How to Rewrite History, Oakland-Style

A councilmember's boast about a branch library caught our eye:

"I'm looking forward to the opening of the new Oakland Community Library at 81st Avenue; it is a project I helped start as a school board member and continued to work on as a council member. ... The Friends of the Oakland Public Library has raised over a million dollars to equip the new branch, and has less than a hundred thousand to go." (Weekly newsletter, May 15, 2010)

So says councilmember Quan. The facts are:

• The majority of construction funds came from a state grant made back in 2004. The grant was based on a City promise to build and open the library by 2007.

• In order to promote councilmember Quan's 2006 bond proposal for a $100 million palace library downtown, the City delayed construction of the 81st Avenue branch.

• Now, three years after deadline, the branch might open soon. In order to play politics City Hall deprived the children of deep east Oakland who grew up during those years. They did not get the library promised to their families.

Read all the details here.

All of us get lies worthy of George Orwell's 1984, wrapped in Quan's rhetoric about an art contest for the library that will "inspire, empower and bring people together."

Get ready for the councilmember's next tax proposal.