OAKLAND

Afetr more than 1000 posts, I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the now century-old Gertrude Stein quote about Oakland: "There is no there there." Not that it was ever accurate, but you have to admit it was awfully clever of her.

LOLZ -- this is like the "electric boogaloo" of posts about Oakland. And actually, her quote was accurate, in that it was referring to her childhood home which had been demolished. There are actually public art signs that refer to said quote on the Oakland/Berkeley border that say "Here" and "There" ... it's a few blocks down from the gas station on MLK where Black Muslim bakery heir Mr. Bey IV got gunned down about 20 yrs ago.

OK I'm gonna have some dumb questions, like: whereabouts is East Oakland? Or are there a group of neighborhoods that constitute East Oakland?

many xposts re the San Pablo corridor: my understanding is that the city mandates new development to include ground level retail. The retail spaces are for sale as opposed to lease so the overhead is incredibly high. In any event, there's maybe 1 in 10 such spaces that get developed. I've been living on that corridor for the better part of a decade now, and when we moved there (near the Oakland Public Library Golden branch), I was told the neighborhood was about 10 years away from being this kind of walkable, shoppable area with restaurants etc (for good or ill). Anyway that still seems a ways off - Noodle Theory closed up shop since they couldn't get foot traffic, and the most recent addition to the neighborhood is a tattoo parlor that was shuttered by the health department within a week of opening.

Speaking of the library, they're planning on dropping a 5 story building on the corner where the scaffold place is. I went to a community meeting where the developers were talking themselves up and how it was going to be a great benefit to the community with new ground level retail. We asked what they had in mind and they said "a real estate office or something like that". cue a collective eye roll....

historically, anything east of lake merritt is considered east oakland, but I'd say fruitvale & eastward, personally.

The East Oakland border used to be Park/5th imo but I'd say it's 14th these days. The tech dudes don't often stray past Champa Garden.

many xposts re the San Pablo corridor: my understanding is that the city mandates new development to include ground level retail.

which city? There are 3 cities involved, all with different zoning and planning requirements.

whereabouts is East Oakland? Or are there a group of neighborhoods that constitute East Oakland?

that is a very very politically charged question that as a white person who didn't move to Oakland until I was 23, I am so not qualified to answer.

many xposts re the San Pablo corridor: my understanding is that the city mandates new development to include ground level retail.

which city? There are 3 cities involved, all with different zoning and planning requirements.

Where and when does Oakland FAPing happen? I've got nothin' but time Dec. 25-Jan 1.

Some of it probably goes back to when there was a CEDA (redevelopment agency) and they were very focused on building and attracting retail to Oakland. Like they gave out money for this. This was about 5-10 years ago. There also was some kind of bloated planning document for the area that they refer to when it suits them and ignore when it suits them.

A few of those older vacant storefronts have been converted to living spaces btw.

The vacant storefronts I don't mind- in fact I see more potential with them since those property owners tend to be the ones open to small scale or community focused stuff happening. It's the endless expanses of low-e glass where you can't tell if a place is open or closed or even there.

Sparkle motion, we’re almost neighbors

the condo/luxury apartment buildings with ground floor retail -- so many of those built in the past 15 years -- so much vacancy, mostly because the rents are stupid expensive.

One of them that just got finished that's a few blocks from me was supposed to have an Orchard Supply Hardware in it, and I was kinda excited because being able to walk to a hardware store would be cool, but then Orchard went bankrupt and now it's a Target, which I guess is okay. Local FB groups had people arguing about the Target and whether it's gentrifying or not.

oh cool! how long you been in the area? xposts

I just spent last week staying in Alameda, as I do every Thanksgiving, have a bunch of relatives there. It is indeed very pretty, and seems like it would be a nice place to live. Plus the St. George distillery is right there, so what more do you really need?

Xp about 6 yrs. we’re on the other side of San Pablo near the high school

oh yeah that's close. I'm reading in the neighborhood newsgroups that a lot of the neighbors are incensed about the Emeryville Community Center due to displacement of parking. I haven't experienced any problems but it's far enough away that it's not really an issue.

I’d be down for an east bay FAP at some point, I don’t know any of you at this point aside from Sarah (and Jason if he’s here and has changed his username)

people are mad about the Harpers article

https://harpers.org/archive/2019/12/gimme-shelter-ghost-ship-fire-san-francisco/

About what specifically? It seems to suffer from TMI, should he really be going into the mental health history of an easily identifiable friend? Also this:

But otherwise [in 2007] the Bay was astonishingly convivial—for the first time in Oakland’s history, the city’s populations of African-American, Latino, Asian, and white residents were almost exactly equal in size—and I fell in love with dozens of squats, warehouses, galleries, and underground bars, where black hyphy kids and white gutter punks and queer Asian ravers all hung out and partied together, paving the way for later spaces like Ghost Ship. It felt like the perfect time to be there, like I imagined the Eighties on New York City’s Lower East Side.

