December 7, 2006. Happy Holidays! It's been almost a month since the election, and I am very proud to have carried our message for change in the city. Walking around the neighborhood, I'm so moved by those who have shared with me their stories of hope, love and support. Our greatest victory was our diverse coalition and strong grassroots presence. I want to help nurture the community we've built and bring up fellow leaders to magnify our voice and impact on Oakland.

I encourage you to stay involved - we need political old-timers and the newly christened to take a role. Let me know if you'd like to step up and be part of the leadership team to take our group forward (aimee@aimeeallison.org). Next month we'll be launching a new website and changing the format of this newsletter to focus on city issues, solutions and events. With your help, we can do even more. The goal? Hold city leadership accountable and present our own ideas and vision that brought us together in the first place.

Peace for the world and for your loved ones.

Friday, Nov. 17th. TONIGHT, 7:30-10:30pm please join Aimee, Aaron, Naina, Alli, and the team for an evening to relax, enjoy each other, and celebrate the PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT that Aimee helped to catalyze in Oakland. Our work for justice and peace in our city will continue. We're fired up, and our passion for positive change cannot be stopped.

Please bring food, treats and drink. Also, if you have ideas for forward movement for our awesome community, or words of inspiration, please bring them on paper for Aimee and her team to look at later. This is NOT a meeting. This gathering is for Aimee's volunteers - an evening of rejuvenation, continued community building AND FUN!

Please call or email Alli to RSVP and confirm your presence 415-517-0123

704 39th Street (MLK) near Macarthur BART

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Thursday, November 10th. Surprising numbers are in from the Registrar of Voters. As of Thursday afternoon there are still tens of thousands of votes to be counted in Alameda, as a large number of residents voted absentee - many dropping absentee ballots at the polls on Election Day. There are also a large number of provisional ballots to be counted.

From the East Bay Express: "The registrar’s office had received “a huge amount” of absentee ballots on Election Day itself, both by mail and when voters dropped them off at polling places. That likely will push the absentee ballot totals to more than 200,000, he said, meaning there are at least 55,000 to 60,000 uncounted ballots countywide."

Our position is clear: Every vote must count. In the Ron Dellums run for Mayor, provisional ballots were the difference between Dellums victory and a runoff. However these votes impact the final count in our race for City Council, a Democracy only lives when every last vote counts. Oakland owes it to its people to ensure that every absentee ... every provisional ballot ... every last vote is counted before a winner is declared. We will keep you updated, and stand strong as advocates for counting every last vote in Alameda County.

Sunday, October 29th. What does it mean to a City when you give up on entire neighborhoods? Who are we as people when we abandon each other, and leave our communities for dead?

Twice this weekend I saw first hand just how much of District Two has been left behind. And I felt the fear and the pain of the families who live there, and their feeling that the only solution is to leave Oakland entirely.

Saturday night we hit some bars, hoping to campaign with some Halloween weekend revelers in high spirits. Instead, next to the Lakeside Lounge on Park, I met a man who lost his stepdaughter to a murder in Oakland.

He was a veteran like me, and we talked about the experience of being part of a war, and feeling like he was part of another war here in Oakland. I had just been to a screening of Iraq for Sale, and we talked about corporations profiting off of violence from International (around the world) to International Boulevard.

He was hurting, and he was scared. We talked for 15 minutes. When I left he blessed me, and reminded me of the seriousness of running for City Council: "You go for all of us."

Wednesday, October 25th. In the heat of the last days of a contentious campaign, walking always clears my head. Yesterday, I continued to walk door-to-door alongside the 9th Avenue palm trees, those that used to line the entryway to the Borax mansion. It's a strange sight, to see the remnants of a long-gone Oakland. Many of the folks in the neighborhood that I met didn't realize that Borax established Oakland's Key Route - trolleys that once connected Oakland's neighborhoods. Now the palms grace an interesting, vibrant neighborhood that has new Oakland residents from as far as China and as near as San Francisco and long timers who've seen many city leaders come and go.

Lost in the reverie, I almost broke my neck on the cracked, buckled sidewalk in front of a lovely home. Two small girls that recognized me and my orange campaign sign and came out shouting greetings. Their Mom and I chatted about the need for more for children and for education in this town. And, she added, I wonder if you could fix the sidewalk - it's been a problem for many years. Her daughter's face lit up - does that mean that I could ride my bike here without crashing?

Sometimes the smallest things can make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors. The city, despite our heavy taxes, doesn't even provide a sidewalk that children and handicapped can travel. Cracking sidewalks and dirty streets compound our other concerns that Oakland is more that what we have become. Not because there's simply no money - but because our resources are mismanaged and wasted in backroom deals. And so, once again in the twilight of our Indian Summer, I realize that I can only make a difference by being different. My strategy is to unite our fractured community. My special interests the kids. My heart my guiding principal. My faith - the faith of a mustard seed.

Saturday, October 21st. The Oakland Tribune reported today that OakPAC, a corporate and developer special interest group, went to court to overturn restrictions on how much money special interests groups could spend on one candidate. Their request was granted, and they have pledged to spend over $116,000 to defeat me and one other candidate.

Today we declare that Oakland is not for sale. We cannot – and will not – allow a special interest group to buy this election.

I am calling on my opponent to act with integrity and turn down this money. The Oakland Campaign Finance Reform Act could be stronger, but its shocking to me that any candidate could claim to be "for the people" and also support efforts to weaken this law.

The Tribune article notes that my opponent had to leave the room for a critical City Council hearing on this issue because of a "conflict of interest." Oakland needs representatives who don't need to leave the room when campaign finance comes up for discussion. I am not accepting any contributions from corporations or developers, and our election will prove that Oakland is not for sale.

I ask all of Oakland to join us in raising our voices against this anti-democratic action. We need leadership for a change, not a city bought and sold to the highest bidder.

Tuesday, October 10th. This week's cover story in the San Francisco Chronicle - Diary of a Sex Slave tells how a young immigrant got caught in a life of prostitution in this country. We don't need to read about it in the paper - just go down to International Blvd. This shameful problem in Oakland has been worsening with younger and younger girls out on the street even during daylight hours.

Sadly, city leaders have looked the other way for years.

Last Thurday, the press joined representatives of community organizations as they demand that the city address prostitution and sexually exploited girls along International. With me were activists from community organization ACORN and San Antonio organization Damsels in Distress. I was also joined by a young woman who escaped life on the street and a bay area wide program SAGE that effectively addresses prostitution in other cities.

As a response to our call for action, the incumbent in District 2, who had never mentioned the problem before and taken no action on it, claimed the police response has improved the situation. This flies in the face of reality (just look at the article published in last week's Oakland Tribune "Teen Prostitution on the Rise") This attitude also dismisses the everyday experiences and needs of the community. In my many walks in the San Antonio area, this is the issue mentioned the most.

Of course, violence and drugs accompany prostitution in the area between about 18th Avenue and 50th Avenue that has become a red light district for the entire bay area. The "sting" operations the police department conducts end up in arrests of the women and girls but haven't curtailed the problem. In a three-month period this spring over 90 girls and women were arrested but few pimps and "johns".