"Save The Parkway Theater" Community Meeting, Sunday May 31

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The Parkway Theater's last day of operation was March 22, 2009, and while it seemed this Oakland institution would be a thing of the past, the undying sprit of a group of Oaklanders and the participation of thousands of members of the community (and the World, with former-Oaklanders and current Parkway fans overseas too) have kept the dream of reopening the unique theater alive.

In case,you missed the lastest news, Carolyn Jones of The SF Chronicle broke the story of a "midwestern group of investors" called the Motion Picture Heritage Company (MPHC) and their plan to buy the Parkway Theater building from the landlords and revive the movie business that was within it. Patsy Eagan's blog OaklanderOnline tells us the group came to discover the Parkway via the efforts of Parkway Programming Director Will "The Thrill" Viharo, who presented the I Like the Parkway site to Bill Dever, the representative of MPHC.

But none of this could have happened without the tireless involvement of Peter Pierto, Patsy Eagan, Councilmember Pat Kernighan, and the members of the original Facebook group "Save The Parkway" which led to the development of the "I Like The Parkway" Site.

Still, I can't help but feel sorry for Catherine and Kyle Fischer who created the whole concept of having pizza and beer at a movie in 1996, raising $140,000 with zero aide from the City of Oakland because they didn't want it. Under the plan, the landlord gets money for the building, but it seems the business model the Fisher's started, lives on without them at the place where they created it. That's got to hurt them, big time. It hurts me just to think about it.

Sunday's Meeting

Patsy informed me the Save the Parkway group is having another community meeting this Sunday at Rooz Cafe at 1918 Park Blvd in Oakland. By the way, there are two Rooz Cafe locations, so for those who think they know where it is and have the Piedmont Avenue store in mind, here's a map:


View Roos Cafe, 1918 Park, Oakland in a larger map


Regarding the meeting itself, Patsy's email reads:

Details of this pending deal shall be revealed this Sunday, May 31, at Rooz Cafe. The meeting kicks off at 3 p.m. and will serve two purposes: 1) to update the community about the said investor, and 2) reach consensus on what the public wants in their new theater. You can start this process by completing the survey at iliketheparkway.com. Following the meeting, attendees are invited to fest former Parkway employees at the Parkway Lounge. Cocktails will flow at 5 p.m.

Please join us Sunday and participate, even if you're just getting involved in this project.

A Long Short Journey

Frankly, I'm amazed and delighted to see this happen so quickly, even as it seems like a lot of water flowed under this bridge since the last day of the Parkway's operation. For those who may be just now aware of the history of the closure of the Parkway, here are two videos I created, the first one is from the cinema's last day, and the second is from the first community meeting held at the same Rooz Cafe location that's the venue for Sunday's meeting.

The Last Day Of The Parkway Theater:



First "Save The Parkway Theater" Meeting:

Senator Barbara Boxer On The Oakland A's: "I Live In Oakland"

On the way to a fundraiser for Senator Barbara Boxer on Sunday (March 15th 2009), I walked into the Four Seasons Residences on Market Street and boarded an elevator that was already to be occupied by two women just eight steps ahead of me, with their backs to me.  When I boarded the elevator they both turned in conversation, the one closest to me was the person-of-the-hour, Senator Barbara Boxer.

Always gracious, Senator Boxer shook my hand, then after a few seconds on the elevator I asked her if she was "going to get involved in keeping the A's in Oakland."  She immediate said "You know, I live in Oakland, and that's important to me."  Boxer stopped short of stating what her action would be, but that response was all I needed to know that it's on her radar screen, and it doesn't spell good news for Lew Wolff because the rest of our talk consisted of me calmly but in cold detail explaining to her how Wolff had treated Oakland with great disrespect, making statements that he was "done with Oakland."  I also shared that San Jose and Santa Clara County -- where Wolff seems to want to take the organization -- represented 47 percent of the San Francisco Giants fan base. She listened intently. 

Remember, I'm a columnist: I state my opinion and advocate for a cause.  That's still within the relm of journalism, but people forget that when they disagree with you.  Still, it's important for readers to be reminded of the writer's position: I want Wolff to keep the A's in Oakland.  Period. 

