dogtown commons

If any of you aren’t regular readers of the City Farmer blog, in which an Oakland urban farmer chronicles the trials and tribulations of farming on a vacant lot next to her house, then you’re missing out. From today’s installment:

It’s really Edith who decides when to do the nasty. She will squat down, sort of like a chicken, but laying with her breast on the ground. Then Archie does some puffing and huffing (literally, he makes this airy gulping noise) and circles around her. Then he stands on her wings.

Yes, it’s turkey sex in the ‘hood, complete with dirty pictures. A trip through the archives is well worth the time too.

Since I’ve compared the murder rates of Oakland and Newark recently, I thought I would pass on the sad news that Newark’s long stretch of time without a homicide has ended:

A 43-day stretch without a homicide in Newark — the city’s longest such period in decades — came to an end Tuesday night in front of a bodega in the violence-prone South Ward, where the police said a young man was fatally shot in the head.

This was the longest period of time without a homicide in Newark since 1961, there was a 57-day stretch without any murders.

This Sunday, 60 minutes will air a story on Chauncey Bailey, the Oakland Post reporter killed in broad daylight on 14th Street in downtown Oakland last summer. It sounds like typical television news magazine fare — a dramatic “exclusive” interview with accused shooter Devaughndre Broussard by celebrity anchor Anderson Cooper, with no new information at all. According to a preview article at CBS5’s website, Broussard repeats the same story he has been telling for months — that he was told by Yusuf Bey IV to confess to the murder even though he didn’t do it, and that he will name the actual shooter at his trial. This has all been known since last summer.

Shockingly, Oakland’s Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan gives an on-camera interview alleging that Paul Cobb, the Oakland Post’s publisher, called Chief Wayne Tucker and told him that Bailey was investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery, which led police to bakery members. Whether or not this is true, Jordan knows that Cobb has received several death threats and took them seriously enough to request protection from the OPD. It is outrageous that Jordan would finger Cobb as a “snitch” on national television under these circumstances. (Let’s hope that anyone who might wish to do Cobb harm will be watching the Oscars instead.)

To the credit of KPIX, they led the 11 o’clock news on Friday with a story critical of their corporate parent’s 60 Minutes report. Manny Ramos interviewed Cobb about his anger at Jordan’s claims. Cobb says that he did not provide Chief Tucker with the information, and that the OPD already considered bakery members the prime suspects before they interviewed Cobb. I have no idea whether Cobb told Tucker anything, but I can’t think of any reason for Jordan to go on national TV and say that Cobb pointed the police in the direction of the bakery. Is 5 minutes of TV time with Anderson Cooper worth putting Paul Cobb’s life in further danger for?

By failing to record the conversation between Broussard and Bey in an interrogation room the day after the murder, the Oakland Police may well have hurt the chances of getting a conviction in Bailey’s murder. Jordan’s turn in the national spotlight sounds like a further disservice to Bailey and the city where he built his career.

(The KPIX interview with Paul Cobb can be viewed here at their website.)

UPDATE: The Oakland Tribune also wrote about this in Sunday’s paper.

I was thinking about drive-by campaigning, as I mentioned in a post yesterday. And I was thinking about Ron Dellums’s frequent absences and disappearing acts, and the recall Dellums talk that seems to get louder and louder with every week and month. With drive-bys and Mayor Dellums on my mind, it occurred to me that “drive-by governing” is an apt phrase for what he is trying to do. After all, he did warn us he that wouldn’t be a 24/7 mayor.

I wrote last week about the historical similarities between Oakland, CA and Newark, NJ — and the dramtically different paths they seem to be on right now, with Oakland’s murder rate soaring while Newark’s plummets.

Well, a week later, the contrast looks even starker. While Oakland just had its most violent week of the year, Newark has now gone for its longest stretch without a homicide since 1963 — and the NYTimes article points out that the decline in murders is not only good for the victims, but it has freed up detectives to revisit unsolved cases, which may lead to arrests, which may lead to a reduction of further crimes, and so on:

As the weekend approached, with its promise of gunplay, law enforcement officials said Friday that they had passed a new threshold: 33 days without a murder, the longest stretch since 1963, when there were no homicides for 40 days.

As of last night, there had been two homicides this year; by this time last year, there had been 12. The number of shootings has also decreased, the Police Department said. In 2007, there 99 homicides in the city of 281,000.

In a speech earlier this month, the city’s mayor, Cory A. Booker, said the city would “set the national standard for urban violent crime reduction.”

Since homicide detectives have fewer new investigations to handle, the police said they were using the lull to try to resolve old cases. The Essex County prosecutor, Paula T. Dow, said her investigators were also looking at old cases, with the help of a new federal grant that would allow them to take a closer look at DNA evidence.

“When you keep adding on increased resources, manpower and strategizing, you’re going to reap results in the long run,” Ms. Dow said. By the end of June, law enforcement officials will know better whether a real change is under way, she said. “I’m hoping for the best.”

No one in Newark seems ready to declare any long-term victories yet, but even the most skeptical citizens quoted in the article seem cautiously optimistic. Contrast that with Oakland, where the most skeptical citizens are calling for the mayor’s job, and cautious optimism can hardly be found at all, except among city employees whose job it is to be optimistic.

When the Grand Lake Guardian sounded the alarm two weeks ago that a thrift store chain — Out of the Closet, which supports healthcare for AIDS patients — might take over the vacant GapKids storefront on Oakland’s Lakeshore Avenue, the forces of nimbyism and “progressive” hypocrisy were mobilized. Commenters on the article were almost comical in their self-involvement and fear of the unwashed masses, writing things such as “As a homeowner in this neighborhood, I would like to see the Gap Kids store replaced with something I would actually shop in” and “I have no issue with reuse of goods, but out of the closet usually has a goodwill image.” (A “goodwill image,” in case you can’t read between the lines, means poor and trashy, certainly not the kind of refined clientele that we want in our neighborhood).

