Oakland Mayor's Race: Don Macleay Interview #2

Followers of this space will remember that this blogger interviewed Oakland Mayor's Race candidate Don Macleay earlier in the campaign, and for about 20 minutes in front of Merritt Station Cafe at 614 Grand Avenue. But Don wanted to talk again, and this space doesn't refuse such requests. The result is the funniest and most fun of all of the interviews I've conducted thus far.

It is so, because the Green Party candidate who calls himself the "People's Mayor," has a good, natural sense of humor that smooths over a wonkish tendency. That quality makes him accessible across race and class lines. Regardless of how the election turns out, Don Macleay has created a good foundation for his political future.

The Mayor Of 40th Street

Already, Don Macleay is arguably the Mayor of 40th Street, where he lives on 40th and Opal. He's right next to what he calls the "new Temescal Neighborhood." Don owns what could be called a compound on that corner, marked with his lawn sign and another in support of Measure BB. Don's tan building houses his East Bay Computer Services, his apartment, and several other tenant businesses. He moved there in 2008, and has what he calls a "Walk, Bike, neighborhood lifestyle."

Across 40th Street from Don Macleay's home is what he laughingly refers to as his entertainment: a green building housing a laundry business, where "you can buy crack on certain days...This candidate does not live on Skyline Drive." That's a friendly shot at Oakland Mayor's Race competitor Greg Harland, who does live on Skyline Drive.

Unlike the other mayoral candidates, Macleay does not have an office with an adress; he has a "virtual office" with cell phones being the communications and information exchange system. "We have our network in the cloud, Don says. "We work with smartphones. We keep both the company and the campaign on these smartphones."

Darth Vader On The Campaign?

In his first room, Macleay has an interesting collection of "stuff," like a UCLA cup (which should be a Cal cup) and including a Darth Vader helmet because his son's into Star Wars. But that doesn't mean Don thinks there's a Darth Vader in the Oakland Mayor's Race: "I think..A lot of people want to paint Don Perata as Darth Vader and I think he's the standard American politician."

The campaign has "just been great" for Don. He's having a lot of fun going from forum to forum (there were 30 of them) and spreading his message of reform. Don says Oakland Government is not "representative enough." He thinks the Oakland City Council is not accessible to the grassroots Oakland activists and wants to change that.

The Pension Reform Issue

Don says the way to reduce the Oakland Pension Deficit is to cash it out on a sliding scale. "It's the members money. What we have set aside belongs to them, first and foremost." What Don wants to do is to give the pension system members all of their money up front, and then start a new system of pay-as-you-go. He says Oakland's government and unions don't like the idea, but it's one he's ready to go forward with should he become Mayor of Oakland.

The People's Mayor

Our talk continued with a tour of his compound and home. It's a machinist's dream, with all kinds of drills and equipment appropriate for everything from bike repair to metal sculpture. He does all of the unlicensed work on his place himself. Don's also ran a number of businesses and says that his experience "puts me in touch with about 60 percent of the economy."

The Parking Issue And The Greens

This blogger originally met Don when we worked on what was to be an initiative to change Oakland's predatory parking laws and system. One that Oakland PUEBLO said was a violation of an Oaklander's civil rights. He reports that "got him into a lot of trouble with the Greens." But Don says he was able to convince many Green Party activists that the City of Oakland's measures didn't provide a public transit alternative, just worked to feed the city's coffers at the expense of the poor.

"We do not have the transit infrastructure we should," he says, and wants a moratorium on new roads; something he will push for even if he's not Mayor of Oakland.

Don's Mayor's Office and Morale

Unlike many of the candidates, Macleay says he will have the same size of Mayor's Office as present. Rearding organizational structure, Don says he's like to keep Mayor Dellums fundraising system and staff. Overall he sees no need to expand the office, and wants to leave the matter of policy advise to the Oakland City Council.

On Oakland city employee morale, which has been poor for years, Don says he will work to make it easier for Oakland employees to talk freely about what they don't like around them. He also wants to help Oakland employees succeed at their jobs.

Don Macleay Has Matured

In closing, Don Macleay has come a long way as a mayoral candidate. At first, I didn't think he was really serious about winning this thing. But over the past few months, he changed. Don became much more engaged, present, and active as a campaigner. He's honed and refined his message and deliberately positioned himself as more a "man of the people." Macleay's an excellent listener and perhaps has the smallest ego of any of the choices for Mayor. It will be interesting to see how he performs on election day in Oakland.

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Will Have New Patient Care Pavilion

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center held a ground breaking ceremony this week for its new 11-story Patient Care Pavilion on the Summit Campus. This milestone marks the next generation in a 100-year legacy of patient care in the greater Oakland community.

The ceremony was held Monday at 400 Hawthorne Ave., the former site of Samuel Merritt University’s Bechtel Hall.

Nearly a decade in the making, this project includes 238 new, private patient rooms, a new Emergency Department and a new 1,000-space parking garage - all designed to meet or exceed state seismic safety requirements.

The $350 million dollar project is funded completely by Sutter Health and Alta Bates Summit Medical Center - with no cost to local taxpayers - as a commitment to health care in the greater East Bay.

This project merges state-of-the-art technology in a what they call a "calming and healing environment" that will continue Alta Bates Summit’s 100-year tradition of providing quality patient care.

The new Patient Care Pavilion will become the focal point and the main entrance of the Summit Campus. The aesthetic of the building is representative of the health care within – modern, transparent and technologically advanced in a calming and healing environment.

"We're extremely proud that we can bring this important addition to health care in our community and very fortunate to be able to build this project" said Kyle Hansen, the Assistant Administrator at Alta Bates Summit. "This is a positive and new element to our Summit Campus – one the entire community can benefit from in its state-of-the-art technology, family friendly and healing environment."

The project includes a new 250,000-square-foot Patient Care Pavilion with 238 private rooms that are family-friendly and offer panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay, downtown Oakland and the neighboring hills. A team of patient care professionals helped design the rooms, the flow of patients throughout the pavilion and the integration and location of vital new technologies like electronic health record, patient monitoring and electronic registration.

The new 21,000-square foot Emergency Department will provide a new and improved location and entrance, replacing the current Merritt Pavilion main lobby. It will include 30 beds, is located adjacent to the new pavilion, is closer to critical care and surgery, is revamped to streamline patient flow and will enhance patient care.

"The Patient Care Pavilion will create 500 construction jobs and assures 2,000 health care jobs in Oakland," Hansen said. "Today celebrates our successes, our dedicated staff, our heritage and allows us to move forward in caring for our patients."

The project established a very early commitment to green design and sustainability by adopting the City of Oakland’s initiative toward the Green Guide for Healthcare as well as surpassing many of the energy and power regulations set forth by the State of California. Hallmarks of the project include a recycled demolished Bechtel Hall, energy efficient appliances, and more green space. 

2010 World Series Giants vs Rangers - Traveling Tips For Texans

Today is the first game of the 2010 World Series and I hope you're as excited as this blogger is. To you Texans from the DFW Metroplex, welcome to the San Francisco Bay Area. (For those of you who don't know, "DFW Metroplex" refers to the metropolitan area that includes the two large cities of Dallas and FTWorth Texas, with Arlington in the middle, all served by DFW Airport.)

 Here's some tips for you visiting Texans. (And a special welcome to anyone who attended the University of Texas At Arlington, where my undergrad degree was earned before going to Cal Berkeley for my Master's Degree In City Planning.)

Now, this: the San Francisco Giants are going to kick The Texas Rangers ass. Cliff Lee doesn't stand a chance against two-time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum. Still, it's a dream match-up. Here's my tips for enjoying your stay.

