Category — chinatown

Memorial Day weekend is considered the official beginning of summer, California’s finest season, and downtown Oakland’s mix of urbane and natural is the perfect place to ring in the season. Fairyland will be open for a rare Monday, for family fun. A picnic by the Lake could be made up of Korean snacks and bottled teas from EM Market (332 14th St), or champagne and cheese from Ratto’s (821 Washington St). With many restaurants, particularly in Old Oakland and Uptown, offering outdoor seating, downtown is a great place to enjoy your holiday weekend!

Weekend events include:

• Tomorrow is the deadline for artists to submit work for Bay Area Currents, ProArts’ juried exhibition of contemporary works from Bay Area artists. The show will open July 3 at the gallery (15th St at Frank Ogawa Plaza).
• Sunday night at Era (19 Grand Ave), Kev Choice’s soul band performs with DJ Soul Profess, a unique mix of live music and spinning – perfect for dancing!
• Monday afternoon, Linden Street Brewery hosts a Jamaican jerk cook-off benefitting My Yute Soccer camp.
• Monday evening, the Afrorican weekly party will show Ice T’s new documentary The Art of Rap, featuring interviews with many hip-hop legends. The event also features food and happy hour drink specials, starting at 5pm at Liege Lounge (491 9th St).

Next Thursday is the Oakland Indie Awards at the Kaiser Center (300 Lakeside Dr), a celebration of the independent businesses which give Oakland, downtown and the neighborhoods so much vibrancy.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend, DTO!

The end of March marks five years after I published my first post on this blog – about an invasion of SF-based restaurants into Oakland. The restaurants surging in Uptown, combined with the strength of Old Oakland, were kick-starting a renaissance five years ago: a renaissance which is thriving even after years of recession.

The most popular categories on this blog are: Old Oakland, the original happening hood, and where I used to live; Uptown, downtown’s showcase district; dining, which is one of the key draws to downtown and Oakland in general; and nightlife, of course. This reflects a host of exciting developments in the 160+ years of Oakland’s existence as a city.

Perhaps most significant for downtown was the reopening of the Fox, a long-cherished community dream that was enabled by Redevelopment dollars generated by private investment in Uptown. About five thousand people moved downtown during the last half-decade or so, and despite an oft-repeated myth, there are few empty condos or apartments in the downtown area (in fact, Oakland appears to be experiencing an apartment shortage that may jump-start new housing construction). With all the excitement and investment, what helped downtown improve?

Key factors in downtown’s rebirth

• Broadway Shuttle: The Broadway Shuttle today is just great. A transit investment study, with implementation funds in the upcoming transportation sales tax hike, may provide a major new transportation link throughout greater downtown in the near future.
• Cabaret Ordinance Reform: In 2010 a long-sought change to Oakland’s outdated Cabaret Ordinance legalized DJs at bars, clarified the rules for dance clubs, and created a late-night permit for a few establishments.
• Pop Up Stores: Generous landlords, far-sighted city employees, and the assistance of the Downtown Business Improvement Districts have enlivened downtown with temporary and lower-cost boutiques and art galleries, from Oaklandish to Betti Ono Gallery. The trend culminated in the Pop Up Hood in Old Oakland, which may be leading that district out of recession into retail success.
• Updated zoning: Ten years after Oakland passed a new General Plan, downtown’s zoning was updated to reduce planning headaches for developers, concentrate residential and commercial construction in appropriate areas, and ban surface parking lots as a bane to pedestrians.

Remaining challenges

• Public safety: There are precious few beat cops downtown and the helpful Downtown Ambassadors can only do so much. Considering how light the police presence is, it’s miraculous that downtown has relatively few crimes.
• Infrastructure: Despite almost a decade of city promises to private investors, Uptown is still marred by inadequate sidewalks and and a crumbling Telegraph Ave.
• Capricious public policy: The Oakland City Council is famously myopic, and can swing radically from pro-growth policies as outlined in the Downtown rezoning to the development-last approach of the Lake Merritt Specific Plan. Outdated ordinances like the Amusement Fee continue to bother businesses. But Downtown will get a new City Council Member next year, and no matter who wins, we’ll see a fresh approach to downtown.

Enjoy your downtown weekend, and thanks for reading this blog, and enjoying the heart of our fair city!