Business
When she started keeping bees as a hobby six years ago, tattoo artist Jean Chen never thought she’d be making a living from them in her kitchen. But on April 28, Chen quit her job after ten years. Her new job—soap maker.
Oakland. Home of the Black Panthers. Of Gertrude Stein. Of notorious corners, multimillion-dollar drug empires. Hyphy music. Hella. And, more recently, of the upscale Blue Bottle Coffee. Now according to an online real estate company called Movoto, Oakland is the most exciting city in America. Movoto regularly releases top 10 lists, among them “The 10 Most Redneck Cities in America” and “The 10 Nerdiest Cities in America.” When it came to excitement, Oakland took the top slot, with Boston taking second,…
There are a number of free or discounted health clinics across Oakland — like La Clinica de la Raza in the Fruitvale, or Asian Health Services in Chinatown. Now, West Oakland has its own reproductive health clinic. Reporter Madeleine Thomas has the story of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s new location on Seventh Street.
Coatlicue drummers and dancers occupied the island between East and West-bound traffic on International Blvd in Oakland, as they celebrated and prayed. With shells at their ankles and feathers on their crowns, over a dozen people congregated and moved to the beat. Smoke from lit herbs such as sage filled the intersection. Police directed traffic around the celebration, as passersby honked and waved.
Oakland resident Sableu Cabildo was diagnosed at the end of 2011 with a kind of brain cancer known as an astrocytoma. It originated on the right side of her thalamus, the lobed mass under the cerebral cortex that acts like the brain’s switchboard, regulating sensory perception and motor functions. Because of the cancer, Cabildo has been steadily losing her short-term memory and her balance. She stutters sometimes, and to be on the safe side, doesn’t drive at night anymore.
To alleviate some of the symptoms of her cancer and the harsher side affects of her medications, Cabildo, 34, has a medical marijuana prescription. It’s helped to calm her mood swings and improve her diminished appetite. It also dulls the pain from the migraine headaches caused by her disease. It lets her sleep at night.
Some 250 workers rallied on City Hall steps ahead of Tuesday’s City Council meeting to protest the mayor’s proposed budget, which focuses on investments in public safety, job creation, economic development, and job training. But union members felt some of the most hard hitting cuts were proposed to service programs–many of the jobs they do in the city of Oakland.
As the days get longer and the temperature begins to rise, school will end in just a few short months. In the Oakland Unified School District, the last day of school is June 13 and classes will resume August 26, giving students almost two months without classes. Because of the enormous amount of free time students will inherit during their summer vacations, local programs and businesses are looking to hire students. In order to prepare students at Oakland Technical High…
There’s a parking lot in East Oakland. You know the one. It’s nestled between the Amtrak Train tracks to the east and Highway 880 to the west, and bordered by a murky moat-like creek called Damon Slough…and all three of the city’s major sports teams play in either the O.co Coliseum on one side, or the Oracle Arena, on the other. Yeah, that parking lot. It was packed Friday night. People poured into the place once known as the Oakland Alameda County…
About thirty heads turned quickly from left to right, focused on a bright orange ball, as the giant group of players faced off, each with a paddle in one hand and a beer in the other one. Ye Olde Hut was hosting its first “Berlin-style ping-pong party” in Oakland.