More boat tours, tons of events, another mini-rant, and more
I’m gonna kick off the newsletter with another mini-rant. This article by Sam Lefebvre is a perfect example of developers doing it wrong: 'They're Walking All Over Us': Construction Disrupts Artists with Disabilities in Oakland.
We all know that construction projects are going to be inconvenient due to all the noise, dust, etc, but developers should be doing their best to minimize impacts on neighbors. Unfortunately, Creative Growth – a great organization that works with artists who have disabilities – has been suffering all kinds of problems due to Trammell Crow Residential’s construction of a new apartment building in Uptown. According to Sam’s article, the developer has “damaged [Creative Growth’s] building, caused interior flooding, disrupted public programming and reduced accessibility for disabled clients.”
Creative Growth has been in this neighborhood for about four decades and they don’t deserve to be disrespected by this Dallas-based real estate developer. Our mayor and city council need to start taking complaints like this seriously and holding developers accountable for bad behavior.
If you want to hear about the origins and many accomplishments of Creative Growth, check out this episode: “From garages to galleries in Uptown.” (And go check out their gallery, they have so much cool art!)
Upcoming events
I have a bunch of stuff coming up soon, so here’s a little roundup…
-I just added two more dates for my waterfront history boat tours: August 22 & 29. The first batch of tours sold out really fast, so if you want to join one of these trips, don’t wait too long to get tickets. Thanks to everyone who came on the tour already and helped spread the word about how much fun they’ve been – and to KQED for including my boat tours in their “Hot Summer Guide.” The transformation of Oakland's 9th Avenue Terminal is one of the many sites we check out... (Photo: Lois Elling)
-As part of the grand-opening celebration of West Oakland’s first new full-scale grocery store in decades, I’ll be giving a talk about Lew Hing, who was the king of Oakland’s canning industry back in the early 1900s. This 30-minute presentation will explore the intersections between food, immigration, and local history – and it’s part of the “Stories of West Oakland” series happening all day at Sol Gate studios, so there will be lots of other cool things happening, as well. Click here for the details. (free)
-I gave a talk about the history of Emeryville at Pixar’s headquarters a few weeks ago, but since that talk wasn’t open to the public I’m doing it again on June 17th at the Public Market. If you want to hear about the “rottenest city on the Pacific coast,” come check out this presentation that I’ll be doing with Rob Arias from The E’Ville Eye and the Emeryville Historical Society. Click here for details. (free)
-As part of this year’s lineup of Oakland Heritage Alliance events, I’m doing my “Long Lost Oakland” walking tour on July 21. This 2-hour event is a fundraiser for OHA, so you need to get tickets in advance if you want to join. OHA has organized a ton of other great tours, as well, so if you like to learn about history in the streets, check out the whole lineup. (And if you want a Long Lost Oakland map, you can get one at Wolfman Books, 410 13th St).
-I’m also doing a Long Lost Oakland tour for my Patreon fans on June 29. The free tickets are already gone, but I’ll do another one in a few months, so if you want to attend, please become a supporter. Every dollar helps keep the podcast alive.
New episodes
If you haven’t been keeping up with the podcast, I’ve put out a bunch of episodes recently, including:
-An episode all about Lake Merritt featuring interviews with Constance Taylor of California Center for Natural History and C.J. Hirschfield of Children’s Fairyland. (Thanks to Rusty Blazenhoff for giving this episode a shoutout on Boing Boing).
-An episode about the 50th anniversary of People’s Park featuring Quirky Berkeley’s Tom Dalzell, who just published “The Battle for People’s Park” with one of my favorite local publishers, Heyday Books. (And if you want to see more about what led to this tragic conflict, check out Tom’s deep dive into 1960s history on Berkeleyside. Also, the Berkeley Historical Society has an exhibit up right now all about People’s Park that’s definitely worth checking out.)
-My very first podcast recorded in front of a live audience, featuring Jenny Odell, author of the fantastic new book “How to Do Nothing.” (Big thank you to Wolfman Books for hosting and Katie McMurran for recording this conversation)
-PS: Yes, there will be more episodes in the Canyon miniseries – I promise!
More East Bay Yesterday news
-The New York Times published a big feature on the Warriors’ departure and they included my quote about how the Dubs aren’t really “Oakland’s team” anymore.
-The Washington Post included some of my thoughts about Oakland’s long history of dysfunctional governance in this article about how the tragic Ghost Ship fire is “putting the soul of the city on trial.”
-I’m looking for sources for a few upcoming projects. Please reach out to me (eastbayyesterday [at] gmail) if you...
-know anybody who immigrated to the East Bay after being impacted by U.S. napalm attacks in Vietnam
-know anybody who worked on Sun Ra’s film “Space is the Place”; or
-know anybody who saw an armored car flip over and spill money all over West Oakland back in 1997.
In other news…
-I always wondered where all the wild turkeys in the East Bay hills came from. Thanks to the Bay Curious podcast, now I know: “Wild Turkeys: Strutting Around Your Suburbs, But Why?”
-Philippine-born singer/songwriter Aireene Espiritu will be performing a free Sugar Pie DeSanto tribute show at Yerba Buena Gardens on July 6. My interview with Sugar Pie one of my favorite episodes, so I can’t wait to see this show.
-The Black-Crowned Night-Heron is now the official bird of Oakland. I want to get a Night-Heron as my next tattoo, so if anybody out there is an artist and has some ideas for a cool design, hit me up.
-Finally, in honor of the Warriors’ last NBA finals in Oakland, here’s a flashback to one of my favorite murals. The Illuminaries painted this one at the corner of 27th and Northgate during the Dubs’ first trip to the championship. Sadly, it’s long gone…
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Liam
PS: Don't forget to support East Bay Yesterday if you can afford to kick down a few bucks per month. I wouldn't be able to do this without your help.