yesterday i’ve finished my tasks very well and posted small report about it which i’ll update later , today i’m going to finish 3 chapters of histology , further revision of physiology and 15 question as usual .

YES , IT WAS POSSIBLE I DID IT .

Note to self: Do not watch MTV prior to meditation.

This evening’s interruptions were brought to me by:
- “16 and Pregnant”

- That poor boy in my high school class who I rejected after he spent all year long mustering up the courage to ask me out

- The rash on my chest from that itchy wool scarf I work to work today

- The Christmas card I just received in the mail that was printed off-center with a typo in the closing salutation

I haven’t been able to focus all evening. In tonight’s 4 hour long Kaplan class, I managed to daydream an entire life, in detail, that I will never live.  My teacher caught me smiling and immediately asked me translate formal logic statements for the class. I need to be present and  focus on the present.

Saul Kaplan of the Business Innovation Factory, published what he calls a ‘rant’ in the Mass High Tech, the journal of technology in New England. You can also read it on his blog.

And it’s a nice rant.  It really is.

It is time to move beyond public policy debates and institutional rugby scrums to try new solutions. What we are doing now isn’t working, and far too much of the federal stimulus investment in education is being spent to sustain the current system.

Isn’t that nice? I love it.  New solutions all around!

But what Kaplan (and so many others) are saying and writing and politicizing is the same old, tired polemic.

We need actionable platforms to enable real world experimentation for new education systems and solutions. We need to bring the voice of the student and student experience directly into the education innovation conversation. And we must create a purposeful network of innovators motivated to explore and test new system solutions. Join the conversation. The water is fine.

This is the language of business.  “We need to bring the voice of the student directly into the education innovation conversation.”  A network of innovators has to be created.  We need “actionable platforms” and “real world experimentation.”

Some of these things exist, actually, Saul.  That network of educational innovators you wanted?  They’re teachers using these odd social media services called Twitter and Facebook and Ning and WordPress.  We got tired of waiting around for educational authorities to give us access to these tools, so a lot of teachers went out and started up conversations online with each other (This blog has readers, though unfortunately not yet commentators, on every inhabited continent).

Chances are, though, that the teachers are using their home Internet services to use these tools, because the tools are blocked by filtering services from school.  And those student voices in the educational debate you wanted?  Those students are blocked from participating in the conversation in two ways — one, those self-same filters. And two, most of them don’t care about the education they’re getting in school. The majority of students have one, maybe two ‘good’ teachers, and the rest are “boring”, “mean”, or just plain “stupid.”

And this mirrors your own educational experience, so you believe the teens in your life when they say stuff like this: “School is boring.” “All my teachers hate me.”

Yet when you ASK kids to design as school — and I do this a LOT — the first thing they do is design the building.  Because kids think school=building.  When you dig deeper, though, and probe them with more questions, they imagine a school that operates much like today’s hybridized monsters.

What every solution I’ve ever read in a newspaper or on a website or a blog has failed to do… completely!… is tell us teachers what it is that all you non-teachers would like us to do during the eight or nine hours we have your children in our care and tutelage. When we ask, we get lists like this:

1. Explore real-world problems
2. Implement 21st century learning
3. Implement student-centered learning
4. Stop giving pointless worksheets
5. Stop teaching to the test
6. Make it relevant to the kids’ lives

Starting with #5., first — we’ll stop teaching to the test when you stop basing our salaries and likelihood of future employment on The Test.  And related to that, #4., half the pointless worksheets we give are related to “teaching to the test.”

Which brings us to this list:

1. Explore real-world problems
2. Implement 21st century learning
3. Implement student-centered learning
4. Make it relevant to the kids’ lives

Real-world problems require real-world data and real-world tools.  If you want chemists, America, you have to put top-notch chemists into your high school and middle school classrooms, you have to give them instruments and equipment and raw ingredients, and you have to convince the parents to sign liability waivers in case their kid blows himself or others up, or poisons them with toxic fumes, or wrecks the science wing of the school.  If you want architects and designers, you have to give them access to working designers, architects, and landscapers.  And you have to shell out money for gardens and plants and koi ponds and things like rakes and shovels and dirt.  If you want nuclear physicists or astronomers, you need to consider building a reactor pile in the school gymnasium, and a planetarium or an observatory on the baseball field.  And you need to hire a physicist and an astronomer who will take on some students as apprentices and teach them the ropes.  A climatologist needs a dozen weather stations all over town and an Internet link for the data she and her students collect.

