Development

Celebrating Earth Day, Oakland-style

In easy view of crisscrossing highways and towering industrial parks, dozens of people marched through East Oakland’s flatlands wearing white surgical masks on Saturday. Families pushing strollers, men in suits, and kids with skateboards walked from Tassafaronga Recreation Center to Acorn Woodland Elementary School to celebrate ‘Love Yo Mama’ Earth Day and to call attention to environmental degradation in inner city neighborhoods.

Budget showdown, final installment: Third time’s the charm

It took three meetings to get there, but Oakland city officials left last night’s final budget town hall with a wealth of creative suggestions, both on ways to close Oakland’s budget gap and on how to make the inevitable cuts less painful. Over the past several weeks, Oakland has been soliciting community input on ways to close a projected $83 million deficit in the city’s general fund. Last night’s meeting was the final community session before Mayor Dellums puts forth…

Budget showdown, part 2: No more pie-in-the-sky; who represents the community?

It was a night for stark assessments: Oakland’s budget for next year will be “the most difficult ever,” said one city councilmember; “the worst ever,” said another. Officials began last night’s town hall meeting on how to close Oakland’s $83 million budget gap with a plea for the community to come together, choose its priorities, and share the inevitable pain. “Where is the money going to come from?” asked council president Jane Brunner. “It is going to come from everything…

Budget showdown, part 1: Dellums channels Obama, Oakland counts on federal stimulus money

Under fluorescent lights, bingo charts and a disco ball, more than 100 people packed into the East Oakland Senior Center last night to throw in their two cents about how to close the city’s projected budget deficit. With $83 million on the table, every city program is fair game. Last night’s meeting in deep East Oakland was the first of three community-input sessions on the budget. The next two will be held in the Glenview and Grand Lake neighborhoods. Oakland…

A tribute to Kasper’s: History, in hot dogs

Her water broke.  They grabbed what they needed, scrambled out of the house and hit the road.  The couple finally arrived, and it wasn’t a minute too soon.  The husband jumped out of the car and rushed inside to the counter.  “I’ll take two hot dogs please—to go!” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened, how many pregnant women wanted Kasper’s hot dogs before they went to the hospital,” said a smiling Harry Yaglijian, third generation…

Manifesto: Not your everyday bike shop

The bike store Manifesto has a Flickr photo account, “Our customers rock,” which is full of photos of people posing with their bicycles. People smiling standing next to their bikes, slowly riding by, triumphantly raising the bike over their heads — all photos of Manifesto’s customers with their new bikes. Each photo is captioned with lines like, “Austin sealed the deal on a red Schwinn that many were coveting on opening day,” “This beautiful Mercier, nicknamed Pierre, is now Casey’s…

Filmmaker to screen “Redemption,” story of Oakland recyclers

Jason Witt is an Olympian of recycling—he can recycle up to 800 pounds of bottles and cans a day. “He’s the captain of his ship,” said Amir Soltani, a writer and activist who has been following Witt for the past year as part of his upcoming documentary on West Oakland recyclers. Soltani said there is a lot of physical effort and finesse involved in manning a cart the size of Witt’s, which, at the end of each day, is stacked…