the Fisher's money to open what's now called The Cerrito Theater.  

The Fishers were excited that the public private partnership served as a template for community centers in America.  But the time they spent on the development of the Cerrito hurt the Parkway, and the ERA and City of El Cerrito's promise of money to help them never came through.


The Parkway was always profitable

The popular perception is the Parkway closed because it wasn't making money; not true.  "The Parkway was always profitable", Kyle Fisher said.  But the Fishers were using money from the Parkway to keep the Cerrito going with the idea that the City of El Cerrito's promise of money to help them with the Cerrito would come through; again, it never did.  Because of this, the Parkway was "crippled" as Catherine put it.  So the Cerrito's underfunded condition cost the Parkway.   If they closed the Cerrito, the Parkway would have survived.

On the Parkway employees and the last minute closure

I said to the Fishers that many Parkway employees felt like they had the rug pulled out from under them.  They got the notice that the Parkway would be closing, and they would be losing their jobs, just four days before the March 22nd Sunday it closed.  Kyle said "I completely screwed that up, and there's no excuses for that.  I misread a notice.  I misread a legal notice.  I'm an attorney and misread a legal notice.  We had fully intended to give our employees a month's notice before closing."  Kyle was under the impression the Alameda County Sheriff was coming to evict them but that was not the case.  But Kyle admits he made the mistake and did so right on camera.  Good for him. 

The Parkway was the Fisher's labor of love

The Parkway started in 1996 because the Fishers wanted to have a place where their friends could get together and watch movies over pizza and beer.  Then-Councilmember John Russo was one of their earliest supporters.   He contacted them because some neighbors were concerned about what their plans were for the building the theater was to be located in.  He connected them with the right people and essentially "held their hand" through the process of working with the City of Oakland.  As a gift, they gave John what he wanted: a sandwich named after him. 

The Parkway was the Fisher's labor of love.  They were a young couple when they got involved in making the facility and essentially grew together and had kids - two now - while they were growing the Parkway. 

The future of The Cerrito

Now, the Cerrito has a new operator who's currently running it in a conventional fashion.  They're the same group that operates the Elmwood Theater.  Kyle says that eventually they want to have the "pizza and beer and couches"  formula that the Fisher's established.    I shared the view that it seems like the City of El Cerrito has stolen their business.  Again, that's my personal view.  Kyle doesn't see whatever they do as being a speakeasy theater.


Support for the Parkway

The Fishers support whatever the Oakland Redevelopment Agency does with the building that was the Parkway Theater on 1834 Park Blvd near E. 18th.   They love the community and the theater and would do anything to help if asked.  Catherine says it needs a lot of work and investment, some of it the person or group may not get back.  For them the Parkway was an expression of their love for Oakland and the community.



The Thrill Ville


This entire episode has broken up the close relationship between Will Vaharo and the Fishers.  Will has been one of the main driving forces behind the planned resurrection of the Parkway.  Vaharo and the Fisher's have known each other for 25 years, having worked together at the Berkeley Faculty Club, and before that published a book for him called "Love Storues are Too Violent for Me."   According to the Fisher's it was Will who started the "Thrill Ville" on Thursday nights to bring more people in.

The Thrill Ville was a kind of celebration of B-movies that featured a kind of weird and funky movie preview with Will and Kyle.  It's also the place where, according to the Fishers in the video,  Will met the woman that would become his second wife.  (In fact, the Parkway was the scene for a lot of dates and pairings!) A lot of memories, but for reasons we didn't talk about on or off camera, Will and the Fishers are not the friends they used to be.  Sad, because it was their collective creative energy that made the Parkway go.

The Fishers' next stop 

Right now, the Fishers are living on unemployment, taking care of their kids and trying to deal with the horror that has become the Cerrito issue.  After the close of the Parkway, they put materials from that theater into storage at the Cerrito, but they can't get them back for reasons that are not clear to me.  One thing is certain just from reading this webpage report of the March 19th 2007 minutes of the City of El Cerrito City Council meeting, the City had a really unrealistic view of what was capable with the Cerrito: they wanted first-run movies.  If not getting them was the City Council's reason for not supporting the Cerrito, it was really bad for them to ask for that to begin with.