But here’s the trouble.  What you’ve currently got are schools built around five core subjects, plus sometimes-art and sometimes-music, and sometimes-sports.  Your school’s payroll includes a huge number of English, History and Education majors plus some football and basketball coaches, a physics teacher and a biology teacher, and some administrators.  Your school’s budget includes line items for mice for the class snake and cage litter for the hamster.  There isn’t a line item for a used gene sequencer, or a 9″ refracting telescope or its observatory, or a plastics-moulding laboratory, or a digital recording studio with a green screen and a sound booth anywhere on the list.

Or the budget to hire personnel to operate, maintain, and upgrade these kinds of facilities.  So anyone who is going to do those kinds of 21st-century skills trainings in the classroom, Mr. Kaplan, is going to be a teacher who happens to already be interested in the tools. As a hobby. Not someone trained in their use, who uses them professionally.

And your current incentive system says

• No money for failing schools
• Only money for schools at the top
• more testing
• more testing
• more testing
• better discipline

and, oh, yeah:

• more computer use in the classroom if you can swing it
• NO Actual, health-oriented, real sex education. Ever.

I read somewhere that there’s like 144,000 schools in the United States, and that we’ve just allocated $4.6 billion for school ‘reform’.  So if you want Reform, and not ‘reform’, I suggest a Marshall Plan for schools.  Take that $4.6 billion, and give every school in America … $31,944.44.

Oh.

Better figure out your priorities, America.  Apparently you can send thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan, but you’re not interested in giving one more teacher to every school in America.

TWO private schools, the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) and Informatics, will absorb the premiums for new insurance which must be taken to protect fees paid by Singapore students.

The other big players in private education – PSB Academy, SIM and Kaplan – are thinking about following suit.

The five schools altogether had about 46,500 local students of the 75,000 enrolled in private education here last year.

On Monday, the Ministry of Education announced moves to safeguard private students, one of which is that private schools must provide insurance for all students. Now, only foreign students have their school fees protected.

From Dec 21, all private schools will have two options: limit their collection of school fees to two months or purchase fee protection insurance from Lonpac Insurance Bhd, which will allow them to collect up to six months of fees.

Source: Straits Times, 2009

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Dinner dates, a night at the town, private massage service or whatever else you fancy.

Metro Touch Singapore Escort Companionship

(+65) 90973455 ( 24 hours )

www.metro-touch.com ( visit us )

City of God (Meirelles) is an independent film from Brazil.  I had never heard of it before but I was very glad I watched it.  I was not looking forward to a foreign movie and reading subtitles (since I don’t speak Portuguese), but this film kept me engaged the entire way through. City of God (Meirelles) was first released at the Cannes Film Festival in France and then in its home country before being released worldwide.  This film follows two boys as they grow up in the City of God.  Rocket is a young boy who stays out of the gangs and just wants to grow up and get away from the violence.  Lil Ze is a little different than Rocket.  He wants power, and respect.  He knows what life is like in the hood and it doesn’t bother him, but makes him want to control it.  The film mainly follows Rocket as he continues to make the correct choices to get the future he wants, and his struggle with staying out of trouble.  Lil Ze is a violent kid, who has no value for human life whatsoever.  As he gets to control the hood, he eventually grasps this as he tells the runts they cannot kill in his slum, and after his close friend Benny is killed.  There are some scenes in this film that are pretty disturbing and they definitely make sure your watching.  One, for example, is the typical peer pressure, gang related killing a young boy has to do to “be one of” the group.  A young boy named Steak has to kill one of two injured kids to prove himself to the hood.

There are many messages throughout the film.  One of which is friendship.  Don’t forget who your friends are, or else they will be your enemy.  Rocket is lucky to be friends with Benny, so he is safe from Lil Ze.  Another message is the ignorance of kids and their rush to show that they are men.  The line, “I smoke, I snort. I’m a man,” said by an eleven year old says it all.  This film connects with people around the globe, not only because of it’s messages, but because there are so many aspects to connect with.  There is the side to connect with of the boy trying to stay straight, who even attempts to rob people but just can’t because he talks to them and sees that they are cool people.  There is also the side to connect with that has the ambitious side.  Although there are many times throughout the film that I thought Lil Ze was going to do something really bad, he refrained a lot and surprised me.  He might have no value for human life, but he knows that there is no need to waste it.  Lil Ze wants power, and most of all to be respected.  It seemed that throughout the movie the people that didn’t respect him were the ones that were killed.

