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In the past, Downtown Oakland was the true center of the city. But as business left Oakland, downtown became a ghost town. By the 1980s it was hard to build a structure without some form of government money involved. Not anymore. 1100 Broadway by SKS Investments is an entirely privately financed skyscraper office complex that will transform the middle of downtown Oakland into a landmark place to be.

I wish I would have known that everyone was gathering at Geoffery's Inner Circle downtown for this event. I'm sure it was quite a site, and definetly one for the history books. I was at home. The heat that the day brought Oakland had myself and all of my neighbors with their windows open, television sets turned up and tuned into Barack Obamas acceptance speech. And that, for me, sent shivers up my spine. We are all a witness to history. The Oakland Tribune's full story below: Oakland abuzz over Barack Obama nomination Sees Obama as bringer of change and symbol of overcoming racism Angela Woodall Oakland Tribune Article Launched: 08/28/2008 10:30:23 PM PDT "I accept your nomination as president of the United States." Those few words from Barack Obama, who made history Thursday as the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party, sent shivers up spines and drove the audience gathered at Geoffrey's Inner Circle in downtown Oakland to its

This is the video that was the focus of a front page Oakland Tribune article, where it was refered to as the "secret tape". It has Yusuf Bey IV of Your Black Muslim Bakery talking to two other unidentified associates in an Oakland Police holding room, and whispering as if they did not want to be heard, but they were. What's revealing in this tape is the sheer insensitivity of the three to the fact that Bailey (or anyone) had been murdered. It's also hard to pin down who did what from the tape. But it's clear the Oakland Police were trying to form a case against Your Black Muslim Bakery. To date, Bey has not been charged and the only person who has been is Devondre Brousard .

I got this interesting release which I'll show below as it's chocked full of information. It's on an event to take place this Saturday at 11 in the morning at the old Key System building at 11th Street and Broadway in downtown Oakland. Here's the info: The Oakland Heritage Alliance along with SKS Investments are unveiling a new mural by artist Rocky Rische-Baird at the site of the historic Key System building in downtown Oakland to commemorate the innovative mass transit system that once served communities throughout the Bay Area. The 20-by-80-foot mural will be installed at the base of the former Key System building at 1100 Broadway. As part of the redevelopment of the 1100 Broadway site, SKS Investments will restore and preserve the facade of the neo-classical structure which will be integrated into a new 20-story tower that will provide 310,000-square-feet of Class A office space and 10,000-square-feet of ground-floor retail. Upon the start of construction at the s

I saw this news at SFGate.com : (07-28) 06:26 PDT OAKLAND -- Oakland police today are investigating two restaurant robberies that occurred within minutes of each other on Sunday night. The first robbery happened at about 9:35 p.m. at the Bay Fung Tong Seafood Tea House at 1916 Franklin St. in downtown Oakland. Three armed men robbed people of their cash or wallets and took money from the business, police said. No one was injured in the takeover robbery. At about 9:42 p.m., a man robbed the Grégoire takeout restaurant at 4001 Piedmont Ave. One person was hurt during that robbery but did not need medical treatment, police said. No arrests have been made in the robberies, and it was not immediately known whether the two cases were related. I think the main issue is stopping crime before it starts. Both of these incidents happened around the close of business. Why no cameras in either place? What about other deterent devices? Or is this a time to encourage gun ownership?

What does street cleaning make you think of? Noise? Dirt? Big trucks? All of the above? Want to hear that at night while you sleep? Well, it's for those reasons that the Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group launched a petition drive to have the City of Oakland go from nighttime to daytime street cleaning and got 181 people to sign it. The trouble is that the City of Oakland's stil not implemented the change. Here's the Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group's notice on the matter: Good Afternoon, 18 months ago, the Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group presented a petition with 181 signatures to the Oakland Public Works Agency and our City Councilmember, Nancy Nadel, requesting that street sweeping hours in our neighborhood be changed from 12AM-3AM to daytime hours. The petition read: "The current street sweeping hours are inconvenient because they occur when the highest percentage of us are home -- the middle of the night. The street sweeping sched

The Hot Pink Feathers Dance Troupe Is introduced by Peter Van Kleef just before their performance at Cafe Van Kleef in the Updown District of Downtown Oakland. You can learn more about the popular dancers at their website at HotPinkFeathers.com or by just visiting Cafe Van Kleef on the first Saturday of the month at 9 PM. Video is also on MetaCafe , and Google , as well as MySpace , Crackle , and other sites.