Ok, it was just plain stupid.

The Fishers speciality was second-run and "B-movies" and getting first run movies calls for number of distribution deals and relationships they weren't set up to do.  In my view, the City of El Cerrito should at least take responsibility for bring the Fishers in and making representations that they would give them money to operate.

There's a lot of mess here.  The El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency had recently offered to help the Fishers make a business plan for presentation to the City Council, but due to "personalities" that didn't happen.  But the ERA did put that in writing.    Also, while the ERA expained in a letter dated January 27, 2009 that Downey Street Productions was not paying rent but when businesses are having that kind of problem, where they're saddled with more debt than they can handle, the ERA's job is to step in and help. That didn't happen.

As I stated on camera and will write here, the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency seems to have engaged in a kind of taking of their business without just compensation for it.  That's a serious legal issue the Agency should answer for; the question is will it do so?  It would be great for them to do something that at least gets the Fishers out of their current financial situation.  After all, it was their business and they say their property is still behind the walls of the Cerrito Theater. 

For those who bring up the matter of reported taxes owed by the Fisher's business Downey Street Productions,  that too is something the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency can take care of; it could have forgave (and still can forgive) the tax debt . When I worked for the Oakland Mayor's office, I personally worked to eliminate a $989,000 tax owed to the City of Oakland for a property owner so that person would have enough money to refurbish his building.  If I can do that, El Cerrito can certainly handle $200,000.  When I look at it, there are more questions I have for the City of El Cerrito and the way they handled this matter, but for the present someone needs to hire the Fishers as theater consultants.

The Parkway Video series:

The last day: March 22, 2009



Save the Parkway meeting of March 29th 2009

Oakland Shootout and Sideshow - a review

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On YouTube.com

Yesterday I posted a blog entry which contained set of videos from the YouTube channel of "EASTOAKLAND106", and contained scenes that were shocking. One showed two young black men basically exacting an ugly form of "street" justice on a white man in East Oakland. The other videos were created during "The Sideshow", an activity featuring muscle cars revved to full-throttle by their drivers, spinning donuts in the middle of the intersection of 106th and Mac Arthur Blvd. The YouTube channel contained other videos that together gave the viewer a real picture of what was going on (or "going down") in that part of Oakland.

I made the decision to create the blog to get the attention of the normally placid blog reader, tossed a steady diet of texts about celebrities, sports, and Erin Andrews. These videos showing the real life in East Oakland are there, but bloggers generally ignore them. I thought it was time to change that state of affairs, so I did.

The reaction on my blog Oakland Focus was basically normal, one email of concern about what's happening in that part of our city. But on SFGate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, it was different. At first, some were hostile, angry that I placed such videos up for public view (forgetting that the videos were already up and out in the open on YouTube), others accused me of trying to "glorify" what they saw as "black culture". Still, others said that by installing that blog post I was simply advancing how whites saw blacks. All of these views I take issue with to a degree.

Yes, I know the old saw that "if it bleeds, it leads" but my intent was to poke and prod at a system of local bloggers that has ignored East Oakland. While there's a blog called "Oakland North", which focuses on a part of our town that, considering the Rockridge scene, can be as sexy as it is charming, there's no blog called "Oakland East" or "East Oakland" for that matter, and some of the blogs that certain Oakland Councilmembers read give only one view of Oakland. And SFGate.com and the w Oakland Tribune website only report crimes that happen in East Oakland, but don't give one an idea of what it's like to be there. So, with the help of the SFGate staff, that all changed.

I thank the SFGate's Vlae Kershner for taking the daring leap of giving my post the visibility "above the fold" of the front page and in the face of the visitor. The result - in part because of this and because of Google News and the way I designed the post to trigger it - was 149 comments, and it was gratifying to see the outpouring of emotion, the dissension, and eventually the melding of views and ideas. People who started out far apart were able to find common ground: we agree that some set of policies must be enacted to change East Oakland beyond just "more cops" and even though some don't think anything we try will work, they agree something must be done.

