Here are a few of my favorites. (Note that besides being great cafes to enjoy with friends or colleagues, all of these places also offer free wi-fi so they’re great places to work too.)

Awaken Cafe - 1429 Broadway at 15th

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I’ve long been a fan of Awaken Cafe. Awaken used to be located on 14th Street, just a block and a half from the office I worked at for many years so I often stopped in for a chai, coffee, or tea. I was so sad when they closed and were forced to move but was excited when they reopened last year on Broadway at 15th, a half block away from my current office.

Right now they’re operating as a coffee cart out of OAKOLLECTIV, Monday-Friday from 7:30am-noon, offering their full array of caffeinated beverages and pastries. But in February they’ll be opening up in their permanent home at 1429 Broadway. Here’s how they describe the future space:

The full 2000 sq ft cafe will add plenty of seating (indoor and outdoor), beer and wine, organic ice-cream, longer hours, an expanded home brew and retail area, additional creative food items, awesome events, cool performances and more.

There is a LOT to be excited about in that description, but, despite the current cold weather, what I’m most excited about is the organic ice cream. Every summer I lament that there’s no great ice cream in downtown Oakland, especially as multiple delicious ice cream and gelato spots have opened throughout North Oakland. There’s a huge market for ice cream downtown, yet no one has stepped up to serve it. This summer I was tweeting back and forth with a bunch of people, all of us complaining about the lack of ice cream downtown when I realized that Awaken would be a perfect place to offer it. Luckily, they had already planned to.

But until the summer arrives, you should still stop in for their warming beverages. My favorite drink is the chai, which I think is easily the best chai in Oakland. Chais at other places are often cloyingly sweet, but not so at Awaken.

Farley’s East - 33 Grand Avenue, between Broadway & Webster

If you’re looking for somewhere to caffeinate, eat a meal, have a meeting, work online, or grab a beer, Farley’s is your place. It’s one of the larger cafes in downtown Oakland, offering plenty of seating downstairs and upstairs. Farley’s is very community oriented, participating in PARKing day every year and holding monthly mixer/fundraisers for local nonprofit organizations.

Though it can get a bit crowded and noisy, I’ve found it’s the perfect place for small morning meetings or evening meetings on the nights that they’re open later. Not only is it great for meetings because there’s enough room, but also because they have a pretty large food menu. Meetings full of hungry people are not so enjoyable.

But maybe you just want to enjoy your latte alone – Farley’s is good for that too. Many people set up with their laptops, but if you want to pull yourself away from your computer for a while, they sell a huge selection of magazines so you’re sure to be able to find something to read. If you’re looking for a non-coffee option while you read or type away, try the lychee tea, which I probably would drink daily if it was on my (very full) tea shelf at home.

Caffe Teatro - 300 Frank Ogawa Plaza off 15th

Since Awaken Cafe won’t offer seating until February, I’ve come to enjoy meeting people at Cafe Teatro. There’s plenty of seating inside and out, including chairs and couches. The staff at Teatro are super friendly and the service is quick so it’s also a great place to grab some tea or coffee on the go.

Somehow I only recently noticed that Teatro serves sandwiches, soups and salads, and though I’ve yet to eat lunch there, I’ve heard the food is good.

The one downside of Teatro is their limited hours – they’re only open until 4pm on weekdays and not at all on weekends.

Zaya Cafe - 1768 Broadway at 19th Street

Zaya is a place I might never have stopped into, except that it was right next door to the Prop 19 campaign office so I often stopped their for tea or coffee before going to meetings at the office when I worked on the campaign. I’m so glad I happened upon it because it offers something that no other cafe I know of downtown does – quiet. Though there’s plenty of space to sit at the back of the cafe, including comfortable couches and armchairs, most people grab their drinks and food and go so I’ve rarely seen it crowded there. This makes it perfect for a one on one meeting or for getting some serious work done.