Another aspect of this film that I thought was executed to perfection was the way the storyline was filmed.  I loved how it started at the last scene and then went back to the beginning to tell the story.  I also liked how while doing that and following Rockets life, he is the narrator talking about himself and Lil Ze.

This film has messages that cross country lines.  People who watch this film see the struggle of a young boy living in a VERY bad area, where you have to be scared for your life at all times.  They see this boy, and they see him grow up and keep his morals and values and grow into a man that gets everything he wanted in life.  I would definitely put this movie in my top ten.  I said this last week with Sex, Lies, and Videotape, but this screening topped it.

Corporate Social Responsibility News: Seventh Generation and Kaplan EduNeering Launch Sustainability Institute; CorporateRegister.com’s CSR Report Tally and Voting for 2010 Awards

Christmas is only three weeks away and millions of Americans have packed stores nationwide, searching for those perfect gifts. Black Friday came and went, but the deals are still here. Prices have dropped and unbelievable deals are being offered to consumers.

This year, I had a few items on my wish list. I want to build my own communications studio at home. In other words,  I want nothing but electronics to add to my collection. I had my mind on a tape recorder for interviews, a more advanced digital camera, etc.  However, I paused and wondered if those were the things that I needed right this minute? My heart said, “no!” My mind immediately went on to graduate school.

I’ve been talking about graduate school for too long now. I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the City University of New York-Brooklyn College in May 2007. Since that time, I’ve worked full-time and took a well-deserved break from school. Now it’s time to get back in the classroom and strive for a higher level. It’s time to get back in the books and prepare for my Master’s degree.

This week, I thank God because I was able to move past my procrastination and take my first step. I am back in school as a Kaplan student. In order to get into graduate school, well my targeted school, I need to ace my GRE exam. Lord, knows I can’t do it alone. So I enrolled for a course that will begin in January and end in March, a commitment of 9  Sunday consecutive mornings.  I’m not worried about it, because this has been a long time coming.

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) December 1, 2009 – Princeton, NJ and Burlington, VT – Kaplan EduNeering, a leading provider of compliance and knowledge management solutions, and Seventh Generation, a pioneer and leader in sustainability, announced the launch of their new Sustainability Institute.  The Kaplan EduNeering/Seventh Generation Sustainability Institute (www.InstituteSustainability.com) will provide business and governmental managers, employees, subcontractors and supply chain partners with best practices and specialized training in the development and implementation of sustainability initiatives.

“Sustainability is a holistic, systems-based learning approach to living well today by employing business practices that enable future generations to live better tomorrow,” said Lisa Clune, President of Kaplan EduNeering. “The Kaplan EduNeering/Seventh Generation Sustainability Institute provides practical guidance and training for business practices that are responsive to the principles of sustainability and to the financial expectations of stakeholders.” 

“There is now compelling evidence that sustainable companies enjoy a competitive advantage over organizations that continue to embrace an exclusive focus on short term profits,” said Jeffrey Hollender, Executive Chairman of Seventh Generation. “That business paradigm is now seen as counterproductive, not only for society and the natural world but also for company stakeholders. Organizations are beginning to understand that responsible corporate behavior has become a business imperative and that it will only become increasingly more important in the future.”

Although recent studies confirm the belief among business professionals that environmental, social and governance activities create shareholder value and increase consumer loyalty, a study by MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group reports that only 30% of firms are implementing sustainability practices.

The Kaplan EduNeering/Seventh Generation Sustainability Institute provides:

•    An online library of courses, including Sustainability 101, Sustainable Supply Chain and Greenhouse Gas Management.  Each of these modules addresses one of the essential business practices in an effective sustainability program. The Sustainability Institute courses are also a good primer for companies seeking distribution with Wal-Mart and that must adhere to Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index.   Kaplan EduNeering is a pioneer in online learning and has developed more than 4,000 custom courses and learning exercises for its clients and a library of 550 standardized compliance and regulatory courses.

