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Oakland celebrates groundbreaking for renovation of historic California Hotel | Oakland North

by Romy Ilano

http://oaklandnorth.net/2012/07/26/oakland-celebrates-groundbreaking-for-re… Have we checked out this place yet as a potentials future Sudoroom home Oakland celebrates groundbreaking for renovation of historic California Hotel The California Hotel was a popular venue for acclaimed recording artist like James Brown, Ray Charles and Billie Holiday. Photo courtesy of EBALDC. The sound of jazz―a melody, harmony, rhythm, or timbre―hadn’t filled the lobby of the California Hotel, just off San … [View More]Pablo Avenue, for more than a decade. And as over a hundred people filled into the hotel on Wednesday―Billy Strayhorn numbers setting the mood―for a groundbreaking marking the city’s decision to revitalize the historic hotel, passersby, many of them with iPods, didn’t know the hotel was a venue for the most preeminent figures on their playlists: James Brown, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin and Big Mama Thornton. The ceremony, which included tours of the building, a display of the impending designs, and five-minute short films, attracted several political figures including Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Katherine Kwong, congressional Aide for Congresswoman Barbara Lee; Assemblymember Nancy Skinnner from California’s 14th district; Tony Smith, superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District; and Jumoke Hodge, school board member and vice-president (District 3). The California Hotel was built in 1929 and operated as a commercial hotel. It was one of the few hotels where blacks could stay and black musicians could express their art. For nearly three decades, beginning in 1936, many blacks relied on “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide” to help them decide where they could travel during an era of racial division. The hotel’s ballroom was also famous for the celebrities who played there. From the ‘20s through 1971, the site boosted a “who’s who” reputation, drawing jazz and blues greats who ranged from Fats Domino to Ike & Tina Turner as well as fans who came to listen and dance. “I remember as a little kid seeing them do a dance they called the Lindy Hop,” said Beverly Jackson, an East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation employee, of her parents, who used to go dancing at the California Hotel during the swing era. “They were living in San Francisco during the time―they were doing shipbuilding during or after the war. There was no place for African-Americans to dance; there was no place for them to stay. This hotel was one of the few environments where African-Americans could go when they came from out of town. I was still little when they were talking about this―missing half what they were saying because I was still laughing at them dancing.” The site was added to the National Register of Hispanic Places in 1988, and its interior remains filled with original Mission and Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture. But the neighborhood and building began to change after suburbanization and the construction of the 580 freeway, which has been adjacent to the building since the early 1970’s. By the 1980s, the hotel was abandoned; it remained boarded up for 16 years. Then Oakland Community Housing, Inc. (OCHI)―a non-profit developer―converted the national landmark into affordable housing. In 2007, OCHI dissolved after lawsuits and a bankruptcy, forcing residents of the building to put up a fight against eviction. The building was placed under the care of the managing attorney of the Eviction Defense Center, allowing people to keep their living space, before East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), a corporation that develops affordable housing, acquired the hotel for redevelopment in 2011. The group’s plan is to turn the California Hotel into a place where local economic development can thrive. In addition to affordable housing, the redeveloped site will help bring community and commercial retail spaces nearby, organizers said, and offer non-profit services as well as community gardening. The project will provide 137 affordable homes. There will be two stages of work in revitalizing the California Hotel, according to organizers and wall displays at the event. Phase 1 includes construction on the apartments facing San Pablo Avenue, which began in March, 2012. Those apartments can be filled in late 2012 or early 2013. Phase 2 will focus on the units facing 35th Street with construction beginning in January 2013 before ending in August of that year. More apartments in Phase 2 will be available that coming fall. While historic preservation is a central focus of the project―they’re keeping the carved bear and floral crest corbels on the lobbies columns and adjacent mezzanine―so is going modern and green. The hotel will have new elevators, a solar-powered thermal system, and the historic ballroom will reopen for residents. At Wednesday’s groundbreaking, the music began to soften before Quan―wearing a burgundy blazer, knee length skirt, sensible flats and a pearl necklace―took the stage. “Good afternoon, San Pablo!” Quan said with vigor. “How many of you live on the San Pablo border?” “Yeah! I do!” several in the crowd replied. “I’m particularly proud to be here today because you’re on the edge of a renaissance―starting with the mural over here,” she said, looking out of the hotel’s large windows at a newly painted mural under the bridge on San Pablo Avenue and 35th Street. (You can read more about the mural here.) Quan turned back to the audience. “We live in Oakland,” she said in a firm voice. “Don’t talk down on our city. Don’t talk down on our neighborhoods. I love the history of this city. We were the end of the transcontinental railroad―this is not San Francisco―but where all those people from back East came out and they stayed at these wonderful hotels: the Hotel Leamington, where my dad was a union cook, and they stayed at the Hotel California.” The crowd roared with cheers. “The Hotel California was actually the site―in typical Oakland tradition―of really the desegregation of hotels. Remember all of the guys in West Oakland who were working on the railroad? They created the first African-American union in this country. They ran a campaign that said, ‘We don’t work at places where we can’t eat and stay and become customers.’” She paused for more jubilation. “Among the high-class hotels, this became one of the first ones and they were so successful. I know you guys remember this―in the 50’s―when no great jazz artist would come to Oakland without playing in the ballroom back there. How many of you remember that? It’s wonderful to see this West Coast monument come back alive.” Quan then unveiled a $260,000 check towards the project from the City of Oakland and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. “We’re going to make this what it use to be―one of the best neighborhoods in Oakland with more restaurants and businesses on this end,” she said. People then heard several more speakers―Peter Sopka, EBALDC interim executive director; Carlos Castellanos, EBALDC director of real estate development, and EBALDC project mangers Karoleen Feng and Elaine Kam―before people shuffled around the lobby to sign waivers to tour the hotel (it’s still under construction), climbed steps toward the mezzanine to see blueprints and finish eating mini chicken sandwiches with Yukon Gold potato salad. Howard Wiley on tenor saxophone and Kev Choice on piano stayed true to the black diaspora in jazz by playing music that focused on black composers. Their standards―Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Horace Silver, and Tadd Dameron―made a soft susurrus underneath the conversation. Both musicians used to play with Lauryn Hill―an R&B and hip hop singer and rapper best known for her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill―as her back-up band and were performing at the California Hotel for the first time. “It feels lovely,” said Wiley while Choice played a soft number before they continued on as a team. “All the sprits and the vibes in West Oakland―there was a major West Oakland blues scene, there was a major West Oakland jazz scene. My grandfather was a tenor [sax] player that used to play with Count Basie. He would tell me about all the acts that would come here, and the California Hotel is where Count Basie came a lot. It’s really cool.” Throughout the event people were invited to check out the People’s Grocery urban farm in the back of the hotel. The large garden―with narrow paths ways, sprouting fresh vegetables, several chickens and a greenhouse―has several murals painted on its surrounding wooden fence. Larry Davis, a greenhouse manager for the People’s Grocery, will lead the farm next year. Davis said there are currently 7 to 12 people living in the hotel throughout the renovation process. The garden always belonged to the California Hotel, he said, but during recent years it was not being cared for. “That’s when the People Grocery, and other organizations came in to make it viable,” he said. “The renovation will bring a lot more people into the garden.” “We feed an enormous amount of people,” he added. “On Fridays we host an event called ‘Flavors’ and let the community and current residents of the hotel come eat and harvest.” Davis, who grew up in Oakland heard a lot about the hotel as a kid. “There would be Aretha Franklin or Richard Pryor,” he said. “Anyone you can imagine came through here. This was the spot―anybody that wanted to be somebody came to the California Hotel.” ---- Snowyla.com Romyilano.com [View Less]

