Category — chinatown

Downtown Oakland’s independent merchants have come through an extraordinarily difficult several weeks. While not everyone will fully weather the storm, and not all the damage has been done, choosing to do a little more shopping downtown can go a long way toward maintaining the DTO’s positive momentum. Pro tip: wear some plaid for surprise discounts!

In addition to scattered discounts for plaid-wearing local shoppers, several stores are offering discounts and promotions today. Farley’s East (31 Grand Ave) will give a 10% discount to everyone who shopped at a local independent retailer – show your receipt to get your discount. Oaklandish customers spending over $75 will get a free classic T-shirt (1440 Broadway), and a discount from Fivetenburger’s truck parked outside. Last but not least, EntreZ Open House, a store selling gifts and home furnishings in Uptown, will have a raffle for today’s customers. The store is definitely a must-see this holiday season, as it has been a retailing pioneer but is nearing the end of its lease.

Old Oakland’s Pop Up Hood, an ambitious attempt to seed a thriving retail district in what is arguably downtown’s most suitable shopping corridor, officially begins on December 5 but several shops are already open for business. Check out Manifesto Bicycles (831 Broadway), Marion and Rose’s Workshop (416 9th St) and Sticks + Stones Gallery (815 Broadway), housed in some of the oldest buildings in the Bay Area. Nearby, the Bookmark Bookstore (721 Washington) is offering discounts today.

Blackout Oakland, an anti-corporate local shopping celebration, combines an artisans’ fair and local shopping promotion with a heavy dose of radical rhetoric. Nonetheless it should be a fun and crime-free event at Frank Ogawa Plaza this afternoon.

In a similar vein, the Catholic Church is sponsoring a fair trade holiday market with free hot cider at the Cathedral Plaza (2121 Harrison at Grand). Ad while you’re downtown, don’t forget about the charming shops of 17th Street, and Chinatown’s unique gift selections centered on 10th and Webster.

Last Looks

Two art exhibitions worthy of a look are up for one last week in Uptown. Machine Language, mixed-media collages depicting Oakland scenery as urban robotics, is at Era (21 Grand) for one more week. A selection of Day of the Dead-inspired ofrendas at SMSHBX / Betti Ono (1804 Telegraph) will hang only for this weekend.

Shopping Indie in the City

For Oakland to get back some of its tax revenues lost to Occupy-related business loss and security expenses, shopping across the city needs to get a healthy bump for the City to see a significant rise in tax revenues. Fortunately, local indie merchant collaborative Oakland Grown is offering an easy gift solution – a gift card redeemable at numerous local businesses. Check out OaklandGiftCard.com for a list of participating stores.

And the started-in-Oakland tradition of Plaid Friday is encouraging merchants throughout the city to offer discounts and promotions today and through the weekend. See a full list of Plaid Friday deals at PlaidFriday.com.

This Sunday, an Oakland Museum docent and the marksearch artist team will lead a bicycle tour of downtown Oakland’s historic “Square” parks. After three years and countless stories, it is the last event of a community art project called 10,000 Steps: Walking the Invisible City, an exploration of the role of Oakland’s first public parks in today’s downtown.

In the summer of 2008, the husband-and-wife marksearch team, Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas, began encouraging stewardship and community appreciation of the parks, which all have very 19th Century names: Jefferson, Lafayette, Madison and Lincoln. The parks are in Old Oakland and Chinatown, very old neighborhoods with commercial centers. Both saw significant new housing built in the last decade or so, and Old Oakland in particular has visibly transformed since Jerry Brown’s 10k Plan began. Referencing both the 10k Plan and the number of steps the Surgeon General recommends for a healthy lifestyle, the 10,000 Steps project is about placemaking, community, and public space.

Reviving Oakland’s first public parks

In cooperation with neighborhood groups, marksearch drew attention to the parks, helped renovate and improve them, and encouraged long-term park stewardship among neighbors. The artists, who specialize in place-based art revolving around walking and biking, researched the cultural and social history of Oakland’s first parks to imbue their legacy on the countless new and old residents in the center of our city. The project’s own legacy is a self-guided walking tour of brass markers in commercial districts pointing the way toward the parks, and a video of contemporary history and impressions of the park.

You can experience the project at Sunday’s bicycle tour leaving from the Oakland Museum at 10am. A cellphone-based self-guided tour is available until the end of the month. The video of the parks’ neighbors (including yours truly) isn’t available online but I will let you know if there are future opportunities to see it. You may also be interested in marksearch’s prior project, in which they pedaled around town in a tandem bicycle and asked the question, where is East Oakland?