Oakland
Oakland To Start Using Instant Runoff Voting
Jan 6, 2010
On January 5th, Oakland's City Council finally voted to start using Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). This means that Oakland will no longer have June Primary Elections for local elected officials, but rather a ranked choice election of candidates, including Mayor, in November. Various governmental and community groups will work together starting Spring 2010 to educate voters about the changes they can expect at the ballot box.Related stories:
Oakland's State of the City Address
Feb 22 2010 - 18:00
Feb 22 2010 - 19:30
City:
OaklandAddress:
City Hall in Council ChambersCost:
Free
Join Mayor Dellums for his State of the City Address on Monday, February 22, 2010 at 6 PM (doors open at 5:30 PM). The State of the City will be held at City Hall in Council Chambers.
Seating is limited. Please make sure to allow for time to park and secure seating before 6:00 PM. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Office of the Mayor at 510.444.2489.
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Oakland airport connector could lose $70 million
Dateline:
01/20/2010Source:
SF Gate (01-20) 11:10 PST Oakland -- BART and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission could lose $70 million in federal stimulus funds to build the Oakland Airport Connector unless the agencies quickly complete an analysis of whether the project adversely affects minority communities.
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My Word: Oakland's opportunity to be green and be economically vibrant
Dateline:
11/25/2009Source:
Oakland Tribune With crucial international climate talks in Copenhagen set for December, the Oakland Climate Action Coalition is showing how strong climate policy can build a safe, economically vibrant, and socially just city.
In our everyday lives, we are already feeling the impacts of climate change and our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels. Gasoline and utility bills continue to rise with no end in sight. Turbulent and unpredictable weather patterns threaten valuable food crops, raising prices at the grocery store.
Assault on Oakland's homeless population continues
Dateline:
12/13/2009Source:
Indy Bay Oakland - It's cold and wet. Dawn breaks, and the screams of a
howling cat in the distance sounds like a child abandoned in the
frigid cold of the night, begging for attention.
A raggedy looking homeless man recently near the entranceway of a
Lucky store in Oakland, is chased off by security a few evenings ago,
barely a moment after I had the pleasure of giving him a dollar, to
buy something to eat.
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Community Convergence for Climate Action a Huge Success!
More than 400 people came out to the Community Convergence for Climate Action, hosted by the Oakland Climate Action Coalition (OCAC), to celebrate local climate solutions that can make Oakland a model green city. The event included live green hip-hop, a theatrical performance on climate by high school-aged girls, and a report-back from Oakland community residents who attended climate workshops in the flat lands of East and West Oakland.
Oakland Airport Connector Moves Forward In Spite of Strong Opposition
Dateline:
10/07/2009Source:
Sf.streetsblog Transit advocates, community groups, and faith-based environmental justice organizations made another plea to Oakland and regional policy makers to kill the half a billion dollar Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) with a resolution sponsored by Oakland City Council members Nancy Nadel and Rebecca Kaplan at their monthly meeting last night. Citing a significantly more expensive project from the $130
million dollar proposal supported by voters in 2000 without intermediate stops along Hegenberger Boulevard and with fares three times those originally promised, the groups argued in vain that the council should not support the existing proposal but should seek a surface Bus Rapid Transit option at one-fifth the cost.Most of the political class lined up in opposition to the council resolution and in favor of completing the OAC as an elevated people mover under the current design. A late letter of support from Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums urged several provisions, including intermediate stops and hiring requirements, but did not set up parameters for their inclusion in the project. Most speakers honed in on the need for job creation in Oakland, which is suffering from more than 17 percent unemployment, though disagreement raged over whether or not the construction jobs (estimated from 689 to 15,000, depending on the job creation metric used by the speakers) merited the public outlay of funds.
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Stealing public housing from Oakland's poor
Dateline:
09/28/2009Source:
Indy Bay News Wire Oakland -- On Monday September 28, at 6:00 p.m., there will be a
hearing at the Oakland Housing Authority in the commissioners meeting
room that is designed to assist in the further taking of Oakland's
public housing units from the poor, through the promotion of the
proposed LHAP (program) being discussed to facilitate the disposition
of over 1,600 public housing units, from Oakland's poor.
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Oakland Housing Authority creates loophole to use Section 8 funds for public housing
Dateline:
09/12/2009Source:
Indy News Wire Oakland - The disposition plan for over 1,600 public housing units owned and operated by the Oakland Housing Authority (OHA), signals the end of public housing as we know it if other Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) follow suit and switch to the Section 8 model being promoted by the OHA for it's public housing program.
In a nut shell, the OHA wants to determine which of it's small scattered public housing sites that are occupied with very low-income households, will be sold off, so that the proceeds can be used to build much larger mixed income housing projects for higher income residents, like the Hope Vl mixed income housing projects that have displaced the poor all across the nation.
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