Business
For one of the first-time candidates running for public office, the first-ever Oakland Caucus on Thursday night seemed undoubtedly formal. Richard Raya is running for the District 1 council seat, which includes North Oakland, in November, and while his campaigning to this point has involved a lot of community meetings and house parties, this event featured most of the candidates for local political seats in full-on campaign mode as they mingled with voters.
On Wednesday evening, the Fox Theater was filled with people excitedly discussing the night’s festivities. Inside, hors d’oeuvres and small burgers provided by local company Prather Ranch Meat were served with complimentary beer and wine. Hip-hop music could be heard playing in the background. However, the night was not about seeing a play or concert; it was dedicated to helping local businesses grow in Oakland.
Sal Bednarz, the owner of Actual Cafe, will be opening a new food joint slated to open next fall at the intersection of San Pablo and Alcatraz called Victory Burgers serving, you guessed it, hamburgers.
A year has passed since the Oakland airport lifted its travel ban to Havana. It’s now been three years since the administration of President Barack Obama issued a waiver easing economic sanctions and travel by Cuban artists. The importation of their music, brought to a near standstill in this country under former President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, shows signs of revival.
Two local businesses—Linden Street Brewery and Chop Bar—came together in Oakland Sunday for their annual pig roast celebration, held on the third Sunday of every month between April and September. Dynamic, an Oakland based band, performed throughout the evening. The four pigs they roasted came from Langley Farm in Petaluma, about 50 miles north of Oakland. Chefs at Chop Bar received the hogs two days before the roast, putting them in big white coolers while brining then for two days…
Oakland’s first annual Murmurama — a multi-venue celebration that mixed Chinoiserie with the avant-garde, baroque, cubist, or monochrome — challenged the San Francisco Fine Art Fair Saturday by luring hundreds of art enthusiasts to the East Bay for a night of open galleries and performances
Bites off Broadway is back, and maybe this time, thanks to a new food truck ordinance in Oakland, it’s here to stay for the summer.
It’s been nearly three decades since the Bhopal disaster left thousands dead in India, altering the face of one of the world’s largest agriculture economies following a leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals at a plant run by Union Carbide India Limited. Today, attitudes towards the excessive use of chemicals in India have changed, but the pollution of public water systems with industrial waste from plants run by major chemical manufacturers continues with very little regulation. This was…
Laura Bruland of Yes and Yes Designs makes hand-made, laser cut jewelry … out of old books. Most of the books that she uses tend to be old textbooks, Reader’s Digests, or children’s books. She avoids books with glossy covers, preferring fabric or textile covers, and tries to use books with lots of colors or images. “I don’t cut up classics or first editions,” she said, adding that she always tries to buy books that most people would not want to read.