Occupy Oakland took over the City Council meeting again Wednesday night and railed at our local government, which was in the middle of grappling with a huge state take back that threatens many of our jobs and future economic development. Funny, I can still remember when the Occupy movement gave us all hope and breathed fresh air into our stagnant political environment.

Most Oaklanders have followed the Occupy movement in and out of the tents and onto various other actions, some of them controversial.

But do you know that Occupy Oakland has committees working on a broad range of issues?

Back during the Elihu Harris years, Oakland’s marketing department came up with a bumper sticker to promote a good buzz for the Town.

It stated, “It’s Hot. It’s Happening. It’s Oakland.” Then the firestorm, the largest urban wildfire in history, happened and that slogan was banished.

Okay, I know many of us are suffering from OO fatigue. I told everyone at a meeting I was attending last night on that very subject that I couldn’t discuss it anymore. It’s perplexing that the movement that was designed to confront our frustrations at the 1%, is now frustrating so many of us.

“This is what democracy looks like” is almost as good a slogan as “we are the 99%.” Those slogans represent the gist of the movement, and the way it should be organized. Some of us older supporters have spent quite a bit of time at the General Assemblies at Occupy Oakland.

Oakland has some of the most successful ethnic-based small business districts in the country like a vibrant Chinatown (not a tourist mecca like San Francisco), an expanding Latino district in the Fruitvale, and more.