First, don't rent a car. I don't mean to take money out of their pockets, but you don't need a car to get around San Francisco. Take a cab. Use Yellow Cab. DO NOT USE the white LUXOR CAB - their service is awful. Yellow Cab's the best in San Francisco. Period.  Also, use a limo and transportation service.  I recommend San Francisco's Bauer's Transportation at 1-800-LIMO-OUT.

Second, there are a lot of restaurants in San Francisco and everyone has their favorites.  Next to AT&T Park is Momo's Restaurant on the corner of Second and King Street - you can't miss it.  The pastas and steaks are good as are the cocktails, but get there five hours before the game - it's going to get packed.  Plus, forget reservations.  Too late for that.

There's also 24 Restaurant, also right at the Ballpark.  If you can't get in to Momo's, go here.

My favorites are also The Balboa Cafe on Fillmore and Union in the Marina District, where Brian's a Giant's expert of the first tier and should be working tonight.  The Brick Yard's on Union Street next to Union and Octavia.  Downtown is The Royal Exchange on Sacramento and Front Street - the best and classic San Francisco sports bar.  

Around the corner of Front Street on California Street is San Francisco's oldest restaurant, Tadich Grill.  And next to it, are the twin restaurants Barbaco and Prebaco with excellent food and wine.   As I stated, everyone has their faves, but I like those.

Then come to Oakland, and eat at The Lake Chalet on the waters of Lake Merritt - a cool setting for a meal after the game.  If anyone tells you anything bad about Oakland, laugh at them.

At The World Series, Behave

Finally, please be nice to everyone.  And male SF Giants fans, please do not throw beer bottles at people and be nice to everyone.  Don't get drunk and stupid.

GO GIANTS!

Oakland Mayor's Race: Joe Tuman Interview

Oakland Mayor's Race candidate Joe Tuman and this blogger met last Thursday at Merritt Station at 614 Grand Avenue for this interview. It came at a time when Tuman, like this week, is riding a high of name recognition thanks to Grand Lake Theater Owner Allan Michaan, and a powerful word-of-mouth campaign on the part of people who've met Tuman.

The kind, seemingly mild-mannered San Francisco State Professor of Communications has changed the climate of the race from what some have seen as a three-person battle in ten candidates, to a four-person contest among the same field.  Tuman did this even with a late start in the campaign.  He says the campaign  is still "going well.  We managed to get a co-endorsement from the East Bay Express, and a second-place endorsement from The Oakland Tribune.  It was a good boost," Tuman said.  "I don't think people vote on the basis of newspaper endorsements. But it has added to the buzz around the campaign."

Tuman vs. Matthai Kuruvila and The SF Chronicle

On the subject of newspapers, Tuman and I briefly talked about the little feud between San Francisco Chronicle "Reporter" Matthai Kuruvila. The issue from this blogger's perspective is that Kuruvila has upset a number of the campaigners with a form of coverage that reveals a bias not expected for a "reporter." He's only talked to some, not all, of the persons running for mayor, openly expresses his opinion even by body language as he did in the San Francisco Chronicle Board Meeting with Tuman, and when he does blog - in this case in an attack on Tuman, the effort is intellectually sloppy at best.

The best Oakland political reporter was The Oakland Tribune's Kelly Rayburn (who's in law school now), who kept his personal views to himself and was a consummate professional - such cannot be said for Mr. Kuruvila. Moreover, Kuruvila is crossing over into territory reserved for the legendary San Francisco Chronicle Columnist Chip Johnson. Tuman had enough.

While Joe will not say Matthai has a bias against him, he's "If not hard on me, maybe harder on me, and a little dismissive," Tuman said. But. I've talked to him about that and I take him at his word when he says he treats everyone the same. But, in all honesty, sometimes it hasn't felt that way."

The Campaign's Progress

Tuman says his numerous house meetings have "Gone great. I don't know what number we're at. Sometimes it seems like we do one every night or every other night. Sometimes we have several in one day, like on Saturday I did three." Tuman says the house meetings are all over Oakland, both the hills and flatlands, and the response has been "uniformly good."

