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This edition of bits and pieces is more bits and less pieces. Or more pieces and fewer bits. Or something. But as always, it has its own twist -- you know the drill :-)

You may have noticed a bit of a site redesign. The big change is moving the navigation links to the right side, so that search synopses show the current post instead of some of the navigation text. The other changes are mostly less obvious, but are to try to make Our Oakland work better on different screen sizes, including smart phones. If you see any problems, let me know what browser and device you're seeing them on.

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Let's see...a poem about Oakland I stumbled across somewhere, called One Oakland is definitely worth checking out. The author, Kenya Hall, won a scholarship for it, and plans to attend Northwestern in the fall. Go Kenya!

In recent news, former interim San Francisco police chief Jeff Godown will be heading up the Oakland police department's criminal investigations division.

As noted in upcoming events, the Oakland Municipal Band is celebrating its 100th season. Read about it in the Tribune.

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talking social media

The other week the city put on a social media gathering at Era in Uptown. I expected to see some familiar faces there and did, but I also met a number of new folks, too. And I chatted with Dr. Floyd Huen (better known as Mayor Quan's husband), Amy Gahran, Mayor Quan, and others. As Angela Woodall (Tribune) noted, the mayor draws attention where ever she goes in Oakland. One thing I've noticed is that I see the mayor a lot more than I ever saw Ron Dellums when he was mayor.

One of the things talked about was Oakland's new foray into social media. Part of that is a photo and video contest called I Choose Oakland. There are some good photos and videos, and some not so good. Voting ends tonight (Friday). I'd say vote for me (my entry is a panorama of Lake Merritt I shot a while back), but I loved this video called Oakland B Mine.

Oaklandish!

After the social media meetup, most everyone headed down to the opening of the new Oaklandish store. They've been selling gear full of Oakland love for over a decade, but before it's always been at event stands or out of their Oaklandish truck. Now they have an actual brick-and-mortar store front, and celebrated with a whole lot of Oakland love coming back to them. Linden Street Brewery had beer there, and the new store front was packed. Part of why they've been able to expand to a store is that they've spread the love to other cities, via the awesomely named there there store. That features cool gear for cities like Detroit, Buffalo, and more.

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Shop Indie Bookstores

A blog I've followed for a long time is called The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. I contributed a photo from Oakland to the book, and more recently a sign from Happy Burrito on Webster. What's with the quotes? "World Famous" I could understand, since most people have never heard of it.

Speaking of books, a step before the site redesign was getting rid of the ads at the bottom. Despite thousands of page views a month, I'd gotten precisely zero (0) hits on them. Which is understandable, because (a) they were all the way at the bottom and (b) they were 99.9% of the time useless. Instead, I have links (still all the way at the bottom) to Shop Indie Bookstores and to Oakland Grown. The former will lead you to the likes of Diesel Books, A Good Great Place for Books, Walden Pond Books, and other local bookstores. Why? You should shop local. That and Amazon is threatening to cancel their affiliate program in California because the state wants to have them charge sales tax to in-state sales. Did I mention you should shop local?

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Many people in Oakland have been waiting on efforts to re-open the Parkway Theater, either at the original location or somewhere else but with a similar vibe. Despite lots of effort by J. Moses Ceaser, they still haven't been able to reach a deal. The owners of the original location keep saying they're interested, but no lease has been forthcoming. Let's hope they can figure something out.

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Last, and certainly not least, some updates on the food scene in Oakland.

Bites on Broadway has moved down 45th a little ways. It's no longer next to Oakland Tech High School, but near Studio One at 365 45th St.

One new place I haven't been yet is Hawker Fare. Part of the reason I haven't been there is that I've heard there are fewer vegetarian options. And in part because I still have a long list of other places to try in Oakland. In any event, John Birdsall (East Bay Express) liked it a lot. For more complete coverage, check out the SF Eater blog.

And another new place I'm looking forward to trying is Cosecha, in the Swan Marketplace in Old Oakland. Sounds like good stuff! (Even if they do have an annoying Flash-only web site.)

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More random photos here:

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upcoming Oakland events

Don't let the foggy, cool weather get you down. There's lots of fun things to do in Oakland. So many that last week's are on the verge of making me late putting out a new post about this week's.

