Crosscurrents

About 50 people gathered today on the steps of Oakland’s City Hall for a slightly ironic purpose: to protest against protesters – specifically “Occupy Oakland” protestors. The group of activists is calling themselves “Stand for Oakland.” They say they have come together because they are tired of the vandalism in Oakland caused by the Occupy movement…

The main room of the People's Federal Credit Union (PFCU) is across the street from the West Oakland BART station. It's about the size of a modest living room. A few bank tellers are behind thick glass. A big sign on the wall announces “4,000 Members” in green lettering. This is where Sayala Eisner-Mix, the Community Programs Coordinator of PFCU works. She's about to begin a credit report review, her third one today.

The bad news is that state funding for California libraries has been completely eliminated. There’s not really any good news about that except that it was expected. This past July, state library funding was sliced in half, and there was a trigger amendment attached to the budget that would eliminate state funding for public libraries at midyear if the state's revenue projections were not met. Needless to say, they weren’t.

Maybe you support the Occupy movement, or maybe you don't. Or maybe you take this point of view:

NATO GREEN: I want to be for the 99%, but I don't know if you realize this, that's a lot of people, including a lot of assholes. And most of us given the opportunity would be able to say, would want to be able to say, "I'm for the 99%, asterisk, except some people." And then we'd have our own lists! 

Yesterday, the lights went out for redevelopment agencies all over the state.