Oakland News: Rob Bonta And YouTube, Coliseum JPA, Woodall Pissed

In this Oakland News you can tell a lot about a candidate by not just their videos, but when they were uploaded. Rob Bonta is currently the front-runner for the California Assembly District 18 race, and it’s 2012. But the restless, ambitious Bonta (nothing wrong with that) put out this video in 2010 explaining why he would make a great Alameda City Council representative.

Moreover, Bonta put out the video apparently not to be seen much (it had only 49 views in about two years before I found it), because the ability to embed it was disabled. But there are ways around that such that you can click on Rob’s nose to see the video, then click back here:

This time, and just two years later, Rob doesn’t have a YouTube video talking about his run for the California Assembly. Asking the campaign the reasons for this isn’t going to yield the real reason, and more than likely will show that the campaign’s not really up to speed on how to create an effective social media campaign.

Of course, the only way for Rob to challenge my point is to make a video and distribute it.

Someone else who lacks a current YouTube campaign video is Able Guillen, Bonta’s challenger. But I did find a video on Keith Carson’s YouTube page that has Abel talking about his role on the Peralta Collage Board. It’s part of something Keith called “The Terminator Tour”:

Oh, and Joel Young? Well, there’s actually a fair number of videos I’m able to find with Joel in them. While excluding the ones made by me, this one has Joel at the Oakland Chinatown Festival last year:

Joel also made a video for SEIU Member Kathleen Colins – Young last Decemmber and from his little-used YouTube channel Joel B Young.

But overall, what’s the deal with no video on the candidates assembly races? Is there some kind of rule prohibiting this? Well if that were the case, Melissa Fox, who ran a losing effort against Don Wagner for the California 70th Assembly District Race in 2010 would not have made this video then:

What’s interesting is her website from the campaign had just a Facebook and Twitter button, but no YouTube button – and she had a YouTube channel – go figure.

My sad conclusion is that many of the candidates and their staffs are so technically-challenged they don’t know how to fashion effective social media campaigns. It’s not so much that they have something to hide; more that they don’t know how to show what they’ve got using the Internet, and particularly YouTube.

Rebecca Saltzman Runs For BART Board

Someone else running for local office, and lacking a video is Rebecca Saltzman, who’s aiming at the BART Board District Three. And while the website’s pretty cool looking – http://www.rebeccaforbart.com – it lacks the needed number of social media buttons to get out her message via multiple platforms.

Just saying – considering that only Berkeley resident Nashua Kalil is running against her and Nashua’s almost invisible as of this writing, it may not make much difference.

Meanwhile, Bob Franklin, who held the BART Board seat Rebecca seeks, has stepped down to run for Oakland City Council District One, but from the looks of things online, Bob’s got to thank Rebecca for any exposure his efforts have received. His name comes up in searches for Saltzman, and in searches for him, her name comes up.

Angela Woodall Pissed With Zennie

This is fun – for me. Predictably, Oakland Tribune reporter Angela Woodall is pissed off that I uncovered a Twitter tweet that, sadly, it seems she didn’t want anyone to make note of. A few days ago I ran a blog post expanding on how, on Twitter, Woodall compared the Oakland – Alameda County Coliseum JPA to, of all things, Tammany Hall, the New York City-based 1940s political group of elected officials that focused on something called “honest graft” or taking a little revenue for their own while working on development projects for “the public good.”

Well, an Oaklander on Twitter who paid attention to my well-hashtagged blog post got from Angela what I have, to date and even after responses on Twitter from me, a reaction:

29 Mar Angela Woodall ‏ @AngelaWoodall Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
I am never surprised by lazy bloggers who use others’ work without asking simple questions first.

StephanInOakland ‏ @StephanOakland Close
@AngelaWoodall In reading this http://bit.ly/H3VzJp the #Coliseum tweet was yours. Looks interesting to me; why hate @zennie62 ?

