Oakland News. A bit of a while since the last posting of Oakland News, but that’s because this blogger has spent a lot of time posting Oakland content over at Oakland Focus, just to keep the search engine fires burning over there, and to get back to the initial objective of having the blogs focused on local issues and news ‘feed into’ Zennie62. At any rate, let’s get to it.
UPDATE: MAYOR QUAN NEEDS TO GET INVOLVED!
Erica Maskaleris is missing, and has been for about the last day. According to online reports, which is how I learned of this, as I’m blogging from Atlanta where I’m visiting my Mom, Ms. Maskaleris is a 31 year old Oaklander who is commonly seen jogging.
The online report is not kind to the Oakland Police Department. Consider this from The Examiner:
Erica Maskalerias, 31, has been going on regular morning jogs in her neighborhood after she lost her husband, Josiah to cancer last February, according to her mother, Gloria Torres. A surveillance video located at a bakery caught Erica running by (Taste of Denmark bakery at 34th Street and Telegraph Avenue) at 7 a.m., but she never returned home and has been missing since (Thursday, March 7th).
On March 8, 2013, 24 hours after Erica went missing, her family was told that the OPD investigator was in training all day and could not be reached. On March 9, 2013, Gloria and her family were told that the investigator on the case was unable to do work in the community as he was “assigned to office duties.”
That means the neighborhood, and that’s us, has to go to work.
From what I’ve been able to determine, Erica Maskaleris started an Oakland company called Geekosystems, where she’s listed as “owner and operations manager.” At the company webpage, her bio reads this way:
In 2007, Erica Maskaleris began IT consulting company, JMask Consulting, with her husband Josiah. The company formalized its operations in 2009 as GeekoSystems and soon built a large client base that spans the 9-county Bay Area. On February 8, 2012, GeekoSystems co-founder; Josiah Maskaleris lost his brief battle with cancer. Erica continues operations with new Lead Consultant, Patrick Lopez.
Though 2012 has been full of major life changes, Erica has drawn strength and inspiration from a large community of family, friends and the client base GeekoSystems serves. Josiah had a deep appreciation for poetry and left Erica with a collection of his own and other’s writings. She also draws inspiration from these.
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” – Rabindranath Tagore
As the bio read, Josiah Maskaleris passed on after a battle with cancer. Erica’s Facebook page has a photo of the two of them on it.
The latest news from the “Find Erica Maskaleris” Facebook Page reports, as of 7 hours ago..
Without elaborating, police have reported a potential sighting of Erica in West Oakland. That’s all the news, please send your love, light and prayers. And please understand that this is all the information we have right now.
As for Maskaleris’ description she’s 5’3, about 200 pounds, Latina, brown eyes, with red shoes, and grey sweatshirt and pants. She’s 31 years old. The family is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to her location. Anyone with information is asked to call Oakland police at (510) 777-3333 or call Patrick Lopez at 510-230-3078.
Oakland Army Base Lawsuit Update
Over at Oakland Focus, I have a rather extensive update concerning the lawsuit filed by Oakland Activist Gene Hazzard against the group of developers working on the Oakland Army Base Project. For Gene, it’s a personal story that’s seen the lawsuit survive to this point, and is continued to June 6th. It’s hard for me not to think of Mr. Hazzard as a little like Captain Ahab of Moby Dick, but to understand why I make that comparison, you need to read the blog post – link here.
Recent Snatch-And-Run At Coffee Mill On Grand Avenue
This from a local message board…
Hello … I eat breakfast/lunch regularly at the Coffee Mill and one of the waitresses told me about a snatch & run robbery that happened there today around 1PM.
A young woman with her laptop and headphones on, was enjoying the day and her coffee when a young African-American male snatched her laptop off the table and jumped into a waiting car.
While this is not Adams Point, I report this here as I still see others along Grand with their laptops and headsets also being potential targets. These are crimes of opportunity and believe me they have this down to a science .. they are making money doing this folks. The mother car circles around while the ones on the sidewalk size up their opportunity and make the grab and run and jump into the car and away they go, in a matter of seconds and no one is able to stop them.
I saw a middle aged man sitting on the bench in front of Peets with his iPad out, an easy target. With people getting cut & shot, I do not think there will be too many willing to assist recovery while the robbery is in progress.
So please pass this along and warn your neighbors and the hapless person enjoying their day and their electronics .. they are making themselves targets.
Ok, folks. Keep an eye out for Erica Maskaleris.
Stay tuned.