Mayor Ron Dellums and Port of Oakland - Michael Lighty tie breaker?

[Aimee Allison - OaklandSeen] Mayor Dellums is finally using his city-chartered right to break a council tie by casting a vote for his appointee Michael Lighty to the Port Commission. The Mayor, who recently brokered a deal with port truckers and the state over tighter emissions regulations, is finally playing his hand at strong mayor.

The Port Commission is one of the most powerful groups in city politics, and plays a key role in approving development project like the BART extension and housing, environmental fights as in the ongoing stand-off between truckers and the port, and jobs - as in whether local people are going to get the 6,000 jobs that will be created by the project at the old army base.

More from Sanjiv Handa, East Bay News Service:

Mayor Ron Dellums is still planning on attending the Oakland City Council
meeting Tuesday, Jan. 19, to cast the tie-breaking vote approving the nomination
of Michael Lighty to the Board of Commissioners of the Port of Oakland.It has
been so long since a mayoral tie-breaking vote was cast that many, including
some Council members, are rusty on the process.

Pursuant to the new
rules of procedure adopted effective May 1, 2003, mayoral tie-breakers appear on
the non-consent portion of the Council agenda — which cannot be called prior to
7 p.m.

Tuesday's Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. with open forum,
consent calendar items, closed session report, and ceremonial items. Four
ceremonial presentations, including two lengthy retirement honors, will be heard
during the 6 p.m. portion.

Deputy Police Chief Dave Kozicki and Chief
Technology Officer Bob Glaze are scheduled to be recognized for their long
careers with the city. Both retired as of Dec. 2009.

Councilmember Larry
Reid was quoted in local media as saying he might change his vote. Two local
blogs also indicated changes in the voting lineup, without citing names,

The official meeting agenda states:

Rule 29 [of City Council
Rules of Procedure] provides the following regarding the procedure: "Council and
public discussion is permitted on the item to be voted on by the Mayor; however,
Council members cannot change their vote unless the item has been properly
noticed for reconsideration. The Mayor must appear at the Council meeting to
cast his vote."
If the Mayor does not cast the tie breaking vote, the motion
fails.

The votes, according to draft minutes of the Jan. 5, 2010,
Council meeting was:

4 AYES — Kaplan; Kernighan; Nadel; Quan
4 NOES
— Brooks; De La Fuente; Reid; Brunner

Many speakers are expected to sign
up for the item. It is likely speaker time will be reduced to one minute per
person.

Upon approval, Lighty can take the oath of office on the spot if
he makes arrangements with the City Clerk's Office — or the next day in the
Clerk's office during regular business hours.

The Port has cancelled its
Jan. 20 Audit, Budget and Finance Committee meeting, which is chaired by Tony
Batarse, whom Lighty would replace. The next Port Commission meeting is not
scheduled until Feb. 2.

Scott Brown, who snubbed 9-11 workers, posed nude, ahead of Coakley?

Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown, who voted against providing assistance to 9-11 workers, is reportedly ahead of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in the race to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy.



But all of the news organizations reporting the lead are conservative: Fox News, The Washington Examiner, and Politico have Scott Brown ahead in their polls; the liberal Daily Kos calls the race a tossup and has many newspapers endorsing Coakley.

Still, it's questionable that Massachusetts voters would actually replace Ted Kennedy with a man who not only voted against providing assistance to Massachusetts 9-11 aid workers, but posed nude and has a questionable record of legislative experience.

The Attleboro Sun Chronicle wrote this endorsement:

The candidates in Tuesday's special U.S. Senate election have given a pretty clear idea of how they would vote on the major questions of the day. Martha Coakley is right on more of the big issues, mainly health care and the economy. We endorse her for election.

As the state's first female attorney general, Democrat Coakley since 2007 has proven herself an effective administrator. Throughout her career as a lawyer and district attorney she has exhibited rare skills in mediation and conciliation - the arts of finding middle ground for divergent viewpoints. It will serve her, and Massachusetts, well in the Senate.

(snip)

There's much to be said for endorsing a local candidate. However, we have an insurmountable problem. To paraphrase words Brown applied to his Democratic opponent, "he's a nice man, but he's wrong on all the issues."

Brown initially took a militant stand against gay marriage, which we have consistently supported. While he has softened his position some, his outlook on equal rights in a private matter remains worrisome. After voicing support in this space for health care reform, we can't very well back Brown when he is promising to submarine national health care on his own as "the 41st Republican senator." We are left instead to wonder how he sees himself as a fitting successor to Sen. Edward Kennedy, who made health care reform a signature issue, while planning to spoil the best chance for reform the nation has ever had.

