Business
The Asian Resource Center broke ground on a new solar installation project Wednesday. They are the site of the first community-funded project on the Solar Mosaic platform.
The Nightcap is a series that features a favorite Oakland drinking establishment every Friday afternoon. This week, it’s George Kaye’s. It first opened in 1934, right after Prohibition ended, serving drinks to neighborhood folks in the same small, wood-paneled room the bar occupies today. Much of Kaye’s has remained the same for decades, in fact, like the 1950’s cash register, the original icebox and bathroom doors, and the wood bar.
Souley Vegan, located at Broadway and 3rd Street in downtown Oakland, conjures up a sense of Southern comfort with murals of jazz artists like Louis Armstrong and Big Mama Thornton covering the walls. The air is scented by the steaming gravy wafting off the top of one patron’s mashed potatoes. Blues tunes carry over the entire seating area and bar, as does the sizzling of something frying in a batter: tofu.
City of Oakland officials have high hopes that the new dealerships will help reinvigorate Auto Row, a long stretch of Broadway between Grand Avenue and 40th Street that since, 1912, has been a hub of city commerce teeming with auto businesses. Prior to the economic meltdown of 2008, the street generated millions of dollars in sales tax revenue for the city, but now it boasts more vacant buildings and “for lease” signs than live dealerships.
Last Saturday, hundreds of people flocked to City Hall to attend Financial Planning Day, a free event offering financial planning advice and workshops to participants.
Public officials and maritime industry leaders met on Friday to urge Congress to release funds collected from the Harbor Maintenance Tax in order to improve California’s port infrastructure and help stimulate economic growth.
Oakland’s Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) announced a pilot program Thursday to convert parking spots or unused bus stops into public spaces called “parklets” where people can relax and hang out.
The Nightcap is a series that features a favorite Oakland drinking establishment every Friday afternoon. This week, it’s Make Westing, the newest bar to open in Uptown.
Over the past year, according to the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, 46 books have been “banned” in the United States—taken off school and main library shelves, removed as “inappropriate” from class reading lists, attacked by bloggers and family value organizations or re-edited to replace words deemed offensive. All of these books are being showcased this week for a library and bookstore event called Banned Book Week.