I was at some of those spaces and I don't think the 'black hyphy kid' cultural integration with SF-based largely white/asian counterculture was nearly that significant. Near the end of my time there the center of my cultural orbit did move more towards East Oakland where I did see real integration happening more. Obviously in East Oakland, Latin culture is also a major force.

https://harpers.org/archive/2019/12/gimme-shelter-ghost-ship-fire-san-francisco/

Regardless if the housing situation really is as bad as he makes it out then getting out was really my only option. I don't miss the weather tbh.

Uh he outed underground spaces that still exist and wouldn’t pass inspection. His paragraph about the local fb group was taken as a complaint. Grief tourism was a term ppl used

I also am pretty certain that one of those magical 2007 spaces was the one I used to run ... that I started posting to ILX as a way of avoiding insurmountable problems irl related to city code enforcement the “logical” conclusion of those endemic problems which was the fire ...

Sure I understand thanks for the clarification, really cool you ran one of those spaces. I'm not saying I spent a lot of time at Oakland warehouse parties, I went to a few. The music scene I was a part of was always somewhat more SF-based through to about 2010. I really miss the Oasis though, that was such a great venue. I assume it never came back?

As far as city code enforcement, the folks I knew who dealt with it seemed to feel like it was mostly reasonable but I was never involved with the process myself.

Did they try to legalize a warehouse space for shows and/or live/work?

And now there's this -- privileged and precious Berkeley people plus the writer who wrote the cringey Max Harris profile for the NY Times are going to produce a thing about Ghost Ship:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/12/10/berkeley-authors-chabon-waldman-sign-cbs-production-deal

oh god

ugh no, keep those two away from it. jesus.

did ayelet waldman have a column at one point in some local publication? I remember hate-reading her before the term was fashionable.

I'm not sure. Oh, I used to work with a guy who wound up at their house for some dinner party. he said it was exactly as enjoyable as you'd expect it to be. these people are as far removed from the people who died in the fire as anyone I can think of.

maybe they are friends with Mr. Bernbaum idk

(1/6) We believe in the power of art, and specifically of this medium, to effect change, and had hoped to harness that power not just on behalf of the victims of tragedy at the Ghost Ship, but also to help to call to account those who most bear responsibility for it.

— Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) December 14, 2019

^^ she continues, and then the comments are impressive

that's pretty self-aggrandaizing

"We believe that there is a conversation to be had about the propriety of telling the story of the Ghost Ship, and about the identity and moral responsibility of those who tell it, but ..
clearly it’s not a conversation that can be conducted without causing further pain to the living victims of this tragedy.
At this time, therefore, we will not be proceeding, and will do our part to leave the families and survivors to their grief and their loss, in the fervent hope that someday they find not just comfort but also a measure of justice."

go microdose some more, you still sound like a bitch

that might sound more sincere if it was written in english

"clearly it’s not a conversation that can be conducted" ....
"will do our part to leave the families and survivors to their grief and their loss"

like, does she even realize how condescending this sounds?

it was pointed out to her, not very politely

So...QuincieFAP?

That would be great, especially because I need an intervention re: LA. I think I might like it? Dunno only been here two days. But surely I shouldn’t consider LA over Bay Area, right?

Land in SF on the 25th.

LA’s great tbh if you can set it up so you don’t spend more than 3 hours a day in traffic.

Hello Bay Area, just arrived. Here for 6 nights. Schedule is wide open so FAP day/time proposals welcome. We're headquartered in SoMa but will be hitting East Bay probably multiple days I imagine.

Eating priorities are oysters, Mexican, DUMPLINGS!, Burmese, bakeries, coffee, farmers markets, sushi, uh anything else that should be eaten while in SF, what am I missing.

My only must-visits ATM are various Oakland neighborhoods, a Castro Valley run to briefly check out horsey options, japanese tea garden. Maybe theater one night? I dunno I didn't really do any planning, gonna wing a lot of it.

OK so far schedule is shaping up to be something like SF today (Thurs), Oakland Fri, SF Sat, Oakland Sun and then whatever until we ship out on the 1st.

Thus far have achieved DUMPLINGS! but really I could eat DUMPLINGS! every day. Old Oakland farmers market on Fri, Ferry Building market on Sat and Temescal market on Sun. Yeah I like markets even when I don't have kitchen access.

Rockridge, Temescal, Piedmont Ave, downtown/uptown, Grand Lake all on the neigborhood-scoping agenda. Tips on streets to check out in East Lake?

Plan is to do transit on Fri and rent car for Castro Valley trip on Sunday.

What am I missing. Should I live in Fruitvale.

Laurel District? Should I go to there.

Laurel/Dimond is great. It's more neighborhoody and there's not a lot of restaurants or bars there, but plenty of great stuff if you know where to look. It's not where you want to move if you want to be in the middle of things, or need convenient BART access.

Tips on streets to check out in East Lake?

As close to Champa Garden as possible :)

Welcome welcome. Alas I am under the weather via some bug I must have picked up during my holiday home and the next couple of days at least I'm going to lie low. Will check in on here as I feel more coherent.

If yr bored rn I am DJing at the Knockout in SF

Also from Eastlake resident and former ilxor Chaki: you should go to rockin crawfish. I am North/west lake so i haven’t been

Anyone want to get together Sunday?