By The Minister of Information JR 
June 23, 2009 Prescott Resident "Minister of Information JR" aka JR Valrey is a personal friend of the subject of this pitch, Marcel Diallo.
The pitch itself is a puff piece. Marcel Diallo is not a "real estate tycoon". He owns three vacant lots and a garage where he throws parties.
Anyone familiar with environmental disparities knows that Oakland, particularly West Oakland is a food desert, an area where no grocery stores exist. The Village Bottoms Farm project hopes to make healthy food consumption and production viable for low income communities of West Oakland. It is imperative that we support projects like The Village Bottoms Farm whose major agenda is towards the artistic, spiritual, and physical revitalization of West Oakland.
The previous post by "precott resident" is completely inaccurate. In addtion to vacant lots Marcel Diallo owns several houses and at least 4 business spaces on Pine street. How can anyone miss The Black Dot Cafe (cafe performance space), Mganga Diallo's House of Common Sense (botanica), The Black New World (performance space). These spaces have hosted world class Jazz and reggae artists, World reknown authors such as Amiri Baraka and Linton Kwesi Johnson. Just this past weekend Internationally recognized scholar Dr. Carlos Moore was at the Black Dot Cafe presenting his authorized biography on the legendary African musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti to a crowd of book buyers. People like this anonymous hater from the prescott district are "...some of the obstacles facing the village bottoms farms" that highly respected journalist JR Valrey spoke of. I noticed that the "prescott resident" didn't challenge JR's assertion that Marcel is a longtime activist and culture worker, which of course is more important than the highly debateable definition of a "real estate tycoon."
Duane Deterville
I would beg to differ with the anonymous commenter signed in as "Prescott Resident." While he might not be a typical real estate "tycoon", Marcel Diallo is a community tycoon, a cultural tycoon and a tycoon of the people. In this sense being a tycoon is not about what you own in property titles, it's more about what you control. And community control is what is at the heart of Marcel Diallo's vision for our neighborhood. He has helped a critical mass of the community control it's own destiny, and therefore shares in that control of the community. I've been living in the Bottoms for over 50 years and I will say to anyone who is concerned, that Marcel Diallo is a Godsend to those of us at the Bottom in the Bottoms who want to see the Black People of the Bottoms survive the current stress that gentrification is putting on the fabric of our close knit community. As one of the community elders of the Bottoms I stand with Marcel Diallo, and if Mr.Valrey is indeed a friend of Diallo, maybe this insider's view will enable Mr. Valrey to write a more personal story about the work that Diallo and others are doing here. To say the least it will be a welcome addition to the dozens of mainstream stories about Marcel Diallo by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, The Source, The Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, KPFA, KALW, KALX and CNN. I'm interested to see what Mr. Valrey will include that these other media outlets left out. And another thing, why should we let multi-national corporations like CNN break the news that's happening in our own backyard, before we do. Donate to get this piece done and we help to break the corporate monopoly on our perception.
Any reporter covering Marcel Diallo should do a long search of all Alameda County records before believing anything he and his friends say. Seriously, check check and check again, or you'll publish a snowjob.
ummmm, how is what Marcel Diallo is doing any different than any of the affluent (ie. people with jobs) folks who buy a victorian in West Oakland and fix it up? Isn't Marcel an agent of gentrification? Or are his improvements somehow different? His efforts to keep up his properties are going to drive house prices up just as fast as anyone else in Oakland.
The Marcel Diallo Haters Are Missing The Point, because they are simply haters without a klu klux klan costume to hide themselves. Instead they hide on the internet. I advise Spot.us to remove their anonymous comments as well as ones with fake names so that they are forced to reveal their true identities when making comments that might have a negative impact on an individual's life or livelihood. This site is about community supported journalism, not an outlet for frustrated individuals that need to spread lies and negativity about others to make themselves feel good.
I def. agree with the last comment. The reason we ask people register under their real names is so that people are accountable to what they write.
This is a concern that is new to my attention, so we have to do some digging ourselves.
I'll say this: I knew that J.R. is familiar with Marcel. Lots of reporters, in covering and working with regular sources, build relationships. In many ways journalism is about relationships and trust. So in and of itself - that they know each other isn't a HUGE deal.
That said: We want thoroughness and acuracy in our reporting too. That is a non negotiable. So we need to find a way to make sure that those two qualities are also part of the reporting.
In the meantime: Comments are always welcome. This IS a community site and we want feedback. But we also want people to be accountable to what they say.
Please, come celebrate with us and help us advertise this up coming event throughout oakland events, exibits, performances and workshops on Political Prisoners, The Living Wage, Education and Book presentations including Emory Douglas ans Stephen Shames. Come celebrate Bobby Seale's Birthday. This event will be @ Laney College on the 24th and 25th of October 09.
Please visit our web site for information to this event as well as BPP events that will be taking place around the Bay Area.
or call us @ The Commemoration Committee forThe Black Panther Party (CCBPP) (510) 652-7170
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/you_don_t_know_jack/Content?oid=1232930
Investigative reporter Robert Gammon exposes the truth.
http://bit.ly/Bkv9w
