In 1991, 1,000 Oakland residents gathered to form a set of goals and objectives for the future of Oakland. Called “Oakland Sharing The Vision“, the meeting resulted in a guidebook and initiatives that were monitored by a non-profit called “Oakland Sharing The Vision” and ran by Emile Durette, it’s first executive director in 1991.
Durette and his staff produced the “The Oakland Strategic Plan,” in 1992, and that was to serve as the guiding document for the implementation of the work of so many Oaklanders. “Oakland Sharing The Vision” itself lasted for nine years, had another gathering of 400 people in 1999, and was ran by three different executive directors before it was moved to, and become an office within, the Oakland Office of The City Manager, under Robert Bobb, and with Jerry Brown as Mayor of Oakland.
That was the year 2000.
Over time, I personally watched Oakland Sharing The Vision transform from a true civic plan, to a kind of bureaucratic checklist. Whatever the department heads were working on became slotted into a part of the Oakland Sharing The Vision plan – while many original goals and objectives were forgotten.
Now, Oakland Sharing The Vision is a distant memory, but where did the City of Oakland leave off in its development? Can we revive that effort? That will be Zennie62Media’s focus over the coming months.
Starting with this first video-blog:
