I’m currently reading Michael Chabon’s latest best-seller, “Telegraph Avenue,” wherein he describes how the construction of the humongous Grove-Shafter freeway back in the 1960s destroyed enormously huge chunks of both north Oakland and Oakland’s downtown. I just drove along parts of that freeway this morning and, OMG, was Chabon ever right! http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/09/michael-chabons-oakland-in-telegraph-avenue.html
The Grove-Shafter freeway, at the time of its construction, was the largest freeway interchange in the world by far — carved right out of the very heart and soul of the City of Oakland. It was humongous. Miles and miles and miles and miles of it — and it’s almost a half-mile high in some parts too. Dominating everything. And this monster freeway that can almost be seen from the moon has been slammed right down into the middle of an extremely densely populated city.
“But, Jane,” you might ask, “what became of all the people who used to live in all those houses that were destroyed and who worked in all those destroyed businesses?” Over 8,000 homes and local businesses were destroyed. “And how did the city ever recover from that, the most high-handed use of eminent domain ever?” you might ask next. It didn’t. The knife of the cruel Grove-Shafter freeway still slices through the heart of Oakland today.
It’s almost like the city’s politicians planned it on purpose, to destroy Oakland’s affordable housing sector and strong working class. “What’s more important, really?” they probably asked themselves, “the lives and hopes of the citizens of Oakland — or getting commuters to San Francisco from Walnut Creek faster?” The answer here is obvious.
And then, according to 2012 Oakland mayoral candidate Arnie Fields, Jerry Brown stepped up to the plate next.
“I want a people-friendly city,” Brown happily declared during his many “We the People” campaign stump speeches for mayor back in 1998. And yet somehow Brown. after being elected on this people-friendly platform, still managed to increase property taxes and assessments (even despite Proposition 13) in working-class West Oakland residents and to run a disastrously huge “blight-removal” campaign there.
And the next thing you knew, retirees in West Oakland who had owned their homes outright for years or working-class heroes who paid their mortgages on time were suddenly being forced into foreclosure because they couldn’t afford to come up with an additional $15,000 or more in taxes on the spur of the moment; or because suddenly their homes (but not homes in the same condition in the more yuppie parts of Oakland) were being condemned for “blight”.
Bye-bye West Oakland. Hello developers and condos. And it didn’t even take a freeway to knock all those houses down.
But still the City of Oakland held on.
And then along came Occupy Oakland in 2011 — and a pro-corporatist police riot was staged that cost Oakland taxpayers approximately three million dollars http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/03/occupy-oakland-protesters-1m-police. So. Where was all this extra money to come from? Perhaps by shutting down even more Oakland schools and dropping the wages of Oakland’s municipal employees? Sounds like a plan.
In 2012, five Oakland schools were closed http://saveoaklandschools.org/2012/06/20/school-closures-by-the-numbers/
And now the City of Oakland just had a one-day strike by its municipal employees, who have been faced with even more economic concessions to the City — none of which are in their favor. Municipal employees have suffered many benefit-package take-aways in the past few years — but have been given absolutely no new perqs. Watch this SEIU video for proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hl6g5nzMw0
But still the people of Oakland hang in there (and please always remember that, in the end, it is only the people themselves who can actually turn a city into a City). And the people of Oakland still have flash and charm too! And there is still a THERE over there in Oakland — despite all its politicians’ herculean efforts to tear out its heart and soul.
PS: And there still is a Chez Panisse here in Berkeley as well, even after a disastrous fire at the restaurant last March destroyed much of its dining area http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2013/06/just-in-time-for-my-birthday-chez.html. I just went there for my birthday. We had apricot ice cream, salmon and squid salad. The squid salad was actually quite good. And the newly-rebuilt place looks just like the old place — except that all the wood and brass are more shiny.
PPS: And speaking of politicians, I just got one of those “What to do about Congress” chain-letter emails, demanding that all congressional representatives receive the same health plans, pension plans, working conditions, etc. that the rest of us do. Sure, why not.
And perhaps we should also demand that our congressional representatives stop getting the same tax breaks that they give to large corporations http://topics.bloomberg.com/the-great-corporate-tax-dodge/ and start getting the same (lack of) tax breaks that the rest of us (don’t) get instead http://forgiveourtaxes.com/
And we also need to pass a Constitutional amendment that our senators and representatives can only be allowed to spend the same amount of money on their election campaigns as the amount of money that average voter in their district earns in a year.