Allan Michaan and Parking

Tuman got a real significant elevation in visibility from Grand Lake Theater Owner Allan Michaan, who  used his marque normally reserved for movies and anti-war announcements, to say that Oaklanders should vote for Tuman.  The reason is that Tuman's openly adopted Michaan's call for an end to Oakland's predatory parking enforcement system, even to the point of saying he would "phase it out" and do away with the parking machines.

Tuman observed, "I could run on a platform that says 'Let's do away with the boxes that spit out the white pieces of paper that fit in your dashboard,' and I'd get all the votes."  Tuman says he's not opposed to charging for parking, but he wants to make it, over the long term, free "only for a couple of hours," and says, again echoing Michaan, that the parking rates should be "around $20 or $30," and not the $60 to $80 they are at now.

Tuman Against Measure BB

Measure BB, if passed, would rehire the 63 neighborhood officers responsible for crime prevention on the Oakland police force. In Adams Point, Hong Bahn has served as one of those officers and has done an incredible job. This blogger's in favor of Measure BB; not Tuman. Tuman says he's in favor of the programs that BB puts money into, like Youth Uprising, but is in opposition to the measure because it does not address the reason Measure Y, which it modifies, was passed which was to serve both the desires of those who wanted more beat police, and those who wanted more money for after school programs.

Tuman says that Measure BB is a way for the Oakland City Council to get around the problems of Measure Y, where the City failed to meet its obligations to that program.

What happened was that Oakland did essentially raid Measure Y money and use it for other services - what Tuman calls a "bait and switch" - while police were laid off, and failed to conduct a good program audit. (While I disagree with the logic in not wanting Measure BB, the interview is Tuman's platform, not mine to disagree with him.)

Tuman objects to the idea of a "fix" and wants Oakland to live up to its obligations.

The Tuman Mayor's Office

The conversation turned away from that, and to what kind of Mayor's Office Tuman would have if he won. What I mean is style and structure. Anyone can talk about policy issues, but what separates the wonks from the leaders is a knowledge of how to form a managerial and organizational structure that can effectively push policy through to adoption, improve city service delivery, and fill the giant leadership vacuum that exists in the Office of The Mayor (and something Oakland City Attorney John Russo and I talked about in an interview earlier this year.)

Tuman says he does not want a large staff or for that matter a security detail. He says he'll drive himself around Oakland "or ride my bike."  Tuman wants to appoint a new city administrator, and bring that person into the Mayor's Office, essentially fusing the City Administrator's Office into the Mayor's Office.
He will then set times with the City Council - separate meetings where they bring "a punch list" of things they need to get done.  "I want them to let us manage the bureaucracy."  Tuman wants control of the city staff to get things done.

As to the City Council, as a note, Joe says Councilmember Desley Brooks (District 6) has endorsed him.  But in full he says he can "count to four" City Council votes, and in time will be able to "count to five."  Moreover, Tuman will attend all City Council meetings, much as Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris did during his tenure.

Should Oakland Sue The Oakland A's

Tuman's not in favor of using the legal process against the Oakland A's, which seems to be threatening to leave Oakland every year, as he thinks it just encourages them to try harder to do so.  But suing the City of San Jose is something Tuman's willing to consider, as that municipality has worked to try to take the A's away from Oakland, interfering with contracts between the parties in the process.

Tuman says he will be a friend to all of Oakland's sports teams, but does not want to give away public money to retain them.  But he does leave tax increment revenue as an exception because of it's market  generated nature.    

Tuman The Candidate

Overall, Tuman expresses a very good feel for the issues, politics and, management of The City of Oakland, and has come a very long way in a very short time.  Give his website - Joe4Mayor.com - a study as well as this video and learn about all 10 of the candidates, too, before you make a decision (if you've not voted already).

Oakland Mayor's Race: Marcie Hodge Sues East Bay Express

Oakland Mayoral Candidate Marcie Hodge is suing the East Bay Express over articles and blog posts the Perata Community College Board Member and her family asserts have been defamatory.

