Business
The Community Rejuvenation Project (CRP), a nonprofit best known for large mural projects throughout Oakland, released a declaration on Tuesday decrying property destruction during last Wednesday’s general strike.
The all-Latina members of an East Oakland cleaning cooperative enjoy financial security and business-ownership with the help of Bay Area micro-enterprise development firms.
The Nightcap is a series that features a favorite Oakland drinking establishment every Friday afternoon. This week it’s The Layover, a bar and music lounge on Franklin Street at 15th Street in downtown Oakland.
Hundreds of people attended the Thursday night Occupy Oakland City Council meeting, which lasted over five hours. The meeting was held to discuss recent events pertaining to Occupy Oakland, most notably the vandalism and property damage that occurred late Wednesday night when protesters clashed in the street with police officers. Almost 150 people signed up to speak before the council.
Oakland Community and Economic Development Agency has partnered with service organizations to create job opportunities for out-of-work youth while mitigating blight in the city’s commercial corridors. The city’s partnership with Men of Valor, a non-profit re-entry program in East Oakland that provides housing, job training and other services to high school drop-outs, recovering addicts and the formerly incarcerated, has proven so successful since it began in June—removing about 114 graffiti markings from 88 businesses along Foothill and International boulevards—that in October CEDA decided to expand the program and take on new partners.
This busy part of 8th Street is the site for one of the many proposed bikeways in Oakland. However, some Chinatown leaders said the city should think twice before adding bikes to the mix on 8th Street, as well as parallel 9th Street, which has a similar bustling vibe.
Occupy Oakland activists launched the first of three rallies at 14th and Broadway Wednesday morning, with Angela Davis and others speaking. Occupy Oakland, along with out-of-towners and employees from local unions, will meet at the intersection again Wednesday evening to converge on the Port of Oakland and attempt to shut it down.
Since Occupy Oakland protesters announced they would hold a general strike on November 2, unions from across the city and the state have sent a flurry of endorsements in support of what they are referring to as a “day of action,” rather than a strike. In the final moments before Wednesday’s events, union organizers have been working to encourage members to participate.
At 1:14 pm on Tuesday, the Port of Oakland issued the following statement, titled “Open Letter to the Community of Oakland,” with regard to the planned general strike tomorrow, Wednesday, November 2 organized by Occupy Oakland.