I have to admit that it gets depressing to cover the Bay Area for the Flashreport. Sure, there are funny stories to pass along, mostly political antics from San Francisco, where the inmates run the asylum.
But is also terribly frustrating to live here, where ever ballot initiative includes multiple local tax increases (February’s proposes three tax increases for Oakland homeowners and I can assure you that they will all pass. These people have never met a tax they didn’t like.)
I knew it was bad when Jerry Brown was the most conservative mayoral candidate on the ballot. But I never imagined that they replace Mayor Moonbean with Ron Dellums! I’ve been waiting for 
him to open a district office in Cuba ever since he took office.
But then again, as much as I can’t stand him or his politics, the man won the election. Clearly the people of Oakland wanted him.
And now they are enjoying the fruits of his liberal labors.
Late last week, a 10-year-old boy was shot during his piano lessons at a piano shop not too far from the Oakland Hills and Piedmont. These are neighborhoods where people forget that they live in O-Town, as my husband refers to it, one of the nation’s most dangerous cities. We have cute boutiques, fancy Bon Appetit-reviewed restaurants and lots of expensive homes. We don’t have children paralyzed by stray bullets related to a botched robbery. But, in Ron Dellums’ Oakland, no neighborhood is safe—the criminals are getting more brazen as they realize the police aren’t serious about catching and putting them away.
Chip Johnson, who covers Oakland politics for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote an excellent article today (ignore the title; the headline writers obviously didn’t read the column) that is being passed around via e-mail by residents horrified by last Thursday’s shooting.
We were all shocked by the shooting. I probably drive by that intersection with my children in my car eight times a week. I guess it is time to buy a family pack of bullet proof vests.