Jerry Brown 2010 blogs

Litquake Begins

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 17:32:00 -0700

Litquake--the West Coast's pre-eminent literary arts festival--kicked off Friday night at San Francisco's Herbst Theater with readings from and by Bay Area writers.

The night marked the 50th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's reading of the poem "Howl" at the Six Gallery--a legendary event in what subsequently became known as the San Francisco Renaissance

At last night's event, I shared the stage with writers Michael McClure, Armistead Maupin, Amy Tan and actor Peter Coyote for readings that focused on local writers. Naturally, I read an excerpt from one of Jack London's works. He not only lived in Oakland but ran for mayor twice.

Are We Ready for the Big One?

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 15:12:37 -0700

In the wake of the awesome damage Hurricane Katrina unleashed on the Gulf Coast this month, the City of Oakland has joined many other communities across the nation in offering emergency personnel, food and supplies to the victims of this disaster.

Oakland rescue workers are already on the ground in the affected areas and have been active in rescue operations. Allen Temple Baptist Church and Acts Full Gospel Church are leading local churches in a sustained effort to aid those left homeless. Bay Area health care professionals have also answered the call for help and are streaming into the Gulf region as needed.

Let the Sun Shine on Politics of Global Warming

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 12:45:20 -0700

This week I threw a switch that activated California’s largest corporate solar power installation, a system that will provide 80 percent of the energy supply for the FedEx hub at Oakland International Airport. FedEx’s system, designed by the PowerLight Corporation, will reduce the load on our power grid and is an important step in the struggle for energy independence and greenhouse gas reduction.

In Washington, of course, there is little urgency about either energy efficiency or global warming. Today’s automobile fuel efficiency has not improved in decades, nor has America lessened its dependency on foreign oil. Do the politicians in charge even care that California drivers are now paying 71 cents more per gallon than they were a year ago?

Despite the obvious dangers of foreign oil dependency, the possibility of irreversible climate disruption is even more ominous. Oil dependency can cripple our economy and plunge us into resource wars. Global warming can radically alter weather patterns with catastrophic consequences.

LA Inaugural

Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:41:21 -0700

On Friday I attended the inauguration for Antonio Villaraigosa, the new Mayor of Los Angeles. It was a beautiful day. In addition to such luminaries as Jesse Jackson, David Hasselhoff, Warren Christopher and Cardinal Roger Mahoney, thousands of ordinary Angelenos filled out the south lawn of city hall and cheered their new mayor. I had the honor of swearing in the City Controller, Laura Chick.

Mayor Villaraigosa was interrupted several times by applause as he hammered away on his four main themes: crime, schools, traffic and environment.

Undoubtedly, Mayor Villaraigosa will soon hire more cops and persuade the leadership of L.A’s schools to make improvements in the learning environment that now leaves so many behind. Nevertheless, dramatic improvements on both fronts will be held hostage to our national policy of neglect at home in favor of over-extension abroad.

As the Bush presidency winds down, mayors in every major city will have a unique opportunity to increase their presence on the national stage. They directly witness the deteriorating quality of life in urban America and can help re-energize a domestic agenda, emphasizing investments in those places left behind in the grand march of globalization.

With respect to transportation and the environment, much of the solution lies at the state and national levels. Here is where the funds are to support public transit, clean fuels and road improvements we desperately need. Certainly cities can do much on the environmental front. Yet, with China and India building hundreds of new coal plants and Bush denying Global Warming, big changes will have to occur in Washington before we make lasting progress.

So all the best to the new mayor of Los Angeles. May he act locally with great success and join other mayors from throughout the country in a renewed push to recapture at the national level the dreams he articulated so well on the steps of the Los Angeles city hall.

Update

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 15:44:37 -0700

Fourth day of marriage -- Bliss endures. On June 18th in Oakland's Rotunda Building on City Hall plaza, Anne Gust and I were married in front of 600 friends and well-wishers. Senator Dianne Feinstein officiated.

Everybody to College...Don't Count On It

Tue, 31 May 2005 12:16:07 -0700

Recently I paid a visit to the Oakland headquarters of College Track, a nonprofit organization just a block from City Hall that helps high school students prepare for college. The walls of College Track's offices were adorned with colorful college pennants. One hundred and thirty Oakland high school students receive mentoring at this unique and innovative institution. They put in long hours after school, sharpening their academic skills.