11 years, 2 months

nasty stomach bug

by GtwoG PublicOhOne

Someone I know says hewas at both events over the weekend, and has been sick with a horrible stomach bug since Sunday night. The most likely causes are food poisoning, norovirus, or salmonella. If anyone else has come down with diarrhea, vomiting, or bad stomach cramps, please post to this list. It's important to know a) what you ate & drank at the events, and b) whether you used the SR bathroom during or since the events. If this turns out to look like norovirus going around, it will … [View More]

11 years, 2 months

a ride to suitcase clinic

by johanna faust

like now ish for a faust with a possible concussion and her friend in a definite dental need of antibiotics --

11 years, 2 months

Cryptocurrency discussion group March 15

by Vicky Knox

Villagecraft <http://villagecraft.org> will be holding the event. http://villagecraft.org/w/9d2daf91-learn-about-bitcoin-crypto-currency-and-…

11 years, 2 months

Allies workshop in SF: Support women in your workplace and community

by Vicky Knox

Hey peeps! The Ada Initiative <http://adainitiative.org/> is putting on an allies workshop in SF on Tuesday, March 11th. There are free tickets available! Here's the scoop on the workshop and a link to registration: "Want to do something when you see casual sexism at work, but aren't sure what? Tired of feeling helpless when you read a sexist email to your community's mailing list, but have no idea how to respond? The Allies Workshop is for you! The Ada Initiative Allies Workshop … [View More]