The matter of the A's wasn't on the collective mind of the approximately 50 people that came to the home of planning consultants Lynn and Paul Sedway; the economy was.  While only six questions were taken because of the Senator's schedule -- she was making a fundraising swing through San Francisco -- all except two which I'll get to concerned the matter of the economy.  Some highlights:

• Boxer said that she thinks we've seen the "bottom" of the economy, at least from the stock market perspective, and that she expects to see a rebound.  In other words, no more dramatic market dives below the level we saw last week. 

• Boxer has had it with giving out Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) money.  She reported Congress as a whole is (holding her hand over her head) "up-to-here" with giving out more TARP funds, and much of that distaste for the effort she explained is directly related to the matter of AIG's attempt to give out $165 million in bonuses.  She said the Federal Reserve has a provision such that it can give our money if it has determined that such an expenditure would be in the best interest of national security.  Now, be smart about what you just read.  Boxer did not say she would not approve more stimulus money, but that's not TARP money.  It's clear that Boxer wants to send a message that Congress is unhappy with Wall Street's behavior.

• Boxer did not know about the block-buster news released Wednesday March 11th by Seymore Hersh that there was a "secret executive assasination group" that flew around the World for the purpose of killing officials on a "hit list" and answered only to Vice President Dick Cheney, but she did say she would talk with Senator Pat Leahy, who's pushed for the formation of a commission to review the activities of the Bush Administration.  This was my question to her, which caused a bit of an interesting response from her where she rose her brow in fear, and for good reason.  The contract killing of people is not something anyone likes to know about, especially when our government is alledged to be involved in it. 

• Boxer, in response to a question of when we (the USA) were going to get out of Afghanistan, supports President Obama's efforts there, because "The Taliban are terrible" to paraphrase Senator Boxer.

In all, Boxer stayed for a good while. The Sedways are long time friends of the Senator and gracious hosts in a place with a lovely view of San Francisco.

Deborah Edgerly v. City of Oakland | Chip Johnson's Right About Favoritism: Welcome To Oakland

I want to be the first Oakland blogger to affirm Chip Johnson's article today charging favoritism in the City of Oakland. My response is that it doesn't start or stop at the CAO's office or with Deborah Edgerly herself, and a really complete look should go back 10 years, not just 2004.

Look, I was treated so terribly by the City of Oakland when I was trying to bring the Super Bowl here, that my own mother -- who's still cancer-free by the way -- observed that "Between Blacks who are jealous of you and Whites who think someone White should be doing what you're doing, you're going through a terrible place."

She was right.

Oakland's government has a long history of hating well-educated Black men who don't follow the normal ethnic stereotypes. I remember 1998, when all of us from Elihu Harris' office -- I was economic advisor -- were being placed in various departments of the City of Oakland after Jerry Brown won a landslide victory to become Oakland's next mayor.

I wanted to run the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex, and I had good reason for my desire. I already had good relationships with all of the sports tenants. I knew the Coliseum budget very well. I knew the legal contracts behind the Raiders Deal so well I could recall them from memory, and in most cases still can. I also knew the business plan for the Coliseum that was written by now former Deputy City Manager Ezra Rapport chapter-and-verse.

So Elihu Harris went to Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who also then as now serves as Chairman of the Coliseum Joint Powers Authority (JPA). Now, let me preface what I'm about to write with how I currently feel and have personally felt about Ignacio. I think he's a great person. I've always enjoyed our personal talks together, and I still do. I know one of his long time aides was upset that I interviewed his challenger Mario Juarez, but that's news and he called me. I have said to Ignacio the invitations open and heck, I've written about him tons of times if you go back to my Montclarion years.

But the truth remains that Ignacio did not want me to run the Coliseum. Period. I think he was still smarting from how I worked to block his attempt to annouce a naming rights deal between UMAX and the Oakland Coliseum while Elihu was out of town and the Raiders had not approved the deal. But the bottom line was that I had to protect my boss, the Mayor, and that's what I did. Period. End of story.

But he wasn't happy about that.

