Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

On Wednesday March 18th I was a guest at a brand new Oakland restaurant called "Pican". The dream of its' founder Michael Le Blanc, it features "New Soul Food" in an elegant, high-end setting on 2295 Broadway near Grand. In the video I talk about the number of new eateries in Oakland and which ones can make it in a recession. I think all of them can survive if they market as a unit rather than separate from each other. Pican has the makings of a great restaurant that could become a classic. The opening I went to was a kind of Oakland coming-out party with those who are known and not-so-known coming to Michael Le Blanc's new place. The restaurant is next to Osumo and both are part of the Broadway / Grand structure, accross from Luka's retaurant. And in a few months a new bar will open just about 300 feet from the corner on Grand Avenue. What was once a sleepy, blighted and dangerous area has turned into something special.

In the wake of the Oakland Police murders, the Associated Press and CNN have given a false view of Oakland as having "tentions between police and community" and that is not true. Oakland Police are part of our family.

Economist Paul Krugman has been attacking the Obama / Geitner Troubled Assets Relief Plan (TARP) as using taxpayer money to pay investors to take the assets off bank's hands. But he offers no alternative. Paul is wrong in that he wants the "bad assets" to remain on bank statements, but for what? To continue to freeze the credit market? His blog posts in the NY Times on this matter are intellectually sloppy at best. That -- for a Nobel Prize winner -- is terrible. Krugman sets up straw person examples to prove the idea that the investor spends little of his or her own money -- but that is the idea. I do not know why he comes up with these half-baked statements at all. Perhaps he is just angry that Obama did not pick him to be economic advisor.

Bob Schock is an Oakland personal injury lawyer. We talk about lawsuits in a recession and how businesses can protect themselves and why people file lawsuits. Bob explains that one trend that firms practice is to get rid of "whistle-blowers" because they cause the most trouble in the view of the firm. He also explains that in general, personal injury lawsuits are down, not up. Watch the video to learn more. Contact Bob at 510-839-7722.

Jasmina is a five-year old who needs a bone marrow transplant; because she's Black it's hard to find someone who can help. You can at an April 4th event at the Oakland African American Museum: see http://oneforjasmina.com

The landlord of the Parkway Theater at 18th Street and Park Blvd in Oakland evicted the Parkway Theater after severely raising the rent. It's last day was today, March 22nd, 2009, but the theater can be saved. As an employee reports in this video, the closure was fast; the employees got the notice just four days ago, giving them little time to make adjustments and throwing lives into chaos. Apparently, the theater just had not drawn a lot of people -- or at least enough to pay the rent -- to maintain itself. In the words of the persons I talked to -- some on the video -- the movie house was not showing what the public wanted to see. I think a larger issue was marketing, or the lack of it. A new approach should include having ways that bloggers can put a Parkway widget on their blogs. Also having the Parkway on as many social networks -- like Twitter -- as possible would really keep its name out there. The bottom line is the place Kyle and Catherine Fisher raised $140,000...

Scott is the friendly owner of the Hawaiian Regional Coffee Roaster booth at the Oakland Grand Lake Farmers Market. He makes great coffee, but the economy's effecting sales. He talks about the problems and asks for your support