The vote is today; stay tuned.

Guatemala, Venezuela, Argentina earthquakes after Haiti Earthquake

It's one week after the Haiti Earthquake and the World has seen earthquakes in Argentina, Venezuela and most recently Guatemala.

This AP video shows the eruption of a quake in Guatemala City, Guatemala:



It was 6.0 on the Richter Scale and rocked Guatemala and parts of El Salvador on Monday, but no damage was reported.

On Sunday a 6.3 earthquake was reported in the South Atlantic, just near Argentina. The Latin American Herald Tribune reports:

The earthquake occurred some 380 kilometers (236 miles) south-southeast of Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, in the Drake Passage at a depth of 25 kilometers (15 miles).

Again, no word of damage or a tsunami warning.

Venezuela was struck by a 5.6 Richter Scale earthquake, Friday of last week, and right on the heels of the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake. According to NPR (National Public Radio), it hit near the coastal town of Carupano, Venezuela, which is just 813 miles from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.


View Larger Map

A point six miles below and 10 miles from Port-au-Prince was the epicenter of Tuesday's 7.0 Haiti Earthquake, which left thousands of victims.

The US Geological Survey reports that the quake hit 7.3 miles below the ground in a region called Sucre, Venezuela.

There's no word of damage; just reports of people scared and shaken up.

The last large quake in Venezuela was in September 2008; it was 6.2 on the Richter Scale.

There's no word if these quake events in South and Central America and the Carribean - all close to each other - are in some way related, as of this writing. But the timing alone would seem a good reason to investigate what's happening.

Stay tuned.

2010 Golden Globe Awards winners press conference

UPDATE: 2010 Golden Globe Awards was the focus of house parties like this one:



The 2010 Golden Globe Awards show was a success Sunday, with great speeches and well deserved awards by many, most notably Jeff Bridges.

This blogger took MLK day off not just to rest, but to wait for the Hollywood Foreign Press to upload its videos. Thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press' YouTube channel, we can see the back stage press at work, talking with the winners.  

While by Tuesday, many will have seen video clips of the acceptance speeches, what's not seen to as great a degree are the press conferences that go on back stage.   Some of the questions were interesting and others were controversial: two concerning Tiger Woods went unanswered.

Each video is presented in the order of the list of winners.

FILM AWARDS - Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

Best Picture, Drama
Avatar WINNER
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Avatar Director James Cameron's speech:



Best Picture, Musical/Comedy
The Hangover WINNER
500 Days of Summer
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

The Hangover - cast presentation:



Best Director
James Cameron, Avatar WINNER
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds



Best Actor, Musical/Comedy
Robert Downey, Jr., Sherlock Holmes WINNER
Matt Damon, The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 500 Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Robert Downey Jr:



Best Actress, Musical/Comedy
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia WINNER
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated

Meryl Streep on how she "becomes" a character:



Best Actress, Drama
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side WINNER
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Sandra Bullock talks about The Blind Side:



Best Actor, Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart WINNER
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Jeff Bridges on why he turned away from Crazy Heart, at first:



Film, Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique, Precious WINNER
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Mo'Nique on her acceptance speech:



Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds WINNER
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Christoph Waltz:



Best Screenplay
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air WINNER
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Animated Film
Up WINNER
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess & The Frog



Best Song
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart WINNER
“Cinema Italiano,” Nine
“I Want to Come Home,” Everybody’s Fine
“I Will See You,” Avatar
“Winter,” Brothers

Best Score
Up WINNER
The Informant!
Avatar
A Single Man
Where the Wild Things Are

Michael Giacchino talks about being in the spotlight..after a long pause as no one opened with a question:



Best Foreign Language Film
The White Ribbon WINNER
Baria
Broken Embraces
The Maid
A Prophet

The White Ribbon interview:




Cecil B. DeMille Award
Martin Scorsese:



TV AWARDS
BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
Mad Men (AMC) WINNER
Big Love (HBO)
Dexter (Showtime)
House (Fox)
True Blood (HBO)

Mad Men Cast question and answer:



BEST TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Glee (FOX) WINNER
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
Modern Family (ABC)
The Office (NBC)

The Cast of Glee:



BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Grey Gardens (HBO) WINNER
Georgia O’Keefe (Lifetime)
Into the Storm (HBO)
Little Dorrit (PBS)
Taking Chance (HBO)



BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Toni Collette, United States of Tara WINNER
Courteney Cox, Cougar Town
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Lea Michele, Glee

Toni Collette:



BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock WINNER
Steve Carell, The Office
David Duchovny, Californication
Thomas Jane, Hung
Matthew Morrison, Glee

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
Michael C. Hall, Dexter WINNER
Simon Baker, The Mentalist
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
Bill Paxton, Big Love

Michael C. Hall on why this season took off, the impact of John Lithgow, and cancer:



BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
DRAMA
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife WINNER
Glenn Close, Damages
January Jones, Mad Men
Anna Paquin, True Blood
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Julianna Margulies slaps down an awful question about Tiger Woods' wife, Elin:



BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES,
MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
John Lithgow, Dexter WINNER
Michael Emerson, Lost
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
William Hurt, Damages
Jeremy Piven, Entourage

John Lithgow on his role in Dexter as "The Trinity Killer":



BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A
SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Chloe Sevigny, Big Love WINNER
Jane Adams, Hung
Rose Byrne, Damages
Jane Lynch, Glee
Janet McTeer, Into the Storm



BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION
PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Kevin Bacon, Taking Chance WINNER
Kenneth Branagh, Wallander: One Step Behind
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Endgame
Brendan Gleeson, Into the Storm
Jeremy Irons, Georgia O’Keefe

Kevin Bacon:



Chloë Sevigny also bats down another weird question about Tiger Woods:



BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION
PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens WINNER
Joan Allen, Georgia O’Keefe
Jessica Lange, Grey Gardens
Anna Paquin, The Courageous Heart of Irena
Sendler
Sigourney Weaver, Prayers for Bobby

Drew Barrymore:



Does all of this mean a clean-swwep for Avatar all the way to the Academy Awards? Stay tuned.

The 2010 Golden Globes - Sophia Loren wows the World

The 2010 Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press' annual party for the Hollywood entertainment industry, just got its hot meter tuned up. Sophia Loren introduced the category of Best Foreign Film and said "The Golden Globe goes to The White Ribbon."

Now Mad Men just won Best TV Series Drama, bringing the stars to the stage.

MoNique

Looking back, MoNique won Best Supporting Actress for her role on Precious; it was her second in as many weeks, having won The Critics Choice Award in the same category last week. No word on questions about the many events she skipped last winter.

Robert DeNiro on Martin Scorsese: "He eats, sleeps, and drinks film.  I here there's a YouTube of him sleeping with film"

More soon. 7:15 PM

James Cameron wins Best Director for Avatar, and beats his wife Katheryn Bigelow for the prize.

And to the shock of many at the Golden Globes event I'm attending, Glee won "Best Television Series: Comedy"

Jeff Bridges winning Best Actor in A Motion Picture Drama for Crazy Hearts produced a much-deserved standing ovation.  He's produced a body of work that's just incredible.

Stay tuned.

Miley Cyrus 17, not engaged to Liam Hemsworth, 20

The buzz is was that Miley Cyrus was wearing a ring that some believed meant she was engaged to her boyfriend, Liam Hemsworth. The relationship, like many aspects of Miley Cyrus life as a pop-culture star - from the stripper pole dance at the Teen Choice Awards, to her concert crotch-grab dancing - is controversial. Liam Hemsworth is 20 and Miley Cyrus is 17.

Miley Cyrus

There's some question as to the legality of such a relationship. The blog comments at Just Jared Jr. focus on the fact that Miley Cyrus is just 17:

lily @ 10:42 am on 01/05/2010
OMG he is 20!, i didn’t know that. i don’t think it ok for a 17 year old dating a 20 year old but it is that a legal?

But to many of Miley Cyrus' fans, it doesn't matter:

Katie g! @ 11:25 am on 01/05/2010
=) i love the two of them together, and she looks kind of tan, and i love her hair. all in all sher looks happy and healthy

Still:

Sketch @ 11:54 am on 01/05/2010
@lily:
If he is 20 then it would be illegal for them to have sex. Does that answer your question?

According to Avert.org, the legal age of consent varies with states in America: in California it's is 18, but in Georgia, it's 16; Miley Cyrus is 17. So Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth would have to carry a check chart with them to make sure they weren't doing it in the wrong state.

But with all of this, Miley Cyrus is not engaged to Liam Hemsworth. Miley Cyrus' representative told People Magazine that while she's sporting a new ring, she's not engaged at all.

Cowboys vs Vikings - Brett Favre torches Dallas Cowboys

In today's Cowboys vs Vikings NFL Divisional Playoff game, Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Brett Favre is torching the Dallas Cowboys, having just completed a 45 yard touchdown to Wide Receiver Sidney Rice. Brett Favre is 12 of 20 for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Vikings are ahead of the Cowboys, 27 to 3.

