Culture
On Thursday night at Actual Café, a stationery vintage Schwinn sat prominently at one end of the room. A bingo cage was strapped behind the seat, and rigged so riding the bike spun it and sent bingo balls spinning down its chute. Steffy Sue, hostess extraordinaire with a jet-black bob and blunt bangs, read out the numbers. “B1,” she said. “Be onnne with the universe.” The crowd giggled, and hastily placed markers on the cards in front of them. This is Bicycle Bingo, and it’s not your grandma’s game.
What matters most for boxing trainer and gym owner Charles King is not the fame or travel he’s garnered in the more than 30 years he’s owned a gym, but to have helped a kids looking for answers find something worthwhile. “You take a troubled kid from the street and bring him here, and all of a sudden, he wakes up,” he said.
“The Art of Letterpress” exhibit at The Compound Gallery in Oakland showcases the work of more than 15 print artists from the Bay Area and other letterpress meccas in the U.S. These new wave of printers combine up-to-date design software and materials with printing techniques as old as the Gutenberg press.
With over 65 million Americans reported to have an arrest or conviction on their record, it seems nearly impossible for an employer to hire a person that does not have a criminal history. But Soul’s Restaurant in East Oakland has one goal: to provide jobs to those men and women struggling to transition back into non-institutionalized society.
Take a look at Temescal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – a place where rail lines ran across Telegraph Avenue, and businesses thrived on the side – and Temescal today. What has changed? What has survived?
A lot can be learned about a place by glancing at the local newspaper. Take Temescal in 1873, for instance. The area was buzzing with activity—the bridge over Temescal Creek had recently been completed, there were at least a half-dozen saloons in the area, and the Berkeley Railway which transported people between the nearby cities of Oakland and Berkeley was running every 15 minutes. But it was also a town experiencing growing pains—Telegraph Avenue was a mess of mud, and…
Today, Oakland North is taking a look back at the history of the Temescal district with a few snapshots of what the area used to be like and look like, and who lived here. We’ll be publishing stories throughout the day, so check back for more.
As Temescal grew in 1870s, the small town became an important transportation hub for rail travelers passing between Oakland and Berkeley.
The physical evidence today is scarce, but Temescal began with the creek. Most of the section of Temescal Creek that runs through the Temescal district has been covered up. Over the years, the creek was gradually culverted through the flat lands of North Oakland, and many younger residents of the area today may not know that it even exists. But where the bustling intersection of 51st Street and Telegraph Avenue is located today was once a popular relaxation destination for…