Columnists

Georgian plot? -more-

Let’s call this one of Oakland’s teaching moments. For many years, both in this column and in its previous incarnation, the Oakland Unwrapped column for the old Urbanview newspaper, I’ve been talking about the more or less systematic minimizing of the presence and effect of African-American culture in Oakland. I don’t believe this is the result of some great conspiracy or secret plan of action written down in detail somewhere, more a confluence of various interests that have come together to push things towards the same end, that of pushing African-American cultural activities out of the city. Or, more correctly, African-American cultural activities that are operated and controlled by African-Americans themselves. -more-

Over the past few years I’ve had the privilege of meeting with some real geeks. -more-

As an inspector, there are certain phrases that catch my ear and cause me to run some little macros that I’ve been cognitively building over these many years looking at houses. One of them is some version of, “The sellers did all this work for themselves and were planning on living here for many years.” -more-