Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Oakland, CA – October 28, 2013 – Recently, Paul Tutwiler & Mabel Hom of the  Downtown Oakland  and  Lake Merritt/Uptown  community benefit districts’ Senior Citizen Task Force, recently renamed R.O.A.R, Resources for Oakland’s Active Retirees, were awarded the YMCA of the East Bay’s “You are the Difference” award at the Y’s 134 th  annual meeting and volunteer recognition ceremony. Last June, Tutwiler, among others, contacted the Downtown Oakland & Lake Merritt/Uptown CBDs to suggest a collaboration between the districts and local seniors.  Their goal was to get local seniors involved in the community by organizing weekly walks, beautification projects, recreational activities and more.  Since then, the program has proved to be a great success. “It’s nice to see Paul, Mabel and the senior citizen task force getting the recognition they deserve.  Together, we are happy to have been able to organize a great program for our local seniors to get involved in the districts

Artesa Winery Artesa Winery, which has perhaps the most breath-taking winery in California, has come out fighting in a Sonoma Coast California property battle against Friends of the Gualala River. Artesa Winery is fighting to improve and protect a neglected Sonoma, California property in the face of strident opposition from a controversial local group, Friends of the Gualala River. Sonoma County is a place known both for its excellent wine and its natural beauty. But, the conversation has turned ugly over the effort by one well-regarded winery to renovate part of an abandoned Sonoma property into a vineyard and preserve and protect remainder of it. Artesa Vineyard and Winery has owned the 324 acre property since 1999 when it purchased the lot with the intention to use it to grow Pinot Noir. The property has fallen into disrepair since it was used as an apple orchard in the early 1960’s. In 2009 Artesa submitted a proposal to convert 173 acres of this former orchard into v

At Oakland FitnessSF , a man who's name I will leave out of this, harassed a couple over, of all things, how the woman was about to use a machine at the Grand Avenue facility, and the idea that he was supposed to use it before her just because he says he was a gym member for a longer period of time. I'm not kidding.  I can't believe I saw it. But as I was doing chest presses with weights, a I overheard an angry man behind me talking loudly to a man and woman (who I also know, and I'm leaving their names out of it) behind me. The angry man (Angry Man, from here on) was upset that the woman was about to use a clasp device to place on the top bar of a machine that's designed such that one can also pull weights from either side toward the person's body, or just do arm-focused lifts. The Angry Man was not even near the machine at first - he was clear over on the other side of the gym's second floor. But as soon as she started to use the machine, and he

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said this to the National Journal’s Sophie Quinton: “And so, you asked me what my challenge is. Well, my challenge is to let people know what the new Oakland looks like. Somebody just sent me an email saying, ‘Oh, you should have more black police since more than 50 percent of your residents are black.’ And I’m like, ‘Actually, no, 28 percent of my residents are black, but we’re pretty evenly divided between blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians these days.’ But that’s their image of Oakland–and this is somebody who lives in the Bay Area.” (National Journal, October 6, 2013) In other words Quan’s saying ‘I don’t want you to think Oakland’s a black town’ because that’s a bad thing. Really? So it was bad for Oakland to be a city that elected a black Mayor in Lionel Wilson early on, and back in the 70s? It was bad for Oakland to have been the home of the Black Filmmakers’s Hall Of Fame? Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Thinks Black Oakland

Dr. Death, the epitome of Oakland Raiders Black Hole fandom, came to the Oakland City Council (along with about 60 other Raiders fans), and gave a classic, passionate speech imploring the elected officials to support the extension of the Coliseum City ENA. Look at it, because it's not likely you're going to see a presentation like this one for some time. Or until Summer of 2014.

Taste of Oakland! And,  Zennie62 says thanks to Helen Wyman and Lamont Dawson, it’s about time, after Taste of Atlanta, Taste of San Francisco, and Taste of Chicago. And it’s this weekend! A Taste of Oakland: Uptown Block Party is a collaboration between East Bay Loop and Vail Event Services (the organizers of the Oakland Block Party, a bar crawl held in Uptown for the last three years) and A Taste of Oakland, an event series that showcases and highlights the offerings of restaurants, retailers and galleries located in Oakland’s neighborhood commercial districts. Over 20 Uptown venues will provide “a taste” of a specialty dish or cocktail included in the ticket price of $20, which is a really great deal. Partial proceeds will benefit Youth Radio and the Visual Arts Department at Oakland School for the Arts. The Taste Of Oakland Website explains the founder’s vision: A Taste of Oakland is an event series that showcases and highlights the offerings of restaurants, retailers and

UNIQLO, the global clothing retailer, will open its new store at Hillsdale Shopping Center at 60 31st Ave., San Mateo, CA on Friday, October 11th at 10 a.m. UNIQLO Hillsdale San Mateo will welcome customers with entertainment and activities during Grand Opening weekend (this Friday through Sunday). Activities include a free tote bag to the first 300 customers each day and a free Heattech item with a purchase of $50 or more, and Japanese Taiko drum performances accompanied by popular DJs for a fresh perspective on an old tradition. More at Zennie62.com: UNIQLO Grand Opening At Hillsdale Shopping Center, San Mateo, CA