Economy
If you’ve been downtown this past week, you may have noticed a big green bus driving up and down Broadway. It’s Oakland’s new shuttle, which tours between the six major downtown commercial districts and is free for the public to ride.
As digital and online movie rentals grow, North Oakland’s in-person movie rental options continue to be shuttered.
Teachers searching for new jobs and parents looking for new childcare options got some last-minute good news—the seven childhood development centers slated to close last Friday due to budget cuts will remain open for another month. The Oakland Unified School District announced it was allocating $400,000 in federal stimulus money to keep the centers running through the end of August.
After a five-year, 14-stop worldwide tour that kicked off at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005, the exhibition that covers Pixar’s entire lifespan is coming home. The Oakland Museum displays the East Bay studio’s unique visual style and extraordinarily vivid digital animation that brought the world Toy Story, WALL-E, and Finding Nemo.
Judy Lee has already begun packing her boxes. Full of art supplies and Shel Silverstein books, the boxes sat neatly stacked near the wall of her spacious classroom at the Piedmont Avenue Early Childhood Development Center on Wednesday, a telltale sign of the center’s imminent closure.
On Monday night the Oakland City Council approved the addition of four initiatives to the city’s November ballot, all geared towards bringing revenue into the cash-strapped city.
Since the layoff of 80 police officers, Oakland’s policing strategy has changed, and neighborhood safety groups are grappling with how to react. The Oakland Police Department plans to focus more on emergencies and less on community problem-solving and the investigation of non-violent crimes.
Richard Lee is president of Oaksterdam University, a cannabis trade school located in downtown Oakland. He’s also a driving force behind the November state ballot initiative to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in California.
An innovative financing scheme designed to help homeowners afford to make their homes greener and more energy efficient could be in trouble. The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently announced that it would not support Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) finance programs, like one set to launch for Oakland residents later this year.