There has been a lot of helicopter activity going down around Uptown Telegraph area tonight and it's still ongoing. Does anyone know if there's some kind of police chase or something happening?

Thanks

"Oakland Education Association has spent over $239,000 to elect a school board majority friendly to the union’s financial interests. Those board members have returned the favor."

"Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is sliding back toward receivership, less than 12 months after exiting two decades of state control. Despite widespread media coverage and public discussion about OUSD’s crisis, few observers seem willing to name the political force that helped drive it to the brink: Oakland Education Association (OEA), the teachers union that has spent years donating to and campaigning for school board members friendly to its financial interests.

"These same school board members — some of whom hail from union ranks and leadership themselves — now oversee OUSD’s labor contract negotiations with OEA, then approve the resulting contracts.

"Reason dictates that this arrangement presents a clear conflict of interest, but OUSD and OEA are by no means outliers. This practice is routine among elected officials and the public unions that donate to their campaigns.

"Notably, public employee unions get much of their funding from union dues paid by public employees through automatic deductions from those employees’ paychecks — meaning that a primary source of OEA’s income is public money provided by taxpayers.

"A curious blind spot"

"Much has been said and written by media outlets, politicians, unions, district staff, and political commentators about the alarmingly dire state of OUSD’s finances. Some have recognized the school board’s apparent unwillingness to do the hard but necessary work of digging Oakland’s schools out of the deep budget hole they now are in.

"Yet virtually all of these influential voices have declined to directly acknowledge the elephant in the room: OEA’s outsized political and financial influence on the school board, and its direct connection to the board’s reckless financial decision-making. Instead there are carefully-worded allusions that hint at, but ultimately obscure this connection, even as it sits in plain sight.

"We can only speculate as to why virtually no one in a position of influence directly calls out this connection. However, it seems likely that several factors are in play:

• Some influential voices may fear being labeled ‘anti-teacher’ and ‘anti-union’ — despite the fact that it is possible, and even healthy, to support teachers and unions while also insisting on fiscal accountability.
• Some — especially politicians — depend on the union for financial support, not to mention the union’s considerable power to deploy its army of members to knock doors and advocate for politicians’ campaigns.
• Others — such as journalists — may feel they need to maintain relationships and access to the union and its supporters in order to get information and quotes for their stories.
• Some may fear potential negative repercussions to their careers and reputations — and even to their emotional and physical well-being — should the union decide to direct its considerable power and public influence against them.

"Here we pause to make one point absolutely clear: we believe unions are important and valuable organizations for protecting workers’ interests.

"Collective bargaining empowers workers to negotiate for fair compensation and safe, supportive working conditions. The list of workplace improvements labor unions have created throughout history is long, and worthy of gratitude and respect.

"We also believe that teachers are part of a noble profession, held in very high regard that is well-earned through centuries of education and enlightenment to which they have dedicated their professional lives.

"These are all good things that we agree with.

"However, it also is a fact that no organization — indeed, no person — is immune from the corrosive effects of outsized power, disproportionate wealth, and overwhelming influence over public affairs.

"Numerous studies provide examples of powerful and influential organizations — including corporations,1 local governments,2 and public employee unions3 — that abuse their power to the detriment of others, and sometimes ultimately themselves and the ideals they once held.

"Proven antidotes to these corrosive effects include public scrutiny, strong and responsible oversight, sound leadership, regulatory checks, and an unwavering commitment to the highest ethical standards throughout the organization and every person involved in it.

"Many organizations do have these guardrails in place, which serve to rein in the innate tendency for power to corrupt an organization.

"Unfortunately, some do not.

"One tactic such organizations employ is to use their outsized power and influence to remove or render meaningless the guardrails that otherwise might check their worst tendencies.

"In an attempt to better understand how this situation came to pass in OUSD — and its profound effect on Oakland’s schools — we will take a closer look at the elephant in the room."

👇️ Full article: https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/the-elephant-in-the-classroom

As an Oakland resident, I'd recommend any touring band should not stop in Oakland unless a band member is watching their equipment at all times.

It's sad to see tourists get their luggage and personal items stolen because they stopped for a quick bite someplace in Oakland.

