OAKLAND

Four rather. Feels like five.

xxp - there are plenty of articles easily searchable that explain how and why and the structural issues (both literally and figuratively) for which this was just "not if but when" ... I don't need to do my annual executive summary ... I spent yesterday working at a job that exists because of this ...

Add to the "only in the bay area" list of woke school district bungles:

"Oakland teacher points finger at 'rich white parents' in reopening debate"

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/All-the-rich-white-parents-suddenly-concerned-15970678.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight

"Bethany Meyer tweeted on Feb. 17, "All the rich white parents suddenly concerned about mental health can take a seat. Most of them are causing their kids' anxiety by pressuring them to complete asynchronous work and feeding into their sense of entitlement. Sorry/not sorry."

""After a harrowing winter surge, it is encouraging that Alameda County is on the cusp of entering the red tier," Keith Brown, the president of the Oakland Education Association, wrote in an email Monday. "I’m deeply appreciative of our healthcare workers and to everyone who followed shelter in place guidance. I also want to acknowledge the very real stresses felt by students, parents and teachers during this time. OEA has consistently fought to increase mental health support for our students, and will continue to do so. As we move forward, I am feeling hopeful that lower community spread, multi-tiered safety measures and vaccinations will continue to bring us closer to a safe return to in-person instruction. In order to get there together, everyone in our OUSD community will need to treat each other with respect and empathy as we move forward."

Autumn McDonald felt Meyer's Tweet implies only white parents want their children back in school. More so, as a Black mom, she's upset to hear Meyer—who is not Black—purporting to know what Black people are thinking.

"I think there are a lot Black people who will not know this has even happened," said McDonald, who has a kindergartner and third grader in the district. "They won’t even know this voice is out there speaking for them. I, as a Black women, can’t say where Black people do or don't want schools to reopen. But I do personally want my kids back in school. I need my kids to be back in school. My husband and I are working parents. The level to which our kids not being in school has caused stress for us and stress for them is beyond the pale. The other thing is that I believe in the science. I know a lot of parents of color who believe in the science. I wonder why there’s an assumption, 'Oh gosh, all the Black people don’t want to do it.' Black people have a lot of reason to be concerned with anything related to our trust in the health care system ... that all said it doesn’t change the fact I still believe in the science."

I am heartbroken and outraged by today’s announcement that Mills College will cease to be as we know it.

Personally I owe a debt of gratitude to Mills College. Five decades ago, I was able to attend college and earn a degree as a young single mother on public assistance who often had to bring her sons to class – something that would have been impossible at many other colleges or universities.

It is where I met my mentor, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, and it is where my passion for public service and politics began.

Powerful statement from Congresswoman Barbara Lee about the closure of her alma mater - Mills College in Oakland. She says she’s outraged and is asking the Board of Trustees to reconsider their decision. pic.twitter.com/Bc4HTduj60

— Kate Larsen (@KateABC7) March 18, 2021

Saw that yesterday; kind of shocking really, Mills is probably the reason I'm in Oakland (ex-GF went there). One of the last women-only universities in the country..."Better dead than coed!" was the rallying cry. (I think men were eventually allowed in for post-grad work.)

Huge part of east bay culture, I had no idea that they were struggling like this.

I had a pretty good sense that they had serious financial problems tbh. I would get paid to guest lecture to a business skills for artists class every year for a few years, and then that gig stopped. Also, several years ago (maybe more like 10 though?) they really ramped up promotion for their business school and MBA/MPP programs, which to me indicated that they were trying to make up for shortfalls in regular undergrad revenue by trying to get more profitable graduate enrollment for these post-grad certifications.

They also were doing the typical thing where tenured professors would retire and they would be replaced with adjuncts.
The music department got major budget cuts a few years ago, and a few professors chose early retirement to save other faculty/staff/program cuts being made

As far as women-only universities go, Smith College is still a going concern, and recently featured in the racism thread.

My wife chose to get her MFA at St. Mary's rather than Mills, which she regretted a few times, but not now. That said I would not be surprised to see this happen to St. Marys also in a few years. They've also been pushing their MBA very heavily. It's a bit surprising to me in general that these smaller private universities have been struggling, I suppose the bigger privates are eating up all the endowment money available in the world.

lol one of my close friends used to work in the fundraising dept. for St. Mary's

Honestly, I don't feel surprised that smaller private universities are struggling. For many years I've felt like there's been this higher ed bubble fueled by the availability of student loans. Like, if people had to come up with $60k a year of their own money to go to Mills or St. Mary's ... would they? Or would they just go to a state school, or do two years at community college and transfer? ...

It's like housing prices during the sub-prime mortgage era

Housing prices for Mills' students is definitely a part of it. The area around Mills is gentrifying quick.

Our internet has been down since Saturday: apparently someone shot at a Comcast... thing... and then they shot at the techs when they turned up and tried to fix it?? There’s nothing about it in the news, this info came from Comcast CS. It’s very fuckin weird.

I switched to Sonic and love it fwiw

me too!

I have AT&T -- it is reliable

We had multiple nightmare experiences with at&t which is why we switched to Comcast! They finally got it working again late this morning.

What a relief!

https://www.artforum.com/slant/sean-j-patrick-carney-on-the-ground-in-oakland-85532

I walked the lake yesterday - this fish die-off is so sad & tragic. Probably hundreds of thousands just in the lake alone: striped bass, rays, sharks, hering, etc.
And big sturgeons out in the Bay, including the protected green sturgeon

And now we're expecting a heat wave, it's gonna stink to high heaven

Massive fish die off going on right now in Lake Merritt #oakland #fish #lakemerritt

May be related to the HUGE algal bloom that’s been happening on the east bay since the start of the month in front of Alameda where effluent flows…https://t.co/1H1byxoWOk pic.twitter.com/kU5pH55KVC

— Damon Tighe (@damontighe) August 28, 2022

yeah, I smelled it yesterday.

