Brilliant jazz singer Kalil Wilson, a North Oakland native, will perform swinging standards, ballads and original songs from his new album 'Time Stops,' this Friday, 8 to 11 p. m. backed by his trio--Grant Levin on piano, Aidan McCarthy on bass and drum prodigy Genius Wilson--at The Sound Room, 2147 Broadway at 22nd Street, Oakland, a block north of the Paramount Theatre and 19th Street BART. Tickets: $20-$25 at www.soundroom.org or (510) 496-4180. -more-

The failure of the Justice Department to charge the arresting officer with aggravated assault, or possibly murder by strangulation, and the female NYPD sergeant, Kizzy Adonim, for not interceding, is profoundly disturbing. There appears to be two sets of police guidelines, one for non-whites and a much milder version for whites. It’s hard to believe a white man would have suffered the same horrible fate as Eric Garner lying face on the pavement. Garner’s offense, - selling cigarettes to earn money for himself and his family. A quiet conversation to deescalate the situation would have resulted in a very different outcome. Garner gasping for breath, cried out “I can’t breathe 11 times” before he fell unconscious. “I can’t breathe” become a rallying cry for activists demanding justice. Garner was not armed and imposed no threat. -more-

In light of how Council has been discussing greenhouse gas emissions and the climate and ecological emergency, I am challenging all Councilmembers to join me in taking an upcoming online course in the essentials of current, up-to-date climate science as of 2019. This self-paced course will be taught by Michael Mann, a graduate of Cal and Princeton, an internationally famous climate scientist known for documenting a global temperature record covering the past 1,000 years - showing extremely strong proof that our burning of fossil fuels has caused an unprecedented disaster (the "hockey stick" graph). -more-

To the citizen’s [sic] of Berkley [sic]; It is all over social media your city government decided to emasculate the words like “manhole” to maintenance hole. Is this true? Did you really convene and decide the term “manhole” was offensive?? Really?? If not, please clear the air so that we-the rest of the country or the sane part of the country stop making fun of you. I’m just sure there are normal hard working adults in this town. I’m sure someone there is shaking their heads saying “please God, not another black eye.”. -more-

You often here people refer to the current housing shortage in Berkeley as “Berkeley’s worst housing crisis ever”. That’s probably not so. An arguably worse crisis was during World War II when the East Bay was flooded with war industry workers and, because of wartime material shortages and rationing, it was hard to get either construction materials or approval to build new housing. -more-

Berkeley never experienced an enemy attack during World War II, but in the middle of the night on July 17, 1944 many locals must have thought the town’s time under actual fire had finally come.

The sound and vibration of a powerful explosion reverberated through the hills and flatlands shaking buildings and waking hundreds. Anyone outside at 10:18 PM might have also seen a flash of white light above the hills to the east.

Telephone calls poured into the Berkeley Police department. Some thought it was an earthquake, others a bombing attack. A few called for police help, thinking that the shaking that jolted them out of sleep was someone trying to break into their house.

It was none of those things. Instead, in one of the worst Stateside disasters of the war years, a massive explosion had obliterated the Navy ammunition depot and loading dock near Port Chicago, about 15 miles northeast of Berkeley. -more-

I recently attended the 2019 Opportunity Zone Expo in Los Angeles. This sold out event was billed as the largest gathering of experts in the country on the subject of investment in an “opportunity zone (OZ),” using a “qualified opportunity fund (QOZ).”

It was held in the ballrooms at the LA LIVE - JW Marriott Hotel in downtown. Keynote speakers included California Secretary of State Fiona Ma, U.S. Congressman Alex Mooney, Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, and former U.S. Congressman Keith Rothfus. The Expo was opened with an enthusiastic videotaped welcome by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Event panels and breakout sessions had names like Capitalizing on opportunities: financing, sourcing and investors; Following your money: Choosing the best investment and protecting your capital; When to head out: understanding your fund and exit strategies; and Right place, right zone: identifying promising zones and why.

The 1,000+ attendees overflowed the well-appointed facility. Each panel was standing room only, filled with a sea of mostly male participants talking about deal flow, rates of return, whether partnerships or C Corps were the best investment structure, and so on. And on the dais of each session sat developers, fund managers, investment bankers, financial advisors, tax accountants, and incisively articulate, high-priced Washington DC lawyers, comparing bragging rights about their assets under management (from the low hundreds of millions to the tens of billions) available for office, commercial, retail, hotel, resort, industrial, and high density luxury housing development.