11 years, 2 months

right to food

by Troy Massey

"Trust is the key to any relationship. It must be earned first through respect then through shared experience. Lacking either of these leads to half hearted interest." Begin forwarded message: From: GDAE: Global Development And Environment Institute <GDAE(a)tufts.edu> Date: February 25, 2014 at 10:17:17 AM PST To: <EcoEconomist11(a)Gmail.com> Subject: Malawi's paradox: Filled with both corn and hunger Reply-To: <us5-3a5d64db48-5788ee9a7c(a)conversation01.mailchimpapp.com> … [View More]Read Wise's latest GlobalPost commentary View this email in your browser Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University The Global Post on Feb. 25 published the following article by GDAE’s Timothy A. Wise on Malawi's efforts to grow more of its own food. Read more about Timothy A. Wise’s research project, “A Rights-Based Approach to the Global Food Crisis." Malawi's paradox: Filled with both corn and hunger Timothy A. Wise Global Post February 25, 2014 LILONGWE, Malawi — Visit this small, landlocked country in late January and you will have a hard time believing its people often go hungry. It is mid-rainy season, and in and around the capital city the landscape is lush and green. Look more closely and you’ll notice that nearly every inch of unpaved space seems planted with maize (corn); the green stalks rise up to five feet above moist, rich soil. Outside of the city, along the road leading south toward the former colonial capital of Zomba, the hills roll with maize, not in vast tracts reminiscent of Iowa but in small, neatly bordered plots. It certainly doesn’t seem like a land that cannot feed itself. But until recently, that is what Malawi has been. Droughts often threaten the country’s one rainy season, and with per capita incomes at around $900 per year, hunger, and even starvation, stalk the countryside. The World Food Program has permanent offices here, and for good reason. Even this season, when the rains have come strong but late, more than 10 percent of the country’s 16 million people face severe food insecurity. According to news reports, some have starved. It is paradoxical only to outsiders that this greenest of seasons is also the hungriest. By planting time late in the year, many peasant farmers have consumed the last of their saved grain, even following a decent harvest like they had last year. Until the new crop comes in late March or April they have to rely on meager cash income to feed themselves and their families. “We don’t have a food shortage,” said Billy Mayaya of the Malawi Right to Food Network. “We just have a maize shortage.” The right to food movement has grown in tandem with Malawi’s fixation on maize. Both were sparked by the same deadly event, a famine in 2002-2003. Between 1998 and 2001, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund recommended that the Malawi government cut spending. The government eliminated a small but effective program of seed and fertilizer distribution, and maize production fell 40 percent by 2002. The World Bank and IMF then persuaded the government to sell off its food reserves. Sure enough, no sooner had emergency stocks been sold off in an unsurprising wave of corruption, than the rains failed. As many as 1,000 people died in the ensuing famine. This humanitarian crisis prompted the government to resume its food reserves, critical in a landlocked country where emergency food aid can take 3 to 5 months to reach the hungry. And it ignored World Bank and IMF advice by establishing a broad input subsidy program intended to put good seeds and fertilizer into the hands of poor farmers. The cash-strapped government had to launch the program with its own funds when international donors refused to support an initiative seen as inimical to free market principles. This was true, for the simple reason that in this largely subsistence economy, the market was rife with failures. No investor was about to step in to improve small-scale farmers’ productivity. And there was no one else to produce food. The program was a success, and within a few years Malawi had grown enough maize to export some to neighboring countries. Even most donors conceded that the program had worked. The 2002 famine, as much a product of governance failure as it was crop failure, also sparked the Malawi Right to Food Network. A 2006 international fact-finding mission pinpointed the causes of the crisis, and activists set to work crafting Malawi’s Right to Food Bill. The bill enshrines in legislation every Malawian’s right to “the progressive realization of the right to food,” committing the government to advance such rights. The right to food has gained traction in recent years as part of the broader recognition within the international community of economic, social, and cultural rights. Under the leadership of UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, the