Oaklanders: Take a Survey on Mayor's Performance (Berkeley, Alameda: extended stay, appointed)

[jade408]

If you are interested, here is a survey sponsored by Oakland Local that will go to the mayor and summarized on their site.
Mayor Quan: 11 months later Survey

[04kL4nD]

Can I not waste my time on this survey and cast my vote to recall her instead?

[jade408]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

Can I not waste my time on this survey and cast my vote to recall her instead?

Haha, I support that too. But the recall campaign will take some time. We'd still have at least 6 more months of Jean Quan before we can get the recall campaign on the ballot. By the time a new election happens there will still be 1 more year of Quan. Better to hope she can at least accomplish something.

[Bulldogdad]

The voters of Oakland have some major perseveration issues.

[18Montclair]

I was so optimistic when she won and I would like to believe that she still might turn things around. 3 Things.

1. I am sorely disappointed with her for not working more closely to meet the needs of Chief Anthony Batts and the OPD. Losing him was a huge loss imo.

2. I give her a pass for everything related to Occupy Oakland. If people are mad that she evicted defiant out-of-towners from crapping all over our city hall plaza and effectively hijacking downtown-then that's their perogative but I dont blame her or the OPD at all.

3. If I were her, I would focus most of my attention on job creation and nothing else. She should be trying to woo employers into town, she should be working on revedelopment and economic expansion. Oaklanders are used to promises and plans, but what we really need is tangible improvements that we can actually see.

[Natural510]

She's more interested in her personal agenda than what is best for the city. I don't see that changing unless her hand is forced to the extreme, such as with the Ogawa encampment.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

I was so optimistic when she won and I would like to believe that she still might turn things around. 3 Things.

1. I am sorely disappointed with her for not working more closely to meet the needs of Chief Anthony Batts and the OPD. Losing him was a huge loss imo.

2. I give her a pass for everything related to Occupy Oakland. If people are mad that she evicted defiant out-of-towners from crapping all over our city hall plaza and effectively hijacking downtown-then that's their perogative but I dont blame her or the OPD at all.

3. If I were her, I would focus most of my attention on job creation and nothing else. She should be trying to woo employers into town, she should be working on revedelopment and economic expansion. Oaklanders are used to promises and plans, but what we really need is tangible improvements that we can actually see.

1. Me, too.

2. If she hadn't waffled, let them back in, waffle some more and very possibly end up costing us more money because of mutual aid responses, I might agree with you. But the head of Alameda Country Sheriffs Department said, since she waffled and let them back in to the Plaza, the next wouldn't be an emergency, and would cost us.

3. I agree, but crime prevention has to be a part of that wooing. And she needs to start up the Jerry Brown vision that Ron Dellums cut off at the knees when he came into office...

And she won't, that why I'm going to be signing the recall petition... and voting for the city council term limit initiative I've heard rumors about.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

1. Me, too.

2. If she hadn't waffled, let them back in, waffle some more and very possibly end up costing us more money because of mutual aid responses, I might agree with you. But the head of Alameda Country Sheriffs Department said, since she waffled and let them back in to the Plaza, the next wouldn't be an emergency, and would cost us.

3. I agree, but crime prevention has to be a part of that wooing. And she needs to start up the Jerry Brown vision that Ron Dellums cut off at the knees when he came into office...

And she won't, that why I'm going to be signing the recall petition... and voting for the city council term limit initiative I've heard rumors about.

I pretty much agree with you on all points.

As far as crime,
LAST NIGHT I was leaving the new Target around the time they close with my mom and sister near the Emeryville border and I was loading bags into my car. I like to park far from the front of the store away from other cars cause I dont like people opening their car doors dinging my car. Anyway, as I closed my trunk I happened to glance across the street towards Best Buy and saw this little 20-something dude walking clutching his bag(I could tell it was a laptop bag) and immediately about 50 yards behind was a larger dude behind him...they were walking in the direction of the extremely desolate area under the freeway overpass that you can drive on to reach Mandela Parkway.

So I got into the car, my eyes fixed on them. They didnt see me. I didnt turn on the car cause I wanted to make sure I wasnt imaging things. The 1st guy turned around and the 2nd guy hid behind a car so the 1st guy didnt see him. So the 1st guy started picking up his pace and quickly disappeared under the freeway underpass--headed right INTO that GHOST TOWN section of Mandela pkwy. So then the 2nd guys gets up and runs into that direction and I knew he was either trying to rob or hurt the 1st guy. We followed them from a distance, my sister was on the phone with 9-1-1 and the idiot operator was being rude(I couldnt believe it).

So as we get closer the 2nd guy seems us and pretend to turn into walk into the parking lot of that extended stay hotel.....but as we turn the corner we see him still staring at the first guy who is noticeably scared, looking around and huffing at an even faster pace.

So I pulled up to the first guy and he looked at us with eyes of death-and I say to him, 'Someone is following you' and he responds in very broken english that he is aware and doesnt know what to do.

So I tell him to get into my car and he immediately does-shaking.

The 2nd guy looked livid and appeared to be running towards us but I simply drove off.

It turns out that the guy we picked up just arrived a few months ago from a foreign country was taking classes at Berkeley city college while living in Uptown with friends. He somehow had gotten off at the Macarthur BART station and walked the wrong way all the way to the Oakland-Emeryville border and was going to walk in a huge circle to get back to Uptown.

So we drove him home.

Otherwise, who knows what would have happened to him.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

So I tell him to get into my car and he immediately does-shaking...

So we drove him home.

Otherwise, who knows what would have happened to him.

Good save, there. Being seen at night with a laptop in a sketchy area is just about the worst predicament one can get into these days. That guy's mucho lucky.

[Ultrarunner]

Good thing you were his guardian angle... I'm sure he will never forget