About two dozen Oaklanders from across the city gathered this week to learn about the agonizingly slow process Oakland uses to approve safety infrastructure projects in the city, and award the contracts to do the work. What they learned surprised and frustrated them. Why do we care? Because traffic safety

“Contracting reform” may not be on your radar right now, but if you want more safe streets, we need your attention for a few. It's not so complicated! Oakland has rules for awarding contracts for paving and many other services. These are all well-meaning, aiming to assure that