You know, just regular folks.

I jest, but make no mistake about it these were some very smart people. And they are precisely the people you want to have sitting around the table with you, figuring out how to address affordable housing needs, environmental protection and social justice – and how to make money doing it. These are the people who are really good at figuring that out. The only problem is if we let the unbridled pursuit of profits be their only guide, we end up with results that throw everything else under the bus.

There was no doubt that the OZ Tax Code is a game changer that could supercharge investment in real estate. But at the end of the day it became equally clear that this would probably be just another case of the rich getting richer.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against anyone getting rich. In fact, I'm absolutely all for it, especially if they get rich doing right by others. But if they're getting rich as the result of a gift from the government (taxpayers), then there have to be commensurate public benefits. Otherwise, it always ends up leaving the rest of us holding the bag.

So what are opportunity zones and qualified opportunity funds, and why should you care? -more-

Xenophobia. It’s a fifty-dollar word with, for good reason, Greek roots. It means fear of foreigners, and it goes all the way back in the western tradition to the ancient Greeks and their Roman successors.

It’s not limited to the western tradition either. There’s plenty of xenophobia in the rest of the world, ancient and contemporary. For a while, some hoped that it was fading, at least in some quarters, and that it had been vanquished by modern internationalism.

Even Disneyland, not known as a shrine to liberalism, has had for decades the ear-worming anthem “It’s a Small World, Isn’t It?” President Barack Obama is the child of international exchange, as is Senator Kamala Harris, though both have voluntarily embraced the USA’s historic African American culture created by the descendants of those who were enslaved here.

Well, perhaps not 100% voluntarily. Racism is a special gloss on xenophobia, marked by onus against dark-skinned people in particular. Those infected by racism regard Black and Brown foreigners, regardless of culture, as barbarians, another Greek word, labelling them as uncivilized. Obama and Harris experience the prejudice against African Americans despite their backgrounds . -more-

The Adeline Corridor Plan's Transportation element is ill thought-out and unacceptable.

This DEIR proposes to reduce Adeline Street's transportation capacity by 33%, simply to create a curiously ill-defined "Public Space Opportunity Area," which "may include landscaped areas, plazas and programmed events." The authors arrogantly wave away the lost capacity as "excess right-of-way.";

Adeline Street is – like it or not – a vital transportation corridor in and out of Berkeley. It serves buses as well as private cars, and enables commuting by Berkeley residents who need to work in other cities to support ourselves.

What responsible planning document would propose to cut 33% of capacity with no specific offsetting goal? It seems clear what's happened here: There is no goal, and no real planning.

This document simply reflects the casual anti-automobile bias of its Berkeley-dwelling consultant (Philip Erickson), who has an amply-expressed personal axe to grind; and of certain planners on the City's staff. Just block 33% of the carrying capacity; force the remaining evil motorists into artificial congestion; and...um, we'll do...you know, something with the repurposed land that previous generations' real planners had laid out to serve transportation needs.; -more-

While economic indicators keep rising, employee wages stagnate. Where does all the wealth that workers create go? To the top 1% of the top 1%. Working people are stressed. They can hardly make ends meet. They are only one illness or one car breakdown away from drowning in quicksand of debt. They are stressed. And angry. -more-

And..here I be, at the ripe (?) age of near ninety!

My fondest memories are of the beloved 43-some second graders at Lincoln School…circa, 1955+ and I continue, lovingly see their faces and remember them!

As a new teacher, in th’olden days…even before Kennedy,”people’s park” and integration of the schools in Berkeley..I had the most sincere joy of being in the classroom with Bobby Tom, Audrey Nobori, Shirley Curry, Yasafumi Hamamoto,Patsy Cornilius,and 43 other darlings whose names I still recall along with their photos and letters…Eddie Mack,Jocelyn,Tommy,Alfred Boling,Jackie Nickleson, and and and!!!!!! -more-