Prior to a wide-ranging video interview, where the Oakland Mayor's Race candidate talks emotionally about the East Bay Express coverage in addition to her run, Hodge explained and later confirmed for the record that her sister, a lawyer, filed a lawsuit in Alameda County specifically targeting the East Bay Express.

What triggered the lawsuit was "the last straw:" last week's entry by East Bay Express writer Robert Gammom asserting that Hodge had been violating campaign laws; Hodge told this blogger her campaign finance report would be filed this week. This is what Robert wrote:

Finally, it should be noted that mayoral candidate Marcie Hodge has yet to file a campaign finance report as required by law during the election. Hodge has spent significant sums on billboards, mailers, radio spots, and now TV ads. Several black leaders in Oakland believe that Perata supporters are bankrolling her campaign in an effort to siphon votes from Kaplan and Quan. Hodge has denied getting help from the ex-senator and said she loaned herself a large donation, but it’s unclear where she got the money, because she reported having no job, no income, and no investments on her official financial disclosures in August.

Records show that Hodge also has a history of not filing campaign finance reports disclosing her donors until several months after the election is over — a blatant violation of state and local law.

Marcie says that Robert has "never once" called her to confirm what he wrote, Gammon just wrote it. Moreover, Marcie angrily holds that Gammom's overall coverage of her has been sexist and racist, from asserting that her campaign was "baffling," to claiming that "black leaders" were questioning her campaign without naming a single "black leader" by name or providing Internet link evidence in the form of another article or blog post.

And before last week, on September 29th, Gammon ran a blog post that used a so-called quote by Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks (District 6 - Central East Oakland) saying Hodge was "dumb as dirt," but without a link to the interview or a video presenting the quote.

Indeed, in the overall review of Gammon's work on Marcie Hodge, it seems he's taken a line against her that walks on the edge of acceptability. If Brooks went on the record with Robert, that's different my miles. But she did not go on the record with him and Gammon presents no video or audio evidence, yet uses Councilmember Brooks to write a smear against Hodge. It's that kind of work that sent Marcie and her sister to court against the East Bay Express.

In our interview, which, to restate, will be out on video later today, Hodge says she does not know Don Perata well at all and has no ties to him, and resents the notion that she's a "plant for Perata."

Hodge said to me, almost tearfully, that it's as if Gammon's saying that she as an African American woman from an educated family can't be taken seriously in running for Mayor of Oakland.

Gammom's problem, in looking at this, is a really cavalier and brazen and unfortunate line he's taken that does not include actual quotes from people he actually got to go on the record.  

Gammon places himself and the East Bay Express in the position of possibly losing in court - and big. In the case of the "dumb as dirt" statement Gammon claims Brooks made, there's no Internet record of such a statement other than what he wrote and the angry reactions of Express readers.   Gammon should hope that Brooks comes to his defense.   Indeed, this blogger already called Councilmember Brooks office to confirm that statement.

Not a good situation at all.

Stay tuned.

Oakland Mayor's Race: Greg Harland Pissed Off With Jean Quan

In this installment of The Oakland Mayor's Race Chronicles, this blogger just received a call from Oakland Mayoral Candidate Greg Harland, and boy did he have a lot to say on the record.

First, Harland was really pissed with something he thinks was written by Bob Gammon of The East Bay Express, but appears on the The Anybody But Perata Website, which is written and managed by J. Douglas Allen-Taylor.  This is it:

Greg Harland Reverses Field, Now Says Perata Is His Second Choice For Mayor Of Oakland

Oakland mayoral candidate Greg Harland has suddenly changed his position on Don Perata, telling voters at a Thursday night candidates forum at Holy Names College that Perata is now his second choice for mayor of Oakland.

Harland said he felt Perata had the experience and was "well-qualified" to become Oakland's next mayor.

With all Oakland voters getting second and third choices for mayor this year in the city's new "ranked choice" voting format, candidates at the forum were asked who their second and third choices would be on the ballot.

