It was sad, but not surprising, to hear of the troubles Bay Grape is experiencing. The owners of the wine store chain, which has locations in Napa and Oakland, tried to sell both shops, but succeeded only in Napa. The buyers decided not to purchase the Grand Avenue location, they explained, because “There’s been a lot of vandalism, robberies and burglaries directed at small businesses [in Oakland].” No sane business owner wants to sink money into such a dangerous, failed city.

I’ve been thinking in broad strokes lately. Not just about the details of how many cops on OPD, or whether we can recall Thao-Price, or what Oakland should do if SCOTUS strikes down Johnson v. Grants Pass.

There’s so much horrendous stuff happening in America that sometimes it almost seems petty to focus on local politics. I mean, with Trump poised for a comeback, and “Christian” nationalists staging a slow-motion coup to take over America, and (unlikely) World War III looming, maybe our Oakland issues don’t amount to a hill of beans.

That’s the headline in yesterday’s Chronicle. The neighborhood is the 94612 zip code, which includes most of downtown to 11th Street, up to 27th Street, and east to Lakeside Avenue. My own home and zip code, 94610, are just one block away.

KTOP TV had a conversation with Darlene Flynn, the city’s Director of the Department of Race & Equity. Flynn has worked for years in the area of what she calls “racial disparity,” and now she’s running the only race and equity department of any city in California.