StephanInOakland ‏ @StephanOakland Close
@AngelaWoodall Why? @zennie62 based it on your tweet, and link on #oakland #coliseum #jpa, you, not he, said it was #TammanyHall #explain

29 Mar Angela Woodall ‏ @AngelaWoodall
@StephanOakland The blog may be interesting but it was INCORRECT.
In reply to StephanInOakland

StephanInOakland ‏ @StephanOakland
@AngelaWoodall Why? @zennie62 based it on your tweet, and link on #oakland #coliseum #jpa, you, not he, said it was #TammanyHall #explain

30 Mar Angela Woodall ‏ @AngelaWoodall
@StephanOakland His conclusions. No one asked me what I meant b4riffing on the reference. And why would he suggest I wld delete the tweet?
In reply to StephanInOakland

StephanInOakland ‏ @StephanOakland
Also @AngelaWoodall you said you were going to live stream #oakland #coliseum #jpa – @zennie62 was right to highlight your tweet

Angela Woodall ‏ @AngelaWoodall
@StephanOakland Why would I? (assuming that you mean would I delete the tweet)
In reply to StephanInOakland

StephanInOakland ‏ @StephanOakland
@angelawoodall Oh. I meant respond to him. (I think this is starting to be for him to tweet to.) His post wasn’t mean toward you, btw.

30 Mar Angela Woodall ‏ @AngelaWoodall
@StephanOakland nice of u to ask though.
In reply to StephanInOakland

Now I sent several Twitter tweets to Angela, but unlike the reception she gave to someone she does not know, Woodall did not respond to me. That’s why I didn’t go to her in the first place. Her Twitter tweet said it all.

What’s more, Angela did not deal with the real question: what was it in the Coliseum JPA’s behavior that caused an accusation of political corruption? Moreover, this contacting works both ways: Woodall could have picked up the phone and called me. My numbers right there in my blog.

Brother.

It’s sport among some SF Bay Area journalists to pick on me, and I enjoy it, because to me “journalism” is too often preachy, elitist, and anti-tech. The kind of behavior journalists display today is frighteningly similar to that approach which historically resulted in racial discrimination in newsrooms. It comes as no surprise to me that the top blogs and most successful people in media are in tech and not in journalism.

Focus On The Coliseum

But I digress. The main focus should be on The Oakland Coliseum, which, according to Woodall, had a special finance meeting Thursday, but failed to put its latest financial report on a bond issue for replayment on its hard-to-find, poorly social-media-marked website here: http://www.coliseumauthority.org and in this area: http://www.coliseumauthority.org/public/financial.html – as of this writing. Next JPA Meeting: Fri, Apr 20, 2012 8:30 am.

Oh, and this is the last audited financial statement from the JPA:
http://www.coliseumauthority.org/archive/2012/finl_109_1325617832.pdf

It’s still a shame Oakland’s City Auditor fails and refuses to pay attention to the Oakland Coliseum, and has shown more interest in Oakland Fox Theater Developer Phil Tagami’s personal life than the goings on at the most expensive real estate the City Of Oakland even partly owns in Oakland.

City Of Oakland Car Gets Jumpstart

I certainly hope this doesn’t say a thing about the state of the City of Oakland, but it just might. The photo you see is one that was posted on Twitter, with this tweet by @jesfacekillah:

JesFace Killah ‏ @jesfacekillah Close
Just jump started a city of oakland car? C’mon @jeanquan take care of your people!shame! #oosavestheday @OccupyOakland

Which does make one wonder. To what degree is the City of Oakland able to take care of ‘its’ own’ considering budget cuts and layoffs – and morale. Is this what we’ve been reduced to? A need for jumper cables?

Or something…

Joshua Daniels
‏ @HarryElephante
In less than 3 months, Oakland already has 26 homicides in 2012 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577306062914377718.html | via @WSJ | @JeanQuan #Oakland #OakMtg #OPD #OO

Stay tuned.