Business
By MELANIE MASON, MARTIN RICARD and KRISTINE WONG Oct. 6–Bailouts, credit crunches, bank buyouts. In these shaky economic times, it seems like every day there’s a new phrase to learn and another concept to wrap our heads around. For a breakdown of what is going on in our faltering economy, we turned to Martha Olney, an adjunct professor of economics at UC Berkeley. Olney, who won the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003, sat down with us on Monday to…
Read a Twitter feed of the council meeting here By ISABEL ESTERMAN and MARTIN RICARD OCT. 8 — It’s hard to know what to expect when taking a cab ride in Oakland. But in a city that operates more than 60 taxi companies, some problems have become irritatingly predictable: People left stranded in an area because a driver deemed it too dangerous, remote or unprofitable; taxis initially dressed with good tires just to pass inspection, only to have them later…
By KRISTINE WONG In recent months, Americans have seen their financial credit system crumble. According to U.C. Berkeley economist Martha Olney, the root cause of this crisis was the millions of subprime mortgages that went into default over the past few years, when monthly payments rose to unaffordable levels. This resulted in a glut of homes on the market, which decreased housing values. Decreased housing values created a crisis of epidemic proportions, as those who had borrowed against the value of…
by KRISTINE WONG Sep. 27 — Most Saturdays, Mosswood Park is filled with a lively mixture of families, dog walkers, and weekend soccer warriors. Today, a different group of voices rang out from the park’s center stage – those of environmentalists, builders, and students who rallied for new jobs to improve both the economy and the environment. The rally, sponsored by the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, featured remarks by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Oakland City Council…
By SAMSON REINY The warehouse of the Alameda County Community Food Bank is a center of constant activity. Every day, delivery trucks bustle in and out of loading zones as workers drop off grocery deliveries from growers and discount sellers, volunteers sort and package food items, and employees from local nonprofit agencies go “shopping” for needed products. And as the holiday season approaches, companies and schools will begin their canned food drives, which have become classic exercises in civic engagement….
By MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Sept. 23 — In a compromise over city parking costs, the City Council finance committee agreed today to recommend moderate residential parking permit fee increases — in exchange for starting a performance audit into what was repeatedly called an “inefficient” parking division.
Plans for ambitious supermarket reconstruction are being rethought as trouble neighbors and local business owners; . Click here for the story.
Bamboo, pebbles and boards made of wheat straw are all among the building materials being tried out by North Oakland homeowners trying to green up their properties. Click here for the story.
A public meeting will be held 7-9 p.m. Wednesday at Claremont Middle School to discuss controversial plans to expand the Safeway supermarket on College Avenue in Rockridge. This will be the first meeting of a stakeholders group organized by Safeway after opposition from neighborhood organizations stymied building plans released in June. The existing store was built in 1964, and occupies about 25,000 square feet. Safeway’s most recent building plan proposed to double the store’s floor space by taking over an…