Category Archives: downtown oakland

The Alameda County Courthouse

So today I had to run a quick errand to the Courthouse… yea right!

All I can say is the entire experience was an incredible exercise in patience (I am not a patient person).

I like to consider myself a bit of a task-master (capable, efficient, etc.) I did my research. I knew where I needed to go. The document I downloaded from the internet directed me to my local courthouse – Wiley W. Manuel in West Oakland. I went there, waited in line, partially undressed to go through the metal detector and security screening, made my way to the second floor where I was supposed to find the Court Self-Help Center. Instead, I found a locked door with a PDF taped to the window stating that the self-help center had been moved. Mind you… this was the same PDF I had located on the internet and printed out, however the information here was different. Apparently no one bothered to update the web. Argh.

I then made my way to the correct location… the iconic Rene C. Davidson Courthouse, perched on the Southwest corner of Lake Merritt. Waited again in line, went through the metal detector and screening, made my way to the second floor… Room 240 where I expected to find the Court Self-Help Center. Instead I found a series of flyers stating that the Self-Help Center had been moved to the first floor, Room 109.

I could go on and on… two more lines, then directed to the basement, only to be told to go across the street to the Family Law Library, then back to the Courthouse, back through the security screening, back in line… You get my drift.

What should have been a simple 15 minute procedure took me 2 1/2 hours. Jeeezzzz…

The positive side is I got a nice look at this beautiful building, during a thin slice of blue sky and sunshine today. I refer to it as iconic because it’s frequently featured as an Oakland landmark in illustrated and photographic materials… like this vintage style postcard on Our Oakland’s Greetings From Oakland post. Which reminds me… did you all notice my new blogroll? Right-hand side… scroll down. Check it out, there’s some great stuff~!

Rene C. Davidson Courthouse, alameda county court

This is actually Alameda County’s Fifth Courthouse. The fourth was a real stunner, built in the Parisian Second Empire Style with a domed central tower and four miniature corner towers… see historical photo below. It was opened in 1875, located between 4th and 5th Streets at Broadway, and for over 50 years served “as a powerful symbol of the importance and wealth of what was then California’s fourth most populous county.” Sadly, it fell out of favor before the modern historic preservation movement and was ultimately replaced and eventually demolished. (Courthouse historical placard)

alameda county courthouse

Our current courthouse, the Rene C. Davidson, was constructed in the mid-1930’s through the passage of a $1.7 million bond measure, supplemented by Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The building, consisting reinforced concrete over a steel frame, features exterior surfaces of California granite and terra cotta trim. Designed by prominent local architects William Corlett, Henry Minton, James Plachek, William Schirmer, and Carl Werner, the main facade of the building faces Lake Merritt (I actually shot the back from 12th Street) and opens to spacious lobby featuring fifteen foot high marble mosaic murals depicting county history. Wish I had pictures of those to share but I somehow missed seeing them while being funneled from line to line. Guess I’ll have to go back…

The Trappist

So I spent like two hours of my supposed-to-be-a-day-of-rest Sunday working on setting up the stupid Facebook Fan Badge that you see off to the right hand side of this column. You would think it would be so simple… in this age of technology and social networking and applications capable of hand-holding with each other. And it should be so simple. But NOooooo!

Apparently the WordPress text widget only accepts straight HTML and not the Javascript programming incorporated into the Facebook Fan Badge. And if that’s all Greek to you, then you can understand my frustration as well. I needed a 12 year old to program this for me! But instead, I struggled with building the little HTML widget myself… wasting precious time, and literally driving myself to drink.

So please, if you’re a Facebook-er, make it worth my while and click on that stupid button and be my fan on Facebook. sigh.

My friends and I met at The Trappist in downtown Oakland (8th Street @ Broadway). It’s a gorgeous bar housed in an 1870’s Victorian building, specializing in Trappist, Belgian, and other European fancy brews. Steeped in Euro-pub ambiance, the bar itself is as beautifully crafted as the beers they offer, each served at the correct temperature and in the properly shaped glass to allow one to fully experience the subtle & complex flavors.

the trappist, belgian beer bar, downtown oakland specialty bar

Trappist refers to the reformist order of Cistercian monks established in the 17th century at the La Trappe monastery in Northern France. The monks lived austere lives characterized by vows of stability, fidelity to monastic life, and obedience. The monasteries were required to be self-supporting, living off their own land, labor, & resources, and it was out of this commandment that monk-maintained breweries originated. (Wikipedia)

Today there are only 7 true Trappist breweries, owned and run by active Benedictine Abbeys: 6 in Belgium and 1 in The Netherlands. The Trappist carries beers by all seven: Achel, Chimay, Koningshoeven, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, and Westvleteren, in addition to many specialty beers not easily found elsewhere. They currently maintain 25 beers on tap and have a rotating bottle stock of between 130 – 140 different brands. Wow!

the trappist brewery, trappist brewpub

Do you know those Stella Artois commercials you see before the previews start at the movies? The bartender takes such exquisite care with preparing the glass just so, pouring the beer ever so particularly, all in an effort to deliver the perfect glass of beer. That’s how they do it here. Not kidding. If you take your beer seriously, please check them out. You won’t be sorry.

the trappist, belgian beer pub,

Dig Cooperative at the Oakland Youth Center

Well… you wouldn’t know it by the late hour of this Monday post, but I worked ALL weekend.  Yes indeed…  I’ve been a busy little bee and I’m excited about a lot of the upcoming posts.  So please stay tuned…

As I mentioned last week, folks are gearing up over at the Oakland Green Youth Media & Arts Center for their big grand opening this week… Thursday, January 14th.  It’s been a whirlwind of activity over there, and even though I’m late jumping on the bandwagon (they’ve been working for literally years to achieve the realization of this center), I won’t be shy about singing their praises.