Zaya has the basic cafe breakfast food items, but not much lunchy food. One thing I love though is that they have smoothies, which were so refreshing on hot days during campaign season.

What’s your favorite downtown cafe?

This list is by no means exhaustive, and I’d love to hear about more cafes, especially in other downtown neighborhoods so please share in the comments. I would also be happy to take more requests for what I should cover next in this series.

In the scheme of things, I’m a relative newcomer to the food fights in the mobile food landscape. City staff and some local food truck operators have been pushing for a new kinder, gentler mobile food policy for almost 2 1/2 years.

Last spring Ed Manase and staff from Planning got push back from the City committee called Committee for Community Economic Development to reach out more to stakeholders and naysayers. He had tried to push through a comprehensive policy for the whole city, which makes sense, except in Oakland since Desley Brooks and Larry Reid don’t want mobile food in their districts. Which is a shame as the poorest parts of Oakland are the ones that perhaps stand to benefit the most as food trucks are a great incubator for food entrepreneurs who can develop a loyal clientele without investing in a brick and mortar restaurant. I predict that whoever replaces Larry Reid next November will realize the lost opportunity and get onboard.

So now while Ed Manase and staff work on a comprehensive policy to hopefully be adopted by the Council by March, Councilmembers Kaplan and Brunner have worked with some of us in the community to put forward an interim food pod policy that will be good until January 2013.

A group of us that included Shelly Garza from Rising Sun Enterprises, Zak Zimmerman from Doc’s of the Bay, Matt Cohen from Off the Grid, Jenya from Vesta Flatbreads and Gail from Liba met with City staff and worked out the wording that I think is workable. Pod organizers can hold no more than 2 group sites at any one time and the cost of each site will be around $620 plus additional permit costs if the pod is in the public right of way (partially closing down a street). Food pods must be located 100 feet away from brick and mortar restaurants unless written consent from the restaurant is obtained.

I’m excited about the possibility of 5-8 new pods in Oakland throughout the City in 2013. I plan to apply for continuing the pod called Bites Off Broadway in front of Studio One on Friday nights plus a new one in the Uptown at Snow Park on Tuesday or Thursday evenings from mid May-mid October. I hope someone else will also apply for a lunchtime pod at Snow Park as having a day and nighttime presence will help all our efforts. I think another prime location could be the pocket park and soon to be constructed sculpture garden at 19th and Telegraph near the Fox Theater. Oakland County workers would like more food choices near their building as well. As a long term solution, I would love to see a mobile fleet selling healthy affordable food outside Oakland Tech where I watch lots of kids waddle over to fast food restaurants everyday.

San Francisco and Emeryville have been way ahead of Oakland in terms of embracing the employment, culture and money to the City that food trucks can provide. But now we have a chance to make up for lost time. After being in the middle of the mobile food fights with police even closing down Bites Off Broadway one night, I’m ready to get legit.

Chow Down in Downtown: Show Up, Eat Up, Speak Out

An interim mobile food pod policy comes before the Oakland City Council on this Tuesday, Dec 6th, at 7pm at City Hall in the Council Chambers on the 2nd Floor. We need your help in the following ways:

• Come and have lunch at our media event, Tues, Dec 6th 11:30-2pm at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Breads of India, El Tacobike and Doc’s of the Bay will be serving up the gourmet offerings.
• Show up and speak out for the interim policy by filling out a speaker card in advance. Title of legislation. Sign up to speak and reference agenda item 9.7
• Email or call your council members from and let them know you support the interim policy for pods like Bites Off Broadway and more throughout Oakland. Here is the contact info for the Council:

Rebecca Kaplan, At-Large
RKaplan@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7008

Council President Jane Brunner, District 1
JBrunner@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7001

Patricia Kernighan, District 2
PKernighan@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7002

Nancy Nadel, District 3
NNadel@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7003

Libby Schaaf, District 4
LSchaaf@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7004

Ignacio De La Fuente, District 5
IDeLaFuente@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7005

Desley Brooks, District 6
DBrooks@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7006

Larry Reid, District 7
LReid@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7007

When most plants start yellowing in our garden, it’s very sad and I try to figure out how to save them. But when potato plants turn yellow, I get very excited and watch eagerly as the plants start to die. A couple of weekends ago, the plants looked terrible and were very close to being entirely dead. Since there was a break in the rain, I decided to harvest.