I still favor a return to a manufacturing-based economy in East Oakland. I'm tired of seeing whole states like Alabama work to bring auto plants and steel plants to those areas, while people here who have low-skills struggle to find work while the government tells them to get "retrained" for jobs that others move here to get, and land them. California as a whole has forgotten how to compete for industry, and has become lazy: more willing to build prisons and lock people up than assure the maintenance of a well-funded education system and a great jobs-building economy. The objective should be "a job for everyone" and not "I will arrest you."

All that and we're surprised at what we saw in East Oakland, or for that matter, the riots after the shooting of Oscar Grant? That is us, not the black "us" or the white "us, or the Asian or Latino "us", but us as Americans, or as Oscar Goldman said to "The Six Million Dollar Man", Steve Autin, "This is your arm, Steve." We have to deal with the reality we face and change it.

Some lament the passing of "old media," and I certainly mourn the loss of giants like Walter Cronkite, but new media - open, in your face, connective of everyone, and rapid in motion - is the social mirror we've never had before. We can see who we are, talk about what needs to change, then go out and do it.

Oakland's Green Building: 1100 Broadway

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Consistent followers of my videos and Oakland Focus Blog will remember my coverage of the proposed 1100 Broadway building in downtown Oakland at the historic Key System Building site, as well as the terrific Rocky Rische-Baird-created mural at the corner. The 20-story structure is planned as a spec office building that will dramatically transform the center of Oakland and give the American President Lines (APL) office building across the street on Broadway a lovely sibling.

Its construction next to the giant APL Building will mark the first time two modern skyscrapers were constructed right next to each other but from different developers and not part of an overall master-developer plan in the history of Oakland. By contrast, the Kaiser and Ordway buildings were erected by The Kaiser Corporation, and the Federal Building and ASK.com building are part of the overall City Center Development Complex.

But the shiny new building to come, has gained an award today: it's the recipient of the U.S. Green Building Council's "LEED" award, for "Leadership In Energy and Environmental Design." 1100 Broadway is one of just a few buildings in America to be blessed with this award. It's a true "Green Building."

1100 Broadway will have solar cells, a special HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) system, and other green technologies such that it will make efficient use of daylight to heat its interior and reduce energy expenses.

It's really a great step in our society that we're finally making buildings that help maintain and improve our environment rather than harm it. 1100 Broadway's a building Oaklanders can and will be proud of.

Top 10 On Twitter in Oakland: Zennie62 over KTVU; DaveyD Drops out

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In the third installment of my series on the "Top 10 on Twitter" in different cities, I took a new look at Oakland today and found some dramatic changes. But first, from Dharmesh Shah's awesome Twitter Grader app, here's the list by name, score, and number of followers:


1. MistahFAB - 99.99 - 22,971
2. acedtect - 99.97 - 16,206
3. mollywood - 99.97 - 20,539
4. zennie62 - 99.95 - 5,878
5. mc_lars - 99.8 - 3,912
6. ktvu - 99.8 - 2,445
7. bulldogreporter - 99.8 - 1,736
8. mariedenee - 99.8 - 2,397
9. stocktwits - 99.8 - 85,623
10. pandora_radio - 99.8 - 26,844

The news? Well, compared to two day ago when I started this, I jumped from number 7 to number 4. How? Well, I really didn't set out to improve my Twitter Grade from 99.8 to 99.95. What happened was that in losing followers - which happens all the time - I gained a better score! I was up to about 6,000 followers, then at 6,001 I lost followers, a weird development that happened right after the installation of my first blog on this matter of Twitter rankings. Well, all I can say is "Thanks!" to those who dropped, it really helped my score.

MistahFab Rules; KTVU needs a Twitter lesson

But some things remain the same: Rapper @MistahFAB still rules Oakland, and has a healthy following (visit his site to hear his music at http://www.mistahfab.com), Tom Merritt and Molly Wood are in the mix at two and three, and while Oakland-based KTVU Channel Two is still in the rankings, I'm over them by two!

YEAH!!! Woot! Woot! Alright!

