Economy

Fredrick Pugh has a good problem. The president of the East Bay Warriors Pop Warner football and cheerleading program is trying to figure out how to get up to 178 little football players and cheerleaders to Orlando, Florida, next month for the Pop Warner national championships. It’s a good thing, Pugh said, to have so many children to accommodate because it means the Warriors program has had a successful season.

In their first meeting since the November election, Oakland’s school board members reflected somberly on the near-passage of Measure L, the $195 property tax that would have raised $20 million per year for ten years, increasing salaries for school employees.

It was barely 3 p.m. at Hoover Elementary School in West Oakland, and the strawberries at the Tuesday farmers’ market were almost sold out. Hoover is just one of 25 schools part of “Oakland Fresh,” a recent OUSD effort aimed at providing fresh, locally grown organic produce for parents to purchase when they pick their students up from school.

Thanks to a $4 million grant from the California State Parks Department, which City Slicker Farms was awarded on November 8, the parcel will soon be transformed into a community farm and park. Although the department allows organizations up to eight years to get their programs established, Finnin estimates that City Slicker Farms will break ground for the community farm at the end of 2011.

Members of the Oakland teachers’ union voted tonight on whether to reaffirm its rejection of the teaching contract imposed by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in the spring, and authorize actions up to and including a district-wide strike.

Until it burned to the ground, Tiki Tom’s waterfront restaurant and bar, with its giant inflatable rooftop frog and bright yellow exterior, was a difficult place to miss.

As Oakland looks forward to a new mayor in the coming year, it faces giant-sized challenges in employment and business development that would be daunting for any city administration. Unemployment stands at 17.3 percent, compared to a national rate of 9.6 percent, and several large companies have deserted the city, taking hundreds of jobs with them. So business organizations and city officials are focused on strategies to make Oakland a business-friendly environment to attract new companies and new jobs.

Over the past 15 years Oakland has become the the epicenter of a national conversation about the legalization, taxation and regulation of marijuana. How did this happen? It started with the coalescing of an open-minded city council, an impoverished downtown, and a handful of determined activists.

Created In Oakland, a nine month business consulting program, is helping local small businesses grow their businesses through workshops and individual advising. The program, which enrolls roughly 15 businesses each session, has worked with organizations ranging from hair salons to architectural design firms.