Oakland Mayor's Race: Larry Lionel Young Interview

Larry Lionel Young, Jr. is running for Mayor of Oakland to "make change," and if he were elected, at 30, he would be the youngest Mayor in Oakland's history.

Young, who's worked as a real estate broker for five years, said that his reason for running is to give a positive message to black and brown people who are struggling and incarcerated in jail. He also points to the economic problems faced by Oaklanders "facing foreclosure" as another reason he elected to run for Mayor of Oakland.

Oakland Can't Police It's Way

Young says that Oakland can't "police its way" out of crime problems. The graduate of Westlake and of Claremont Middle School, Berkeley High School, and after Laney and Diablo Valley Colleges, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, favors programs rather than jails to help Oakland's youth in particular. He wants to reallocate money from public safety to parks and recreation programs. "Currently 75 to 80 percent of our budget goes to public safety. That's a lot of pie."

Young also wants to improve the facades of Oakland's buildings, pointing to large parts of International Boulevard that have dilapidated structures that he wants upgraded. Part of the reallocated funds would be used for that purpose.

Oakland Police Salaries Too High

Larry Lionel Young feels the best way to reduce the money spent on public safety is via lowering Oakland police salaries - "From $72,000 to $49,000 is the best way for us to accomplish our vision," he says. Young thinks Oakland officers he's talk to agree with him - not all of them, but the majority of the officers Young has talked to.

On the matter of City of Oakland employees, Young wants to have Oakland workers live in Oakland, in fact he wants that as a requirement of maintaining employment.

No On Measure BB

LL Young, Jr. does not favor any of the tax-based proposals on the ballot, particularly Measure BB. In fact, the only ballot measure he favors is Measure L.

Racism in The Campaign?

Larry feels that some of the reason he's not well known is due to, in some cases, racism. "I tell you this. There's a lot more glamorizing for the news to portray a young black man being shot on BART than there is one who's running for Mayor." In that way, he's correct. If the media were not so lazy, not so much racist, Young's story would have been told over and over again in the newspapers and TV channels covering the race.

The Mayor's Office Under Larry Young

Larry says his Mayor's Office will be ran by a person who's a good listener and is "more hands on and involved." His agenda is for Oakland to be the best place to work, best place to live, and best place to visit.

Oakland Sports And Larry Young

On the matter of maintaining the A's in Oakland, Larry's not well-versed on how that can be done - I had to explain it. He feels its important to keep them here, but if they decide to leave, he feels Oakland has "plenty of options" to replace them. He doesn't favor spending public money on sports stadiums.

The Young Campaign

Larry Lionel Young says his campaign has been endorsed by "The People," and has not worked to raise money. He claims that he has no campaign expenses and that everything in terms of communication has been by word of mouth. Indeed, he has and does not see the need for, a website. I've got on him about this, but that's his way. What's head-scratching is that Young refers to YouTube videos, but does not see the need for a website.

With this, can Young even gain visibility and votes?  We shall see.

JaMarcus Russell Avoids Indictment

Former Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell was not indicted by a grand jury in Alabama. Russell was charged with a felony of possession of a controlled substance, which turned out to be a drink that contained cough syrup ingredient codeine, according to The New York Times.

Zennie Loves Sotto Mare In North Beach, San Francisco

Sotto Mare is San Francisco's North Beach District, is this bloggers new most favorite San Francisco eatery. Look, don't expect some restaurant review here, this is my take.

Eating at Sotto Mare was the idea of my best friend Beth Schnitzer and her brother Steven, and friends Ragu and Shuri. At first, I didn't know what to make of this narrow space called "Gigi Fiorucci's Oysteria and Seafood Restaurant located at 552 Green Street" until we sat down.

The waitress, who was wearing a "Roxy" hat, had a personality that makes the room seem bigger than it is, and you know, that quality is not limited to her, it's part of the Sotto Mare culture. The staff really seems like it's family having a great time. Just a bunch of good, down to earth people, who make great food.

What was that food? The Sotto Mare Cioppino. Wow. If you don't like it, there's something massively wrong with you. I'm just saying. The cioppino and the sand dabs, which we had and are in the video, are to die for.

I could go on and on about this place. The people who work there are so friendly, their energy rubs off on the customers. So everyone' nice to each other, even in that little space. A slice of heaven.

Oakland Mayor's Race: Marcy Hodge Interview

Peralta Community College District Board Member Marcy Hodge has labored as one of the lesser known candidates, who's activity in the Oakland Mayor's Race was punctuated by having her sister Nicole Hodge file a defamation lawsuit against The East Bay Express. In the video interview, Hodge talks about why she decided to run for Mayor and her approach.