concept has translated into national legislation and constitutional guarantees. In India, the Supreme Court found in favor of plaintiffs claiming their right to food had been violated by the elimination of key government programs. For a country as vulnerable as Malawi, Mayaya says the movement made perfect sense. “Which comes first, the right to food or the right to vote?” Mayaya asks. “It’s not a right to a handout, it is the right to ‘the progressive realization of the right to food.’” The Right to Food Bill awaits legislative approval, something Mayaya hopes will happen after May 2014 elections. De Schutter brought an official UN mission to Malawi last year, issuing a comprehensive report that praised the government for its efforts but faulted it for the overreliance on maize and chemical fertilizer, which he warned could be masking rather than replenishing depleted soils. The sentiment seems widely accepted both in and out of government, though the subsidies are so entrenched in the political structure that they would be hard to eliminate. But they can be shifted. Current government efforts to distribute legumes seeds – for beans, pigeon peas, groundnuts, soybeans – along with maize are a start. They diversify diets, offer crops that ripen at different times of the year, and replenish the soil with nitrogen and organic matter. Ultimately, such programs can reduce Malawi’s heavy dependence on fertilizer imports, which consume an unsustainable share of scarce foreign exchange. South of the capital, I saw plenty of legumes intercropped with maize. Farmers were enthusiastic, one telling me that thus far he had not needed chemical fertilizer on his one acre of maize, which stood tall above him. I asked if the high-yield hybrid maize favored by donors and the government didn’t need those fertilizers. After all, modern hybrid seeds like those distributed in Malawi by Monsanto and other seed companies perform well only with the application of high levels of fertilizer. The farmer smiled. This was a local variety, he told me, which he didn’t need to purchase every year. Specialists explained to me later that its yield isn’t as high as hybrid seeds under optimal conditions, but under the variable conditions farmers face, it does almost as well, even if fertilizer is scarce. It also tolerates erratic rainfall better and stores more reliably. The farmer pointed to his healthy maize plants and told me proudly that he was growing “orange maize.” He said it’s high in Vitamin A, which I knew was chronically in deficit in developing countries. In fact, it’s the reason behind the long-promised, never-delivered “golden rice,” genetically modified to add Vitamin A. This farmer may not have known it, but he was rejecting the kind of high-tech agriculture heavily promoted by international donors. He was rebuilding the fertility of his depleted soils by intercropping nutritious legumes while growing a vitamin-rich, resilient variety of maize. At the same time, he had reduced his costs — he saved seeds, and didn’t need to buy fertilizer — and reduced Malawi’s need to import fertilizer. Maybe this is what the progressive realization of the right to food will look like in Malawi. © 2014 GlobalPost – International News More from GlobalPost: Why it's dangerous to trust corporations to lead the fight against world hunger Timothy A. Wise is the Policy Research Director at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE). He is currently on an Open Society Institute Fellowship researching agriculture, climate change and the right to food through a project called "A Rights-based Approach to the Global Food Crisis." Read more on GDAE's Globalization and Sustainable Development Program. Global Development And Environment Institute Tufts University 44 Teele Ave. Somerville, MA 02144 GDAE Website | gdae(a)tufts.edu Subscribe You can manage your subscription preferences or unsubscribe from all GDAE emails [View Less]

11 years, 2 months

Re: [sudo-discuss] Taxes

by patrikd

If we set a minimum membership fee, I think that would provide a good argument to be able to classify everything above that as a donation. Mind you, I'm just going by logic here, which may not be what the IRS uses. ;-) Patrik Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G TouchDanny Spitzberg <stationaery(a)gmail.com> wrote:You can usually deduct a donation minus the "fair market value" of what rewards (t-shirts, etc) you get in return ... I'd be curious to see what gray area works in out favor here … [View More]

11 years, 2 months

RFQ: Organizational Management Consultant for Oakland Makers

by Marina Kukso

Hi everyone, City of Oakland is hiring an Organizational Management Consultant for the group Oakland Makers <http://oaklandwiki.org/Oakland_Makers>. Check out the attached request for qualifications. - Marina

11 years, 2 months

NNEB #16 Livestream @8pm

by J.C.

