Business
Michael Pandolfo’s childhood comic store was dark, dingy, and intimidating. He remembers the shop was full of the condescending comic book fans he calls “rules lawyers”—comic book experts who show disdain for non-experts. It wasn’t a welcoming place for any but the most shunned, resentful reader. This old store, where he bought his first issues of Conan the Barbarian, loomed large in his mind when he opened his own comic shop Dr. Comics & Mr. Games on Piedmont Avenue in…
On an average day, the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, an Oakland thrift store, is chock full of school supplies, furniture and even quirky items like ET postcards and baskets full of doll heads. The shop buzzes with teachers, students, parents and passers-by, either in search of something specific like pencils for the classroom or just hoping for a unique find.
The Old Navy store in the Bay Street shopping complex near the border of Oakland and Emeryville ended Black Friday with holiday pajamas on the wrong racks, graphic t-shirts on the floor and “Diva” jeans falling off of their shelves. As the day of sales came to a close, employees were preparing for a weekend of more frantic shoppers looking for deals.
Shoppers looking for an alternative to the post-Thanksgiving melee of Black Friday will find one in Oakland. A strong “shop local” push has developed in the city over the past few years, and this year’s day-after-T-Day campaign is the biggest yet.
You’ve cleared the table, done the dishes, and your relatives have left town. Now what to do with all that leftover turkey? Oakland North visited four restaurants around Oakland to find culinary inspiration from around the world for all that Thanksgiving turkey sitting in your fridge.
One by one, in the pre-dawn darkness Tuesday, delivery trucks exited Oakland’s 980 freeway at Adeline and headed toward Middle Harbor Road, prepared to pick up or drop off shipments at the Port of Oakland. Each truck came to a halt as the drivers faced picketers blocking the entrance to the international container terminals at the Port.
The Oaktown Spice Shop, at 530 Grand Avenue across from Lake Merritt, is gearing up for Thanksgiving with holiday spice blends and gift boxes…
Alameda County’s Measure A1, which would have created a parcel tax to fund animal care and educational programs at the Oakland Zoo, set off a stir of claims and counterclaims between zoo officials and local and state environmental groups. Roughly 62 percent of the county’s voters finally voted in favor of the measure—but because it was a tax, that fell short of the two-thirds majority of votes needed for approval.
A lively Tuesday evening Q&A at City Hall gave people chance to vent concerns and curiosity about development plans for the former Oakland Army base–a $500 million project that includes a major labor agreement giving Oakland workers priority in new jobs.