I cheer this because it's yet another example of how some - ok, most - big media organizations don't get new media. If KTVU knew what it was doing, it would be at the top of this list with a score of 100, but it doesn't so it's not. By contrast, CNN gets it. CNN now has over 2.2 million followers on Twitter. What CNN does is encourage people to follow them on Twitter. Of course that doesn't mean CNN's use of Twitter is flawless, as MC Siegler points out over at TechCrunch, having millions of followers means a lot of people will be upset with you when you install tweets that have broken links!

Moreover, to digress for a moment, broken links mean no traffic from Twitter, which then means less online ad revenue than CNN has a right to expect from CNN.com given having 2 million followers. Fix the links! I doubt this is KTVU's fear - they just plain don't give a care or don't know what they don't know. For example, KTVU's website lack's a link to their Twitter page as of this writing. So if you see one there, top of the fold, you know this blog post had something to do with a change they should make ASAP.

Of course, they could consult me. I certainly hope they're not so naive as to think I've given them all the answers to the problem here. We'll see.

DaveyD out of the top 10 in Oakland

I had to admit I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that Oakland's hip hop journalist and UC Berkley alum, DaveyD fell out of the top 10 here. DaveyD, what happened? Well, one thing that has occurred is he's not tweeting as much as he should, and he needs to discover the joy of retweeting so he can gain more followers. But that written, I expect to see him back in the ranks again, especially once he sees my blog post!

Oakland Twitterers need to improve

Look, it's a total shame Oakland's not on the top 10 Twitter cities list and that can only happen when the ranks of us are not as engaged or partnered with each other as we should be. Every one in Oakland on Twitter should follow each other first of all, then promote each other second. In fact, I'll lay out a plan in a future post.

Oh, and follow me on Twitter at @zennie62!

Oakland Army Base - Phil Tagami v. Michael Johnson

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The giant 100-acre Oakland Army Base is the focus of a development competition between two groups led by people well-known to many Oaklanders: "AMB/CCG" (for AMB Property Corporation and the "CCG" is California Commercial Group) is directed by Phil Tagami, of California Commercial Investments, and who redeveloped two Oakland landmarks the Fox Oakland Theater and the Oakland Rotunda, and Federated Oakland Associates, who's boss is Michael Johnson, the developer of several multi-unit housing projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the builder of the San Francisco version of Yoshi's Jazz Club.

 

The Oakland Army Base 

The developers are engaged in a competition with the Oakland City Council as the final "decider". The winner gains the right to enter into an "Exclusive Negotiating Agreement" with the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, which will lead to the production of a kind of contract called the "Disposition and Development Agreement" or "DDA" that is the guiding agreement stating what developer and redevelopment agency will do. The objective is the creation of what will be a "new town in town" given the size of the land area.

Today (Wednesday) the Oakland Tribune reported that the City Council's Community and Economic Development Committee could not get the majority votes necessary to move to the full Oakland City Council with a recommendation on July 21st. The vote was 2-1-1: with Vice Mayor Ignacio De La Fuente and Councilmember Patricia Kernighan voting for AMB/CCG and Councilmember Jane Brunner and Councilmember Larry Reid voting abstaining and voting for Federated Oakland Associates respectively. Brunner said she needed more information and wanted it before the matter was brought before the City Council.

Just looking at the two proposals, I can tell you what's missing from both without having talked to anyone about them. A bit of background: it was my job to review such proposals for Elihu Harris when he was Oakland's Mayor. I worked for him in the capacity of "economic adviser" from 1995 to 1999, then from 1999 to 2001 headed on the Oakland Super Bowl effort.

My job for Mayor Harris was to represent him on the same Community and Economic Development Committee the Tribune referred to today. My specialization was in reading development spreadsheets because of my background in urban planning and experience with the Oakland Redevelopment Agency; I could comb through one and explain what the strengths and weaknesses of a proposal to council were. I could also determine what information was missing from a fiscal presentation or proposal.

AMB/CCG: Long on capacity, short on complete cash balance numbers


The AMB/CCG proposal touts the financial power and real estate development and acquisition experience of AMB Property Corporation. But the problem with the proposal is actually something Phil Tagami (who's my friend) and I used to talk about frequently: it has a lot of "pretty pictures" and little numerical substance, even in the proforma. What it lacks is a full 10-year presentation of the full cash balance - even if the results are in the "red" - which is a possible and expected fiscal picture of what is to be an enormous mixed-use development project.

