signs: Williams Liquors

Much of the sign is plastic (and old, weathered plastic at that), but it has this little gem in the corner.

 

eat local for food justice

Phat Beets produce

I'm a fan of Oakland Grown, which celebrates Oakland businesses and artists, and encourages people to spend their money locally. In part because money spent locally tends to stay local, stimulating Oakland's economy and creating jobs. I'm also a big fan of urban farming, particularly as it relates to food justice. City Slicker Farms is one great example.

Another reason to grow food and eat locally is to have a better idea of where your food comes from and what's in it and on it. Would you prefer highly processed food with unpronounceable ingredients, grown by an agri-corp, shipped across the country? or fresh, locally-grown fruits, vegetables and goods, grown and produced by family farms? Shouldn't everyone have access to good food? Some people deal with this by shopping at one of the Oakland farmers markets, or by growing some of their own food.

Mandela Foods Cooperative recently won the Ripple Effect Award at the Oakland Indie Awards, demonstrating both these things. Based in West Oakland, they provide healthy food grown on family farms, as well as nutrition information. They source and hire locally, which has a ripple effect by keeping money and jobs local. And they provide healthy food in an area without many grocery stores.

But what if you don't live in West Oakland? Or you can't get to a farmers market as often as you'd like? Another option is a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) produce box, which is like having items hand-picked from a farmers market and delivered to your neighborhood. An Oakland CSA I learned about recently is Phat Beets Produce, based in North Oakland's Bushrod neighborhood. Besides getting food from family farms to Oakland residents, they also have a local garden, teach kids about food and farming, and sell items at local farmers markets.

still tilting at windmills: Idora Park

Idora Park windmill

Or if you prefer: Windmills? In Oakland? MooOOOooo! I'd noticed this windmill years ago, but saw it again when I was in the area shooting the Steele's sign a while back. According to this post, it's the last remaining vestige of Idora Park. NOTE: According to the folks at Steele's and city historians, it was not part of Idora Park, but was a lemonade stand.

Idora Park was an amusement park, with rides, a baseball field, a zoo, and an opera house. It was built by the Realty Syndicate that also owned and operated what later became known as the Key System transit company, and lasted from 1903 to 1929. Oakland's own Jack London took his daughters there, riding the rollercoaster repeatedly until one was no longer afraid of it, because as he said, "No child of mine is ever going to be afraid - of anything!".

Check out this great collection of Idora Park postcards at AlamedaInfo.com and read more about Idora Park at Wikipedia.

signs: Real Estate

Real Estate

Across from Steel's Discount Scuba is this dilapidated sign for Real Estate.

signs: Steele's Discount Scuba

Steele's Discount Scuba

On Telegraph is the venerable Steele's Discount Scuba.

food: Pizza Plaza

The Oakland blogosphere seems to be on a food kick this week. Today in Montclair gives a rundown of food options on Thornhill. Living in the O has reviews of the various Thai restaurants in downtown (with the promise of more reviews to come!) And OaklandGoods has a preview of the Jack London Market, which sounds amazing, as well as a review of Ozumo.

So in that vein, I offer a brief review of Pizza Plaza. I tend away from restaurant reviews because I'm a vegetarian and most reviews don't cover that aspect. But Pizza Plaza was highly recommended by the owner of Micio Mambo (a vegan products store near the Grand Lake Theater), and has a 4-star rating on Yelp.

Pizza Plaza is at 6211 Shattuck, just south of Alcatraz. In short, I liked it. Not for the ambiance (limited), or the web site (weren't unwarranted sounds on websites outlawed along with the 'blink' tag?), but the vegan pizza we ordered was very good. Not Zachary's good (nothing else is), but a lot less guilt and not-so-good-for-you stuff as it was not only vegetarian but vegan (i.e., no animal products.) We had one of the menu combos, but you can also design your own, either vegetarian or fully vegan. They have limited beverage options, with no alcohol. In the future we'll probably just call ahead and pick one up to eat at home. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.