Growing potatoes is extremely easy and not very time consuming. It just involves sprouting potatoes, cutting them up, planting, and covering them with some dirt. Once the plants start to sprout, add more sprouted potatoes and cover with dirt again. Do the same thing until the pot is entirely full and there will be plenty of potatoes to harvest in a few months.

The most time consuming part of growing potatoes is harvesting, but it’s also quite fun. I dug off a layer of dirt and when I saw the first potato, I searched around for more. I repeated this process again and again until I reached the bottom of the giant pot.

I underestimated the size of my harvest so by the end of my treasure hunt, my basket was overflowing:

Overflowing and dirty, so I spent a fair amount of time washing them off and then allowed them to air dry on a paper towel for a couple of hours.

It’s important to dry them entirely before storing and then to store them in a cool, dry place. (The best place to store them is in a box of sand, but since I don’t have that, I just stored them in a box out of the way of sunlight.)

Last week we got to taste our delicious harvest, when my wife made potatoes with garden rosemary for breakfast. Since we don’t have chickens (one day!) we used eggs from the farmers market. It was a delicious breakfast.

Now the giant potato pot is sitting empty and looks very sad every time I pass it in the garden, but soon it will be full again as I’ve been working on sprouting potatoes for the last several weeks. And by working I mean just leaving the potatoes out and allowing them to sprout.

I checked on them this morning (this photo was taken a couple of weeks ago) and it looks like at least some of them should be ready to plant in a week. So I’ll start the entire cycle over again.

Next time you mistakenly sprout potatoes (it happens to everyone), think about sticking them in the ground. I promise it will be well worth it.

I’ve been gardening for several years now. First at my wife’s parents house, in their huge back yard (we built many raised beds and a chicken coop – it was a huge undertaking). Then on our apartment’s balcony. And a year and a few months ago we moved our container garden to our new home, with much more space, and we added several larger containers.

But over all of those years, gardening was just another thing I did – something I enjoyed and that kept me busy and sometimes distracted. I can’t explain what happened to me this spring, but something changed and gardening is now a way of life for me. It’s integral to my daily, weekly, and monthly routines.

Whatever happened, I couldn’t be happier about it, and neither could my garden. Caring for it several hours a week has paid off. We haven’t bought lettuce in months. We probably bought about half the tomatoes this summer as we usually do. As of a couple of weeks ago, our radish harvest has become so abundant and regular that we’ll probably never have to buy radishes again (and we eat a lot of radishes). And whenever I’m low on produce, I just go outside and pick some. It’s pretty phenomenal.

With this week of heat, our summer fruits are very happy. These tomatoes have finally started to ripen (I’ll get to pick them this weekend!):

The new fig tree, lemon tree, and raspberry plant that I purchased a couple of months ago are showing signs of producing edible fruits within a few weeks:

(Yes, that is a bunch of lettuce growing in the same container as the Meyer lemon tree – since lettuce has shallow roots and likes shade, they are quite happy together.)

But I know that very soon, the summer plants will either die back or go into hibernation for the winter, and I’m determined to not repeat what happened last year when I neglected our garden entirely for several months in the winter.

So I did the only sensible thing – bought more containers, filled those with onions and beets – and realized we still didn’t have enough growing space for all of the fall and winter vegetables I wanted to plant. What we did have was a shelving unit that we nearly got rid of (it’s ugly and huge, but served us well for the past year as we gathered enough furniture to furnish our much larger home).

But as we dissembled the shelves and they sat on their sides in our living room, I realized that they would make perfect planter boxes and would be much deeper than most of the containers we have. And after my wife and I drilled some holes in the bottom and added a wood plank to each of their sides to cover up a large hole, that’s exactly what we used them for.

It was easy. We turned them upside down and drilled some holes for drainage:

Flipping it back over, it was ready to go:

So I put in a layer of wood chips (I have no idea if this will work, but I hope it will help with drainage and at least for a while prevent dirt from getting lodged in the little holes):

And then I added in some dirt, a couple solar lights, and in this box, a bunch of turnip seeds:

The week before I took these photos, we planted the other three shelve-boxes, and sprouts had already come up in two of them. Radish sprouts, in the box filled with radish and carrot seeds and flowers:

And mustard greens and bok choy:

Not wanting to waste any of the shelving unit, we turned the top of it upside down to make a lettuce planter box:

It might seem like I’m set for my winter garden, but there’s still a ton to do if I want to  avoid a repeat of last year. This set of radishes are nearly ready for harvest (and I need to harvest some soon to make way for the carrots growing with them):

I’m thrilled that the potato plants are finally yellowing and dying because that is the best time to pick potatoes (they last longer when you pick them at this time). So we’ve already begun to sprout potatoes to get them ready to plant here:

And if I want actual beets, and not just beet greens, I’ll probably need to thin them out (the four larger greens on the edges are chard starters, the beets were from seed):

After all of this prep, and harvesting summer fruits, there won’t be as much to do for a while, especially when rain takes over my watering job. And I have to admit, I’m a bit sad thinking that I won’t have to spend hours in the garden every week, as it’s become something I look forward to. That’s ok though – I’ll use some of that extra time to plan our spring and summer garden and to somehow figure out how I’m going to fit ten tomato plants into our relatively small space.

If you’ve thought about starting a winter garden, now’s the time to do it. Though summer plants might seem more enticing, winter in the Bay Area is the easiest time to garden. The rain does half the work and winter vegetables are just easier to grow and need less care. So find yourself some shelves or containers of any kind lying around your house, drill some holes, and get started. This heat won’t last forever and it’s perfect for starting seeds or bringing starters to their new home.

Past posts on our garden:

• 6/7/11: May showers bring June flowers in our garden
• 2/9/11: Harvest from my neglected garden
• 10/14/10: Our new garden

When I started Bites on Broadway last June, I wrote a pretty optimistic blog as it seemed pretty straight forward. We had permission from the Oakland Unified School District  to use the Oakland Tech Plaza for a weekly food pod event, I had a partner in the venture and we had plenty of food trucks lining up to participate.

What a difference a month makes. The risk manager for OUSD ended up denying our permit to use the plaza because of “liability issues” and I got an email from their legal counsel noting that I was engaged in “criminal activity” by trespassing on their lawn. Trespassing in this case means folks sitting to eat their pulled pork sandwich. I kept the event going because I believe that neighbors should be able to enjoy the public lawn that we pay for through taxes and that in fact the connection between Oakland Tech and the community was a positive thing.Next a neighbor filed a complaint that I didn’t have permits which I had not gotten because there was no official permit to pull. To the City’s credit, Arturo Sanchez, an assistant to the City Manager met with me and Pete Espinoza from Special Events for the Oakland police. We worked out a deal whereby I get a weekly special event permit for $100 in order to have the trucks permitted. Did I mention that OPD shut us down one Friday at 7pm even though I had the meeting with OPD and the City set up for the following week?

Last week I got permission from Studio One to set up Bites Off Broadway in front of Studio One at 365 45th St and I hope this will be our permanent home until we can convince OUSD that it is in their best interest to let us use the underutilized plaza with its lovely architecture. I am grateful to all my neighbors who have been consistent supporters by showing up each week and encouraging me to hang in there when the going got rough. The food truck vendors have been super supportive as well. I am happy with the diversity and quality of food they have been serving. Vendors who have come include Tina’s Tamales, El Tacobike, Go Streatery, Breads of India, Doc’s of the Bay, Nick Wheely Breakfast Truck, Cholita Linda, Grilled CheezeGuy, Heaven in a Cup, Fist of Flour, 51st State, Jon’s Street Eats and Boffo Cart.

