Our world is fragile; last week's earthquakes in Japan is testament to that.

There are many ways to survive and thrive: we can eat and drink to make it all better, we can number crunch and separate ourselves into neat demographical packages in the name of fairness and we can resist.

"Every man who thinks at all, must know that home is the fountain head, the inspiration, the foundation and main support, not only of all social virtue but of all motives to human progress; [. . .] no people can prosper, or amount to much, unless they have a home.  A man who has not such an object, either in possession or in prospect, is a nobody and will never be anything else."

For decades, Oakland was what George Clinton would refer to as a “chocolate city” — one with a majority-black population.

However, “State of Blacks in the Bay,” a recent study by Urban Strategies analyzing the Bay Area’s overall diversity, as well as the state of its African American residents, confirms what many have suspected: Oakland is no longer a chocolate city.

Gentrification is happening all over the country. People with more money are moving back to cities for shorter commutes, lower gas expenses and the excitement of city life - and less affluent people are forced out to find cheaper housing and more jobs.