In the main proposal there are a number of sheets that read "To Be Determined" in large letters, which sends up a red flag for anyone on the City Council, and certainly would for me. What the City Council wants to see is some assurance that a proposed development will throw off enough cash to pay for itself over time and if that's not the case, how much the Oakland Redevelopment Agency will have to contribute should it fall into the red (which means it has generates more in expenses than revenues).

That kind of fiscal presentation is what's missing from the AMB/CCG proposal. The proforma is there with the 10-year revenue estimates, but absent the overall cash balance (revenues minus expenses) forecast sheet. By contrast, its in the Federal Oakland Associates proposal itself (and they provide the proforma), and they're bold enough to show a positive net operating income over time.

While the Federal Oakland Associates proposal is long on the kind of concise fiscal representation the Council wants to see as well as the kind of minority representation the Council (at least part of it) wants to see, its short on the development power presented by the the AMB/CCG team. Not that Federal Oakland is weak - not at all - but Phil's adding of AMB Property Corporation to his team was a huge coup that he worked a long time to secure. But that written, financial power is no excuse for presenting an incomplete proposal. Yes, that's a harsh statement, but I go back to the large red letters in the AMB/CCG proposal itself that read "To Be Determined."

Both proposals lack an economic impact analysis report

Something else missing from both proposals is an economic impact analysis report. In other words, what's the employment estimate per year, revenue from all taxes and fees, total population, and municipal costs to service the population will be. That's not a hard task to complete; when I was fresh out of Berkeley's planning grad school I created something called "The Area Redevelopment Economic Model", a spreadsheet program such that one could have both a fiscal and an economic impact report of any redevelopment project in the State of California. I used it to evaluate the then-Coliseum Redevelopment Survey Area. (Now, it's a full redevelopment area.)

The Oakland Redevelopment Agency should have insisted on this being part of the proposals from both teams. It would give the Oakland community a complete idea of what to expect from something that will completely alter the landscape of the city. Yes, some environmental impact reports have such a section, but this is too big an undertaking to wait for that. Moreover the council needs to be able to compare economic impacts of the proposals - it can't do that right now.


The City Council should combine AMB/CCG and Federal Oakland Associates

The Oakland Redevelopment Agency / Oakland City Council is not bound by the competing teams as they're presented; working as the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, the council can combine the groups into one. Let's be real honest here: this is a competition between a largely white group and a mostly black and "of color" one in an Oakland with a history of supporting minority business efforts. That to some extent is what's holding up the Council's vote; it's not said publicly, but for anyone who knows Oakland's political development landscape, that's the issue to a degree. The best way to end that racial division is to fuse the groups into one.

The new group would have to mate its development plans: take out those land uses which will not "pencil" (make money over time) and keep those plans that will. Personally, given America's push toward increasing its manufacturing base, the AMB/CCG plans look better, but the proforma numbers in the proposal support what is basically an educated guess at this point and need to be placed into a full cash balance spreasheet. I'm not at all comfortable with the lack of a real cash balance presentation in the AMB/CCG main proposal; if the project's going to be in the red or the black, show it.

Of course, they will show it in the black (making money).

Having a theater complex in a proposal - as Federal Oakland Associates does - is a terrible bet given the placement of movie content online and the negative impact that technological development is having on the theater industry overall (But at least they have the cash flow estimates installed in the proposal!) I can't see how anyone could justify the assertion that such a development would pay for itself over time. Talk about a rosy scenario!

If you want to compare the proposals yourself, you can download them here: Oakland Army Base Information Page

Double Rainbow over Oakland, California (video)

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On Saturday July 11th at 5: 30 PM, I walked out of a cafe on Grand Avenue near Lake Merritt in Oakland and noticed that sweet smell that comes after a light rain and a weird amber tint of the sidewalk below me, so I looked up and was surprised by an incredible site: a remarkable double rainbow that stretched overhead and to the left and right of me.  It was such an amazing event that people came out of ZZA's and Sidebar restaurants just to take pictures of it; fortunately, I had my small Flip Video Camera.