Nerd Nite East Bay #16: Movie Explosions, Coffee Roasting, and Hypervelocity Travel Now streaming live on the interwebs... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mFLIvDCgnk Feed is live now, audio/talks will kick in at 8p, updates and such on twitters https://twitter.com/NerdNiteEB We plan to experiment with our first live stream this month. The live event is at: The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland (less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART) EXPLOSIONS, BACKDRAFTS, AND SPRINKLERS: HOW HOLLYWOOD … [View More]GETS FIRE SCIENCE WRONG by Joel Sipe Fires and explosions are key elements in most Hollywood blockbusters, yet they are often absurdly misrepresented, much to the chagrin of fire scientists (yes, fire scientists are a real thing). The movie Backdraft is notoriously inaccurate, but finding films with correct portrayals of fires, explosions, or fire protection systems is surprisingly difficult. Spoiler alert: car gas tanks don't really explode when you shoot them with a handgun. Come learn about the real fire science behind some common Hollywood goofs. Joel Sipe, Ph.D, is a Senior Engineer at Exponent Failure Analysis Inc. where he investigates fires, explosions, and thermal issues related to consumer product fire safety and skin burns. From an early age, Joel had an obsession with all things having to do with fire. His friends think it's more than a little suspicious that he always knows where the fire started... HOME COFFEE ROASTING: ON THE CHEAP WITH TOOLS YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE by Byron Dote Learn about where coffee comes from and the stages it goes through before it ends as a hot beverage. We will show you how simple the roasting process can be and discuss the different methods used for home roasting. Get up close and personal with a live demonstration of roasting coffee with an electric popcorn popper. Sweet Maria's Coffee is an online information and retail source for home coffee roasting. We are based out of West Oakland, and enjoy sharing our passion with Bay Area coffee lovers. Byron Dote is the marketing guy and merchandise buyer at Sweet Maria's Coffee. He's been with the company for 3 years. Before that, he worked in the photo marketing and film production industries. Byron loves living in Oakland, hanging out with his dogs, listening to good music, eating ice cream, yelping Mexican restaurants and drinking excellent coffee. HYPERVELOCITY LAUNCHERS: HOW TO LAUNCH A PROJECTILE AT 10 MILES/SECOND? (THAT'S RIGHT, PER SECOND) by Vincent Tanguay >From bows and arrows to rail guns, man has been perfecting tools to launch projectiles at ever greater speeds for tens of thousands of years. Launching projectiles at hypervelocity is routine today and these launchers are very useful for science. While they have enabled major breakthroughs (think access to space), scientists always need more speed! We'll discuss what hypervelocity is, its applications, and the various technologies that make it possible. Of course, we'll talk about their limitations and how to push the frontier of possibilities. Somehow, we'll manage to include some explosions in there -- hopefully we get it right! Vincent Tanguay, Ph.D., has a background in explosives and detonations and formerly worked as a scientist for a Canadian National Lab. When not busy blowing stuff up, he was developing an explosive-driven hypervelocity launcher. -- ThanX, ;+) nburl.net/fort <https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Fort> [View Less]

11 years, 2 months

Seed Swap Saturday

by refugia

https://www.facebook.com/events/213919932142576/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcom… Saturday, March 1, 2014 7:00pm until 9:00pm Chance of Rain 61°F / 48°F Potluck supper, hoe down music, home-grown garden seeds, and the company of fantastic local gardeners! Come learn about seed saving classes and the Library. BASIL is a project of the Ecology Center. Time: 7pm - 9pm Location: Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way, Berkeley. Cost: food and seeds to share or $10 … [View More]

11 years, 2 months

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sudo-discuss