Lobot Artist in Residency Show/Tell

Lobot Gallery 1800 Campbell Street

7pm, Thursday July 30th

Free

Natalie Sorenson, art and installation
Tom Wherrett, guitar

Husband and wife from Omaha , via Vancouver BC , present the work that has occupied them during their month long residency at Lobot Gallery.

Sorenson is an MFA candidate at Simon Fraser University whose current thesis project is a comprehensive retrospective for a fictional artist.

Wherrett is an accomplished guitarist who has performed at jazz festivals all over North America , he will be playing songs he composed during his residency.

Doors @ 8:30, Saturday, Aug. 1st,

$5

And an evening of mood music with:

• Dame Satan (SF) 11:00
• Small Sur (Baltimore) 10:00
• Golden Gram (Oak) 9:30

DJ Golden Gram will round out the mellow jamz for the evening...

Lobotgallery.com

Volunteers are needed...

Volunteers are needed to perform landscaping work on Tuesday, August 3, 2009 from 12:30 to 3:30. Most of the work will involve mulching.

OBUGS' youth landscaping training program is working with Habitat for Humanity families to beautify their front yards. This program is free to habitat families.
Interested volunteers should contact the OBUGS' office.

Ask for Breajshanae or Lanisha. 510-465-4660

1724 Mandela Parkway, #5, Oakland , CA 94607
510-465-4660 fax 510-465-4677
email obugs@obugs.org

West Oakland Reforestation

The West Oakland Reforestation project and WOCA have been awarded an $130,000 grant from the Federal Stimulus Funding Program to plant 500 trees in West Oakland.

Update: This group is still waiting formal (in writing) notification at this time. Project sponsors and supporters include: City of Oakland Tree Division; Public Works Agency; West Oakland Redevelopment Agency, Council Member Nadel; Port of Oakland, Prescott Oakland Point Neighborhood Association; South Prescott Neighborhood Association, Oak Center Neighborhood Association; West Oakland Neighbors, Inc; McClymonds Neighborhood Association; West Oakland Citizens Action Group

WOPAC Vacancy- Prescott Area

The West Oakland Project Area Committee (WOPAC) is seeking a tenant representative from the Prescott/South Prescott subarea to serve.

The WOPAC advises the City Council on the use of redevelopment funds in the West Oakland Redevelopment Project Area.

The WOPAC meets once a month on second Wednesday evenings and also has two standing subcommittees.

To qualify as a tenant representative, the person must lawfully rent and occupy, as his or her principal place of residence, a residential dwelling located within the Prescott/South Prescott subarea.

Please contact Ms. Hui-Chang Li at 238-6239 or hli@oaklandnet.com for a Candidate Filing Form if you are interested and/or have any questions regarding this position.

The next WOPAC General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 12th, 6:30-9:00 at The West Oakland Senior Center , 1724 Adeline Street . You are welcome to attend to observe the body in action.

For more about WOPAC, visit http://www.business2oakland.com/main/westoakland.htm.

Oakland Museum of California News

Oakland Museum of California to Close Temporarily Sunday, August 23

The Oakland Museum of California will temporarily close to the public Sunday, August 23, at 5 p.m. to complete its ambitious renovation. We will be ready to welcome back visitors in May 2010 with a grand reopening celebration. The transformed museum promises an entirely new look at the California experience, telling stories through the many diverse voices of Californians.

Visitors can look forward to more inclusive and interactive features in our expanded Art and History galleries, a dramatic and accessible Oak Street entrance, and new public spaces.

During the break the Museum will offer off-site and online programs.