 

Double rainbow in Oakland

There were two rainbows, one on top of the other in a perfect arch. It was such a site that people came out to their balconies to see it, and car traffic on Grand Avenue slowed because drivers were craining their necks to get a better look at it. What was remarkable was how robust the double rainbow was as I walked along, not dissolving into one rainbow. It's the first time I've ever seen a double rainbow, so I wondered what caused them to form.  Off to Google.

To make it simple, because there are a lot of complicated explainations out there, a rainbow is formed when sunlight passes through raindrops at a certain angle. According to the Natonal Center for Atmostpheric Research, a double rainbow ">happens when sunlight is reflected twice within raindrops: the "primary rainbow" is formed in the "normal" way, but the "secondary" rainbow occurs after the double reflection in the raindrop itself (and explains why the outer rainbow's color order is reversed from that of the inner or primary rainbow). Given that information, can a triple rainbow form? Yes they can and do.

How rare is a double rainbow?

Double rainbows are said to be rare, but some explain that since rainbows are an optical illusion, it may be that we're not in the right position to see the secondary rainbow most of the time.

The meaning of a double rainbow

I wondered what does it mean - if anything - to see a double rainbow? Blogger and vocalist Luna Jade believes it means the viewer will be blessed. The Osho Energy Transformation Institute, that Jade links to, explains that "the double rainbow the symbol of transformation":

The double rainbow is the symbol of transformation.
In the first rainbow we see red is at the top and
violet at the bottom.
This represents the material world.
We are a rainbow, but the red belongs at the feet and
the first chakra area and the violet at the head.
So when we see the red at the top and the violet at
the bottom, it is as if we are seeing a person upside
down or descending from heaven diving down to the
earth. In the upper second rainbow,
and remember it is not such a common sight,
the colours are the right way up,
this symbolizes the journey back to heaven,
the ascent of the kundalini,
the journey of transformation, the spiritual world.

So a double rainbow over Oakland must mean something good's going to happen for a city that can use a few blessings, or at least for the Oaklanders who saw it today. With a massive budget problem, a persistent image as a dangerous city, and a double-digit unemployment rate, Oakland people overdue for great positive developments. The double rainbow's a great start - people who didn't know each other were talking on the street which is a rare happening in a Bay Area culture I think encourages anti-social behavior.

Parkway Theater to get help from Oakland Redevelopment Agency

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Remember the blog post I wrote about a week ago stating that Oakland District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan should get the Oakland Redevelopment Agency (ORA) involved in the effort to save the now-closed Parkway Theater? Well, I was just contacted by an unnamed source who explained in great detail how and when the ORA will work to redevelop the Parkway Speakeasy Theater, located at 1834 Park Blvd in Oakland. The effort will mean the "best of" the Parkway's employees will be asked to return to their jobs, if they want to do so.

First a brief review.

The once-popular Parkway Theater closed its doors on March 22, 2009 after its owners, Catherine and Kyle Fisher of Downey Street Productions, received an eviction notice from their landlord, the Cheng family of San Francisco just four days before closing. The news caused a major panic within the ranks of Parkway employees, who didn't know what they were going to do for work on the short notice of losing their jobs, and within the community, which didn't know how it was going to replace what came to be a center of the neighborhood. Without the Parkway, the area would be a certain candidate for anyone's definition of "blighted neighborhood."



With rapid restoration of the Parkway in mind, a Facebook-based community group was formed called "Save The Parkway" which kind of morphed into a new group called "I Like The Parkway Speakeasy Theater." (I guess "love" is too strong a term.)

At any rate, the organization, led Peter Prato held a large meeting on March 29th that drew about 40 people, including Kernighan and several long-time Oaklanders. There, it was decided that the organization would work to find a theater operator to rebuild and maintain the Parkway as it was before it closed, but better.