•    Ten video modules for ongoing sustainability learning, with topics ranging from “Developing a Sustainability Mindset” to “Be Transparent.”  The video series includes five modules centered on sustainable business practices.  Each of these modules addresses one of the essential business practices in an effective sustainability program.  The videos feature Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation’s co-founder and current Executive Chairman.  As the company’s Inspired Protagonist, Jeffrey has advised Fortune 500 companies and authored best-selling books including  How to Make the World a Better Place: A Guide for Doing Good and What Matters Most – How a small group of pioneers are teaching social responsibility to big business – and why big business is listening.  Jeffrey’s newest book, The Responsibility Revolution, is scheduled for publication in March 2010.

•    An online toolkit called the Sustainability Communication CoachSM (SCC), which includes articles, brochures, mini-training modules, case studies and other resources to develop and sustain an ongoing, enterprise-wide sustainability communications program. The SCC is modeled after Kaplan EduNeering’s widely used Ethics Communication CoachSM, which now includes 2,000 tools and celebrates its ten-year anniversary in 2009.

•    Optional services, including sustainability consulting, through Seventh Generation’s professional staff and an exam prep package for the LEEDv3 (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).  A Green Associate certificate awarded by the Green Building Council can be provided by Kaplan AE Education.

“The gap between ‘recognizing’ the value of sustainability and ‘achieving’ that value is costing businesses around the world billions of dollars in lost profits,” said Lisa Clune.  “The Kaplan EduNeering/Seventh Generation Sustainability Institute provides the broad resources to help companies understand and achieve the tangible benefits of sustainable business practices.”

About Kaplan EduNeering
Kaplan EduNeering (www.kaplaneduneering.com) is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading global provider of educational services to individuals, schools and businesses.  Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). Kaplan EduNeering develops technology-enabled knowledge solutions for assuring regulatory compliance and improving business performance. Kaplan EduNeering is headquartered in Princeton, NJ, and has offices in Houston, TX, Bloomsburg, PA, and London, UK. 

About Seventh Generation
Seventh Generation is a leader in corporate responsibility and sustainable business practices and is committed to being the most trusted brand of household and personal-care products for your living home. It derives its name from the Iroquois belief that “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”

For information on Seventh Generation cleaning, paper, baby and feminine personal care products, to find store locations, and explore the company’s website visit www.seventhgeneration.com. To read more about Seventh Generation’s corporate responsibility, visit the Corporate Consciousness Report at:  www.seventhgeneration.com/corporate-responsibility/2008.

This blog has moved to FutureOaklandBlog.com, and posts will no longer be updated here. Please update your links.

*If you are taking the bar exam I STRONGLY URGE you to go with Kaplan PMBR for bar preparation after the hours I spent on the phone with BarBri and their disjointed office setup and inept customer service*

I registered for BarBri’s Bar Review course with BARBRI of New York 1500 Broadway New York, NY 10036 Telephone: (212) 719-0200 or (800) 472-8899. The total cost of the course is $3,203.75 and increases every year. I registered for the New York bar prep course on 11/30/2009. I was allowed to pay in full and the course had more than a dozen locations listed in New York and Massachusetts. Almost every course was listed as tentative. I selected the Boston BarBri office location for the 6:00 PM Monday through Friday program as I work during the day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. I received a call 3 days later on 12/2/2009 stating that the 6:00 PM course was cancelled but not to worry because they had conveniently moved me to the 9:00 AM course (when I am at work sitting at my desk… super).

I informed them that the 9:00AM course time would not work I need a 6:00 PM course. They stated that there were no 6:00 PM courses in my area for the New York bar exam. But if I wanted to I could do their BarBri mobile program. Again this course already cost me $3,203.75 and was effectively USELESS for me at this time. The mobile course was an extra $750. For the mobile course you download their lectures onto an iPod touch or iPhone (do not own either) or you can lease a device from them. You cannot access the lectures on a computer and HAVE to use the device to see and listen to the lectures. The device has to be reconnected to the computer every 2 weeks or the application deletes the lectures.

