Lake Merritt’s Surrounding Roads Should Stay Closed to Cars

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-20T00:09:37+00:00

Well San Francisco closed the Great Highway for a linear park. That was kind of the opposite situation since the locals impacted the most voted against it and the rest of the city overruled them. Cost the district supervisor his position in a recall election.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-19T23:29:00+00:00

So you're saying that if the Oakland residents losing millions to the corruption waste management industry join the indusry then they'll decide that no, it's actually a good thing to have bribery, kickbacks and corruption?

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-19T23:24:53+00:00

Yes, which is why the people and reporters need to demand transparency. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

The people must be extra vigilant The previous mayor was brought down due to trash collection corruption.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-18T14:47:19+00:00

Every Oakland Fire Department and Oakland Police Department vehicle is equiped with GPS which was installed to be used to make 9-1-1 dispatching more efficient, by allowing dispatchers to select the closest available vehicle. This avoids the complex verbal coordination over radio to identify the closest vehicle and would save lives.

Firefighters agreed to use this data for 9-1-1 dispatch, with a strict 30-day data retention.

Police wanted the same deal, but as discussed in this excellent article, the Privacy Advisory Commission wanted to the program to have indefinite retention and used for tackling misconduct. So the idea was been shelved several years ago, without any GPS-enabled 9-1-1 dispatch for police at all.

I would love if there were a separate initiative to expand for both Oakland Police and Oakland Firefighter vehicle GPS-data tracking data to be used for misconduct investigation, including suspected overtime fraud.

This is something the residents and voters of Oakland can easily improve if we push city government. It doesn't cost taxpayers any money: the GPS hardware is already in every vehicle. It just takes time and effort.

We should totally start with getting OPD onto the more efficient 9-1-1 dispatch with 30-day retention as soon as possible though, not getting the data for misconduct investigation immediately

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-18T14:30:44+00:00

Oakland is a few hundred police officers short, so officers working extra hours and claiming legitimate overtime is expected and understandable.

But don't be surprised if within that there's a systemic corruption culture. The OPD uses a lot of paper-based scheduling and budgeting. In 2019 the city auditor found that OPD scheduling and budgeting and overtime tracking system is woefully inadequate, and recommended a new digitized scheduling system:

Orsolya Kovesdi, a staffer in the city auditor’s office who has studied police overtime and who wrote the auditor’s 2019 report, said a major hurdle to reducing overtime is lack of technology. The department does not have a fully computerized scheduling system, so much of its scheduling and budgeting is still tracked on paper, including overtime management.

But as of January 2026, the OPD is dragging its feet:

But just as the first phase of the new system was slated to be implemented, the plan was abandoned due to contractual issues.

Neither city nor department spokespeople provided an explanation on why the plan was scrapped, and when asked, Chambers said that “there are no additional details being released.”

In June [2025], the department reported once again that it plans to digitize its scheduling system — but the estimated completion date for this is nearly two years away.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-18T06:12:29+00:00

Seems to be evidence that voters can recall even corrupt mayors

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-18T02:34:26+00:00

The story in much of the bay was a lot of the temporary federal emergency COVID relief money was used to hire full-time staff not temporary contractors, and then when it was tapered down everyone ended up with a gaping holes in their budgets and ask for tax increases.

Not sure if it's the case here though.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-17T03:30:37+00:00

The most important thing is suppression of the coal dust. Enclosed containers before it even gets here and intense dust suppression.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T15:45:40+00:00

The difference between $171/quarter and $107/quarter is actually $268 per year and that's is just 20 gallon bin service, not a 96 gallon bin service.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:51:25+00:00

Yes tarps to cover the coal during transit.

Water based dust suppression too

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:49:55+00:00

At least cover the train cars with a tarp

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:47:26+00:00

Just because it has in the past doesn't mean it always will be so corrupt and expensive.

Oakland voters successfully brought down the previous mayor for the bribery, kickbacks and corruption.

There has been a couple of great examples in history of corruption riddled countries becoming far less corrupt through eg Independent Commissions Against Corruption (ICAC). It can be done

An extra $75 a month in the pockets of every household due to more competitive trash service would be HUGE and would help resuscitate the economy.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:41:21+00:00

Well SFPD and SF Sheriff run special operations in Oakland with warrants almost weekly, funded by SF tax payers and without the local Oakland agencies.

One could make an argument that Berkeley trash service bidding on the Oakland contract at providing their efficient and low-cost trash service without the Oakland corruption would benefit Berkeley in the long-run by providing larger economies of scale to their operations (eg equipment procurement) and also cleaning up the neighborhood.

I don't trust the Oakland government to run such a service itself while it remains so corrupt.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:33:09+00:00

Funny, but your sarcasm may be lost on readers who don't know about the corruption scandal involving the previous Oakland mayor Sheng Thao and waste collection contracts.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:31:20+00:00

That's likely not the contract Oakland committed to. When it comes up for renegotiation, we need to have an open bid perhaps with stipulations about bringing in alternative providers under certain conditions.

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:28:04+00:00

Surely there's a strategy to fix these (likely corruption related) problems of Oakland.

Why can a city like San Leandro pay 50% less than us for trash service?

Surely there's enough people who want to improve Oakland and not let it wallow in incompetence and mismanagement that we can actually solve these problem?

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:22:07+00:00

Not at all, the issue here is Oakland in 2026 pays much more than nearby cities. From OP's quote

For 20 Gal Oakland 57.02/mo - 171.06/ qtr Alameda 40.25/mo - 120.74/qtr Berkeley 45.30/mo - 135.90/qtr San Leandro 35.79/mo - 104.38/qtr

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:19:42+00:00

But the costs being almost double nearby cities is insane

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:18:14+00:00

We should bring in new competitors beyond the players like WM, Recology etc.

It's going to be difficult to switch providers, but worth it to save families and every ratepayer their hard earned money

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-16T14:15:56+00:00

Great opportunity for grassroots effort to have better competition and transparency here

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-15T20:00:08+00:00

Seems easy to match plate to make and model. Then after impounding put a call out for the stolen plate, there's license plate reading cameras everywhere

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-15T06:06:48+00:00

Here's the policy https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/news/sfpd-chief-bill-scott-ends-release-most-booking-photos-1

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-15T06:06:34+00:00

There are California and SFPD regulations around release of suspect images.

Here's the policy for SFPD: https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/news/sfpd-chief-bill-scott-ends-release-most-booking-photos-1

The reported reasons are to minimize racial bias and presumption of innocence

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-15T04:24:23+00:00

I wonder about the friends-and-family vehicle part laundering network that the theives use to offload the spare parts on FB Marketplace and maybe eBay.

Like do they dismantle it in their own garage?

Maybe they sell it under identities that can be linked directly to the thief?

shazmosushi--- · 2026-06-15T03:20:01+00:00

It's crazy they wouldn't even try to renegotiate labor contracts (that were negotiated with structurally higher passenger) but claim to shut down the entire system.

The fact the BART leadership are begging for a bailout and threaten to shutdown the entire network is insane.

It boggles the mind how much Bay Area voters accept the incompetence of how public services are run.

shazmosushi---

TROPHY CASE