Eventually, an organization called Motion Picture Heritage Corporation (MPHC) stepped in to start talks with The Chengs and Kernighan to in some way acquire the Parkway Theater. While the negotiations have been "back-and-forth", the Parkway community folks were digging for information about and then writing and blogging about MPHC, an action that reportedly upset the groups' head Bill Dever. Since Dever and his partners hail from small Shelbyville, Indiana, they're not used to the very public communications that come with the matter of saving buildings and businesses the community values in California. Dever reportedly threatened to pull out of the deal if the chatter didn't stop.

Well, it subsided, but it didn't stop. Indeed, it got worse for a time, as it seemed Councilmember Kergnihan had one direction, the Parkway Community people another, and the former employees just wanted to be left alone, even as the Parkway Community people held another meeting and a party on May 31st to help get money to them. It was a huge mess. But, as I pointed out before, the best solution was for Councilmember Kernighan to bring everyone together, get the ORA involved, and go on the hunt for a number of developers and operators to compete for the right to rehab and run the facility, not just one.

Finally, it looks like we're on the way to seeing that happen. On Tuesday, members of the ORA, including Deputy Director Gregory Hunter, met with concerned Parkway Theater operatives and MPHC (Kernighan was not in the room) to determine a course of action for the ORA. According to my source, Hunter said "we're stepping" in. What that means is the agency may loan the group money or help MPHC purchase the building from the Chengs. As of this writing, the ORA has all of the property condition information and documents and correspondence that have been written to date. They can now do their research work before determining a specific plan of action.

The next step is a meeting with Kernighan and the Chengs, but my source - who was in the room - is confident that this will jump start the effort to save the Parkway. But my request is that the ORA include a meeting with the Parkway community as well to get their input and see the results of their survey work. I don't think their efforts should be ignored.

BART Strike & Oscar Grant: strike hampered by police racism

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For weeks now, BART management and labor have been arguing over who should give up what on the eve of the expiration of contracts with the five unions that represent BART workers. But there's a problem: the matter of the murder of Oscar Grant and the revelation that another BART officer used a racial slur, and this was captured in a new video, raise questions regarding labor's moral standing to strike.

While BART's police can't strike, as one officer told me, the unions essentially represent the labor issues for the police. Thus, the use of the racial slur by a BART officer with BART Officer Johannes Mehserle, coupled with the murder by Mehserle, opens the accusation that it was a hate crime. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, it was officer Tony Pirone who yelled "Bitch-ass N__, right?" As he was hitting Grant while Grant was on the ground.

While Pirone claims he was responding to something Grant said, there's no record or video backing his claim. What I think happened was Pirone may have overheard someone else say this but as Pirone is white, it's not likely someone would use that terms against him, especially since he's a police officer. But Pirone leaves himself open to another interpretation: that he was saying to Grant he's a "Bitch-ass N__, and then used the term "right?" as a way of affirming his own comment about Grant.

If so, and I think it is, that's a clear hate crime. Period. End of discussion.

I don't think BART workers want to be associated with this kind of behavior, but that's a looming possibility. BART workers are already seen to be richer than their riders, many who are like Oscar Grant, poor. So here we are with BART workers unwilling to take payroll cuts to maintain service, asking for a three-percent raise when everyone in the public sector's trying to save their jobs, and now we have two BART police officers expressing the ultimate dislike for a passenger due to his skin color. It also opens this question: to what degree do BART police conduct racial profiling?

A good friend of mine in law enforcement told me that many of the people recruited to become officers are white, suburban in their upbringing, not experienced in working with or befriending people of color. That must change.

The Strike Threat and The Race Problem

It's already clear many riders I talked to are concerned about the possible loss of service, but just wait until they get wind of these racial problems!

If BART's unions are going to achieve any degree of credibility in this matter, they've got to have the police address their problems with racism and issue an apology to the black community. The unions have no right to threaten a strike that disproportionally harms the poor and minority after one of their own working partners, represented by two BART police workers, apparently expressed dislike for and then shot a man who was poor and African American, because was poor and African American.

BARTLabor.com

If you want to keep up with the BART labor issue as it unfolds, I recommend you visit BARTLabor.com, a good and comprehensive website explaining just what's going on with the BART Strike and providing news updates.