Economy
Adnan Ahmed, a Pakistani immigrant in a blue plaid shirt, looks gloomily around the 41 St Discount Store, just south of 41st Street on Telegraph Avenue in Temescal. At 10 a.m. on a recent Wednesday morning, the aisles of the small grocery and liquor store are devoid of customers, and the only thing that seems to cheer Ahmed up is having somebody listen as he recounts his tale of woe.
About 100 current and former employees of the popular Bay Area restaurant chain Burma Superstar have filed a lawsuit claiming pay and benefit violations. The workers claim that Burma Superstar—in its three restaurants in San Francisco, Oakland and Alameda—routinely failed to pay minimum wages or overtime, while denying mandatory breaks and sick leave. The lawsuit also alleges the restaurants failed to keep accurate payroll records. The restaurant had not yet responded publicly to the lawsuit as of Sunday. Efforts to…
For years, Oakland has been the subject of startup-centric speculation: Is it about to blow up into the Bay Area’s next tech hub? Will San Francisco’s astronomical rents drive companies out of SoMa and across the bridge? There’s plenty of reason to bet “yes” on both. While the tech sector accounts for only about three percent of the city’s jobs, it’s growing at a gallop. Oakland is now home to more than 400 tech firms, according to the Chamber of Commerce,…
The Kapor Center for Social Impact moved into its new Oakland headquarters this summer.
An aging bald man waist-high in trash rummages through a dumpster outside Stay Gold Delicatessen. Residents walk by and yell, tell him to stop messing with junk, but he keeps sorting through it as if he can’t hear them. Just over a fence covered with black fabric and grapevines, another Oakland exists.
Union members from Oakland and surrounding cities came to Alameda Point Park on Monday to enjoy some free hot dogs and to celebrate their solidarity at the annual East Bay Labor Day picnic. Political activity was not on the official program, but talk of the election could be heard coming from nearly every tent.
With the recent closure of Oakland’s 74-year-old Lions Center for the Blind, clients and staff alike are wondering how to move forward.
The talent recruiters at the Oakland Unified School District worked around the clock this summer to make sure all students in Oakland would have a teacher waiting to welcome them back to school. They had to. Last year, students returned to find as many as 77 of their classrooms manned by an improvised crew of coaches and librarians as the district scrambled to fill the vacancies with credentialed teachers. This year, as of August 28, there were only three vacancies…
After four years of litigation, the U.S. Attorney’s office finally drops its case against Harborside Medical Cannabis Dispensary.