Harland's position on Perata is a marked change from his position only a month ago. At the September 14 Oakland Climate Action Coalition mayoral debate at the Oakland Museum, Harland said that Perata was "not the candidate for Oakland," adding that Perata's front-runner status in the campaign was only due to "name recognition," which Harland implied was a poor way to pick a city leader. "If Charles Manson came to Oakland and ran for mayor, he'd beat us all out," Harland said.

Earlier in the campaign, Harland was one of the few mayoral candidates to offer specific criticism of Perata...

Harland has offered no explanation as to his abrupt change of opinion of Perata, or his change of tactics in now repeatedly attacking Perata's closest competitors in the mayor's race.

Ok, fine. Frankly, what appeared above is much ado about nothing to this blogger's view. But Harland wants you to know he's not altered his position and says that his ranked choice is Harland, Don Perata, and then Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan (At-Large). And in fairness to Greg, Perata was always his second choice, even with the criticism of him.

But again, so what. The big deal is Greg Harland just goes off about Councilmember Jean Quan (District 4 - Oakland Hills, Montclair) in his conversation with me. Greg said I could quote him on the record, so here it is and there's more: Harland thinks openly that Quan would be a disaster as Mayor of Oakland. He characterizes her as mean and vindictive, and uses an episode at the Oakland Rotary Club as one example.

About a month ago, Greg claims he was invited to The Rotary Club to speak, but as he said to me "there's Jean walking around with Sue Piper (her very good assistant) and placing things on the tables. Then a person representing The Oakland Rotary Club comes to me and says 'Jean Quan's here so we are going to give her a few minutes to speak.'" Harland said he was going to leave, but was encouraged to stay.   Quan talked for over her given time and into his, so he quietly protested and The Oakland Rotary tapped Quan on the shoulder to get her to give up the podium.  She did so.

Then Greg tells the story of how Jean, he claims, threatened to "come after him" if he failed to tell the truth about her impact on the Oakland Unified School District.  Harland writes this on his website:

I’ve been asked many times whom I would recommend for my second choice on the ballot. Jean Quan has said this is a contest only between her and Don Perata, and the other eight candidates are not even in the race. That might be true but for over thirty forums, I’ve listened to Jean Quan present her twenty years of service to the city, 12 on the OUSD School Board and 8 on the Oakland City Council. She says while on the OUSD School Board, she raised teachers’ salaries and hired more teachers to reduce class sizes. When I checked the records, I found that was true: she did raise teachers’ salaries, almost 24%, in addition to hiring more teachers to reduce class sizes.

And all of that would be laudable, except for the fact that it took the school district into such a deep bankruptcy that they couldn’t actually find the bottom. The result was they had to lay off 330 teachers and counselors, and 260 staff. To this day she refuses to accept responsibility for this and blames it on the state, which came in and rescued the district with a 100 million dollar loan. Jean then went on to greener pastures, and ran for City Council.

During her tenure on the City Council, in 2004 and 2005, she voted for the police and fire salaries and pensions that we’re choking on today. Now she demonizes them, saying the police should pay their pensions just like all the other unions. In addition, she showed up at the second Oscar Grant protest and participated in obstructing the police when they tried to disperse the crowd. In light of all of that, how could she possibly sit across the table in negotiations with the police, and ask them to do the right thing? Negotiations take credibility and good will.

The simple fact Harland spent that much time on Quan gives you a good idea of how he feels.  At one point in our talk this morning, I said "Greg, you're being mean to Jean."  Greg said, "Me?  What about her?  F-her."

This little feud has gone on for a while.  One time, Greg says that Jean came up and threatened to take down his lawn signs.  (Frankly, it's hard to write that without laughing.)  Harland says Quan bullies him, or at least tries to from his perspective.

Wild.  But lest you think Quan's not the only mayoral candidate he's got an issue with, he also mentions that Joe Tuman "steals the ideas of other candidates," and that's a claim which first came from Terrance Candell months ago.   Joe does have a habit of not attributing ideas to a source, but he's smart enough to at least adopt the right ideas.

