Everybody in Oakland, I suppose, has their own “Worst homeless encampment” spot. Usually it’s someplace near their home that makes them feel unsafe and creepy. Mine is just a block away: Lakeside Park, the 122-acre greenspace and lake that’s been called “The Jewel of Oakland.”

LeRonne Armstrong has finally released his platform as he runs for City Council At-Large, and I must say it’s a masterpiece of pablum.

Saturday night and Sunday may have been the worst 24-hour period in Oakland’s sad, sorry recent history. Crime swept the city, from rioting sideshow thugs who shut down the Bay Bridge to corpses strewn from West Oakland to Fruitvale. Yet the oblivious Sheng Thao (She/Her) is out there gloating about the Oakland Ballers, fabulous street parties, and an “upgraded 9-1-1 system” no one believes will work any better than the last one.

The number one issue in the upcoming local elections ought to be the continuing meddling by outside, unelected agitators into the Oakland Police Department via the Negotiated Settlement Agreement, or NSA.

The S.F. Chronicle’s front page story today, headlined “Town halls reveal a divided Oakland” (online, the headline is “Fighting recall, Mayor Sheng Thao hosts citizen town halls across Oakland”), set me to thinking about political divisions that tear entire communities, if not nations, apart—what causes them, how Oakland reached this point, and where we go from here.