On principal alone I did not want to pay the extra $750 because I had already paid $3,203.75 and had received nothing. They wanted $3,953.75 for the inconvenience I guess. The customer service up to this point was terrible, disorganized and frustrating. I told the representative, Linda, that I did not want to pay an extra $750 dollars. She said “how about half off of the $750?” I said I did not want to pay extra at all as the only other option they had was to offer me a worthless product. I had paid $3,203.75 for a course that was cancelled with no other cost comparable viable alternatives in the same time slot. She then said “well we need 25 people for a class and there are only 2 of you registered.” TWO OF US and they needed TWENTY-FIVE and they knew this on 11/30/2009 and let me pay in full and register for a course that was in all realities not going to happen. 23 people by the way at $3,203.75 is $73,686.25, you cannot tell me that they run their business with the hope that angles fall out of the sky with this money in 2 to 3 days time for a winter Bar Exam. Linda continued to frustrate me and spin my wheels for another 15 minutes as I tried to explain to her why I should not have to pay for the mobile program where the content is the same so NO ADDED BARBRI VALUE where the only add is that I can now watch the lectures on a really really small screen versus in a class room or on a real computer.

I then spoke with the director of the NY BarBri office. Another lost hour and more useless discussion about the BarBri advantage. He bagged on the competitors and did not move towards a solution. I wanted a refund and an apology for the terrible customer service. Note when I registered for BarBri bar preparation course they charge a 250 dollar fee to register which when I called the representative, Linda, she called it a “book deposit”.

I found that Kaplan PMBR has a bar review course, online, for 2,700 dollars. I wanted a refund and Bob kept talking about academic differences in the program. He talked about how new they were and how Kaplan does not adapt to the changes in the MBE questions. $3,203.75 and this is what the guy is talking to me about when I just want a refund.

Finally he got the message and said he would refund all money except for $250. He said it was not a “book deposit,” bur rather a non-refundable registration fee. I registered online, the customer service was terrible. What could this fee possibly go towards? I want my 250 dollars back. I never want to work with BarBri ever. I pray to god that no one ever has to try to work with them on the phone. In a last ditch effort to try and not have to move all this money around and register for the Kaplan course I called the Massachusetts office to ask about their 6:00 PM review for the Massachusetts Bar.

BARBRI of Massachusetts, 31 St. James Avenue, Suite 820 Boston, MA 02116
Telephone: (617) 695-9955 or (800) 866-7277

Here was the conversation:
“Do you guys have a 6:00 PM Massachusetts Bar review in Boston Office?”
“The Status of the class is Tentative. We required 25 students for a class.”
“How many people are currently enrolled?”
“I don’t know”
“… What do you mean you don’t know?”
“It’s Tentative”

Moral of the story, if you want a run around and useless, inconvenient customer service then go with BarBri. You will get free headaches with registration redeemable at your choosing.

Final decision – Going with Kaplan PMBR for their online bar review course. Cost is $2,700. Can watch on any computer, with real screen and even on speakers! Customer service has to be better with Kaplan PMBR as a dead cat would offer better customer service than the BarBri representatives.

Let me start off by saying that I watched this film on my computer, and had a “WOW” moment when I realized James Spader was the actor underneath all that hair.

Anyways… I had never seen Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Soderbergh 1989) before and this was the best supplemental screening I have done to date.  It is clearly an indie film and it managed to kill at the box office.  That is the most intriguing thing about the film.  An indie movie a blockbuster?  The film as many have posted before me, made 24 times its budget in revenue, so why did an indie film do this?

Reason number 1-

I believe that the plot is all too believable, so people like it.  Movies nowadays, especially blockbusters, follow a plot that when you look at it from a realistic perspective, just doesn’t make sense.  Now that succeeds because people want an escape from real life when they go to watch films.  But Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Soderbergh 1989) is a complete 180, and a refreshing change.  The main four people, Graham, Ann, John, and Cynthia, become completely intertwined by the films finish.  I didn’t know what to expect from a film that starts off with a woman telling her therapist that she thinks garbage is more important than sex, but I was very satisfied.  The film does a great job of making sure it doesn’t alienate John as the cheating husband and horrible person (until it is supposed to, at the end).  Yes, they constantly call and show him as a liar, but it doesn’t make him look like a bad person.  Ann on the other hand, is shown as an almost childlike virgin.  She doesn’t like to talk about sexual things, but she seems oddly curious about it for a woman her age.  Cynthia is the younger less successful sister that takes pleasure in doing the one thing she can best her sibling at, and does it with her husband to top it off, and Graham is the polar opposite of his former good friend John.  This film takes the characters and has an opposite for each.  Where Ann is shy and opposed to things about sex, Cynthia is extroverted and open to things.  Where John is disloyal and a pathological liar, Graham is completely honest and hates liars (and lawyers).

