First Reaction Archive

Oct 19, 2009

Oakland Local Goes Live!

If you live, work or play in Oakland, do yourself a favor and get over to Oakland Local, the newest, freshest source of Oakland-specific news and commentary on the web. Spearheaded by Susan Mernit and backed by a Knight Foundation grant, Oakland Local is another great addition to the growing community of East Bay news and blog sites.

Sep 14, 2009

Thanks BART

Nothing like paying more and getting less:

Starting at 7pm tonight, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District will cut its service by 25% during non-peak periods (ie, most of the time). This compares unfavorably to AC Transit’s 15% service cut, and was not accompanied by a public input process like the one AC Transit has undertaken in recent weeks. (Full story)

Aug 15, 2009

Oakland Welcomes new Police Chief

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is to be applauded for resisting pressure from the influential police union to promote from within. That, in our view, would have all but guaranteed an adherence to the status quo, which Oakland, at this critical juncture, simply cannot afford. (Oakland Tribune)

Jul 31, 2009

Oakland’s Police Chief Search

The Oakland Tribune’s Friday editorial called for Mayor Ron Dellums to open up the search for a new police chief to the public and for a long, hard look at whether or not change at OPD could ever come from within. (Read it now.)

Jul 24, 2009

BART’s Special Brand of Management Magic

KTVU reports today that BART management’s receipts for transit agency travel and dining expenses are stored at a warehouse in cardboard boxes. The station found that over a nine-year period, management spent a total of $35,000 on dining and more than $2 mil on travel, according to records. (full story…)

Jul 08, 2009

Big Fat Mess

Unbelievable (but true) headlines:

Searching for a sense of urgency
With budget talks breaking down this week and the big June 30 marker having come and gone, the question on a lot of minds is where the next pressure points lie.

California leaders in no hurry to break budget impasse
Despite plunging tax revenues, Wall Street’s unwillingness to loan the state money and billions of dollars worth of IOUs hitting mailboxes, California’s leaders are displaying a seeming lack of urgency to close the state’s $26.3 billion deficit.

Jun 22, 2009

Well done, San Francisco

Every now and then, our city officials get something right. At first blush, San Francisco’s new police chief looks like a fantastic choice. George Gascón, a William Bratton protégé, will have his hands full with the City’s eclectic mix of problems. Let’s hope he can deliver.

Jun 02, 2009

The Great Implosion

There are no easy answers to California’s unfolding budgetary calamity. The only thing certain is immediate, growing and continuing pain for the state’s most vulnerable citizens: the young, the elderly and the poor.

Is this the wake up call we need, or will we continue to kick the can down the road?

May 28, 2009

Bring your fife!

If we’re going to have a constitutional convention here in California, as the Bay Area Council and other good government groups are promoting in the wake of last week’s ballot massacre, I feel like someone should be playing a fife as the participants convene. Also, maybe Sam Blakeslee could wear a tri-corner hat or something…

Opponents of the convention idea warn of a Pandora’s Box, a one-stop-shop for nefarious special interests bent on nothing less than the wholesale looting of the state’s coffers. But really, is that any worse than what we’ve got right now? Is it?

May 18, 2009

Enough with “Oakland’s Potential”

Virtually every resident or third-party observer knows all about Oakland’s Potential, the idyllic metropolis that exists in the mind of all who recoil from the city’s gritty reality.

I am sick of Oakland’s Potential.

I can’t tell you the number of conversations I’ve had that went something like this: “There was another triple shooting last night… It’s really too bad, because Oakland has such incredible potential!”

Oakland’s Potential returns to every conversation like a delusional boomerang. It is conjured to advance lamebrained policy decisions and inflated to the point of absurdity by continuing acts of senseless violence.

I don’t want to hear about Oakland’s Potential ever again. I know its potential. I want everyone else who knows it to start thinking about how to fix our broken reality.

-FH