OAKLAND

this guy's coming to get me

www.portofoakland.com

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre700/e709/e70966j73o0.jpg

The employees had a rental truck filled with the safe and the jukebox (?).

It reopened after a year but I never went back.

Basically I

East Bay Booksellers is better than Moe's? no way!

(the best bookseller in the EB is undoubtedly Jeff Maser, imho-- but it helps if you have a grand on hand because he mostly sells very nice and rare editions. if you give him an email he will welcome you into his warehouse, it's astonishing!!)

Maser’s is around the corner from the old SPD space— if you look at his catalog, it is fucking insane.

honestly i only ever went to Moe’s to look in the used poetry and fiction— but those sections have tons of small press stuff.

yeah I’ve only seen those at the Pegasus on Shattuck. But honestly there are more than a few bookstores in the EB I haven’t visited so I really should zip it!!

Maser’s is around the corner from the old SPD space— if you look at his catalog, it is fucking insane.

it's on camilla street not far from picante on 6th. I have not gone to peruse that warehouse, but the website gives me Serendipity Books vibes (I wonder if he got a lot of their collection?)

My friend the bookstore vet absolutely hates the East Bay Booksellers people haha. I'm not sure it's fair but I enjoy his bitterness about them. They basically built their whole operation on two very generous gofundme efforts. I'll never turn my nose up at a new bookstore but I'm not sure that one has legs.

lol I mean it figures, I obviously know little of which I speak

I hope they succeed. That stretch of College has needed a destination spot for as long as I can remember.

Vet as in veterinarian?

That’s a cool concept… people can take their pets in and then browse/buy books while they wait.

vet as in veteran, like he's worked at a bookstore for 20 years or so

8 years ago...

https://i.imgur.com/7cEksfw.png

https://i.imgur.com/HM0D708.png

I can go on at great length about the City’s problems and failures and how 8 years later, the things the City said they would do to prevent another G.S. … have not happened.

I strongly suspect the reason the City settled the families’ lawsuit is because there is a lot of damaging shit the City did that they don’t want getting out.

fuck

On brand response:

A little after 4 a.m., a robbery occurred at It Iz What It Iz smoke shop in the 2400 block of San Pablo Avenue. Responding officers learned a group of people drove at least one vehicle into the smoke shop to enter. The suspects shoplifted multiple items and then fled into a vehicle(s).

The smoke shop’s manager, Elissa, said the thieves didn’t make it out with much. “Some kids came and drove a car through the store — took some fake Jordans,” she said.

the cannabis shop in the old Parkway Theater now has these massive blocks of concrete in front of the doors

this will spawn a new form of defensive architecture.... retail won't have street level doors anymore, but a tunnel under the front wall to enter

The special election campaigning is getting super gross

seneca scott needs to GTFO of oakland. loren taylor has not done himself any favors by being linked to that guy; he finally distanced himself last week but it reflects poorly on him that it took that long.

I've heard accusation of ballot harvesting?

a very nervous canvasser for Kara Murray-Badal asked if I'd already filled out my ballot

I am getting daily texts from “Maybe Loren Taylor” … kinda feel like Barbara is taking me for granted…

But it’s like they each have groups supporting them that are doing super negative ads against the opponent that aren’t doing them any favors like
Taylor is funded by Trump supporters! Vote for Barbara Lee
Barbara Lee supported corrupt former mayor Thao and is also corrupt and used tax dollars to go on extravagant vacations! vote for Loren Taylor!

I seriously wish that the rich fuckers paying for these ads were required to contribute money to city services at the same rate as they fund these shitty mailers.

a very pro-labor buddy (actually a union organizer) is telling everyone to vote for Lee... but.. we had Ron Dellums, this is not a city where you can settle back into a sage 'emeritus' position and I'm afraid that's what will happen with Lee

It’s really a question imo of whether Taylor would be better or worse than another Dellums … like the factions now are saying Lee would be too beholden to unions and Taylor is too beholden to Developers and corporate interests

I wish there was a good third candidate. I can't stand either of these two frontrunners.

i mean I loved Lee in congress, she did a great job representing the interests of her constituents, but she in no way belongs in the mayor's seat of a city that has a million and a half problems and a history of corruption. hate to be ageist but she is frankly too old for this.

It's not even an issue of ageism for me... imo she is using this position as a platform for national politics. She's campaigning against Trump far more than she is against Taylor's positions.

Any politics nerds know the reasoning why Lee is 88% favored to win in elections markets but news outlets showing Taylor in lead after multiple rounds?
Is there some dynamic to the remaining rounds of ranked choice that favor Lee, like most people who voted for an outlier candidate still prefer Lee?

I have no idea.
I mailed my ballot on April 15th because my local polling place was not open to drop it off - in fact, very few were - so I think there's gonna be a lot of mail-ins still coming in

i think the sense is that progressive voters voted absentee and later, or at least that's what I read.

FWIW there are not miles of daylight between Lee and Taylor, policy-wise.

yeah, I actually voted for both of them

Lee has won

This situation with Eli's sounds like a clusterfuck.

"“You remember Ghost Ship? This is Ghost Ship again"

https://sfstandard.com/2025/05/07/elis-mile-high-club-patio-illegal-claims

lol at that guy:

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/burningman/article/Burning-Man-Alameda-building-equipment-fines-13851981.php

I've heard about Eli's patrons throwing garbage over the fence, but I haven't been there in quite awhile.. seems like it's barely open these days

i haven't been there since the 90's

Loved that bar, will always love that bar. The day after Ghost Ship, that was where everyone went to gather and mourn together. A lot of good memories there.

I spent many hours going through the building records and permit history for Eli’s … the City is doing it’s customary thing where they find a legal violation and then add bullshit violations that end up distracting the operator/owner/tenants from dealing with the real problem.

The noteworthy thing is that the Oakland Fire Department has not cited it … so it is far from Ghost Ship …

Late checkin but if anyone is going to see Slowdive at the Fox tonight, maybe I'll seeya there!

someone come save me, it's a mad-max style hellscape

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14817899/Oakland-California-street-car-sideshows-fire-cops.html

I think Oakland still hasn't learned the lesson that SF finally (I think, maybe?) has learned. What good is Barbara Lee going to do for it? I liked her in congress, but Oakland is falling apart, and at this point I think she's just another self-serving national politician not really interested in fixing its problems.

I don't know, maybe Oakland should have elected Loren Taylor as mayor instead? We'll see. The city needs some tempering and moderation, that's for sure

I don't really think either of them can fix the city's budget problems.

Dan - one of my best friends and I agreed that Barbara would likely be the same kind of mayor as Dellums was … we lived here for Dellums. He voted for Barbara based on feeling the alternatives were worse

ranked choice brought us Sheng Thao

Were you a Loren Taylor voter?

I honestly don't understand why people like ranked choice voting.

I did vote for Loren Taylor.. twice

I like Barbara Lee but as I said upthread, I'm worried she views this as an emeritus landing pad (like Dellums)... but we shall see, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now