Some New House Photos

Things are going great on the house, but many of the changes are not particularly exciting to look at. For example, the dryer vent has been installed, as have the heating ducts and sewer pipes. Here are some recent photos.

See? It's not that exciting right now.

Digest 7

Wow, it's been awhile since I did a digest, I guess. Frankly, it's only been 8 days since my last blog post, but that one was a 9 year old post, and I'm feeling bad about that. This one will be a bonus digest, because I am also going to give updates on some other repeating topics on this blog.

First things first. The kids left for Maine early on Sunday morning, so one of the things I did that day was sit down and read the entire New York Times, including the Book Review on Poetry. It was information overload. I can't remember a single thing that I read, except the review of Patricia Lockwood's new book of poetry, which I now want to read. Actually, I read an article about Lockwood in the New York Times earlier in the year, and in reality, I just want to be friends with her.

I don't usually buy poetry. In fact, I can only think of one book of poetry that I have purchased not-for-school in my life. Actual Air by David Berman. I love it. That link takes you to Amazon. This one takes you to a site where you can read his poems.  (I just remembered that I bought Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind in high school, and I love that one too)

Berman was in a band called the Silver Jews that I liked in college. He also wrote poetry and did illustrations for the The Baffler Magazine. The Baffler was started by one of my predecessor station managers at WHPK, Tom Frank, when he was at UVa, and I suspect that he met Berman there. The Baffler has had an erratic career but Tom hasn't. He's the author of What's The Matter with Kansas? Anyhoo, the good news about The Baffler is that they've settled down and built themselves a website, and yesterday they posted all of their archives on-line. If strong cultural criticism is your bag, you will be elated to dive into this. Also, here's a David Berman poem from issue 3.

In other new reads, I just finished reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette (this time I linked to Powell's Books, because I was feeling guilty about linking to Amazon.) It was a good book. Very fun, light read. The main character Bernadette Fox is really likable (to the reader, but not too many people in the book) and the way in which her mental illness is handled is really great. Here's the problem: The narrator is her 15-year old daughter. I am really tired of 15-year old girl narrators. They are a literary crutch. You have one of those and you can call yourself adult fiction and YA, you have a smart, articulate narrator who is old enough to know about "stuff" but not old enough to have any actual complexity and experience, so everything that happens to them, they can just react with a fresh naivete. They are trustworthy and loving, and have gotten through puberty but are not having sex or complex relationships. They are also boring. And just as irritating as you remember girls being when you were 15. I wish Bernadette had been the narrator - - complex, messed up, genius -- totally unreliable as the narrator. It would have been a much better book. The other book that I just read that did this is Tell the Wolves I'm Home, and it was the same problem. Not reading any more books where the narrator is a 15-year old.

Okay, other stuff, in a nutshell. House: Going great, pictures coming. Mayoral candidates: Going to have to skip around for reasons I will explain in the next post I do about them. Movies: Saw the new apes movie. Watched After Sunset again. Watched Going Deep with David Rees, which is awesome. Have I written about anything else? No? Anything you want me to write about?

Who is Scobie? Revisited

In honor of the 9th birthday of this blog, here's the text of my third post ever, explaining the origin of the blog's name.

Joshua Scobie is a character from Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. From the Literary Encyclopedia:

"Perhaps most colourful of all is aging policeman Scobie, whose ultimately fatal “tendencies” involve dressing up as a woman during the full moon and trolling for British sailors on shore leave. . . In other developments, Scobie is kicked to death by outraged British sailors, but is elevated to sainthood by his Muslim neighbors; his bathtub, in which he was wont to prepare a lethal “Mock Whisky”, becomes a holy relic."

For more scintillating plot twists along those same lines: http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10820

Scobie was also our cat for awhile.

Oakland Mayoral Candidate: Libby Schaaf

It is really fortuitous that Libby Schaaf was next in line for me to write about, because I attended a "meet the candidate" meeting for her held by a colleague on Saturday, and had an opportunity to hear her speak for an hour and meet her afterwards. Here's Libby Schaaf's website.

I was very impressed by Ms. Schaaf. She reminded me of Leslie Knope from Parks & Recreation, and I mean that in the best possible way. She had an incredible grasp of the details of every issue people raised, and her ideas were good. She could also speak to concrete things she has done as a City Council member that related to these issues, and very gently informed people when their perceptions of city issues were wrong. An example: one gentleman complained that there was only one inspector for the fire department on overgrowth abatement (This is an issue for Hills homeowners). Ms. Schaaf told him that there is one full-time, 3 part-time, and the new budget calls for two additional full-time, plus a civilian fire marshal, and that a real issue is that the city is not collecting the fines assessed against property owners who don't abate their fire hazardous overgrowth, something she has raised to the fire chief. She was that thorough on every issue. She also was very inclusive in mentioning which of her colleagues she worked with on which issue, demonstrating her ability to work with the council members on difficult issues.

I asked her about the Ruby Report, and whether her close relationships with other council members would prevent her from holding them accountable. She asked me for an example. I said, things like insisting that family members be hired, and meddling in the city departments. She was a little flustered and said that she would have voted for a motion to sanction one of her colleagues if one had been made that night. I am not sure what she was referring to, and didn't ask her why she didn't make that motion, because it seemed a little controversial for what was an otherwise pleasant and genteel meeting.

Which gets to my other concern. Libby Schaaf is doing a great job making connections with voters in the more affluent neighborhoods but I don't know how much she is campaigning in other neighborhoods. As one person there said, "The Mayor is going to all the churches. Are you going to the churches?" Libby's response was basically, "I would love to go to services anywhere you invite me." I don't really know how much exposure she has gotten.