I sat down with a group of the students and discussed a wide range of subjects, including standardized tests, the state of Oakland schools, street crime and the merits of the Oakland Military Institute (OMI), a charter school that I started four years ago.

Local Environmentalism Lives -- In Oakland

Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:12:49 -0700

Recently, several well publicized books have made the claim that environmentalism is dead. Not so. The laws of nature don’t change to accommodate right wing politicians or “junk scientists.”

Scientists--at best--craft partial understandings or clever manipulations. That is why good science and all tradition advise humility when attempting to alter God’s creation.

St. Paul counseled “fear and trembling,” while Dr. Pangloss prescribed endless optimism in this “best of all possible worlds.” Despite his fundamentalism, it seems President Bush prefers Voltaire to the Apostle.

Here in Oakland, environmental action is alive. The city has just received the honor of being named one of the top ten green cities in the country. So judges the Green Guide, “the nation’s premier news and information source for green living.”

According to the citation:

“More affordable than its Bay Area neighbor, Oakland benefits from San Francisco’s transport system and bike friendly status, with 23 percent of residents commuting by bike or public transport. The city devotes 11 percent of city land to parks, and shares in Bay Area initiatives for renewable energy. Oakland has its own initiative allowing solar production facilities to waive design review requirements for installation, which has sped up solar energy generation use by the city.”

Oakland will have five megawatts of solar energy going online this year, and the long term plan calls for 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. A green building ordinance –- which will assure environmentally healthy and energy efficient edifices of the future –- goes before the City Council soon. Fifteen percent of the cars in the City’s fleet are alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) and that number is slated to increase.

As an industrial port city, we have our share of problems –- like diesel trucks spewing pollutants as they idle, driving up asthma rates –- and it will take creative solutions to address them. The East Bay recently received low marks for air quality, partly because prevailing winds blow San Francisco’s smog into our faces.

The president and the president’s men have stuck their heads in the sand when it comes to the environment -- with their federal tax breaks for carbon emitting industries and persistent neglect of renewable energy and end-use efficiencies, such as energy-saving appliances, cars and buildings.

It’s up to local government leaders to carry the vision of a sustainable economy.

All Eyes on the Mayor

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 09:02:19 -0700

Bob Kerrey has ended speculation that he might run for Mayor of New York City. He won’t enter the race, but he seriously considered it. Imagine that - a former Senator and Presidential candidate fighting crime, answering pot hole questions and shepherding developers through Byzantine corridors in the planning department.

Kerrey is smart and, as a former Navy Seal, no stranger to combat. Yet, he would have found mayoring quite different from the protective groves of academe and the stately manners of the Senate. Mayors are at ground zero in the political process.

Those who would never think of traveling to Washington, D.C. or the state capitol think nothing of coming to city hall and voicing their complaints. People who are contented don't show up. So the mood swirling around a mayor gets contentious -- many a mayor never makes it to the second term.

From the vantage point of high office, issues such as crime and jobs tend to be abstract statistics. Mayors deal with the concrete and the specific. You face a specific dead body on a well traveled street or the vacant lot that will soon become a condo tower or the school down the street where half the kids don't graduate. No theory here. Not much comfort from partisan rhetoric. Just hands-on reality with names and faces. Management at the human scale vs. pontification from on high.

In Oakland this week, we broke ground for a Whole Foods store in downtown, near auto row. It will be Whole Foods' largest store west of Texas and the first new major grocery store in this part of Oakland in decades.

For those who debate war and peace and the privatization of social security, this may seem like small potatoes. But it is a big deal. It is what we deal with in the city. And it is here that democracy, "people power," still flourishes.

Neighbors count and they make their voices heard. Higher up on the political food chain, neighbors get submerged into the demographics of market research and mass propaganda.

Kerrey's not taking the plunge, but there is always Bill Clinton. He would have a ball as mayor.

California Democratic Convention: Day Two

Sat, 16 Apr 2005 21:41:15 -0700

Day Two of the convention, and it's a real bash – on the Governor. Arnold has managed to unite the far-flung tribes of the California Democratic Party.

Howard Dean fired up the troops tonight. He spoke about moral values and talking in a language that ordinary Americans could understand. The audience went wild.

There is something strange, though, in this rush to “morals.”