The press has also been generally positive including Chip Johnson’s column this week (link here) and my favorite, an illustrated review in the Bay Citizen. This was his description of the crowd:

And it looked like Oakland: families of all races and sexual orientations with babys in Bjorns or SUV-style baby carriages, hippies, college kids in flip flops, a few shirtless weirdos and Pixar-ish looking creative-class types.

Maudel Lim from Shia Productions has been releasing short videos on numerous vendors like this one:

For me the event has always been as much about the community as the food, and the food, is well, pretty amazing. Each week I try something new from the trucks I rotate in and out. Last week’s ox-tail over grits from Go Streatery was scrumptious and I don’t use that word often. The Mexican hot chocolate from El Tacobike was perfect for the Bay Area summer night. Also every week we will have a hula hooper at the Studio One location and hopefully live music.

As folks may not know, the food pod policy is contentious among City Council members with Larry Reid and Desley Brooks speaking out against while Ignacio de la Fuente, Jane Brunner and others support it. The proposed policy will come to the Council for a vote someday and I hope Bites On Broadway has shown that food trucks are good for our neighborhoods: they employ folks, bring food culture into food deserts and add to the quality of life that is the beauty of Oakland.

Here are the details on this weekly event:

UPDATE: The Awaken Cafe cart opens tomorrow, Friday, July 15th!

Awaken Cafe has always been one of my favorite Oakland cafes so when they closed about a year ago, I was super sad. Since then I’ve missed their absolutely delicious chai, foam art, and friendly staff. I’ve tried out many cafes downtown and now have a few I rotate between, but none of them have filled Awaken’s spot for me.

I’ve been closely watching their new space on Broadway at 15th for the past few months, watching for signs of progress and telling everybody I walked by with that someday Awaken would reopen there.

So you can imagine how excited I was yesterday when on my way back to work from lunch I saw this sign:

I’m so glad they’re moving forward with the coffee cart while they work on the full build out, and since it’s July, they must be opening any day (or maybe they are already open?). I’ll stop by this morning to find out. UPDATE: I went by this morning and they’re not open yet.

If you’re an Awaken fan, stop by their new spot at Broadway and 15th some morning soon to support them, as I’m sure they could use some funds to help the full build out.

I’m a big fan of street fairs and festivals. I love seeing normally car-jammed streets filled with pedestrians. I love having so many different food vendors and other small business vendors crammed together and so convenient. I love running into Oaklanders from the neighborhood and beyond.

The Temescal Street Fair is special to me though because for five years it was my neighborhood street fair and had to substitute for my neighborhood block party, since living on Telegraph, it’s not so easy to set up a block party.

This year, the fair has a similar structure to past year’s events, except for one awesome addition – the Oaklandish County Fair. But this isn’t your regular county fair. Instead of farm animals and pie eating contests, they’ll have pop-up soccer, bike dances, wrestling, a photo booth, and much more.

Via Oaklandish’s blog, here’s what they have planned:

ANTICS & ACTIVITIES:

Pop-up soccer goal and games by My Yute Soccer
Videos and interviews by Youth Radio
Oakland Local’s ”Love Letter to Oakland” roadshow kickoff
Hand-written haikus by Mario
Oaklandish flag painting with Art Murmur
Live Art by Jonathon Holt and Alexander Riddle
Photo booth (with stunning Oakland scenery) hosted by ODALC
Hair feathers by Seven Salon

ATTRACTIONS:

Spotlight on the 2011 Oakland Innovator Winners
Bike dances by the Bay Area Derailleurs
Poetry and hip-hop performances by Youth Radio, hosted by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Wrestling antics by Hoodslam
Flag poi spinning by Marielle & friends

BEATS:

Dion Decibels
Dum Spiro Spero
Rafael Casal
Jaylen Green Project

Sounds fun, huh?

If you want to check out the Oaklandish County Fair and the rest of the Temescal Street Fair, here are the details:

When: Sunday, July 10, 12-6 PM
Where: Telegraph Avenue between 45th and 51st, North Oakland
More info: See the full fair lineup on the event website.

How to get there:

• Valet bike parking by East Bay Bike Coalition
• AC Transit lines 1, 12, 18, 51, 57
• 8 blocks from MacArthur BART
• If you must drive, carpool and plan to park several blocks away

A couple of months ago my wife and I planted a new round of crops – lots of lettuce, pole beans, onions and later on four beautiful tomato plants and a pepper plant. A week or so ago, we added more lettuce and two alpine strawberry plants.

Though I’m thoroughly thrown off by rain in May and June, our plants absolutely love it. Well, all the plants except the pole beans. They were growing well and blossoming, but the rain over the past couple of weeks has beaten down the flowers. This weekend I managed to get a photo of a blossom that still looked ok, but when I checked it out yesterday, it did not look nearly this happy.

But the sad looking bean flowers are a small price to pay for the happiness of everything else in the garden. Even the tomatoes haven’t minded the rain, since it has alternated with very sunny days. All of the plants are covered with blossoms and the largest plant has a couple dozen unripe tomatoes growing on it already.

I spent a long time picking weeds in the one patch of dirt in our garden, and am still trying to figure out what to plant there (probably another round of flowers). But there are some weeds I don’t mind, like the clover filling the pepper pot and the dandelion growing with our herbs.

Speaking of weeds, though I harvested the vast majority of potatoes back in February and have done nothing to the seemingly empty bucket of dirt since then, it is again filled with potato plants. I’ll have to dig them up soon and plant another crop.

Though the whole garden is looking great, the lettuce is the clear star of the garden. It’s doing so well that it inspired us to plant some more baby lettuce. After taking this photo I harvested some of the lettuce and my wife and I ate some of it plain that evening, munching away as we talked about how delicious it was. Once the weather warms up, I have a feeling we’ll be eating a lot of salad.

We’re not the only ones enjoying the lettuce though. As you can tell from this close up, slugs have been munching away. I killed several this weekend, but we’re going to need to use the beer trick to get rid of many more.

The garden looking so great inspired me to plant even more this weekend. I chopped down some broccoli plants that were not doing well and planted some carrot, onion, and beet seeds.

Our garden might also have inspired our upstairs neighbors, who joined in on the action with some herbs, tomatoes and flowers.

Now that the rain might be done for the season, I’ll have to pay more attention to the garden, but judging by how good everything looks right now, I have a feeling it will be worth it.

Bites on Broadway is my latest attempt to actually do something about the blight I experience everyday along Broadway, especially between 49th and up to College Avenue. I am an events organizer so it seems natural that the idea of a local homegrown mobile food meetup combined with urban games would excite my interest.

I teamed up with Guerrilla Grub co-owner Elizabeth August whose healthy California comfort food I relish. We come out of the same mold as community organizers. First, identify the issue: lack of healthy affordable food, especially around 45th and Broadway, where fast food is king. Broadway, a main thoroughfare in Oakland that has become the ugly step child of Telegraph, College and Piedmont Avenues, a boulevard no one in the City seems to even remotely pay attention to, except for the few tried and true businesses like Art Tile and Bay Appliances and newbies like Oakland Karate and New Style Motherlode, opening a much needed dance studio once all the City permits are navigated.