Hodge says she decided to run for mayor because she didn't think any of the candidates were talking about the issues Oaklanders were dealing with. "I didn't really feel really excited about the candidates."

She's ran a campaign that features billboards and lawn signs all over Oakland.  What's interesting is as this day approached, more and more "Marcie Hodge" lawn signs have appeared around Oakland.  A signal that some Oaklanders had not decided on a candidate and were swayed toward Hodge.

The East Bay Express and Hodge

Robert Gammon has, for some reason, consistently and dangerously attacked Hodge for running for Mayor of Oakland. Gammon has written that, for all practical purposes, Hodge is a "tool" of Oakland Mayor's Race competitor Don Perata, and asserted that overall her campaign is "illegal." What's interesting is that Gammon didn't make a matrix of what the other Oakland Mayor's Race candidates have done in filling reports, he just focused on Marcie.

While the charge was not supported by any Oakland legal official, just Gammon, and he caused the lawsuit with a series of sloppy blog posts, to his credit, Gammon came back with a very good and through follow-up last week.

The video was created before Gammon's latest work. In that one, Robert's done his homework and raises a good point Marcie should address. Marcie told this blogger she was going to file her financial reports last week. But with that, it doesn't explain why Gammon focused on Hodge in the way he did.

Improving Oakland

Hodge says the best way to reduce the Oakland budget deficit is to attract more businesses to Oakland and grow the tax base; she does not favor bankruptcy as an option. "We have to find creative ways of reducing the deficit...We need to look the way China does it (budgets). They plan (the budget) for 100 years."

On Oakland Sports

Hodge, like many of the candidates, does not favor using "public money" to retain the Oakland A's.  While she wants to retain them, she does not offer an alternative solution but wants to see "creative ways" to keep them.  Hodge doesn't favor suing the Oakland A's or the City of San Jose, favoring the approach of fostering a "cordial relationship" with both parties.

City And Mayor's Office Under Hodge

On the subject of City of Oakland morale, Hodge says that when there's no vision from the city's elected officials, there's no reason for workers to get behind the city and that impacts morale.  She's not willing to point at Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums by name, but does so by comments in our conversation.

On the matter of the Oakland Police, Hodge doesn't favor reducing police salaries and feels that they "take a beating" in the public eye.

The Hodge Candidacy

Marcie Hodge is a good person who's campaign, while marked by a single-person media attack, has been largely successful.  Why?  She's visible and attractive, which may be the reason she's getting attention from undecided Oaklanders.  Will all of that be enough to gain a substantial number of votes is the question of the day.

Can Tommy Wiseau Have Your Number?

With all the stress surrounding Election Day it might be nice to watch a video that is a spoof off of the MADTv skit "Can I Have Your Number?" This one features Tommy Wiseau instead - and it is sure to bring some laughs. So, take a break from worrying about election day and watch a nice video.

Demi Lovato In Rehab

The innocent and adorable Disney star Demi Lovato has checked into rehab according to People magazine online.

People reports that the 18-year-old decided to seek medical help after getting in a fight with a dancer while on tour and Lovato has also been struggling with her body image.

The article title on the menu bar says "Demi Lovato in Rehab for Cutting," but the title on the page says "A Fight Sent Demi Lovato to Rehab." The article itself makes it seem as though the main reason for going to rehab is her weight issues - hopefully the teen star can get the help she needs, and it's good that she has taken this step now before it escalated.

Oakland Mayor's Race: Video Interviews With All 10 Candidates

If you haven't made up your mind on who to vote for in the Oakland Mayor's Race on election day, today, this series of Zennie62 on YouTube videos should help a little.

They comprise over 300 minutes of conversations and 15 videos that in total make up the most ambitious video blog effort I've ever done.   The idea was to give you a view of all of the candidates, not just some of them.  (That effort's the biggest example of local print and television media prejudice and attempt to control information I've ever seen.  And if someone calls them by a name that brings up Nazi Germany, they'll start whining and crying, but at this stage, given their antics, I don't care what they think.)

So in honor of The San Francisco Giants as World Champions and Tim Lincecum, this blogger says FUCK YEAH! (OK. Lots of San Francisco street party hoping and killer videos in celebration last night, but I digress.)

The videos represents all of the candidates: Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Joe Tuman, Don Macleay, Don Perata, Councilmember Jean Quan, Larry Lionel Young, Arnie Fields, Marcie Hodge, Terrance Candell, and Greg Harland.  Plus, there' are two forum overview videos and one commentary on the Sierra Club forum when it was messed up, trying to segregate candidates from attending.  (Thank God that was corrected.)

The video playlist below has all of the candidates video interviews. The order does not indicate who this blogger endorses for Mayor of Oakland:



I will also post summaries of interviews conducted last week, and my recommendations, before 12 noon PDT.

Stay tuned.