The keys to the game are the quick strikes to single-covered Vikings receivers by Brett Favre. Both of Sidney Rice's touchdown catches were against single coverage while he was running "up" patterns.

It's 7:27 in the fourth quarter as of this writing. Green Bay Packers fans everywhere and watching this game are wondering what might have been. The Packers, under their signal caller Aaron Rogers, lost to the Arizona Cardinals last week.

If the Vikings win this game, they will go on to play the New Orleans Saints in the NFL Championship Game next week. The Saints beat the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday.

Stay tuned.

Gaines Adams dead at 26: 2007 NFL Draft star called "fine young man"

Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears Defensive End Gaines Adams is dead at 26 years old. According to ESPN, Gaines Adams died of cardiac arrest. The Greenville, South Carolina native and Clemson Football standout, was a star at the 2007 NFL Draft.

Gaines Adams at the NFL Combine

The NFL flew Gaines Adams to New York City as part of a select group of NFL Draft-bound college stars including LSU and now Oakland Raiders Quarterback JaMarcus Russell, Notre Dame and now Cleveland Browns Quarterback Brady Quinn, Georgia Tech and now Detroit Lions Wide Receiver Calvin Johnson, and Oklahoma and now Minnesota Vikings Running Back Adrian Peterson. The videos below capture the sprit of Gaines Adams at the 2007 NFL Draft:

At the Chelsea Piers Luncheon:



At Radio City Music Hall, outside:



Gaines Adams was the 4th pick of the 2007 NFL Draft by the then-Jon Gruden-coached Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He led all defensive rookies with six sacks in 2007. He would go on to become one of the most effective defensive players in the NFL, with a promising future that's now cut short.

Marcia Kelley-Clark, Chief Deputy Coroner for Greenwood County, said that no one in Gaines Adams Family was aware of a medical condition.

"I remember him at the 2007 Draft as a fine young man," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "Our condolences to Gaines' family, his teammates on the Bears and Buccaneers, and their organizations on their loss."

6.3 magnitude earthquake hits Argentina after Haiti and Venezuela

The latest news is a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Argentina after the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake and the 5.6 Venezuela Earthquake, and all less than a week apart.

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was centered 354 km southeast of Ushuaia, Argentina, the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, at a depth of 21 km, or about 10.5 miles down. The earthquake hit at 8am local time (1200 GMT, 8pm Singapore time). Reuters reports that no tsunami warning was immediately issued by the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.

No word of damage as of this writing.

Argentina was planning to send a plane of supplies and aid for Haiti.

Selena Gomez million dollar contract contains problem

TMZ.com reports that pop star Selena Gomez, while not getting "Miley Cyrus money", is "worth millions at 17" and points to the earnings for the movie she's working on, Ramona, at $65,000 (net), and then...

if the movie gets huge box office numbers, Fox Pictures has to fork over more cash -- Selena could collect anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million extra depending on how much it makes over the cost of production.

That's the problem.

TMZ's account reveals a "net", rather than "gross" contract. The rule in entertainment is never settle for a "net" contract; make sure you get money before production costs are paid.  Jack Nicholson learned this when he signed on to play "The Joker" in Batman.   His gross percentage revenue contract paid him $60 million.

Selena Gomez

What could happen in Selena Gomez case is the production numbers could be adjusted to avoid paying Selena Gomez the back end money she could get.  If the production cost is greater than revenue, then the movie fails to show a profit and Gomez doesn't not get the extra money.

But if Selena Gomez just took, say, 10 percent of the movie's revenue, she would get that, period, profit or not.

The the future, Selena should make sure she gets a Jack Nicholson-style contract, otherwise she will always feels that she's not getting what she's worth.

She would be right.

Oakland breaking up Friendly Cab's monopoly

The City of Oakland is in the process of breaking up the monopoly long-held by Oakland's Friendly Cab. According to a source who did not wish to be named, last week on Friday, Oakland Police Officers took taxi medallions away from Yellow Cab cars owned by Friendly Cab. The source reports that the cabs will be offered to the public "sometime around January 25th."

According to the source, Surrender Singh, the owner of Friendly Cab, was making as much as $250,000 a week from operations; that's $12 million a year. But allegedly Friendly Cab was "abusive" to its drivers," said the source, who did not elaborate on the claim, "Something needed to be done."

Before the City of Oakland's action to end their monopoly, you had to go to Friendly Cab to lease a taxi and the cost is $65 per day. All of the expenses are paid by the driver.

