3100 17th Street: How One Block Changed
January 15, 2012
Originally published on Mission Loc@l
When Lutz Plumbing first came to the 3100 block of 17th Street in 1982, Susie Hotarek was afraid to leave the building on foot.
Employees would drive into the building through the garage entrance and leave the same way. What waited beyond — drug peddlers, prostitutes — was more urban than made them feel safe.
“We had to pretty much have a secure building,” she said.
That has changed as a growing number of new businesses and organizations have moved in. The area has transitioned from a gritty industrial one where a cement and chocolate factory thrived to one where a few industrial survivors, such as Ocean Sash and Door, are outnumbered by relative newcomers, including cafes, artist collectives and educational organizations, attracted by low property values and rents.
“The community has gotten together, and we have really formed a good network of neighbors,” Hotarek said. “We pretty much cleaned up everything.”
The 3100 block of 17th Street, nested between South Van Ness Avenue and Folsom Street, is in the northeast Mission, an area where the last vestiges of a once-bustling industrial area struggle to coexist with ever-increasing residential and commercial development.
Unlike most of the northeast Mission, the 3100 block never had a concentration of heavy industry, but there were plenty of factories surrounding the block.
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Carbon Neutral Cafe Coming to Oakland
January 13, 2012
Originally published on Oakland North
For Dimitri Thompson, it’s all or nothing.
Whether its the rectangular chillers to keep the milk cold and sanitary, the energy-efficient espresso machine that draws little power or the reused materials that make up most of his furniture, Thompson left no detail unattended while crafting the blueprints for his Noble Cafe. But the attention he is paying into the equipment and materials of the cafe pales next to the ultimate goal of his establishment: a carbon neutral cafe — the first in the United States.
The idea behind carbon neutrality is bringing one’s carbon footprint — the amount of carbon dioxide produced through your energy-using activities, like driving a car — to zero through a mixture of reducing one’s energy use and paying money to a fund, such as CarbonFund.org, to offset what cannot be reduced. Such organizations reinvest funds toward renewable energy projects.
The carbon neutral café idea has been implemented in the United Kingdom and Australia, but it has yet to take hold here in the U.S. “I need to give back to my community,” Thompson said. “It’s my duty.”
With plans to launch on January 9, the Noble Cafe will be the newest café in a city that’s not hurting for them — in the downtown, Uptown and Lake Merritt areas alone, there are 28 businesses that identify themselves as coffee and tea shops, according to a search on Yelp. But what makes Noble Cafe different is its scope; it’s a cafe where patrons can do their part to offset carbon use. For example, patrons who come in with laptops can opt to pay a 50 cent electricity fee that goes to help offset the power used to run their computers.
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Event raises awareness about sexism, homophobia within Occupy protests
January 12, 2012
Originally published on Oakland North
When Occupy Wall Street first started in September, Wil Cook, an Oakland woman, was eager to join.
After health issues prompted her to pull out of school for the semester, she quit her job and flew to New York to join hundreds at the Liberty Plaza camp. But she soon realized that men in the group would tell her how to do things. On one occasion, she said, a man grabbed a broom out of her hands as she was cleaning and told her to get another.
“I thought it was me at first,” Cook recalled, “but then I talked to other women in the camp who said it happened to them too.”
As with Liberty Plaza, at Oscar Grant Plaza (Occupy Oakland’s name for Frank Ogawa Plaza), some women and queer-identified occupiers said they experienced sexism or were the target of slurs by fellow campers when the vast tent city took over the plaza. On Sunday, Occupy Oakland’s feminist and queer bloc hosted an “Occupy Patriarchy” event that drew at least 200 people over the course of the day at the lot at 19th Street and Telegraph Avenue.
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Over last two weeks, 40 arrests, and rising tensions between city officials and Occupy protesters
January 11, 2012
Originally published on Oakland North
Relations between Occupy Oakland and Oakland officials have had a tumultuous two weeks that included a number of raids and arrests, but culminated Thursday in an unprecedented meeting between city officials and protesters.
The last two weeks got off to a sour start after a total of 40 people were arrested and a number of others cited and released after a string of incidents that have left protesters feeling that they are targets for harassment. These included campers being dislodged from a vacant West Oakland lot, protesters being evicted from a foreclosed home, and confrontations at Frank Ogawa Plaza involving a teepee at the site of an ongoing vigil.
On December 28, OPD officers disbanded a freshly constructed camp at 21st Street and Mandela Parkway at the behest of the lot’s owners, leading to one arrest and about two dozen citations for trespassing. Members of the Occupy Oakland’s Tactical Action Committee said at the time that they had believed the West Oakland lot to be city-owned, not privately owned, when choosing it as a place to camp.
Then on December 29, officers evicted occupiers and Causa Justa activists from a foreclosed home at 10th Street and Mandela Parkway, leading to a dozen arrests. The house, owned by financial company Fannie Mae, was targeted in response to that lender foreclosing an East Oakland home in May. Protesters urged the company to turn the Mandela house into low-income housing.
During a chaotic scene on December 30, officers raided Occupy Oakland’s 24-hour vigil at Frank Ogawa Plaza after occupiers failed to comply with the terms of a temporary encroachment permit, which allows large items to be placed on public walkways. That raid lest to 13 arrest.
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Occupy Oakland protesters meet with city officials after tense scene at City Hall
January 10, 2012
Originally published onOakland North
City of Oakland officials and Occupy Oakland protesters laid the groundwork for building trust at a meeting at City Hall on Thursday afternoon, following weeks of contentious incidents in West Oakland and on Frank Ogawa Plaza that have led to 40 arrests.The first steps toward building that trust, members of the Occupy Oakland Interfaith group told city officials, involve helping to get the 16 protesters still in custody released.
The meeting was unprecedented, in that it was the first time city officials and protesters formally discussed issues involving the ongoing Occupy Oakland protests. It also came about after a tense scene where at least 80 protesters tried to occupy City Hall in response to a raid last night at Frank Ogawa Plaza that resulted in 12 arrests. Two more protesters were arrested Thursday afternoon, the reason for which was not know before press time.
At the meeting, delegates from the Interfaith Group, one of the many groups associated with Occupy Oakland, called for the Oakland Police Department and city officials to change their culture which they said has been one of hostility toward the protesters.
“There’s a huge culture shift that needs to happen” said Nichola Torbett, one of the Occupy Interfaith members said at the meeting. “City employees and elected officials need to be human beings first, not functionaries. We raised that issue, and I believe we were heard.”
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