Morals represent tradition and custom. In this brave new century, tradition and custom are replaced by fashion and hype. The past is for reactionaries, we are told. Science, technology and the ever-expanding GDP will solve our problems. Yet, no society can hang together without a proper balance between stability, respect for the old ways and openness to the new. In our time—2005—we are way out of balance. Question: who gets it?

At the California State Democratic Convention

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 23:04:47 -0700

I’ve been absent from the blogosphere, but for a good cause. I got engaged and will be married on the steps of City Hall in June. I also went to Mexico—just south of the border—for R&R.

Much has happened since I last posted. Terri Schiavo died and Tom Delay is calling for retribution against the judges who didn’t stop it. Even his own Republicans are wincing and he has started to backtrack. Arash Sigarchi – the Iranian blogger sentenced to fourteen years in prison for criticizing his country’s leaders – has been freed on bail. The Dow Jones has fallen in the tank while gas prices are soaring.

Technorati reports one billion links, though that figure may be suspect due to the amount of dead links in cyberspace. I promise you that my blog won’t be one of them.

I am writing this from the press office in the Los Angeles Convention Center, where California Democrats have gathered for their annual convention. The Party faithful smell blood as our Republican governor runs into the buzz saw of teachers, nurses, prison guards and leaders of the AFL-CIO.

I am here seeking support for my candidacy for state attorney general. Next to the governor, this is the top executive job in the state. As governor, I signed--as every governor does--10,000 new laws. If elected, I will be in a position to interpret and enforce these laws.

Now more than ever, what is needed is balance and life experience in the face of government running amok, making minute and invasive laws about everything. Isn’t it curious that the same solutions continue to chase the same problems?

More tomorrow from the convention.

Florida v. Texas

Wed, 23 Mar 2005 17:00:46 -0800

The death of Sun Hudson - a 6-month-old with a fatal genetic disorder who was taken off life support against his mother's wishes in a Texas hospital last week - adds some depth to the emotional debate over the fate of Terri Schiavo. The MSM are hanging on every twist and turn in the Schiavo case, and protesters have descended on Florida to denounce what they call "murder."

Wanda Hudson, Sun's mother, also considers her son to be a victim of murder. Just as Terri Schiavo's parents believe she could emerge from her vegetative state one day, Ms. Hudson thinks Sun could have defeated the odds with more time on a respirator. President Bush, who signed a bill to allow Schiavo's parents to fight for her life, is in an awkward position on this one.

From an editorial in the Concord Monitor:

On the same day President Bush interrupted his vacation to rush to Washington to sign the Schiavo bill, a Texas hospital removed the breathing tube keeping 6-month-old Sun Hudson alive. According to the Houston Chronicle, the hospital's action, the first of its kind, was made possible by a 1999 bill signed into law by Bush, then Texas's governor.

That law allows hospitals to discontinue life-sustaining care even when doing so runs counter to the wishes of the patient's guardians. Before ending the patient's life under the law Bush signed, however, two conditions must be met. Doctors must deem that there is no chance for recovery and the patient must be unable to pay the hospital bill for continuing care.

It is almost impossible to watch the news and not see Terri Schiavo's face or hear her name. But virtually no one knew of Sun Hudson, who, thanks to another law signed by George Bush, died yesterday. A Texas bioethicist defended the hospital's decision by saying that it was not killing but "stopping pointless treatment."

Many blogs are hosting discussions on this topic - most notably Daily Kos, Sue Bob's Diary and Lean Left. The very different treatment of Terri Schiavo in Florida from that of Sun Hudson in Texas raises questions about what principles are actually driving these actions:

1) A juridical right to life

2) Marital and family values requiring deference to the appropriate family member charged with end-of-life decisions

3) State authority versus federal, congressional or judicial decision making

4) Political exploitation of fundamentalist convictions

What do you think?

The President said: "This is a complex case with serious issues, but in extraordinary circumstances like this it is wise to always err on the side of life."

I think Wanda Hudson would agree.

Here and There: The Death of a Cliché

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 15:07:25 -0800

When speaking of Oakland, it's long been fashionable for unlettered critics to apply Gertrude Stein's famous quip, "There is no there there." According to legend, Ms. Stein wished to put the town down by casting it as a non-place unworthy of San Francisco's chilly shadow.