Made it into The Guardian... even after the cleanup, there's still a bunch of big dead bass floating in there

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/01/dead-fish-oakland-lake-merritt-algae-bloom

it reminds me of one time i had to go to court for a traffic ticket and there was a guy on the same docket who was in court for repeated fishing without a license. The rest of the cases were either prostitution or DUIs

meanwhile, Ignacio D is running for mayor again. With all the recent shootings (it feels like there's one a day), there's gonna be a lot more pro-cop campaigning.

yeah, I think the Asian business community is down to throw a few bucks at any tough-on-crime candidate that throws the proverbial hat in the ring

i think there are like, seven people running for Mayor, as Libby is termed out. Besides Ignacio, there are a couple city council people running, as well as Seneca Scott who ran for District 3 last time and lost to Fife.

starting to get the Mayor campaign mailers ... maybe I'm the only one who is interested in local politics idk

I really have no idea on mayor. Any preference?

I haven't made my mind up either ... I think so far I've gotten mailers for Ignacio (didn't vote for him the last time, not gonna do it this time) and Sheng Thao.

I might vote for her, maybe? I watched some video she did about about some leaked chat/thread for candidates where a couple of the other candidates had said things that were considered hate speech and her recording seemed very stilted, though she was saying good things. I think I also saw some attack piece about her where she was asked her opinion about a piece of legislation, and she said she wasn't familiar enough to comment, but it was apparently something she had sponsored.

I have a few friends who are Seneca Scott supporters and others that are very much not Seneca Scott supporters.

Maybe Loren Taylor? idk ... I also have friends who are like, "fuck that guy, he's a landlord" (unless I'm confusing him with someone else ... there are like what, 8 people running that are "credible" ... excluding the republican guy and the white socialist guy.

Seneca Scott was photographed with some anti-trans people recently and refused to explain to address it, to my knowledge.

the local Planned Parenthood affiliate’s PAC is endorsing Sheng Thao because she’s the only one who’s said anything about reproductive Justice I guess.

it's not like oakland is about to make abortion illegal.

Seneca Scott was photographed with some anti-trans people recently and refused to explain to address it, to my knowledge.

― akm, Saturday, October 8, 2022 9:14 AM

I knew there was something ... there was an interview with him in Oaklandside that mentioned he had founded an annual event or helped start some group but that they had "recently distanced themselves from him" ... he also has stuff to say about the homeless encampments that is not as diplomatic as what the candidates that are currently on city council say. I respect that he's actually out there doing work and seeing stuff, and not just espousing the platitudes that result in inaction by the City because the actual work in the City is done by staff and not the Council. ... And some of those city departments are so entrenched, like, a lot of the Council recommendations and Executive Orders just end up being meaningless because City workers don't act on them. I also appreciated that Seneca Scott called out the Building Department's obstructionist tactics, because that's something I have to deal with in one of my jobs.

Another police chief sent packing.. we hardly knew ya!

https://www.ktvu.com/news/mayor-fires-oakland-police-chief-leronne-armstrong

yikes:

This latest Oakland police saga highlights the agency’s revolving door of chiefs, an embarrassment to the department and the community.

Armstrong is the department's 12th chief since 2009.

It's like Doctor Who over there

oakland police are fucking useless (as are berkeley police, as is the DA, as are the city governments).

oakland also got hit by a ransomware attack last week and apparently you can't pay your parking tickets or even call most city offices

from another thread:

re: ranked choice - in the recent Oakland mayoral campaign, it led to the candidate getting the most #1 votes losing to the candidate that got the most #2 votes

― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, March 22, 2023 4:47 PM (yesterday)

and that was a good thing tbh because there were a lot of candidates that had "similar" positions to the winner who split the #1 vote ... the winner was my #3 and I don't think I ranked Taylor?

ranked choice voting has actually made it so more progressive candidates get elected, and I think in the case of ... I forget what year it was, maybe 2010? the candidate that had the most funding didn't get elected because of RCV.

OOhhh boy:

America really needs to do better when it comes to teaching Black history. pic.twitter.com/0lzrdOVwrH

— East Bay Yesterday (@ebyesterday) March 29, 2023

I’m here doing PR for the @OaklandNAACP with @CNN and of course, they get bipped during the interview.

Hate to say it, but it will help the story and end the bullshit “crimes down” lie that the soggies have been pushing to hide their failures.#GothamOakland pic.twitter.com/S8iZmg8nZ5

— Seneca Scott (@SenecaSpeaks21) August 2, 2023

oh no, not a broken window!

tragic

busted windows issues have really escalated though, and it's costly to repair and as a result I try not to even go into areas of Oakland if I have to park on the street. But also: seneca scott is really good as stirring up attention for himself but never once explained why he was photographed with some anti-trans protesters, and also, I'm irritated at the word 'bipping'

Might have been on instagram, but someone was telling me about some guy (in Oakland?) who rolls his back window down, then scatters broken glass on the backseat and street, so it looks like the car was already hit

yeah 'bip' is dumb

He probably got his window busted because someone heard him say "soggies"

Is this NAACP thing related to the Pamela Price recall? Like there was a letter from someone who supported the recall and there were questions

yes the NAACP supports the recall

but I'm not sure what that interview was about