Business
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.
Final approval of the highly contentious College Avenue Safeway expansion plan that has roiled the North Oakland community since the Pleasanton-based company first announced plans to expand in 2007 was delayed at Tuesday night’s special city council meeting.
Beginning January 2013, single-use plastic carryout bags won’t be allowed at most stores selling packaged food in Alameda County, and customers will have to pay for their paper bags at the checkout counter. The Reusable Bag Ordinance, adopted by Alameda County Waste Management Authority in January of 2012, is an effort to reduce waste in the county and targets stores that traditionally distribute a high volume of single-use plastic bags.
Safeway wants to demolish its Rockridge store, and build on the site a new, two-story complex of about 62,000 square feet. But the proposed expansion to Safeway’s Rockridge store has pitted the company against neighborhood advocates who oppose the project.