Business
DMV officials opened up the Claremont Avenue office on a Sunday afternoon yesterday to meet with local residents who were angry about the agency’s decision to cut down trees in a city easement last August. Officials and community members discussed plans for new planting and park construction on the property.
Medical marijuana supporters and business people in Oakland reacted angrily last week to dual blows from the federal government—a prosecution warning and a massive tax bill—as they speculated on the possible consequences for patients and the local marijuana industry.
The Nightcap is a series that features a favorite Oakland drinking establishment every Friday afternoon. Eli’s Mile High Club has a colorful history and was once a lively musical venue, but neighbor complaints kept it quiet for years. When new owners tried to revive it, they had to wait three years for a permit to host live shows. The music returned in January, and now there’s a tattoo shop above the bar as well.
Amidst pleas by city officials to remain in Oakland, the Bay Area Toll Authority voted 8-6 to purchase a new building in San Francisco, where the agency will locate its new headquarters.
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.