Saturday Stroll - Saturdays, 1pm-5pm. Like the idea of the Art Murmur, but don't like the crowds? Now there's a Saturday Stroll, which runs every Saturday. (free)

Jazz by the Lake - Sunday, July 17, noon at Camron-Stanford House. A live jazz concert featuring Nicolas Bearde, with a brunch and beautiful views of Lake Merritt. Call 510.874.7802 for reservations ($35-$50)

Oakland Municipal Band concert - Sunday, July 17, 1pm-3pm. The next concert in the 100th season of the Oakland Municipal Band, at the bandstand in beautiful Lakeside Park. (free)

OBUGS Annual Art and Garden Tour - Saturday, July 23, 2pm. A garden and art tour by Oakland Based Urban Gardens. Discover West Oakland by bicycle (or van-pool) through a tour of lovely streets and edible gardens, with art at every stop. Wrap up with a block party, with food by Picante, entertainment by Turf Feinz, and a raffle with great prizes.

East Bay Food Fight - Saturday, July 23, 4:30pm-7:30pm. A benefit for St. Vincent de Paul's Kitchen of Champions traning program, the East Bay Food Fight features food and drink from over 40 local restaurants, breweries and wineries. Watch local chefs duke it out in the kitchen. ($35-$100)

Bike Ride 4 Peace - Saturday, July 23, 7pm. A bike ride and movie festival put on by West Oakland's Bikes 4 Life. The ride goes from Lakeside Park to Bikes 4 Life, and features food, fun, movies and prizes. (free?)

Celebrate 16th Street Station - Thursday, July 28, 5:30pm-8pm. A community celebration of the revitalizing of the 16th Street station. Tour the station, dine from local food trucks, drink East Bay wines. Plus live music, activities for kids, and more.

La Borinqueña's 67th Birthday - Saturday, July 30, 12pm-6pm. The famous Mex-icatessen celebrates 67 years! Food specials by the staff of La Borinqueña & Tina Tamale, Beverage Bar with Local Beer, Fresh Fruit Sangria, Farmers' Market Fresa Agua Fresca and more!

Dishcrawl - Friday, August 5, 6pm. A new (to Oakland) food event, this one in Uptown. This is the inaugural event, starting at Uptown Place. ($26, limited tix)

Urban Wine Xperience - Saturday, August 6. Put on by the East Bay Vintner’s Alliance that sponsored the event featuring Oakland wineries back in April. The Urban Wine Xperience pairs East Bay vintners with local restaurants and food sellers to put their creations together. Instead of traveling to the different wineries, this event is all at the Jack London Pavilion. ($40-$60)

Plus the usual events that I haven't listed this time:
Waterfront Flicks (Thursday, July 21)
Bites on Broadway (Fridays)
Dancing under the Stars (Fridays)
Downtown walking tours (Wednesdays and Saturdays)
OHA walking tours (Saturdays and Sundays)
Art Murmur (Friday, August 5)

For even more, check the Visit Oakland event calendar, Oakland Local and Oakland North.

Temescal Street Fair

Guerrilla Grub

This year's Temescal Street Fair was originally scheduled for June, but unusually late storms forced rescheduling it to July. It didn't seem to suffer for the delay -- there was a huge turnout.

There were lots of food vendors, art booths, and activities for kids. There were two music stages, Capoeira dancers, a climbing rock, and rides for kids at the south end. Local shops were taking advantage of the extra foot traffic. Bakesale Betty's is normally closed on Sundays, but had all their signature ironing board tables out. The alleyway off 49th was getting some extra love. Crimson was open, and sneak peeks were available of soon-to-open Temescal Alley Barbershop.

Lots more photos:

Temescal Street Fair

Also check out coverage from:
Cooking with the Single Guy
Oakland North

walking tour of the Laurel

Dennis Evanosky

Sunday morning was a special walking tour of the Laurel. It was organized by district 4 council member Libby Schaaf, and led by local historian and OHA member Dennis Evanosky. There ended up being a large group, including Libby Schaaf, BART board member Robert Raburn, a few folks from AC Transit, and 40-50 other people interested in Oakland history. (Plus a couple of dogs, who were indifferent about the history but enjoyed the people.)

Donut Time

One of the first stops on the tour was a familiar building, home to Donut Corner, with its awesome Donut Time clock. The building is notable because that's where much of the planning for the native American occupation of Alcatraz (1969-1971) was done. That became a major precedent for native American activism.