Don't forget the last free admission day before temporarily closing is Sunday, Aug. 9th

Oakland Museum of California

www.museumca.org

1000 Oak Street

Oakland, CA 94607

Tel: (510) 238-2200

Parks and Recreation Celebrates 100 Year Anniversary

July 25, 2009

deFremery Recreation Center

1651 Adeline Street Oakland, CA 94607

The City of Oakland’s Office of Parks and Recreation, is very excited to be celebrating 100 Years of Creating Community through Families, Programs and Services. To celebrate, OPR is hosting an Old Fashion Community Celebration at DeFremery Park on July 25, 2009. Activities include access to the pool, food vendors, crafts, music and performances by local artists and recreation performing arts programs, and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. We hope you will be able to join us! Please continue to check the website for updates. View Flyer

Splashdown 2009 Celebration

Splashdown 2009 Celebration
Apollo 11 Recovery
July 24th – 26th 2009

The Splashdown 2009 celebrates the 40th anniversary of the aircraft carrier Hornet recovered the three Apollo 11 astronauts after their command module splashed down in the Pacific returning from their historic mission to the moon. Three months later, the ship recovered the crew of Apollo 12, whose three astronauts had completed the second successful lunar mission.

Programs will be held and exhibits displayed from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Hornet museum docked at 707 West Hornet Ave. in Alameda.

On Friday (July 24, 2009), Crew members from the Hornet's missions - both Apollo 11 and 12 - will speak about their roles in the recovery.

Interactive Apollo Timeline SFGate Story

POPna News: Former Oakland Army Base Parcels

On July 21st, 3:00pm the Port of Oakland, Board of Commissioners will hear the July 16th Maritime Committee Report , Item M-2 (pg. 15 of 118) Authorization for the Executive Director to execute a six-month ENA with AMB/CCG … (meeting results)

On the July 21st Agenda, Item S-21.1at 6:00pm, the City of Oakland Redevelopment Agency / City Council will again attempt to schedule the date for council discussion and action on an agency resolution authorizing to negotiate and enter into an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement between the Oakland Redevelopment Agency and AMB Property Corporation /California Capital Group and/or Federal Oakland Associates regarding a proposed development of a mixed-use project consisting of logistics, industrial, office, project-serving retail and other uses mandated by the agency on up to 135 acres of the former Oakland Army Base.

July 21st results:

On Tuesday (July 28th) the Oakland City Council will select a team to develop 130 acres on the former Oakland Army Base.

West Oakland embraces the LGBT community

The complete story is in the July 15th East Bay Express found here.

An old soul joint in West Oakland embraces the LGBT community.

Curtis Christy is a salty old club owner with a thick Baton Rouge accent, preserved through all 62 years that he's lived in the Bay Area.

Christy opened the building in 1947 with his late brother Ross. Originally it was a soul food restaurant called Christy's Grill (my parents called it "Chris's Grill"), which lasted until about 1950. Then the brothers transformed it into the Rumboogie, a supper club with a little stage in back. ("Rumboogie," according to Smith, means "Get on down.")

When a curmudgeonly neighbor moved out of the house next door, the Christies bought the deed, demolished the property, and built a larger performance area with a stage and dance floor. They rechristened their club "The Continental" and put on bigger, blow-out shows with all the royalty of Motown — everyone except Michael Jackson, according to Christy.

"This place was the Apollo of Northern California," Smith said, as he and Christy rattled off the names of people who had graced its stage: Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Dells, Sammy Davis, the Supremes (and Otis Redding). In the 70's Jimmy McCracklin booked acts like Etta James, Big Mama Thornton, Ira thomas, Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker.

"And — what's the name of that father-killer singer?" asked Christy. "Marvin Gaye," said Smith.
Although largely unheralded, the Continental Club has a remarkable sense of rootedness in West Oakland. It has withstood economic booms and busts, gentrification waves, and drastic changes in the neighborhood topography.

The Christy brothers quietly kept their business afloat when BART and the post office arrived, razing property on 7th Street and squeezing out local residents. They changed with the times, too, heeding Oakland's new cabaret license laws and opening their 600-capacity club for weddings, Quinceañeras, and East Bay Dragon motorcycle club parties (which were too loud and ultimately had to be sent packing, said Christy).

But as the brothers got older, business got more and more difficult, with the combined hardship of new laws, police vigilance, and the decline of live music. Ross went back to Louisiana but Christy and Smith kept renting the Continental out for special events, and watched as the neighborhood continued to transform around them: At present, the Continental sits cheek-by-jowl with a "smart growth" development at the old train station.

Among its new neighbors are hipster artists, yuppie loft owners, and, ..., a large LGBT population.

Old photos of the Continental Club can be found at the AAMLO

Best of the West (POPna Neighborhood)

The readers of the East Bay express acknowledges POPna neighborhood amentities:

BEST URBAN PARK

Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
Middle Harbor Rd. / 7th St., Oakland
510-272-4810

Name a place in the Bay Area where you can hear the lonely tolling of a harbor bell, watch a squadron of pelicans fly by, see San Francisco sparkling Oz-like in the distance, and listening to the crashing, clanging, and electronic chirping of ILWU workers zipping around on forklift trucks unloading container ships. Can't?

Try Middle Harbor Park. Located smack dab in the middle of Oakland's dockland, the park is a little oasis of Zen-like calm in the midst of the shuffle and hustle of one of the West Coast's busiest ports. The park is a thin strip of green along the water's edge, based on the outline of a huge Navy warehouse that once shipped out supplies to troops stationed all around the Pacific. It is now a restored marsh and wetlands.

The soaring picnic area shelters' jagged triangular shapes are a deliberate reminder of the warehouse's old shape. If you tire of gazing out across the Bay, watch huge container ships rumble by and marvel at the carefully choreographed ballet of containers flying on and off their decks. Cast your eyes closer, check out crab fishers on the end of a pier, or hang onto the fence, or just sit there on the dock of a bay legs, dangling over railway ties that once carried commuters onto the ferries to San Francisco.

This park is a must for urban explorers.

Other notable awards:

BEST OFT-TOLD EAST BAY URBAN LEGEND

The Oakland Cranes

BEST CHICKEN AND WAFFLES

Brown Sugar Kitchen

BEST BLOGGER (my personal favorite!)

V Smooth — A Better Oakland

Mayor Ron Dellums: Oakland Technology Exchange-West

Bruce Buckelew, director of Oakland Technology Exchange-West, or OTX-West (located in the Prescott-Oakland Point Neighborhood), joined Mayor Ron Dellums Tuesday at deFremery Park Recreation Center in West Oakland to highlight the effort, as children worked in a 10-computer lab inside.

"Our dedication is to end the digital divide in Oakland," said Buckelew, who founded OTX-West 15 years ago and said the group has refurbished more than 30,000 computers for Oakland families, schools and nonprofit groups since the founding.

In all, more than 200 computers donated by the Port of Oakland have been installed in 20 recreation centers across Oakland, after OTX-West refurbished them, Buckelew said. When the project is finished, every Oakland recreation center will have computers with Internet connections, officials said.

And these aren't low-quality machines: Buckelew said they're Pentium 4 Dell computers, with Windows XP Pro and Google Earth, among other applications.

[read more]

What's going on at the Army Base?

Tuesday, July 14th, 1:30pm in Hearing Room One at the City of Oakland CEDA Committee Meeting , the Committee members will hear a staff report regarding the Army Base Master Developer selection.

Staff is recommending an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement ("ENA") with AMB Property Corporation / California Capital Group ("AMB/CCG ") regarding a proposed development of a mixed-use project consisting of logistics, industrial, office, project-serving retail and other uses mandated by the Agency on up to 135 acres of the former Oakland Army Base (“OAB”).

Here are the two proposals for redeveloping the Oakland Army base:

CCG/AMB

Major elements: 506,000 square feet of industrial, loading and logistics space, 397,000 square feet of R&D space, 34,000 square feet of retail, 133,000 square feet for the Oakland Film Center, 205,000 square foot produce market, 1.15 million square feet of Class A office space, 16.5 acres of open space.Jobs created: 3,288.Cost: $572 million.

Federal Development/Em Johnson Interest

Major elements: 600,000 square feet of large format and outlet retail, 85,000 square foot entertainment facility, 700,000 square feet of R&D and office, 136,000 for the Oakland Film Center, 215,000-square-foot produce market, 25,000-square-foot art studio and gallery, 12,000-square-foot ferry landing, 30 acres of open space.Jobs created: 4,266.Cost: $687 million.

SOURCE: City of Oakland.

On Thursday, July 16th, 12:00 Noon in the Board Room the Maritime Committee will review a Exclusive Negotiating Agreement ("ENA") with AMB/CCG for the Purpose of Negotiating the Final Forms of an Option Agreement and a Master Lease Agreement for a portion of the former Oakland Army Base (“OAB”) and Other Lands that comprise approximately 168 Acres.

Crucible's 9th Annual Fire Arts Festival

Wednesday - Saturday, July 15-18, 2009
8:00PM - 11:59PM

NEW LOCATION THIS YEAR! (see where)

Each July The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast.

This year we will be expanding the festival in a new, larger location. Our new Oakland location is three times larger than years past, giving attendees more elbow room and us the ability to bring you more of your favorite artists. We will have more fire and light sculptures, food and merchandise vendors.

In addition to our regular performances, we will feature the world premiere of Dan Cantrell's The Rootabaga Opera.

The 10-year-old nonprofit was founded in 1999 by a small group of artists seeking to combine the industrial arts with sculpture and multimedia techniques housed in a single location.

The Crucible is known for promoting the reuse of materials that results in creative expression and innovative design.

Through their rich offerings of hands-on classes, participants young and old can learn skills from blacksmithing and ceramics, to welding, woodworking, fire performance and more.

Thanks to A Better Oakland folks for pointing me to some pics from the event. There are more pics at the Flickr site.

Prescott Oakland Point Healthy Foods Co-op

West Oakland welcomes co-op's healthy foods

...Mandela Foods Cooperative, which opened June 6 across from the West Oakland BART Station in the Mandela Gateway affordable housing complex.

Mandela is stocked with bins of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and grains sold in bulk, snacks that eschew high-fructose corn syrup, organic dairy products, hormone-free meats and an array of grocery items. Canvas bags and T-shirts created by a local artist hang on the walls.

The owners earn a living wage and eventually will share in two-thirds of the store's profits. One-third of the profits will be returned to the community as matching funds to people who open accounts at the credit union next door.

Mayor Newsom visit model farm in POPNA area

Newsom's fresh idea: mandates on healthier food

Newsom made the announcement Wednesday (7.8.09) at a junkyard-turned-farm in West Oakland (Prescott - Oakland Point Neighborhood) that could serve as a model for how land could be converted in San Francisco. A stone's throw from BART, it used to be home to old cars and one angry dog, but now is run by the nonprofit City Slicker Farms.

With a handful of staff members and scores of volunteers from the neighborhood, the nonprofit operates six small farms in West Oakland and sells the produce, along with honey and eggs, on a sliding scale to local residents at a Saturday farm stand.

The 2,000-square-foot former junkyard now produces 2,000 pounds of food every year, including lettuce, squash, tomatoes, parsley, sage, collard greens, grapes, cherries and plums.

"This speaks to people's soul," said Barbara Finnin, director of City Slicker Farms. "It's a place people can relax, be outside, and nourish themselves and their families."

Newsom toured the farm, biting off a piece of kale to taste, munching on an apricot and admiring sunflowers taller than him.

Sand by the TON

GRAND OPENING
Saturday, July 11 4:00p - late;

Free BBQ 'til 7pm

at American Steel, Oakland, CA

BIG ART STUDIOS PRESENTS SAND by the TON Join us at Oakland's newest beach for a grand opening of epic proportions. Swimwear encouraged!

Four electronic music stages

Three live music stages

250,000 square feet of art studios

1000s of your closest friends

200 TONs of sand

One carnival midway

Five swimming pools

Waking you up for a real cup of coffee

Galatea Cafe

Now located at:

1308 Wood Street, Prescott Oakland Point Neighborhood
510.682.8980