Friendly Cab has 100 cars, so the 11 Yellow Cabs that will be lost should not be a large impact on its fleet. But it's not clear how far the City will go in stripping Friendly Cab's fleet. It's the beginning of the end of Friendly Cab's vice grip on Oakland's cab industry. The overall objective, according to an obscure sentence in the Oakland Wikipedia entry is "to increase the supply of taxis by increasing the number of taxi licenses."

The problem is cars are needed to cause this to happen; they will come from downsizing Friendly Cab's fleet.

Perhaps this will mean better overall cab service, more cabs operating all day and night as many Oaklanders have wanted, and an end to the kind of driver abuse this blogger suffered last year:



Stay tuned.

Racism rises in Oakland: patron writes anti-black slur at bar

Racism returned to Oakland Friday night. A patron at Oakland's popular Cafe Van Kleef wrote "Happy Nigger Day" on the bathroom's wall board. The person who discovered the slur was one of the establishments' employees, who came out to tell Cafe Van Kleef owner Peter Van Kleef as he was in conversation with this blogger, who's obviously black.

The group of us, Peter, Eric, and a person who's name I do not know, talked about it and agreed that Peter, as the owner, should make a defining statement and ask for the person who did it to identify his or her self.

Peter Van Kleef made the decision to go up and take time from the blues band that was playing to tell the patrons what was done and that "Cafe Van Kleef is not a place for that." While the sound did not carry well in the crowded bar, Peter's speech was loud enough for many to hear near the stage.

Peter asked for the person who wrote the slur to step forward; that person did not. But a number of people looked around at each other. Of the near capacity crowd of over 100 people, by my scan only four were African American, three Asian, and the rest largely white.

How did I feel? Sick. I just stood in the corner that I normally occupy when I visit Peter's establishment and wondered what kind of people were around me.  I was really disappointed to see white patrons who just had white friends.  That - to be really frank - is far more common than it is for people of color, even in Oakland.  A person can't know who they are until they have friends who don't have their skin color.  That's just a fact.

By that, I mean people they invite over to their house and talk to; not people they see at the gym or at work.  I'm talking about real friends.

I walked over to the much more racially-mixed Luka's and talked to a friend of mine in law enforcement about what happened.  He - who's black - shrugged and said "It's Van Kleef's", and seemed surprised that I was shocked about what happened.

Peter Van Kleef and his employees are fine people. But someone - some coward that may also be an Internet troll - in there felt comfortable enough to write a racial slur on the bathroom wallboard.

Speaking out against it was a welcome action on Peter Van Kleef's part and he's a good man and a friend of mine, but the damage was done. Racism is rising in Oakland.

Historically, Oakland has been a town known for its racial harmony. As far back as the 1960s, Oakland never had serious racial problems. And when the Watts riots broke out, it was feared by some that Oakland would be the next city to have a major conflict because of its large black population.

It never happened, and the shock that it did not, led the production of a classic book called Oakland's Not For Burning.  But today, we have the death of Oscar Grant.

Oscar Grant

But Oakland's changing; last year some people of color thought Oakland was for burning in the wake of the Oscar Grant Murder, and that perception caused the riots that followed:



Oakland's downtown bar and dining scene has degenerated into a black versus white divide, with one Asian bar in the middle on Telegraph that draws a mixed crowd of mostly people of color: Luka's is predominantly black and Latino on the weekends, but not on weeknights. Cafe Van Kleef is mostly white. The eatery Flora's patronage is mostly white; Pican and Osumo on Broadway and Grand are mostly black. The bar "The Den at The Fox" is mostly black (and has security door people who act like thugs; a side effect of the patronage, I suppose). It's hard to find any place that's perfectly racially mixed, and that's sad.

There should not be such a pattern.

Fortunately, the bar scene on Grand Avenue - with The Alley and The Lucky Lounge - is far more racially mixed. Why that's the case may be that Grand Avenue draws much more of a local audience. This is also true at The Conga Lounge in Rockridge, and who's Haiti Benefit Party attracted a well-integrated audience, the perfect mix. While racism in Oakland is a problem, for the most part it's not generated by Oakland residents; outsiders and institutions have to be instructed on the rules of engagement in Oakland.

I write institutions because of the 2007 incident where Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland's Jack London Square released a CD without a single black jazz artist.  For that to happen in Oakland was just incredible.

The City of Oakland needs to make a strong and powerful statement. To this date, the Mayor and the Oakland City Council have been silent on the issue of race. Oakland needs to have a diversity policy. A statement of effort to maintain a racially-integrated city that does not tolerate racism or the creation of images of racism.

Stay tuned.