Some other things I learned from her: The field will probably be winnowed a bit on August 8, which is the filing deadline for candidates to submit signatures. They only need 50 signatures, but that might shake some candidates out of the race. Neither Libby Schaaf nor Courtney Ruby can run for their current position because both seats are on the November ballot. That's disappointing; we will lose one or both of them regardless of the outcome of the election. Finally, there is a debate at city hall on August 21 for all candidates who have garnered more than 5% in an independent poll. I cannot attend that but it will make clear who the "real contenders" are.

Doors and roof

The house is really taking shape. The roof is on, the skylights are being installed (four!) and the doors are being installed. The house is totally framed. I really love it. Plumbing and electrical are next. 

Oakland Mayoral Candidate: Courtney Ruby

Having vented about our current mayor, I feel calm, relaxed and ready to return to the task at hand. Courtney Ruby is the City Auditor, and she decided in February 2014 to run for Mayor because of public safety concerns. Ms. Ruby's website (www.CourtneyRuby.com) does not seem to have a platform listed, although she is very critical of the current administration and city council. Not that I blame her.

In lieu of specifics in her mayoral campaign, I decided to check out her work as the City Auditor.  In some ways, her work as auditor has been very strong. She has called out wrongdoing by some entrenched city councilmembers in the Ruby Report, and was very frank in her assessment of the pension liabilities and its impact on governance. She has been recognized nationally for her auditor performance in Oakland, and now that I've read her reports, I wish she had more exposure in Oakland. That said, her proposed solutions are a little weak. We have a $1.5 billion pension liability in Oakland, and her recommendation is to convene a Pension Advisory Committee, and maybe a coalition of similarly situated cities to lobby Sacramento on the issue. This is unsettling to me; when I was advising public pensions, we were telling them to expect the hammer to fall back in 2005. If Oakland doesn't have a committee of this kind, or hasn't been in this kind of dialogue already, we are in deep trouble. Trouble deeper than a Pension Advisory Group will solve.

The suggestions in the Ruby Report are much more specific and actionable. They start at page 37 of the Ruby Report, and indicate that our elected officials are engaged in an unbelievable amount of meddling, self-dealing and inappropriate conduct. Knowing that there's this level of dysfunction; why would she want to be Mayor? The job sounds like Chief Cat Herder.

I am interested in hearing more from Ms. Ruby, but I also wonder whether she wouldn't be an excellent partner in transparency and accountability to a different Mayor. She seems like an awesome Auditor, and might be a good Mayor. But wouldn't it be better to have a great auditor and a great mayor?

Oakland Mayoral Candidate: Jean Quan

I can keep this post short but sweet. I am not going to research or summarize Jean Quan's positions of alleged accomplishments, because there is no way that I can imagine voting for her. I did not vote for her last time, I think she's done a poor job, and I think she needs to be replaced. It's why I am paying close attention to her challengers. She has to go.

Oakland Mayoral Candidate: Bryan Parker

We are now entering the realm of what I will call "The Serious Candidates." I know that Rebecca Kaplan is considered a serious contender, and that the other candidates are also serious about their candidacies. It's just that, alphabetically, the next few candidates are mainstream and likely to receive some media attention as well. Bryan Parker is a current Port Commissioner, appointed by Mayor Jean Quan, who announced his candidacy back in May 2013.

That seems like a long time ago. But for fundraising purposes, Mr. Parker no doubt wanted to get the ball rolling, and it certainly was clear earlier than last year that Jean Quan needed to be challenged (if not recalled). And Mr. Parker has successfully raised money. He is the top fundraiser in this crowded field, with $140,699 raised. That's compared with Mayor Quan's $120,205. Two issues have given Oaklanders' pause about this. First, a lot of that money was raised via Crowdtilt, an online fundraising program that may not meet campaign finance requirements. Second, a lot of that money was donated by folks who do not live in Oakland. Anecdotally, I have heard that he reached out to many of his law school classmates. I don't know whether there's anything wrong with that (disclosure: When I ran for political office on a much smaller scale, I certainly reached out to my college and law school classmates, as well as friends in SF, many of whom gave to my campaign). But it does raise a question about what level of local involvement Mr. Parker will seek out to develop his policies and staff his administration.

Mr. Parker's platform is A Safe Oakland, An Employed Oakland, An Educated Oakland. Mr. Parker pairs public safety ideas like more police with educational goals, like increasing graduation and job placement rates for kids. He wants equitable growth and job opportunities for all Oakland residents, and aims to bring his background as a healthcare executive with DaVita and as a port commissioner to job creation efforts. Finally, he wants to increase technology in the schools to improve public education.

I don't have any beef with ANY of that. I would like to hear a debate where Mr. Parker discusses his ideas with the other candidates, and I would like to meet him personally. But there are a few other things that have turned me off Mr. Parker so far, and they are all highly subjective. First of all, the picture he selected for his campaign posters is not a very good picture. Second, a friend who would be inclined to support the campaign financially and who is, in the parlance of our times "a job creater", told me that he invited Mr. Parker to talk and Mr. Parker has never reached out.  Finally, I stood next to him at an event for an organization that teaches law in high schools, and he was on his Blackberry almost the entire time the speaker was speaking. Otherwise, he was working the room like it was his own fundraiser. I thought that was rude, and disrespectful to the organization hosting the event and to the speaker. Maybe it's unfair to base my judgments on those events, but those kinds of impressions are the kind that help voters decide.