Forbes Magazine rates my town, Oakland, in the Top Five Coolest Cities in the US.

#1 was a tie between NY & Vegas
#3 went to Seattle (using a picture from the one sunny day they had last year)
#4 was taken by Chicago
#5 was Oakland.

Six through ten went to Orlando, San Diego, LA, and DC.

San Francisco didn't even rate.

(Technically, if you read the pop-up, they call it the SF-Oakland statistical area. Even so, an editor decided to choose Oakland over her sister on the far side of Goat Island.)

In your face, peninsulares!

Ok. I'll admit, Forbes isn't exactly an arbiter of cool, and their rankings don't really mean much of anything anyway, but a guy's gotta have something. I'm constantly trying to defend my town from folk who claim Oakland isn't safe enough, or cool enough, or cultured enough.

Chip Johnson, the SFGate Oakand correspondent runs a reasonable list of grievances against Mayor Dellums (masked as a comparison with Berkeley's Bates: Dellums should take some cues from Mayor Bates.

So really, upon reading this I'm wondering if we should be deciding between two unpalatable choices. Do we wait for another 19 months of this while Mayor Dellums fails to prevent the city falling around our ears, or do we recall a public servant who had a distinguished career with an ignominious end?

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It's the last game of the season!
*URBAN CAPTURE THE FLAG*
Tuesday September 18th in Frank Ogawa Plaza,
City Hall, Downtown Oakland
- Explanation of Rules at 8:15 pm
- Game Starts promptly at 8:30pm
Post Game Celebration at Radio Bar at 10:15pm
((( bring your running shoes! )))
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( other oaklandish events, too. )

Pssst.... Capture the Flag is on *again*
The last game was so hott, we had to do an encore...
8:30 on Tuesday June 19th @ Frank Ogawa Plaza (City Hall)
Tell a friend.

Ooh. That sounds like fun. And this time I know about the damned thing more than 12 hours beforehand.

Let's talk.

The SF Mime troupe is doing a showing of Godfellas at Mosswood park (Broadway at Telegraph) in Oakland. Show starts at 2pm, with music 30 minutes prior. We're going to be there at around noon, stake out a picnic, and stay for the show. Feel free to join us.

Comment if you don't have my number, and we'll sort all that out.

Cheers,

~Brian