Labor

From junk to jackets: Oakland retailer upcycles vintage car seats

A brown building with tall doors opened to the ringing sound of sewing machines. Inside were racks of red-and-white leather jackets with pieces of the Cadillac logo, multicolored wrist wallets and leather bags.
It was a typical Thursday night at Platinum Dirt, Page’s leather workshop and storefront on 25th Street. He was turning salvaged material into a duffle bag, part of a resurgence of Oakland-based manufacturing.

Google to open learning center in Oakland

Internet company Google is opening a new technology education center in Oakland for minority students amid criticism that Silicon Valley is not diverse enough. Claire Shorall, the manager of computer science for the Oakland Unified School District, said that the company had been working with local groups for over a year to pilot the project, and it will open the lab in the Fruitvale, a predominantly Latino neighborhood. The news was first reported by the San Francisco Business Times on…