Normally we save our City Hall previews for City Council meetings, but today's Community and Economic Development Committee meeting is discussing two critical issues that are worth highlighting.

The end of March is still the target date for Oakland Mayor Jean Quan to deliver her budget proposal to the City Council and the community.

Quan said that although she remains on schedule, she wants people to understand that her budget plan will be more about creating "options" than presenting a finalize budget to Oakland.

Oakland must begin to make hard choices to right its financial ship.

This was the message Sunday afternoon at the joint meeting of Make Oakland Better Now! and the East Bay Young Democrats.

As AC Transit prepares to release its final plan for BRT, people are buzzing with questions about the design. How will it interact with cars and bikes? What will the station areas look like? How will people walk between the stations and the surrounding area?

The city's financial challenges will be in the spotlight Sunday afternoon as Make Oakland Better Now! and the East Bay Young Democrats team up to focus on possible solutions and future budget scenarios.

AC Transit wants to hear from you! The bus district is developing a comprehensive fare policy and is seeking input from the public before a formal proposal is made to the Board of Directors. Topics under discussion include goals, principles, pass pricing, transfer rules, timing and level of fare changes, and more. Among the significant questions for consideration:

Which neighborhoods are hardest hit by foreclosures? How many foreclosed homes have become a vacant public nuisance?

Bank-owned blighted foreclosures will be on display Thursday during a two-hour public tour aimed at increasing blight enforcement and big bank accountability.

City Councilwomen Desley Brooks and Jane Brunner will join, ACCE - Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment -  and local residents to view three currently undisclosed locations where blight plagues city blocks.

Every year, Oakland spends more than a half billion dollars of taxpayer money via the Redevelopment Committee. That committee is our town council.  The mayor has no vote and no veto. These funds are spent on “development” projects, such as Uptown and the Fox Theatre. The lion’s share of this funding pays outside cons

From Sanjiv Handa: 

It's open!

After three months of serving lunch only, new club/ eatery, Disco Volante (“Flying Saucer” in Italian) has opened for dinner and live entertainment.

Do you have those days when everything around you seems charged with some extra meaning--or additional beauty-- that makes your heart stop for a second?  Are there moments when the familiar streets and usual houses suddenly reveal hidden beauty?

Standing in unison in the Uptown District, the epicenter of Oakland's most successful recent redevelopment, Bay Area leaders on Wednesday said they will continue to push back hard against Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to cut redevelopment agencies. Brown is seeking to  close California's large budget gap.