Business
On Wednesday, the palliative care suite at Oakland Children’s Hospital and Research center was re-named “The Edward W. and Yuri H. Chin Reflection Room” in honor of a pledge of $250,000 from the couple. The suite, which was opened last November, is a miniature apartment that consists of a bathroom, living room, bedroom, kitchenette, and den that gives families a private space that feels like a home to enjoy quality time with a child who has a life-limiting illness, particularly children who are dying or have just died.
In the last few years, the Temescal District has been heralded as one of the most culturally diverse communities in the city. Its growing popularity has resulted in increased interest from business owners and residents who are vying for a space within the community. But over the last few months, the number of robberies and thefts that have been reported to the Temescal Telegraph Avenue Community Association and the Temescal Merchants’ Association has shown an increase, the members of those associations say, leaving local merchants frustrated and asking for more help from the police and the city.
The Oakland Police Department has sent out an advisory urging residents of the North Oakland Hills to stay indoors and close all windows and doors and a large plume of smoke from Chevron’s Richmond Refinery headed towards the hills.
Kaiser Permanente this week awarded a $60,000 grant to Alameda County-based LifeLong Medical Care, a network of safety net clinics that provide low income communities in Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond with access to health and social services.
On Saturday, animals at the Oakland Zoo will suspend their diet plans and indulge in what could easily be this year’s largest animal party, feasting on servings of produce donated by Oakland residents, many of whom will come and watch the animals eat their hearts out between 8 am and 6 pm.
The sound of jazz—a melody, harmony, rhythm, or timbre—hadn’t filled the lobby of the California Hotel, just off San Pablo Avenue, for more than a decade. And as over a hundred people filled into the hotel on Wednesday—Billy Strayhorn numbers setting the mood—for a groundbreaking marking the city’s decision to revitalize the historic hotel, passersby, many of them with iPods, didn’t know the hotel was a venue for the most preeminent figures on their playlists: James Brown, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin and Big Mama Thornton.
Every Wednesday between 10 a.m and 2 p.m., an organic farmer’s market appears, tucked between the Cathedral of Christ the Light and the Kaiser Permanente offices near Lake Merritt. Operating since May, the Ordway Organic Farmer’s Market, a petite selection of just over a half dozen booths selling fruits, veggies, plants and other fare, is the new kid on the block on an array of farmer’s markets that dot Oakland. However, it is unique because it is among the few that take place midweek, mid-day and and are all-organic.
From the time she was a sociology graduate student at University of California, Berkeley in 1990s, Kathy Pimpan has been fascinated by the relationship between people and things. Now her Oakland-based business, Total Estate Liquidation, helps clients dispose of things they’ve collected over a lifetime and find hard to part with, or assists families when they are overwhelmed by dealing with their late grandmother’s cluttered residence.
The Wardrobe For Opportunity office on 14th Street in downtown Oakland is on the second floor of a commercial building. A buzzer at the entrance grants access to the office, but don’t expect to see a room filled with desks and computers. Those are in a corner just far enough away so clients are not distracted from the space they just entered. The boutique is filled with racks of women’s clothing. Dresses, coats, skirts and tops and a space for shoes. The men’s section is almost as large and carries all the items needed to dress someone in business attire.