Should Oakland legalize the sideshow?
Forgive the Bay Area-centric blog post, but I caught this story in the NY Times' new Bay Area blog: "The Idea of Decriminalizing Oakland 'Sideshows.'" The gist of it is that Oakland's mayor is asking if it would make sense to move sideshows to abandoned side streets where they could be conducted within the condoning view of the city.
I'm interested in this story for a few reasons.
1) VC2 Producer Kevin Epps once covered the Sideshow for Current in this amazing pod:
The Sideshow (Video)
2) The Bay Area section of the NY Times is fascinating to me. It makes sense for the Times to have a "Jersey" section or a "Philly" section - but the Bay Area is literally a continent away from their masthead's city name. Given how poorly local paper the SF Chronicle seems to be faring, maybe the NY Times is making a smart, savvy expansion. Is this the future for regional markets in the world of newspapers? Not big enough for your own paper, but big enough to get a section in someone else's?
3) Legalize it! Oakland is taking long strides in decriminalizing marijuana. Residents recently voted in a tax on marijuana in an overwhelming numbers. The city also offers the nation's first "Cannabis College": Oaksterdam University. (We also produced a VC2 story about that.) Is Oakland's new attitude toward decriminalization something we'll see expanded across other problem areas? First pot, then sideshows, then ____ ? Or is a city that spawned "Oaksterdam University" destined to go the way of The Wire's "Hamsterdam"?
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- New military robot complicates question of 'boots on the ground'
- One fifth of Californians are 'underemployed'
- Afghanistan round-up: Helicopters and a third surge
- Psst...tell Castro I said Hi-k thx Obama
- Deadly Baghdad blasts raise specter of security
I'm interested in this story for a few reasons.
1) VC2 Producer Kevin Epps once covered the Sideshow for Current in this amazing pod:
The Sideshow (Video)
2) The Bay Area section of the NY Times is fascinating to me. It makes sense for the Times to have a "Jersey" section or a "Philly" section - but the Bay Area is literally a continent away from their masthead's city name. Given how poorly local paper the SF Chronicle seems to be faring, maybe the NY Times is making a smart, savvy expansion. Is this the future for regional markets in the world of newspapers? Not big enough for your own paper, but big enough to get a section in someone else's?
3) Legalize it! Oakland is taking long strides in decriminalizing marijuana. Residents recently voted in a tax on marijuana in an overwhelming numbers. The city also offers the nation's first "Cannabis College": Oaksterdam University. (We also produced a VC2 story about that.) Is Oakland's new attitude toward decriminalization something we'll see expanded across other problem areas? First pot, then sideshows, then ____ ? Or is a city that spawned "Oaksterdam University" destined to go the way of The Wire's "Hamsterdam"?
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- New military robot complicates question of 'boots on the ground'
- One fifth of Californians are 'underemployed'
- Afghanistan round-up: Helicopters and a third surge
- Psst...tell Castro I said Hi-k thx Obama
- Deadly Baghdad blasts raise specter of security
