You may have noticed Oakland Report articles have become less frequent.
There are two factors behind this:
(1) Joe Turner decided to withdraw from Oakland, having reached a point of mental exhaustion from a city government that seems to have lost sight of its primary (if not sole) purpose—delivering the best possible service to its 430,000 residents. In his case, the behaviors of the city administration and politics took a personal toll.
(2) I personally have turned my attention to my primary interests in physics and aerospace. I still feel my youth's awe and pull of the stars—the infinite unknown it represents. The intensity of that return (and the relearning of forgotten skills) has left no time or energy for Oakland Report.
But the style and substance of Oakland Report certainly struck a chord with many people in Oakland. When it was more active, it had 50,000 readers a month. That audience could be grown much larger with an inspired new leader of the publication.
This recent post by Noah Smith reminded me of why Oakland Report was born, and why it's still important—to show what rigorous evidence and analysis can do for local governance, just as it gave humanity the tools to feed billions, power instant communications across the globe, and reach the stars. Oakland Report is meant to serve as an antidote to the preponderance of popular media that is riddled with superfluous and inflammatory adjectives (intended to subconsciously bias interpretation), or is manipulated with selective presentation of evidence, or is devoid of any verifiable basis of opinion.
And so, to keep Oakland Report alive and well, we are looking for someone to take it over. Someone committed to its ideals, its style, its substance—and who has the energy, time, and skill sets needed to grow and evolve it.
We have seed money to get that started. After that the sky's the limit (or perhaps the stars) for whomever would passionately lead Oakland Report into the future. Ping me if you are interested or know someone who is.
Tim
Why don't you try working with Oaklandside to fund a reporter that covers your criteria (writing style, neutral adjectives; "beat" definition). They already have a large Oakland readership and I'll bet there is a substantial overlap. This would be a much more efficient use of your funds. Thanks for all your efforts in starting Oakland Report.
Thank you for what you have done over the years. The youth need your work to reach to the stars and to inspire them with the true vision of a future. God created us in his image to discover new physical principles. While I can not be a new leader for your publication, I will do what I can do, which is to run and become the next Mayor of Oakland. Mindy Pechenuk, candidate for Oakland Mayor 2026