Since you began campaigning for the presidency in 2016 your campaign of “hate America” began by insulting the first African American, Barack Obama, falsely accusing him of being un-American demanding to see his birth-certificate. After you became President with the help of your Russian friend, Vladimir Putin, you railed on hordes of caravan criminals and rapists invading our country. Then your vented your anger at poor trade deals which has driven a large number of our great American farmers on the verge of bankruptcy. You demonstrated your scorn for the nuclear agreement with Iran which has caused enormous suffering to the Iranian people in spite of Iran’s strict adherence to the deal. You attacked an American war hero, the late John McCain, for voting in support of the Affordable Care Act. You squandered $550,000 per hour of taxpayer money to mobilize tanks, fighter jets and Air Force One on July 4 to ingratiate yourself on your never ending vanity projects. You rewarded the Republican Party National Committee with special VIP access. This is a clear violation of the Hatch Act that bars taxpayers from funding partisan events. Mr. President, you are a very angry man. If you hate this wonderful country so much, why don’t you leave for from whence you came and MAGA? -more-

On Sunday, July 14th, Donald Trump began a barrage of racist tweets that has stirred up yet another political storm. Four Democratic female congresswomen of color were attacked by Trump. They accused him of following an “agenda of white nationalists” and asked that Americans “do not take the bait” of his divisive rhetoric. Are Trump's tweets another manifestation of his poor judgement or part of a sinister plan? -more-

In my three-plus decades since I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, I've found that meditation and/or mindfulness will not cure the condition. Meditation and mindfulness could, to a limited extent, improve brain structure. However, the origin of a psychotic condition is in the human brain, as an organ in the body. Mindfulness primarily helps the mind, which is merely a nonphysical product of the brain's function. -more-

The San Francisco Bay Area and other cities across the country are bracing for threatened federal raids on undocumented immigrants. -more-

Barbara Lee Speaks for Me

Rep. Barbara Lee has long been an outspoken critic of war and intolerance so it was no surprise that she would be pushing for a Congressional resolution to censure Donald Trump following his recent outbursts of racist bile directed at four members of Congress who happen to be women of color.

Rep. Lee had a further message for Trump:

The voices of women of color have been ignored for far too long — but not anymore. We have the most diverse Congress in our nation’s history and I won’t let Trump diminish the accomplishments of women of color with the vile, disgusting, and racist things that come out of his mouth.

Or in this case, his thumbs. . . .

The Squad, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, had the guts to fight back against Trump and now they’re faced with his racist comments suggesting they go back to their own broken countries.

All of my sisters in Congress are American. They swore an oath to protect the United States, and by holding Trump accountable, that’s exactly what they’re doing. -more-

Twenty-four year-old Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot made a splashy debut with San Francisco Symphony on Thursday, July 18, at Davies Hall. I don’t know, however, which was more splashy, his skill as a violinist or his fashion statement. Blake Pouliot walked on stage wearing tight-fitting, shiny, silver pants, a three-quarter sleeve-length black T-shirt, and a black sash wound around his neck and hanging down over his left shoulder to his waist. He looked for all the world like a rock star; and his pants, in either satin or lamé, were reminiscent of pants Elvis Presley wore. -more-

At Merola Opera’s Schwabacher Concert on Thursday evening, July 11, at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, I was reminded of the slogan Merola Opera has used over previous years — “The Future Is Now.” Well, that formulation is surely appropriate for this year’s bumper crop of Merola’s young singers. At this Schwabacher Concert the level of vocal artistry demonstrated by the Merolini was consistently at a very high level. For listeners, it’s quite exciting to hear young singers at or near the beginning of their careers, who go on stage with a full orchestra and limited but effective costuming and staging, and sing their hearts out in stirringly beautiful vocal display. -more-

Worth Noting and Showing Up:

Monday the Mayor’s State of the City Address is sold out. It will be live on his Facebook page,

Tuesday is the last City Council meeting until September 10. The Agenda appears unbearably long. While most of it is on consent, the action items include RV permitting - Item 38. Is a one-time annual permit for a 2week RV parking permit and 39. is for a 3-month RV parking permit and temporary safe parking site. Item 40. the Update on Policing Stop Data states policing stops have declined but contains no actual data and recommends creation of a task force. The last item is the Pipeline (housing) report with the number of multi-unit projects approved, built and low-income units within the projects. The report confirms what is visible on the street, not enough affordable housing is being built and there is an excess of market rate (overpriced) units. -more-