From the Editor

Oakland Makeover

    Like all major metropolitan cities, Oakland faces its share of challenges, but it’s a great place to live, and its landscape is changing dramatically because hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in new construction projects. It’s an exciting time for Oakland, which faces an opportunity to reinvent itself somewhat in terms of its image, neighborhoods and cultural importance.
    In “10 Projects Reshape Oakland,” this issue’s cover story, Laura Counts, a former city hall reporter for the Oakland Tribune, examines some of the city’s major building projects, ones that will markedly alter what Oakland looks like when they’re finished. Nosing around the development scene, Counts explores port and military parcels, new office high-rise projects, Jerry Brown’s 10K housing initiative and more from one end of town to the other. Observing that all this activity is happening during a housing market crisis alongside a flagging economy, job losses and a dearth of major retail, Counts found a reassuring forecast from the Association of Bay Area Governments. ABAG projects that Oakland’s population will significantly grow by 2035, with new residents more likely choosing smaller households near their workplaces—the model that’s essentially being laid out now by the current trajectory of development.
    One of the major restoration projects she includes is that of the Fox Oakland Theater. While most Oaklanders will think of this historic theater as an exciting new performance venue booked by Another Planet Entertainment, it’s serving a dual purpose as home to the School for the Arts, the performing arts charter school that attracts students from all over. For her article, “Moving Day,” Keri Hayes Troutman visits with the school’s director and a few of the talented teens who are getting quite an education there. The school has been housed in a temporary tent structure, so the permanent move this fall is highly anticipated.
    Elsewhere in this month’s lineup, Elise Proulx, the shopping guru, instructs on how to incorporate a green mentality into the retail habit in “The Green Guide to Shopping,” and she leads another tour of Piedmont Avenue, this one to the toney northern end of the
posh avenue.
    And that’s not all: Hear the voices of the Vukani Mawethu Choir; meet Ralph Prado, an up-and-coming fashion designer; see what makes home decor genius P. Scott Silvera of Scout Staging and Scout Home Hardware tick; and sit down with the Berkeley Rep’s artistic director, Tony Taccone, for insight into the new season. Finally, a new hip Jack London Square newcomer, Mono Restaurant & Wine Bar, will have you out the door in no time for upscale bistro fare.
    With all that in the offerings, don’t waste another second—turn the page to get your fill of what’s up in Oakland.

Judith M. Gallman
judy@oaklandmagazine.com