I couldn’t agree more with City Council member Loren Taylor about the need to make council meetings more accessible to the public. Here’s what he told Oaklandside:

On Friday evening KPIX-TV led off their news broadcast with a story about our friend Everardo Rodriquez, a business owner in the Fruitvale. His company’s very existence is threatened by brazen crime, garbage dumping, homelessness and intimidation of his employees by wandering sickos. For years, Everardo has been complaining to Oakland city government how horrible and deteriorating the situation is, but no one has done a thing about it. Everardo’s ire is particularly aimed at City Councilman Noel Gallo, who gets a lot of self-generated publicity for his weekly garbage pickups but does absolutely nothing to address the existential problems of his constituents.

I sometimes feel guilty criticizing Justin Phillips, the San Francisco Chronicle columnist whose specialty is Black issues. He really annoys me with his anti-police rhetoric and his “Black people are always right and White people are always suspect” approach. At the same time, I realize that I, too, am kind of fixated on certain topics here on the blog, so maybe I need to cut Justin some slack.

This is one of the most important posts I’ve ever published. Please read it.

When I read the reports of what Trump said in his speech in Washington yesterday, I have to confess that I agreed with much of it.