PPPPS: I bet you anything that Edward Snowden could find asylum in Oakland http://www.motherjones.com//kevin-drum/2013/07/nyt-snowden-was-hacker-nsa! That’s how Oakland rolls. People there don’t take any shite. Not any more. They’ve already been through enough.
And if Snowden isn’t happy in Oakland (which has Yoshi’s, the Oakland Athletics, Harborside, Lake Merritt and Fairyland for crissake — how could he not be!), then he’s more than welcome to come seek asylum with me. But, warning, if he does that, he might have to babysit my granddaughter Mena, the Hugging Saint of Berkeley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mai33Z5CQn8. I’m just sayin’. I’d trust him with that.
If Snowden had been alive back in 1776, he definitely would have signed the Declaration of Independence. Hope he had a nice Fourth of July stuck in the Moscow airport alongside of Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock.
Oops, I just tried to post this article on my blog and got a message that read, “Invalid Security Token”. What the freak does that mean? That the NSA doesn’t like Oakland either?
“ . . . do you look in the mirror and wish you had hair? . . .”
Will next year’s defending America’s cup champ be New Zealand?
If the mainstream media is ignoring the plight of the Los Angeles county assessor, the story of how San Francisco taxpayers got hustled by the yachters, and any potential link between a California Senator’s husband and the bullet train that voters don’t seem to want, shouldn’t the World’s Laziest Journalist extend an example of interline courtesy and join with the big names in journalism by blowing off those topics? We won’t harp on the idea that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors seem to be envious of the situation in Marina del Rey that has critics of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors alleging that the unique situation there handed the politicians a cash cow for their reelection campaigns. Mum’s the word. Why spoil the surprise for the voters in the San Francisco Bay Area if they are in for an expensive example of “getting blind sided” (again!)?
There is an old folktale (which we just made up) that tells the story of a columnist from the Leprechaun Journalism tradition, who is driving late at night in the industrial section of a large university town and sees an automobile accident occur. He rushes to the car which is starting to burn and pulls a beautiful damsel from the wrecked vehicle. Since she has magical powers and she doesn’t want to demean his integrity with offers of numerous writing awards, she makes him an offer that cuts to the very core of his being. She says he can either win the lottery but must never write again or he can have a very limited online audience which will include the newsrooms at the New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review, CBS Evening News, and the Berkeley Barb. If he chooses the latter, he will see some of his most unique insights into national politics in rewritten form used by those august news media but he won’t get any royalty checks.
The World’s Laziest Journalist was reminded of that grim fairytale recently when he noticed that Jalopnik ran a story about taking a flight in the Goodyear Blimp and, a week later, another about a taking a flight in a B-17 G WWII bomber. We had written about experiencing both modes of transportation many moons ago while functioning as a staff writer for “Just above Sunset” online magazine.
It might seem foolhardy for a columnist, who can wonder if his newest offering will be read by folks at the Sydney Central Backpack Hostel, a film critic in Great Britain, and the 1961 SPHS Scranton Pa. guy, who is one of the Vice President’s best friends, and, if we send him the link, one of the top editors at Playboy Magazine, to mention the possibility that the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) may go on strike because they would have the Rhett Butler reaction to such a remote labor dispute. If, however, the columnist goes to extensive lengths to provide evidence that bolsters a contention that a continuing effort to bust unions and reduce wages is exemplified by that very local bit of labor strife, then such a hypothetical effort might, at least, get a closer read by the denizens of the New York Times newsroom.
Back when the pundits were discussing the possibility that President George W. Bush would order troops to go to Iraq, some wags mentioned “the Pottery Barn” rule. Now that things in Iraq are spinning way out of control again, we await the resurrection by the war hawks of that principle and a debate about urging President Obama to send some new troops back to Iraq to insure Democracy for the Iraqi people there and to uphold America’s commitment to that country’s freedom fighters.
After noting that Edward Snowden did not seem to reveal any information that was new and heather to, completely unknown by the American public, we have started to wonder if a pundit on the Internets could get into hot water by commenting on facts already known to the American public. There was a small item online that indicated that Snowden had accused America’s Free Press of complete dereliction of duty after 9-11. That story was ignored by the mainstream media.