As we walked, we heard about different time periods in the Laurel's history, from hauling redwood logs down what is now 35th Avenue, to the heyday of the theaters (including a movie premiere delivered by the Goodyear blimp), to the major impact the building of the MacArthur freeway (I-580) had. We walked past the amazing gas station (c.1939) that I photographed back in May.

plot map

One question people had and the tour promised to answer: how did the Laurel get its name? It goes back to an early real estate development. The land had been part of the Peralta Grant, and then given to one of Peralta's sons. The land was then sold to developers, and the new development named for a grove of laurels near Peralta Creek: Laurel Grove Park. It took a while for the development to actually take off, but with the help of a streetcar line up 38th to the sales office, it eventually did.

Unfortunately, there were enough people on the tour that as a group we moved slowly. Which meant we didn't cover everything planned, so Dennis is hoping to do the second half of the tour in September. Stay tuned!

More photos here:

Laurel walking tour

F.M. "Borax" Smith

Saturday was the first Oakland Heritage Alliance tour of the season, and was focused on Francis Marion "Borax" Smith. If you know anything about Oakland history, you've probably heard the name "Borax" Smith. After making a fortune in mining, Frank (as he was known to friends) switched his attention to real estate, and developed the Key System as a way to help develop and sell that real estate.

I have to admit I went in to the tour kind of wondering what we'd see. After all, the Smith Estate was long gone, so what was there to look at? While the house itself is gone, there are still remnants of the Smith's legacy. We couldn't have asked for a more knowledgeable tour guide than Phil Bellman, a long-time OHA member who has been leading these tours since the 80s. We met just off Park Blvd. across from where the mansion was.

Arbor Villa

The estate, known as Arbor Villa, was impressive. The grounds covered 50 acres. The house had 42 rooms, including 15 bedrooms, a bowling alley, and a miniature borax mine. While the house was on top of Ivy Hill, they also built an observation tower for what must have been stunning views.

While all that is gone, buildings that were around the estate and that were built after the estate was sold remain. There are some remarkable buildings, designed by the likes of Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck, and Clarence Dakin.

Frank and his first wife, Mary (Mollie) R. Smith were also known because of Mary's philanthropic work. Inspired by Benjamin Farjeon's Blade O'Grass, she started a home for "friendless" (i.e., orphaned) girls. Frank built a total of 13 cottages for the girls, plus the Home Club, which served as a community center, and turned over 34 acres to the Mary R. Smith Trust. A number of the cottages are still standing and are private residences now.

Along with amazing architecture and history about Smith, there were various interesting tidbits of Oakland history on the tour. One was an old sidewalk stamp at the corner of East 24th St. and 9th Ave, dating back to 1902. Our guide mentioned it was the oldest sidewalk stamp he knew of in Oakland. I immediately thought of the Oakland Sidewalk Stamps blog, and quickly found one as old. (With a little more searching on the site, I found ones dating to 1901). But what's remarkable is how little else was there in 1902, so having a sidewalk out in the boondocks was a big deal.

Evelyn Cottage
designed by Julia Morgan

After the tour was over, I walked and biked more around the neighborhood. I checked out F.M. Smith Park further down Park Blvd., which includes a plaque about Smith, statues of mules, and a grave marker for Smokey - a good mule. The park was built on land donated by the Smiths.

After getting some lunch and running some errands, I also stopped by a plaque in Trestle Glen that tells about the trestle built by Smith's Oakland Traction Company (a predecessor of the Key System). In 1893, they extended a streetcar line from downtown Oakland, up Park Boulevard, and built a large trestle across what was then Indian Gulch to carry picnickers to Sather Park. Mark Twain was one of the inaugural riders. The trestle lasted until 1906, when the streetcar was rerouted.

"Borax" Smith died in 1931, and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery, along "Millionaires Row".

Some other Smith-related Oakland sites:
Claremont Hotel - Built as a "destination" on the Key System by Smith's Realty Syndicate.
El Campanil - The clock tower at Mills College, donated by the Smiths, designed by Julia Morgan. One of the earliest structures built west of the Mississippi of reinforced concrete, it survived the 1906 earthquake unscathed, and furthered Morgan's career both as an architect and an engineer. (Various sources say it was the earliest, but see Phil's comment about earlier structures.)

See lots more photos here: