For all practical purposes, Oakland is not going to get much better or much worse. That's a given. One of the things that has happened is vastly reduced welfare and assistance programs, and that is driving inner city poor out of the city. Believe it or not. When the cops get cut back, it will be about where we started a couple years ago. The crime will continue to suck, and most of the murders will be Acorn or in the outer Avenues. That's the way it is. I am neither dismayed nor jubilant. I have been here 22 years and it was far worse in my neighborhood then. ( At least back then the phone lines were shot out with automatic weapons and drug dealers were on every block of my area.) Today the dealers have been pushed into the ghetto along with the automatic weapons. The violence and mayhem will continue to be there, with occasional thrusts into the hills, Piedmont and Montclair.. As I live in the flats, everyone knows: We are broke. We all own guns and WANT to shoot someone ( anyone). We all have Pit Bulls and they are all mean.