With all that in mind, the World’s Laziest Journalist is starting to think that it might be prudent to search for other more innocuous tidbits of information that would be much less likely to instigate patriotic American Republicans to bandy about the word “traitor” and the phrase “war criminal.”
Would it be an example of irony if some over zealous American Patriot recklessly labeled Edward Snowden as a war criminal for doing what the lead American Prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trails, Robert Jackson, said must be done when an individual perceives that his country is perpetrating some immoral actions in world affairs?
Wouldn’t a columnist be much better off using items such as the information that the San Francisco Beard Papa outlet is a local franchise for a company in Japan that specializes in French pastry and that they are on the verge of expanding into the Hollywood section of Los Angeles?
Folks who regularly read the material produced by the World’s Laziest Journalist know that the columnist has a high regard for the events that took place 79 years ago when Ernest Hemingway and thousands of troops for the Allied Forces liberated Paris might expect that after he finishes reading Michael Neiberg’s new book “The Blood of Free Mena: the Liberation of Paris, 1944,” a full column review may follow.
This book describes the scoop columnist Alice Moats scored when she sneaked into Paris more than a month before D-Day. Hemingway got much more publicity for claiming that he arrived in the City of Light a day or two before the other soldiers.
Speaking of WWII, fans of the fifty year old novel “Catch-22” will want to consider reading the new book by Patricia Chapman Meder titled: “The True Story of Catch-22” (the real men and Missions of Joseph Heller’s 340th Bomb Group in World War II). The author was the daughter of Willis E. Chapman, who was “Col. Cathcart” and she provides the fact finding keys for the classic war novel romain a clef.
Fans of Heller’s novel may well want to learn all the background information knowing that this new book will increase their enjoyment of the half century old classic and, perhaps, inspire them to go back (to their college days?) and reread Heller’s book.
That reminds us, we should go back and search for the passage that explains how Yossarian bought eggs for a nickel each and sold them for three cents each but still made a profit.
The Occupy the steps of the Berkeley Post Office Building effort was still continuing as this column was being posted.
Recently, we bought a used bargain copy of “Beyond Coincidence” by Martin Plimmer and Brian King. Chapter two, which is a series of examples, opens with a story of a woman in Berkeley CA, who went outside her home and became locked out. While fretting about her dilemma, the postman arrived and handed her a letter from her brother in the state of Washington. He had visited recently and sent the letter to return a spare key he had been using.
Speaking of obscure but influential, one might think that there would not be an example of the concept “an obscure recording by Elvis Presley” but since these are the dog days in the news (and punditry?) business when the Congressional summer vacation means that there won’t be much political news and since Friday August 16, 2013, is Elvis Memorial Day, we’ll try to listen to the laughing version of “Are you lonesome tonight.”
While a performance in Las Vegas was being recorded, Elvis changed the lyrics and broke himself and the band up with laughter.
The musical group Daddy Yankee has posted a video on Youtube for their song about gasoline. Since the anniversary of the day Elvis Presley (supposedly) died will coincide with the publication date for the next World’s Laziest Journalist “the week in the rearview mirror” column, we found that the Elvis track, allegedly proclaimed by Paul McCartney to be the best recording ever by Elvis, had less views than the ditty about what makes cars go. The laughing version of “Are you lonesome tonight” was at the 70,000 hit level when we checked. “Gasolina” has racked up more than 38 million hits.
New words for 2013? How about “selfie”? It means a self portrait and usually referrs to something of the kind of tourist snapshot plus mug shot combined that are posted by young folks on Facebook. It seems like a gimme to think that this word will land on the list of new words for this year.
[Note from the photo editor: The sports world extravaganza known as the America’s Cup Yacht Races is being assessed as a fiasco for this year, but the media is overlooking one important aspect of the minor sports news story: taxpayers in the Bay Area, thanks to some contract lawyers who earned their fees, will be obliged to cover any financial shortfall. News photos of the sporting event may have some stock shot value for political pundits if the citizens ever decide to make a retroactive fuss over the fact they have been hustled.]
“Kim” Hubbard said: “Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.”
Now the disk jockey will play a song that tells the story of Elvis set to music in Bill Parsons’ (Bobby Bare) song “The All American Boy,” Elvis’ saddest song “Old Shep,” and the laughing version of “Are you lonesome tonight.”We have to go see if we can purchase a Kangaroos Football Club t-shirt. Have a “do you look in the mirror and wish you had hair” type week.