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Just a friendly reminder to never hand your phone to a stranger. Even if the person seems safe, just don’t do it.

There are other posts about this, but since this happened this past weekend, I thought I’d post my experience.

My boomer aunt and uncle were in town visiting, so we took a walk around the lake. We were taking photos together just past 1200 Lakeshore on the other side of the footbridge.

A dude (probably in his 20s) ran up and offered to take a pic of all three of us. Super friendly, and immediately said we could hold his phone if we didn’t feel safe. My aunt and uncle immediately agreed.

(If you haven’t heard about the scam: the stranger gains your trust and then opens Venmo or CashApp, etc., and sends themselves $1000s while they are pretending to take your picture or entering their social media, etc.)

Anyway, when I politely said no, thank you, and signaled to my aunt and uncle to keep walking, the guy started yelling at me about how my “parents” probably pay my rent and how he “just wanted a piece of that action”. Basically, he knew that I knew what he was about to try with my aunt’s phone.

Stay safe, folks!

They recently introduced a phone based check in system and it’s a mess. Lots of elderly people confused how the process works. This old guy next to me was pleading with his phone AI that the “square thing” isn’t working and getting nonsense platitudes “Ah that’s a QR code! They’re typically used to encode URLs blah blah blah”

The “info” desk was unstaffed and the security guard completely indifferent. I personally helped out a couple of folks but could overhear half dozen more poor souls in multiple languages muttering to themselves aloud about how to get a number, wandering around lost. The more desperate ones jumped into the driving test line to ask for help and the response was repeated gesticulation to scan the poster board and further confusion, taking up more employee time.

Whatever happened to the check in line with the machine that spits out a slip with the number? Evidently you cannot join the line without a smartphone now. The wait times are unchanged from before - 90 mins for me. Sometimes more technology for technology’s sake is not the answer.

PS: repost after being booted from r/bayarea for being off topic

>"The City of Oakland just can’t seem to quit Rebecca Kaplan. After she left elected office, the city gave her a publicly-funded $149,000 per year job – plus benefits...

"Oakland city administrator Jestin D. Johnson awarded her the job as an ‘illegal dumping project manager.’ Johnson hired Kaplan with no public recruitment, no job description, and no public announcement.

"Illegal dumping has been a signature issue for Kaplan since the early days of her political career. City officials have lauded Kaplan for her expertise and work in this area. Yet Oakland’s illegal dumping problems became measurably worse during Kaplan’s 16-year tenure on city council, and today have escalated to become among the city’s most visible, vexing, and expensive crises

"Now the city of Oakland is paying Kaplan handsomely to work as a city employee — out of the public’s view — to ‘project manage’ the consequences of the illegal dumping policies and waste removal contracts she played an outsized role in shaping during her time on the council.

"Before she got her new city job, Kaplan frequently appeared and spoke about her achievements in public, having run for office a dozen times over the past two decades. But since she signed her new city employment contract in September 2025, she has remained remarkably silent in public, and the city has provided no information about Kaplan’s new role and activities.

"This report draws from public records, city documents, independent audits, and media reports to help Oakland Report readers piece together what Kaplan has been doing in her new job — and the path she took to land her new publicly funded employment."

Nonsense from Day 1

I’ve used the Franklin Plaza garage a few times but have read the security there is pretty ineffective, wondering if there’s a better option.

At my building there's a side street where cars park on both sides. We have lots of restaurants/bars so my guess is it's usually folks coming in from other neighborhoods (not residents necessarily). My bedroom window faces this street and I hear bipping every night. I hate it. Not only hearing the smashing & crime happening, the cars squealing, but also hearing the victims come back later crying or yelling about what happened. It's always happened in my neighborhood but it seems to have gotten a lot worse in the last year or two.

Our building put external lights on our side of the street but that doesn't seem to help, even on our side. The other side of the street is mostly dark.

I can never fumble my phone in time to get some grainy video or picture from far away that would ever help anyone. It happens so fast with their getaway cars, and usually in the dark.

I know it's the age old question but what can be done? Is it even worth it to report it every night to try to get attention to our neighborhood? Non-emergency number? Has anyone ever had luck helping their neighborhood in any way?