So then-Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb asked me to meet with then-Economic Development head Bill Claggett regarding working over there. So I did have lunch with Bill. It was weird. Basically, Bill said that he thought I talked liked I thought I knew everything and my response was that I talked in plain English, was supposed to sound professional, and I was that way since I was six years old. I felt that Bill wasn't used to well-educated Black men; he was intimidated by me for really no good reason.

So I went to tell Robert Bobb what happened and his response was "You do talk like you think you know everything. You. You're young. Black. Smart. You're a threat. Oakland's a crab-barrel town. They pull you down here."

I was shocked and also pleased that "Mr. Bobb" saw what I was dealing with, because until he said that, I was ready to leave Oakland. I remained because of Robert Bobb. I went over to work for Claggett in Economic Development and wound up heading the effort to bring the Super Bowl here.

But don't think for a moment they made it comfortable for me. It was a constant battle between me, certain execs who thought they should be heading the effort, and also those who perceived me as "White" and not "one of them" and thus created all kinds of stupid and sinister road blocks for me. Some really terrible stuff was done to me that on more than one occasion just privately brought me to tears.

For example, my mail started containing a magazine called "Honey" that I never even purchased or heard of and threw away and complained to the mail staff, then it came again. I went to investigate who did this, and the magpublisher said it was someone with a City of Oakland credit card! Now they did that as a pretty fucked up way of telling me I should date Black women -- it was none of their fucking business who I dated outside of my work hours. But they had a perception and allowed their insecurities to run amok.

That I will not forgive the City for anytime soon, unless they want to give me a long overdue key to the City for my Super Bowl work. Ignacio himself said then -- in fact on October 26, 2000 -- that my work "Was the only positive news the Oakland Coliseum had at the time." He said that after my meeting with the Coliseum JPA (joint powers authority) where they took the action of "no action" on the Oakland Super Bowl Bid.

No kiddding.

I resolved to basically fight the system of the City of Oakland by bringing the Super Bowl here. Every day was a practice in anger, determination, focus, and pressure and I got no help from the City of Oakland even though I worked for them. I had to do everything, from run the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission (which I created from scratch even as then-City Attorney Jane Williams said I would need two years to get approval -- I got it in two months) to answer the phones to make copies of docs, to negotiating contracts with the NFL to carrying 32 boxes of Palm Computers and Bid Books (for each of the team owners) down to a Fed Ex Truck that arrived late and in the pouring rain.

Even with that, I almost succeeded by getting Oakland to one of three finalists for the right to host the Super Bowl, losing to Jacksonville for the 2005 game. What I went through to get that far will make a good book and a great movie.

Don't think that favoritism starts with Deborah Edgerly. It's part of the organizational DNA of Oakland and has been practiced by everyone from then-Mayor Jerry Brown on down. In fact, it was widely known that Jerry didn't want Deborah Edgerly as his first choice for Chief Administrative Officer; he wanted the stiletto and ankle-bracelet-wearing Dolores Blanchard (who was White, not Black as an FYI) to be the one, but she lived in Danville, not Oakland.

Favoritism is in Oakland's genetic makeup. It's time for some genetic engineering.

Deborah Edgerly v. City of Oakland | Chip Johnson's Right About Favoritism: Welcome To Oakland

I want to be the first Oakland blogger to affirm Chip Johnson's article today charging favoritism in the City of Oakland. My response is that it doesn't start or stop at the CAO's office or with Deborah Edgerly herself, and a really complete look should go back 10 years, not just 2004.

Look, I was treated so terribly by the City of Oakland when I was trying to bring the Super Bowl here, that my own mother -- who's still cancer-free by the way -- observed that "Between Blacks who are jealous of you and Whites who think someone White should be doing what you're doing, you're going through a terrible place."

She was right.

Oakland's government has a long history of hating well-educated Black men who don't follow the normal ethnic stereotypes. I remember 1998, when all of us from Elihu Harris' office -- I was economic advisor -- were being placed in various departments of the City of Oakland after Jerry Brown won a landslide victory to become Oakland's next mayor.

I wanted to run the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex, and I had good reason for my desire. I already had good relationships with all of the sports tenants. I knew the Coliseum budget very well. I knew the legal contracts behind the Raiders Deal so well I could recall them from memory, and in most cases still can. I also knew the business plan for the Coliseum that was written by now former Deputy City Manager Ezra Rapport chapter-and-verse.