For example, in my video interview, Joe says he wants to go back to chalking tires to mark parked cars, rather than the electronic crap we've got now and the predatory parking practice the city established.  That's awesome.  But the idea was  Grand Lake Theater Owner Allan Michaan's, not Joe's.   What I said to Greg on the phone is that as long as Joe's listening to the right ideas, who cares?  But that's me, not Greg or Terrance.  Heck, they can't take some of his ideas.

But he goes on.

Harland claims that Tuman's idea for police early retirement was originally Rebecca Kaplan's.  What's interesting is that some of Rebecca's supporters have massively hammered Joe for what was Kaplan's idea!

Too funny.

But guess who escapes this mayoral candidate infighting without a mark in Greg's view?  Don Perata.  Harland says that of all the candidates, Perata is the one who's not changed his position.  Now, Harland may not have paid attention to the whole Public Ethics Commission issue, where Perata first said he would abolish it, then said he would retain it.  But that's a little detail there of little importance, right?

Closing on the matter of Harland and Quan, the after the campaign is over, the two of them should tell their significant others to go on vacations, then get together and have great post-campaign sex. Considering the way they've screwed each other before the election, it's a great way to finish after it.

Stay tuned.

Oakland City Council Election: Precinct Walking For Libby Schaaf

With just over one week before the election, this blogger went precinct walking for family friend Libby Schaaf, who's running for the Oakland City Council District 4 seat (Oakland Hills - Montclair). I told Libby she should run for Mayor of Oakland long ago, but she's taking the step-ladder approach. If elected, and she really deserves your vote, she's going to make an excellent Oakland councilmember, but we've got to go door-to-door to do it. I've got to admit, it was fun.

What was most enjoyable was meeting the people who make up the area around the Montclair Shopping District. We started with a coffee-table meetup at Montclair Park, led by Oakland Councilmember Jane Brunner, who gave us a good pep talk to get us going. More along the lines of what to say and not to say, than anything else. Meanwhile, a group of joggers went on their circuit, and people were just getting out to run errands. We were on our way.

A Lot Of "Joe Tuman For Mayor" Signs

This is just a fact: there were more "Joe Tuman For Mayor" signs around the area we canvased than for anyone else running for office at any level. Period. To write a blog post without noting that would be dishonest. On that note, Clinton Killian, Libby's challenger, also has some lawn signs visible, thanks to his supporters. It's great to see that Oaklanders are really engaged in this election, and even more so than I expected.

A Team Talk

We - Libby's parents Bob and Barbara Shock, and myself - had a strategy where Barb would take one side of a street, and Bob and I the other. Since Bob's more like your kindly grandfather, I felt it was better for him to do the knocking while I was on hand for background information. That teamwork succeeded in launching into conversations about what the voters wanted in a councilperson.

The best quality for the new councilmember is to be effective: to be able to take action to fix the streets and roads of the neighborhood. That calls for a feel for Oakland's City Hall and a knowledge of who to contact to handle a problem. The second quality is to be able to listen, and carefully, and for a long time. I can comfortably say Libby has both qualities and our job was to share that view with the people we talked to.

The Sprinkler

The Saturday walk was not without its interesting developments and mishaps.  There was the large live turkey in a person's backyard and visible from the road.  That thing must have been three feet tall!  Seriously.   That was one big turkey.

Then there was the sprinkler.  Someone had their sprinkler set such that when you walked up their walkway to ring their bell, the water sprinkler, pointed at the path, would shoot a spray of water at you.  That happened to me, and thank God I'm fast enough to dodge the stream or I'd have gotten pretty wet.  Check out the video!

Folks, if you are not home, turn off the auto-sprinkler, or if you don't want to be visited by precinct walkers, put up a sign. It will be honored. But the sprinkler in my face? Not cool, but one of the hazards of doing a good deed of that kind.

Stay tuned.