So back to my original question, why did this film do so well in the theaters?

Reason number 2-

The characters are extremely relatable.  Most of us have a little bit of each character inside.  We all lie every now and then, and it is human nature to desire the unattainable as Cynthia does (and gets).  But that’s the darker side of people.  There is also the side where we all long to be as honest and forthcoming a Graham, and as innocent as Ann.  When the characters we see on screen reflect whom we see in ourselves, the movie becomes a part of us.

Reason number 3-

People like when the liar gets caught.  Now I’m not saying what Ann did after she realized that her sister is having sex with her husband was right, but the fact that John had consequences inside his marriage for his actions is very likeable.  Also, John gets fired for cancelling all his meetings with VIP clients because he is making time to see Cynthia.  And finally the best part about him getting caught is the lone fact that he didn’t get away with the wrongs he was doing.  There is something very satisfying about seeing someone who looked his wife in the eyes, and lied to her about something as serious as sleeping with her sister, getting busted.

On a separate note I thought the beginning of the film was very funny, and it kept me glued to my computer screen for the remainder of the hour and a half.  My favorite line in the film is:

Ann-“Oh that was fast”

Graham-“False alarm.”

I don’t know why but I cracked up after that.  This movie is definitely a top 10, and I am glad to have watched it.  It may have been funny but it also had a very good underlying message and it managed to get that message across without being slow or boring.

I’d love to read some comments about why you all think this film did so well in the theaters, other than what I have mentioned so far.  So if your looking to post your comment somewhere please feel free to do so here!

To those paying attention to transportation issues, there is a growing consensus that the status quo is unacceptable. There are many recent examples of the city’s failure to adequately plan for transportation improvements. While the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plans enjoy staff members dedicated to ensuring their mandates are carried out, there is no other example of city plans with follow-through. The aborted Uptown parking lot is a great example of this problem: despite an Uptown transportation plan calling for diverting most car traffic off Telegraph at 20th St, the Redevelopment Agency proposed a major car infrastructure project on Telegraph below 20th. Only Chinatown organizations appear to have any contact with the City of Alameda regarding its huge proposed development on the former Naval Air Base. And beyond a single Bus Rapid Transit line, there is no major transit infrastructure improvement planned for Oakland.

These are issues of planning and follow-through. But there are also ongoing issues affecting transportation that are unaddressed or poorly addressed. The best example is the new Kaiser Hospital project at Broadway and MacArthur. Despite pleas from members of Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, the Planning Commission never held a separate hearing on the transportation aspects of this major project, and as a result, Building Services recommended sealing off a well-used pedestrian and bike route from Shafter Avenue to Mosswood Park. Only after a coordinated effort by bicycle and pedestrian advocates, and a great deal of goodwill from Kaiser Hospital, is the problem due to be fixed (the median will be cut through, and a pedestrian signal installed, early next year, and bike access is planned after all hospital construction is finished). All of this grief could have been avoided had there been a discussion of the transportation impacts of the project when it was moving through planning.

There are other examples of ongoing failures to address transportation issues. AC Transit finds it very difficult to work with Oakland to change bus stop locations, and so mostly doesn’t bother. BART and Oakland don’t talk to each other about issues like taxi stands and loading zones around or in stations. The Port doesn’t coordinate with the city on the ferry service that it has signaled it will stop subsidizing. There is only one inter-agency working group that I know of, which is the Policy Steering Committee for the Bus Rapid Transit project, and one of Oakland’s representatives, Larry Reid, hasn’t shown up for a single meeting despite being scolded publicly by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. Taxi stands go in and out on the whim of the City Administrator. Unlike most cities, Oakland doesn’t provide any city transportation services, ambulances are unregulated, and there’s no city agency with authority over transportation issues – even the Transportation Services Division of CEDA is hobbled by scant mandates over some important aspects of transportation policy, like Building Services’ authority over driveways and medians, and Planning’s jealous monopoly over the citywide rezoning.

