Business
On Saturday, 44-year-old Irma Lira will walk onto a stage at Children’s Hospital Oakland, sit in a barber’s chair, and have her head shaved. Cheers will ring out as her thick black tresses, and her full, curled set of bangs, fall to the floor. A hat for donations will pass through the lively crowd, and people will eagerly fill it with money. And Lira won’t be alone—about 200 people will be shorn clean to benefit childhood cancer research through an organization called St. Baldrick’s.
On the Oakland waterfront, in a historic area called“Jingletown” that recalls the sound of full-pockets and big paydays from years ago, an American manufacturing survival story lives on amid big box stores and artists’ residences.
Last June, Girls Inc. of Alameda County purchased a five-story building as the site for their new headquarters located in downtown Oakland. The 34,000 square foot structure is strikingly different from their current headquarters in a 1950s warehouse in San Leandro, and it will include staff and administrative offices, a mental health clinic, fitness center, teaching kitchen, and other amenities for the 145 teenage girls who are served by the organization.
The Oakland City Council voted Tuesday night to keep a teen center open, while agreeing to the let the city take control of the center from Councilmember Desley Brooks (District 6), who had helped to establish and run it using funds from her own office. The council also unanimously approved a $3.5 million package to develop hotels, a conference center, a new stadium, and a shopping center in a 750-acre area around the Coliseum in an effort to entice the Raiders, Warriors and A’s to stay in Oakland.
As the Girl Scouts of America kick-off their annual cookie sale, many cookie lovers will be in for a treat. Now, Girl Scouts are accepting credit and debit cards. Byrhonda Lyons spoke to some scouts who are selling cookies in the Bay Area.
Final arguments wrapped up in the case of the City of Oakland versus Hiral Patel, the owner of the National Lodge, an International Boulevard hotel accused of catering to prostitution.
Discussions of food, community well being, and employment intersected in West Oakland on Wednesday at the city’s first “Ready, Set, Grow” event, a forum on jobs in sustainable food systems and health. Put on by the Alliance for Oakland’s Food Systems, which is headed up by People’s Grocery, the event brought together a who’s-who of Oakland’s non-profits that are hiring, and people looking for work to help them prepare for and find jobs.
Bradley Roberts picks up a straight-edge razor and leans over his client. The barber’s indigo sleeves are rolled up to expose a map of tattoos that continue even beneath his salt and pepper beard. With precision and focus, he slides the blade along a lathered cheek with a long even stroke. He wipes the metal edge clean and starts again.
In December, 2010 the city attorney’s office sued the National Lodge and the Economy Inn under California’s Red Light Abatement Act, which requires hotel owners to prevent prostitution on their property. The lawsuits include many instances of crime, including prostitution and child prostitution. The city is now trying to shut down both hotels in an ongoing trial that continues Friday.