Economy
Members of the public burst into applause at the Oakland City Council’s Tuesday meeting when council members unanimously agreed to allow use of eminent domain to bring a large grocery store to West Oakland. “I’m tired of Oakland residents continuing to subsidize the surrounding cities at our expense,” councilmember Larry Reid said.
It’s become an increasingly common scenario this fall: a parent loses his job, and his child suddenly stops showing up at school. Oakland United School District officials say this is largely due to a recent policy change at AC Transit.
On October 15, the Howie Harp Multi-Service Center at San Pablo and 18th Street will close. For the last 21 years, Howie Harp has served homeless people diagnosed as mentally ill. The clients’ conditions run the gamut from schizophrenia and narcotics abuse to manic depression and diabetes, and Harp has provided such services as housing referrals, anger management, counseling, hygiene kits and meals. Watch the photo slideshow and hear from the people who have sought aid from the center for so many years.
Listen to how Oakland residents spent a day surveying conditions of the city’s parks and other recreational areas, many of which have fallen into disarray.
Think your Chardonnay has an oaky aftertaste? Try Oakland’s! Wine connoisseurs may focus on the vines of Napa County when touring California, but this weekend one group of out-of-towners found out the East Bay has a few wineries of its own.
They squawk, they eat your scraps, they lay your breakfast, they bathe themselves with dirt: what more could you ask from backyard tenants?
This weekend, Oakland movie theaters will host body slamming Bolivian women, an afro-sporting high school funk band, and break dancing. It’s all part of the Oakland Underground Film Festival, opening Thursday night at the Grand Lake Theater.
Local drug abuse treatment patients and providers are pushing the legislature to keep Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from cutting Medi-Cal funding for state-supported addiction services.
Like many successful businesses, Oakland-based Blue Bottle Coffee started small. Owner James Freeman, a classically trained clarinetist, began by roasting coffee beans on a baking sheet in his own oven. But now, eight years later, Blue Bottle is big time.