Thursday of last week was a big day.  Not only did the mural project I’m documenting get underway (Spoiler Alert:  I’m making my first movie!), but a large crew of volunteers, headed up by Tondre of Oakland organization DIG Cooperative, worked furiously to install a community garden behind the Center.

urban garden, oakland youth center garden

The focus of DIG Cooperative is all about water… water-smart homes and water-smart gardens. While speaking to a completely engrossed audience of Oakland youth, Tondre discussed the need for water-wise behavior moving into the future, given that we live in a region whose population is expected to double before then end of the next century.

“The number of people are going to double. But the amount of water is going to stay the same.”

He discussed the healing benefits of green space… the need for a place of peace and quiet, a respite from the onslaught of sensory noise we are subjected to every day in our urban environment. The garden will also contain a sacred altar space to commemorate all of the fallen youth of Oakland, victims of violence.

urban garden, oakland youth center garden

What’s amazing about this garden is how much they are accomplishing in an exceedingly small space. In fact, the entire garden is installed on top of concrete/asphalt in what was once, presumably, a small parking area. I love this. I had to resort to the same sort of creativity in creating a sidewalk garden in my concrete surrounded home in West Oakland… I used recycled wood crates and boxes from Urban Ore as large planters on top of the sidewalk. The Youth Center has set things up similarly with raised beds built out of wood, and even simpler “instant” pop-up planter beds made out of re-purposed plastic bamboo root barrier systems. Genius.

Additionally the garden makes use of aquaponic gardening (a union of aquaculture and hydroponics) through the assistance of Kijiji Grows, a collaborative group of farmers, artists, engineers, builders and educators working to change Bay Area lives through urban sustainable growing systems in schools, homes and businesses. Aquaponics is especially effective in areas with little space or access to healthy soil… the plants are grown without soil, utilizing the organic fertilizer produced by the fish (fish poop!), with minimal water usage, and absolutely no pesticides.  Kijiji’s aquaponic kits make great classroom laboratories, useful for demonstrating principles of math, science, technology, and critical thinking.  They believe their greatest impact can be made in teaching the next generation to be good stewards of the Earth.

The garden installed last week is considered Phase I, and there are extensive plans for Phase II to be accomplished throughout 2010. These include rain catchment and gray water recycling systems, removing the asphalt/concrete and establishing plants in the ground that will repair the health of the soil.

Oakland Green Youth Arts & Media Center

Check out this building…

art in action, green media arts center

Doesn’t look like much… yet.

But in just a couple weeks, we’ll witness the grand opening of the new Oakland Green Youth Arts & Media Center, an outgrowth of the hugely successful Turf Unity Music project operating out of this same space, previously a youth homeless center (Covenant House California).

Turf Unity is a joint project of Cov Records, Art in Action, and Silence the Violence (one of the Ella Baker Center’s campaigns), and initially, the Ella Baker Center offices were transformed into a music studio one weekend each year to house the project. (See my previous post on the Ella Baker Center.) Now Turf Unity has its own year-round location, as do a number of other programs.

The Chronicle featured a short story about the new center earlier this week, titled “Oakland studio tries to put youth on right track“.  It includes a story of one young man, his life affected by gang violence and later transformed through his involvement with Silence the Violence… he’s now the music production manager at the center, “his first real job.” That’s the kind of positive change I’ve been talkin’ about.

The Center has a number of funders, the most prominent being the superstar hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas, through their non-profit initiative the Peapod Foundation. Offering entrepreneurial, vocational, and green job readiness training for youth from historically disadvantaged communities, activities will include leadership development, new media, arts training, music production, community organizing skills, and green job education to Oakland youth between the ages of 18 to 25.

art in action, silence the violence, oakland green youth arts & media center

Five organizations will run out of the new Center:

  • Grind for the Green – committed to moving youth of color from the margins to the epicenter of the environmental movement.
  • Turf Unity Music Project – brings together turf rappers from neighborhoods throughout the Bay Area to promote unity through music, business partnerships, and community action.
  • Colored Ink – a Bay Area Based Hip-Hop Theater Group that uses the Urban Arts to inspire urban communites for social change.
  • Art in Action – committed to building youth leadership for social justice.
  • Community Rejuvenation Project – transforms blighted areas of the community through murals, community clean-up, landscaping & gardening, and community celebrations.

If that last one rings a bell, it’s because I’ve already featured a number of their murals on this site:

You Choose…
Chaos Without ~ Peace Within
May all the beings in all the worlds become Happy…

They’re producing their next mural project on the exterior of the new center, planning to finish for the grand opening party on January 14th.  My plan is to cover this process and highlight a bit more info about CRP, so stay tuned for future posts…