News flash: Stein wasn't talking about the City of Oakland when she penned those words in Everybody's Autobiography. She was talking about the house at 25th Street and 13th Avenue where she lived as a child, a place she revisited in the 1930s only to find that everything had changed. The house, the garden, the rose hedge and even the eucalyptus tree she remembered so well had disappeared. The specific "there" where she had lived was no longer "there."

Literary nitpicking aside, SF Chronicle writer Dan Levy's latest story about the condo boom in downtown Oakland is great news for those interested in this town's revitalization. Formerly abandoned lots are being transformed into housing as part of the "10K Initiative."

According to Levy: Six years after Brown made his bold pronouncement, Oakland is close to fulfilling what has become known as the mayor's 10K Initiative.

With two years to go, "10K" is 85 percent complete. The chips are starting to fall in place for the Fox Theater renovation as well. The efforts of Oakland native Phil Tagami, who has taken on the task of restoring this magnificent 1920s movie palace to its former grandeur, were recently profiled in the Chronicle.

Born and raised in Oakland, Phil rose through the ranks of a construction crew to become one of the city's major developers and philanthropists. He specializes in preserving historic landmarks.

If only Gertrude Stein were here to see it all.

In Pursuit of Excellence

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 15:02:12 -0800

A commenter on this blog recently complained about my role in public education. He claimed that I wasn't doing anything for students in Oakland. Not true.

From today's Oakland Tribune: The arts high school opened by Mayor Jerry Brown in downtown Oakland 2.5 years ago is now officially one of the best schools in California, at least according to the latest rankings assigned to all public schools by the state.

The Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), a public charter school I founded in 2002, scored a 9 out of 10 possible points on the Academic Performance Index (API). When compared to other schools with similar demographics across the state, OSA scored a "similar schools" rank of 10. The nearest score attained by any other Oakland high school was a 4.

Yesterday I attended an assembly at OSA to congratulate students on their remarkable achievement and encourage them to work even harder. They're a testament to the fact that Oakland kids can achieve excellence when that's the operating principle of their school.

Excellence is a fugitive in many schools, hounded by the shameless votaries of mediocrity. Some would like to see OSA fail because even the mere existence of a public charter school offends them.

At OSA, art provides the foundation for a rigorous, well-rounded academic program. A sister school, the Oakland Military Institute (OMI), uses ceremony, military courtesy and discipline to create a focused academic environment. Across the country, charter schools base their curriculum on everything from social justice to aerospace technology. What is needed today - for all schools - is money and innovation ... and freedom.

OSA is currently recruiting 9th and 10th grade students from all over the Bay Area. Auditions start this weekend. If you know any talented young artists - singers, dancers, painters, writers - please call (510) 836-DARE for more information.

Culture Crash

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 11:25:13 -0800

Louis Sahagun of the Los Angeles Times has written a fascinating piece on Oakland's sideshows. A sideshow, for the uninitiated, is a homegrown version of a demolition derby, except it takes place illegally on city streets - often under the influence of drugs and violence.

On any given Saturday night, the streets of East Oakland are clogged with automobiles blaring loud music and performing dangerous stunts while spectators party on the sidelines. People come from all over Northern California to take part.

Having witnessed these antics below my own bedroom window, I know the annoyance and danger firsthand, but the spectacle has its share of apologists. They believe government has failed to provide "youth" with suitable evening amusement - thus the need for late night hijinks.

The Oakland Police Department - in coordination with the California Highway Patrol - has worked hard to stop this urban insurgency. Controlling convoys of cars in "hyphee" mode is not easy, however, and costs money the city could put to much better use.

Thanks to some recent legislation, the city is taking cars whose drivers are arrested for reckless driving and impounding them for thirty days. But even the temporary loss of a vehicle and a sizeable fine has not slowed the sideshows.

The next step may be to declare the cars a public nuisance and sell them at public auction. In egregious cases, the drivers and their front seat partners might also be charged with conspiracy to commit reckless driving, a felony. There are also some new technologies that might have a role to play in curtailing the sideshows.

The whole sideshow business is a commentary on one aspect of urban life that's often overlooked. Life for working people in low income neighborhoods is tough enough without this aggravation.

Quote of the Week

Fri, 04 Mar 2005 14:06:37 -0800

"Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right, you meet the same idiots coming around from the left."

-- Oakland native Clint Eastwood, in the Feb. 28 issue of Time