So Elihu Harris went to Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who also then as now serves as Chairman of the Coliseum Joint Powers Authority (JPA). Now, let me preface what I'm about to write with how I currently feel and have personally felt about Ignacio. I think he's a great person. I've always enjoyed our personal talks together, and I still do. I know one of his long time aides was upset that I interviewed his challenger Mario Juarez, but that's news and he called me. I have said to Ignacio the invitations open and heck, I've written about him tons of times if you go back to my Montclarion years.

But the truth remains that Ignacio did not want me to run the Coliseum. Period. I think he was still smarting from how I worked to block his attempt to annouce a naming rights deal between UMAX and the Oakland Coliseum while Elihu was out of town and the Raiders had not approved the deal. But the bottom line was that I had to protect my boss, the Mayor, and that's what I did. Period. End of story.

But he wasn't happy about that.

So then-Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb asked me to meet with then-Economic Development head Bill Claggett regarding working over there. So I did have lunch with Bill. It was weird. Basically, Bill said that he thought I talked liked I thought I knew everything and my response was that I talked in plain English, was supposed to sound professional, and I was that way since I was six years old. I felt that Bill wasn't used to well-educated Black men; he was intimidated by me for really no good reason.

So I went to tell Robert Bobb what happened and his response was "You do talk like you think you know everything. You. You're young. Black. Smart. You're a threat. Oakland's a crab-barrel town. They pull you down here."

I was shocked and also pleased that "Mr. Bobb" saw what I was dealing with, because until he said that, I was ready to leave Oakland. I remained because of Robert Bobb. I went over to work for Claggett in Economic Development and wound up heading the effort to bring the Super Bowl here.

But don't think for a moment they made it comfortable for me. It was a constant battle between me, certain execs who thought they should be heading the effort, and also those who perceived me as "White" and not "one of them" and thus created all kinds of stupid and sinister road blocks for me. Some really terrible stuff was done to me that on more than one occasion just privately brought me to tears.

For example, my mail started containing a magazine called "Honey" that I never even purchased or heard of and threw away and complained to the mail staff, then it came again. I went to investigate who did this, and the magpublisher said it was someone with a City of Oakland credit card! Now they did that as a pretty fucked up way of telling me I should date Black women -- it was none of their fucking business who I dated outside of my work hours. But they had a perception and allowed their insecurities to run amok.

That I will not forgive the City for anytime soon, unless they want to give me a long overdue key to the City for my Super Bowl work. Ignacio himself said then -- in fact on October 26, 2000 -- that my work "Was the only positive news the Oakland Coliseum had at the time." He said that after my meeting with the Coliseum JPA (joint powers authority) where they took the action of "no action" on the Oakland Super Bowl Bid.

No kiddding.

I resolved to basically fight the system of the City of Oakland by bringing the Super Bowl here. Every day was a practice in anger, determination, focus, and pressure and I got no help from the City of Oakland even though I worked for them. I had to do everything, from run the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission (which I created from scratch even as then-City Attorney Jane Williams said I would need two years to get approval -- I got it in two months) to answer the phones to make copies of docs, to negotiating contracts with the NFL to carrying 32 boxes of Palm Computers and Bid Books (for each of the team owners) down to a Fed Ex Truck that arrived late and in the pouring rain.

Even with that, I almost succeeded by getting Oakland to one of three finalists for the right to host the Super Bowl, losing to Jacksonville for the 2005 game. What I went through to get that far will make a good book and a great movie.

Don't think that favoritism starts with Deborah Edgerly. It's part of the organizational DNA of Oakland and has been practiced by everyone from then-Mayor Jerry Brown on down. In fact, it was widely known that Jerry didn't want Deborah Edgerly as his first choice for Chief Administrative Officer; he wanted the stiletto and ankle-bracelet-wearing Dolores Blanchard (who was White, not Black as an FYI) to be the one, but she lived in Danville, not Oakland.

Favoritism is in Oakland's genetic makeup. It's time for some genetic engineering.