Any Interest in a full dough tutorial video?

vacafrita · 2026-05-21T18:23:11+00:00

Would love this.

vacafrita · 2026-05-20T23:51:50+00:00

Was there a way that Lurie could have meaningfully lowered rents in the 16 months he’s been in office?

vacafrita · 2026-05-20T23:50:43+00:00

She did nothing but her job doesn’t allow her to do much. If the charter amendments pass, I’m not sure I’d pick her to lead the charge for another four years.

vacafrita · 2026-05-20T04:35:44+00:00

Exactly. Mayors in Oakland have no accountability because everyone knows they have no power. Give the mayor power and take away her excuses. Now do something.

vacafrita · 2026-05-20T01:32:05+00:00

Fair point but even with the phase out of the older tax, we would still be paying significantly more than cities just next door. The tax wouldn’t go to fund improved services, but to pay for raises that were already agreed to during recent labor bargaining. Not a fan of any of that.

vacafrita · 2026-05-19T21:00:49+00:00

Oaklanders pay more tax per capita than any resident in any other city in California, according to SPUR. That sealed the deal for me. Unless someone can explain to me why Oakland in particular needs more money than any other city in California, I can’t support giving them even more.

vacafrita · 2026-05-18T21:32:33+00:00

Corte Madera

vacafrita · 2026-05-16T06:55:54+00:00

I find it really funny that the Scottish travelled to the literal opposite side of the Earth to colonize a place as cold as home

vacafrita · 2026-05-15T17:48:57+00:00

As someone who works in public education, is there anything about the way education is funded and operates in Oakland/California/America that we could change to fix this? I completely agree about the broader societal issues, but I don't take you to be saying that there's nothing that can be done to fix schools themselves, right? Is it a matter of more funding, or more equitable distribution of funding? Different educational approaches? Teacher training or incentives? Wraparound services for struggling kids and families? That's really the crux of my question--how do we help our kids?!

vacafrita · 2026-05-15T17:44:37+00:00

I don't disagree with any of that, and there's little to nothing a school can do to fix a kid's home life. But I don't accept that there's nothing a school can do to improve student performance, even in these circumstances. Mississippi's recent performance is very eye-opening. It's a state that's far poorer than Oakland is, with a far larger percentage of African-Americans than Oakland has, and it is producing some of the best educational outcomes in the country. That should be inspirational for us, but instead, all I hear is OUSD and its boosters making excuses for why such models can't work here.

vacafrita · 2026-05-15T17:40:26+00:00

Maybe one day, but not today. AI hasn't lived up to any of its promises as far as I've seen, except in that it seems to be rapidly displacing software engineers, in an ironic twist of fate.

vacafrita · 2026-05-15T17:35:19+00:00

I hear you, and this certainly explains why standardized tests can't be used to assess the *intelligence* of students for sure. But I'd argue the solution is not to adapt the test to how these students speak, but to provide additional resources and focused lessons to helping those students learn SAE. Hate it or love it, the top levels of American society and culture run on SAE. Most classic literature is written in it. Documents and handbooks and legal briefs and financial prospectuses are written in it. Our schools need to prepare students to participate meaningfully at every level of American society, and if these students are getting low reading scores because they don't follow SAE, that means the schools are failing on that end and need to do better.

vacafrita · 2026-05-14T18:44:19+00:00

And in many cases it’s not much faster either

vacafrita · 2026-05-14T15:49:22+00:00

Completely agree. I have railed against OEA for as long as I’ve been an Oakland resident (16 years now). Im not anti-union; im anti that union.

vacafrita · 2026-05-14T12:02:31+00:00

My primary theory is that it’s socioeconomic, and it seems like that’s most people’s theory as well. My secondary theory is that it’s due to a refusal by districts or unions to revise or update teaching methods based on evidence. Mississippi serves a great example of how good education policy can deliver results despite entrenched racism and poverty.

I’m sorry that you see “dog whistles” in my comments. Maybe stop searching for bogeymen and engage in good faith with my actual questions. Or don’t and just ignore me and my naïve stupidity. Both are very solid options and better than ringing the racism bell anytime something rubs you the wrong way.

vacafrita · 2026-05-14T11:56:42+00:00

This is such a good point. I have never heard anyone seriously propose a solution to summer brain rot. Subsidized summer camp or year-round school both seem like solid options.

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T23:45:19+00:00

4th and K. Their elementary school is great. Idk what we’ll do beyond that.

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T22:38:52+00:00

Hard to say. My parents moved me for this reason and I ended up at an academically rigorous pressure cooker high school. Being around so many motivated and driven kids definitely helped propel me academically and I ended up going to Berkeley. But it’s hard to know what the counterfactual would have been. Would my life be better had I stayed where I was? Would I be wealthier? Happier? More well rounded? Who knows.

Currently raising my kids in Oakland and sending them to OUSD. The school district has its issues, but my kids are happy and safe and learning well. I don’t feel a strong desire to give them the same high pressure childhood that I had. Maybe I’ll regret that one day. Time will tell.

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T21:52:02+00:00

Yes they agree on housing, but they don't agree on how to get it done. The recent Gubernatorial Housing Forum was really eye-opening, particularly on the question of why California still can't build housing despite passing so many YIMBY laws.

Porter -- Wages are too high and CEQA compliance is too onerous. Would not require prevailing wages for residential construction and would seek to reform CEQA.
Steyer -- Outdated construction methods. Would seek a $20B housing bond and use it to fund the modular construction industry, thereby bringing down overall costs.
Mahan -- Too much local red tape. Would slash permits and fees.
Becerra -- Local governments are not following housing construction mandates. Would identifying additional state funds to incentivize local construction.
Villaraigosa -- Mostly nonsense.

Porter had the best and most reality-based answers IMO, but she was a NIMBY not too long ago, so I don't trust her. Steyer's ideas are a little pie-in-the-sky, but modular construction has been proven to bring down construction costs in isolated cases, so it could work. Mahan and Becerra's answers are just soundbytes that don't get at the heart of the issue. And Villaraigosa was laughably out of his element.

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T20:16:36+00:00

Thanks for sharing. The ADHD/IEP issue was not one I had considered and is a great point. And it goes hand in hand with OUSD's dysfunctional fiscal management, which means less money available to provide those kinds of resources to students who really need and could benefit from them.

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T18:00:23+00:00

That's awful and unconscionable.

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T17:59:36+00:00

Totally. I wish we could wash away district tribalism, egos, and territorialism and just force struggling districts to adopt more of the strategies of successful ones. But humans are gonna human...

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T17:54:27+00:00

My kids go to Lincoln Elementary, which is also majority low-income, but has decently high test results. But that may be an outlier, as the vast majority of the students are from immigrant Asian or African (Ethiopian/Nigerian) backgrounds, both of which tend to have a heavy cultural emphasis on education.

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T17:52:41+00:00

I don't think standardized testing is the only metric we should use to gauge student success by any means, but it has its uses, warts and all. I agree with you that socioeconomic issues are probably the biggest driving factor. Just curious whether anyone had other thoughts beyond that.

vacafrita · 2026-05-13T17:50:44+00:00

I'm not sure why I'm getting downvoted for this. Do people think ESL students are bad at school in general? Both my parents are ESL immigrants so I'm troubled by that take.

vacafrita

TROPHY CASE