Politics
Oakland artists strive to improve working conditions for public art creators in the city.
Earlier this month the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C. think tank, reported that the average white family today has net assets of $141,900, compared with the $11,000 for African American families. This hollowing out of the African American family asset base is a nationwide phenomenon that can be explained by the shrinking African American middle class. It’s even more a factor in “strong market” regions like the Bay Area, where housing costs are soaring.
The Oakland City Council voted 5-1, with two abstentions, to approve a grant tied to hiring 15 new police officers after protesters disrupted the meeting, calling for funding for housing instead of more law enforcement.
Oakland is predicted to become the capital of cannabis, as California’s first marijuana incubator sets up shop in Jack London District.
In 2006, Taylor founded 1,000 Mothers to Prevent Violence as an organization to provide practical support to families who have lost someone to homicide. “Someone one day asked me: ‘What is it that you do?’” said Taylor. “It is not an ‘it.’ It all depends on the family’s needs.”
Founded in 2011 at the Oakland School of the Arts, the group is made up of high school students at the charter school. They have won the International Championship of High School A Cappella (ICHSA) three times, including this year in April. In 2013, they placed third on NBC’s The Sing-Off, a televised a cappella competition between some of the best musical ensembles in the country. With the level of success they’ve garnered, the group has decided to use their art as a form of activism: “aca-activism,” that is.
The newest phase of contest over the East 12th parcel is a student “guerrilla art” exhibit.
In an abbreviated meeting on Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) unanimously passed a proposal to change their short-term financing in order to reduce long-term risk. EBMUD will be moving from “extended” back to “traditional” commercial paper, according to Dari Barzel, EBMUD’s principal management analyst. What does that mean? “Commercial paper is by far our lowest-cost financing,” Barzel told the directors, citing a 30-day interest rate of about 0.09 percent. “You can’t beat it.” Commercial paper…
Demonstrators marched through downtown Oakland last Saturday to demand a global reduction in the use of fossil fuels in advance of the global climate conference in Paris.