While many of the concerns raised are euphemisms like “not a good fit for the neighborhood,” the distaste for poor people is hardly concealed. Local eminence Pamela Drake is quick to distinguish between a used-clothing boutique (desirable) and a thrift store (undesirable), and she says explicitly that she likes thrift stores, as long as they are not in her neighborhood: “As a former owner of a consignment store, there is a big difference between a Goodwill and a consignment shop like Maribel. They are not really in the same category though both promote reuse. I often shop at the Alta Bates Thrift and like it. However, Lakeshore/Lake Park is a very small shopping district. Having a very large store full of dollar bins and possibly junk could tip a delicate balance and discourage new small businesses from investing.”

To be fair, there are a number of commenters who welcome the idea of a thrift store, and who seem to appreciate that vibrant urban neighborhoods depend on socio-economic and lifestyle diversity. Maybe the homeowner quoted above won’t shop in a thrift store, and that’s her prerogative, but did it cross her mind that other people who live in the neighborhood might never shop at a GapKids?

City Council member Pat Kernighan, always responsive to the needs of her constituents, has leapt into action. She wants “a more desirable store” to come to that space. She calls for community meetings and mobilization among citizens to fend off the looming thrift store menace. She informed the site owner’s representative that “a thrift store would not be welcomed by the majority of area residents” (apparently she believes this because she has heard from “15 neighbors” opposed to Out of the Closet, but only “3 neighbors” who support the idea — a very unreliable survey, given that the vast majority of neighborhood residents probably have no idea yet that a thrift store might come to the location). She called representatives of Out of the Closet and says that she “explained that Lakeshore is trying hard to attract more shoppers with disposable income to keep all the stores in business and that a thrift store would lead in the other direction.”

There you have it. Kernighan dispenses with the euphemisms about Out of the Closet not being “a good fit” for the neighborhood, or its “goodwill image,” and she gets to the heart of the matter in no uncertain terms: Thrift stores mean poor people, and “Lakeshore” is trying hard to attract rich people, not poor people. Give her points for being candid about it, at least. The “Keep Oakland Economically Segregated” lobby seems to be as strong as ever.

Oakland, California and Newark, New Jersey have a lot in common; in some ways they are like mirror images of each other on opposite sides of the country. They are both mid-size cities that crouch in the shadow of a larger and more glamorous neighbor across the water. They are both major regional ports. They are both former industrial powerhouses that have suffered in the last half-century as jobs disappeared and many residents fled to suburbs or other cities. They are both known for their social strife and high crime rates. They are both in the middle of major revitalization efforts, especially around their downtowns. And they both have relatively new mayors, Ron Dellums and Cory Booker, who talk idealistically about working with citizens to turn their cities into models for the nation.

So how do Oakland and Newark differ? Well, nobody who currently lives in Oakland will find this description in Friday’s New York Times at all familiar:

NEWARK — Thursday night’s State of the City speech was the annual occasion for Mayor Cory A. Booker to highlight his accomplishments and broadcast his grand plans, but for many here — including, to a significant extent, Mr. Booker himself — the actual state of the city can be summed up in a single digit: 2.

That is how many murders there have been in Newark so far this year, down from 12 at this time last year. And, as Mayor Booker exulted, 109 fewer people were shot last year than in 2006, earning Newark plaudits from a national police executives’ organization.

Mayor Booker, like Mayor Dellums, uses plenty of inspirational rhetoric. Some examples from the Times article are: “In 2007, we kept our focus, we kept our momentum and we continued to march toward what I believe to be Newark’s certain destiny: to be America’s leading city in urban transformation” and “We believe that we will create miracles in our sacred city. Let the world watch us rise.” The Newark Star-Ledger reports that he finished his speech with “I believe, I believe, I believe in Newark.”

But unlike in Oakland, there are signs — preliminary, but real — that Booker might be earning the right to boast. And if the comments on the Star-Ledger’s report are any guide, many Newark residents are feeling pretty optimistic that things really are getting better. Contrast that with the comments on the San Francisco Chronicle article about Dellums’s State of the City address, which are dominated by pessimism and calls for his recall or resignation.

I don’t want Dellums recalled myself, but instead of spending his time chasing Federal funds and campaigning for Hillary Clinton, I wish he would take a close look at what cities like Newark are doing that Oakland isn’t. No one expects miracles or instant results, but more than a year into his term, it would be nice to see something to give Oakland residents a reason to believe.

Is your dream to be surrounded by enormous dwarfs with booze-reddened noses, dwarfs so big and scary that a little girl has to cover her face with fright? If so, then go live your dream at Disneyland!

Single Black Cormorant seeking same. I enjoy sunset swims and diving for fish.

(Photo taken at Lake Merritt in Oakland, back when the skies used to be cloudfree.)

Obama supporters seeking camaraderie, or Edwards refugees seeking a new home, or history buffs keen to see the Last Kennedy Brother Standing, take note: Ted Kennedy’s national tour promoting Barack Obama will be passing through Oakland on Friday:

Kennedy to Host Community Gatherings in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Angeles and Oakland

Chicago, IL - On Thursday, January 31, 2008 and Friday, February 1, 2008 Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) will host “Change We Can Believe In” community gatherings in New Mexico and California. Senator Kennedy will make stops in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico on Thursday and Los Angeles and Oakland, California on Friday.

Details still to come. here:

Beebe Memorial Cathedral
3900 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609

Friday, February 1, 2008
Doors Open: 2:00 p.m.