On Tuesday the Oakland City Council upheld the appeal by the neighbors of Nic Nak Convenient Store (now officially Jo Jo's), thus denying the right to sell liquor at the location. 

No Liquor for Nic Nak

This was the fifth time that the appeal of matter came before the Council and was continued from May 18, when the owners requested a 30-day extension. The Council tied in its votes on the extension and since Mayor Ron Dellums was not present to break the tie, the matter was decided the same night. Councilmembers Nancy Kernighan, Oscar De La Fuente, Jane Brunner and Jean Quan voted in favor of the appeal, while Rebecca Kaplan, Desley Brooks and Larry Reid voted to deny it.  

Again, Ashrious Pannell, the owner of Nic Nak, spoke about needing to be treated fairly and said, “If I were a different color, this wouldn't be happening to me.”

Race has made this a contentious issue, with the Pannells claiming that it was the reason for this war on their store, while the neighbors denied the accusations.

The final decision came down to the legal fact that according to the zoning ordinance that the Council itself passed over 10 years ago, Nic Nak was no longer able to sell liquor as they had been closed for five years and had no legal grounds for reinstating liquor sales.

Clear Channel Headquarters Unclear

Also on the agenda was an amendment to a deal that was made with Clear Channel, who now manages and shares revenue from three billboards in Oakland. The point of contention was whether or not the headquarters of Clear Channel were located in Arizona or in Texas. If they are in fact in Arizona, Oakland would need to stop doing business with them as the city approved a boycott of Arizona-based businesses following the AZ SB1070 law that is going into effect in the state. 

Yet another angle of this is that if Oakland is not doing business with Clear Channel, this would greatly affect the Oakland School of the Arts, which currently gets much of their funding from Clear Channel. The executive director, along with members of the alumni association came to ask the council to keep supporting the school.  

Clear Channel officially moved their headquarters from Arizona to Texas only two weeks ago, which satisfied Council President Brunner, but was not enough to convince other councilmembers. Councilman De La Fuente said, “We want to make sure this boycott is real and not just on paper.” The matter was moved to June 15.

Convention Center Without a Purpose

There was much discussion over the sublease of the George P. Scotlan Convention Center to the Redevelopment Agency. The new deal would bring in $4 million dollars over the next two years, but would bind the city into a 12-year agreement to pay $675,000 per year.

Right now the costs of maintenance and necessary renovations are more than $700,000 per year, so although the Council doesn't want its hands tied for the next 12 years, it seems that the costs are unavoidable and are likely to be higher than they would be under this deal. The Council will take up the matter on June 15.  

Mother Knows Best

Perhaps the wisest words of the night came earlier, when Barbara Newcombe was honored as Mother of the Year by Councilwoman Nancy Nadel. Newcombe closed a short speech by saying, "My motto is, open government, transparency and - go for it!"

Councilmembers, take note.