The lack of coordination on transportation extends to the City Council level. Transportation issues are split up among different Council Committees, making it harder to have a coordinated policy: parking fees are at Finance, investments and most policies go to Development, most right-of-way issues go to Public Works, and taxi regulation goes to Public Safety. Meanwhile, Oakland’s representatives on major transit agencies are scattershot: Rebecca Kaplan is our representative to ACTIA (the County’s main funding agency for transportation), Jane Brunner is our representative to the MTC-ABAG Joint Policy Committee, and CM Reid is Oakland’s voice on the Congestion Management Agency, which is the County’s transportation planning authority. A casual observer of transit issues will know that these three Councilmembers don’t see eye-to-eye on transit issues.

Though Oakland’s economy and cityscape is defined by transportation more than any other factor, the city has ignored transportation planning and has no coordinated or formalized means of addressing a whole host of transportation issues, from parking ratios for new buildings to bus stop locations. There is absolutely no planning whatsoever for transit improvements, and, frankly, CM Reid seems to be intent on preventing Oakland from making any transit investments now that he has approval for the Airport Connector, using his positions on the Congestion Management Agency and the Bus Rapid Transit Steering Committee to undermine BRT without doing anything that his bus-dependent constituents would even notice. In 2006, the Mayor’s Transportation Task Force recommended (PDF) creating a Transportation Commission “to develop. implement, and prioritize transportation strategies,” yet this idea was only half-formed and didn’t address many of the problems outlined above.

Can these problems be addressed with a Transportation Commission? Does the City Council have to restructure its own appointments and committee system in order to address transportation issues? Do City agencies need to be reorganized in order to create a Transportation Department, or can the Task Force’s suggestion of a “go-to person” and a working group be sufficient? Do you agree that the issues outlined above are real problems, or is Oakland doing just fine transportation-wise? Like almost everything else that came out of the Mayor’s Task Forces, the Transportation Commission idea has gone nowhere, but if the idea is worthwhile, there may be an opportunity to revive it. But that begins with identifying the problem. In this case, the problem may be bigger than the proposed solution.

UPDATE: I added a link to the Transportation Task Force report (PDF).

Jason Kaplan reveals the worst one of the bunch. He reveals that he masturbates. I can’t stand his voice. Order Sirius-XM and get the Howard Stern Show!

http://ping.fm/Ty10x Had the distinct pleasure of joining Drs. Kaplan and Norton on the Strategy Leaders Roundtable to close out Americas Summit

www.joeyfitts.com

Had the distinct pleasure of joining Drs. Kaplan and Norton on the Strategy Leaders Roundtable to close out Americas Summit www.joeyfitts.com/news

Five years ago I signed up for an email account that started with ‘meg’ instead of ‘margaret.’ Crazy, I know, but I didn’t want any unnecessary punctuation in my email address and margarethebron kind of looks like ‘margaret the bron.’ Definitely not what I’m going for. Besides, Meg is a legitimate nickname for Margaret. Just look in any baby name book, because I know you all have one of those on your bedside table.

Well, everything was going swimmingly until about, oh, a year or so ago when I started getting emails addressed to Megan. This has escalated to the point that it is becoming increasingly common for people to think my name is Megan. Not that I have anything against Megan, it is a very nice name and I’m sure all the Megans out there are happy with it. But, well, I am kind of attached to Margaret, what do you know.

A few weeks ago I took a practice GRE offered by a Kaplan center in the U District. After the test, the instructor was handing everyone back their scores, and when he finished handing them all back I still hadn’t gotten mine. He asked if anyone hadn’t received theirs back, so I raised my hand. He looked at me and said, “Megan?” “No, Margaret.” “Oh… Hebron?” “Yep….”

What’s especially weird about the Kaplan thing is that when I signed up for the test I clearly entered my name as Margaret in whatever little online form they had. So I really have no idea how it got switched to Megan.

So what do you think is the path of least resistance? Name change? New email? Just accept it? I think for now I will allow people to continue thinking I’m Megan. Occasionally I’ll send a polite email letting the person know my name is actually Margaret. But sometimes it’s more amusing to just let them think I’m Megan. So for now I guess I’ll just enjoy having an alter ego. If I say anything that offends you, blame Megan.