Economy
This Thursday and Friday, Oakland police volunteers will provide a valuable service to holiday shoppers with cars parked at the West Oakland BART station from 5 pm to 9 pm. They’ll escort people from the station to their vehicles, making the task of trekking through the dark laden with holiday goodies less daunting.
Five Oakland school board members will be receiving more than season’s greetings from frustrated parents today. They’re getting news that a recall campaign has been launched against them for voting to close five Oakland elementary schools in late October.
In a season that grows increasingly materialistic with each passing year, why not at least support the local economy while showering your loved ones with presents? Oakland’s swelling arts scene, assortment of independent businesses, and, of course, its medical marijuana economy all make for endless gift options. Our guide lists ten possible sources for holiday gifts to fit every price range. Goodbye Target, hello Oakland.
A small group of local businesses kicked off the holiday shopping season this month by introducing a new gift card program intended to keep retail sales dollars in Oakland. The “Oakland Gift Card,” which is available in amounts between $20 and $200, is accepted by 19 Oakland businesses, ranging from electronics and apparel stores to restaurants and art galleries.
Occupy Oakland protesters remained at the Port of Oakland through Monday night and into Tuesday morning, disrupting business for the third time in less than 24 hours, a spokesman for Occupy Oakland said.
Thousands of people marched to the Port of Oakland on Monday evening, disrupting business at one of the nation’s busiest ports. The evening march capped off a day of planned actions at the port by Occupy Oakland protesters, who were trying to shut down the port to support port truck drivers in Oakland and across the country, as well as longshore workers in Longview, Washington who are engaged in a labor dispute with their employer, EGT Development. The evening march…
Occupy Oakland protesters claimed a win this morning after their strategic blockade forced some disruptions at the Oakland Port, the nation’s fifth largest container port. Monday’s events began with a crowd of hundreds of protesters making their way from the West Oakland BART station shortly after 5:30 a.m. down 7th Street toward various port entrances, bringing traffic to halt along the way.
In advance of Occupy protesters’ coordinated attempt to forcibly close seaports along the West coast, a breakaway group of Oakland activists decided to “Aquapy” Lake Merritt. They built a large raft, loaded it with supplies, and secretly launched it from boat docks in the dead of night.
When entrepreneur Alfonso Dominguez and urban planner Sarah Filley teamed up to create “popuphood”—a cluster of locally owned pop-up stores aspiring towards permanence in downtown Oakland—they hoped, simply, that Oakland shoppers would actually show up.