Bites on Broadway is the kind of food event I want to attend, 5-6 food carts with a diversity of offerings that make for a nice sampling with the newest and freshest food carts, Oakland Grown. A family of 3 can eat for less than $20 and at the same time meet and greet their neighbors, and play some urban games organized by Oaklandish on the 2nd Friday of the month. In short, we are throwing an urban block party but only the food vendors have to do he cooking and cleaning.

Street food, the staple of my travels in Latin America, is making a strong showing in the foodie Bay Area. Witness the success of the Eat Real Festival  or Off the Grid who recently kicked off a food pod in Berkeley’s gourmet ghetto on Wednesday nights. At Bites on Broadway, our discriminating taste buds will be delighted with El Tacobike, Guerrila Grub, 51st State, Sue’s Sassy Pies, GoStreeteary and Fists of Flour kicking it off on June 10th.

The range of food will be family fare using the freshest ingredients including pulled pork sandwiches, wood-fired pizza, tacos, tortas, tamales, savory pies, mac and cheese plus fresh juices such as agua frescas and lemonades. Rotating food carts for the first month include those of Vesta Flatbreads, Tina’s Tamales, Boffo and The GrilledCheeze Guy.

Wow, I’m getting hungry just writing about it.

Here are the details on this weekly event:

The Oakland Food Policy Council has identified support for and expansion of urban agriculture (UA) through local policy and coordination as one of our top goals.

Broadly, UA encompasses the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, plants, flowers or herbs, and/or raising animals and livestock in cities. Oakland is already home to a thriving community of urban farmers and gardeners who contribute to our city’s culture, health, environment, and economic vitality.

However, our planning process identified a number of areas where Oakland residents could benefit from clearer, updated, and streamlined local policies related to urban agriculture – especially in our zoning code.

The widely publicized case of Ghost Town Farm, which was recently cited for lack of compliance with Oakland’s current zoning codes, highlights the need for an open dialogue about what sort of regulatory framework for UA activities we want to have here in Oakland. We would like to use this opportunity to generate public discussion about policy barriers and opportunities related to UA and to continue to urge the City to expedite the revision of existing zoning that in some cases hinders UA in Oakland. Most important, we are interested in promoting a positive and productive dialogue where our policymakers, city staff, and residents can work together to chart a course for the future of UA.

We have put together a “Statement on Urban Agriculture,” and we invite you to read it and add your signature!

You can find the full text of the Statement below. Follow this link to sign on.

Please help circulate this to your networks – the time is ripe to craft regulations that protect and expand UA, while ensuring that it will consistently be practiced in ways that are compatible with surrounding uses. The OFPC has already compiled suggested zoning code language (including a matrix of zones and UA activities) which we have shared with the City of Oakland Planning & Zoning Department, and we encourage you to contact your City Councilmember to encourage them to support these important policy changes.

Click here to add your signature!

*********************************************

Statement on Urban Agriculture
April 2011

The Oakland Food Policy Council has identified support for and expansion of urban agriculture (UA) through local policy and coordination as one of our top goals.

Broadly, UA encompasses the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, plants, flowers or herbs, and/or raising animals and livestock in cities. Oakland is already home to a thriving community of urban farmers and gardeners who contribute to our city’s culture, health, environment, and economic vitality.

However, our planning process identified a number of areas where Oakland residents could benefit from clearer, updated, and streamlined local policies related to urban agriculture – especially in our zoning code. The widely publicized case of Ghost Town Farm, which was recently cited for lack of compliance with Oakland’s current zoning codes, highlights the need for an open dialogue about what sort of regulatory framework for UA activities we want to have here in Oakland. We would like to use this opportunity to generate public discussion about policy barriers and opportunities related to UA and to continue to urge the City to expedite the revision of existing zoning that in some cases hinders UA in Oakland. Most important, we are interested in promoting a positive and productive dialogue where our policymakers, city staff, and residents can work together to chart a course for the future of UA.

We have identified two priority areas where we recommend policy changes:

1. Update zoning for UA to include a broader and more diverse range of food growing practices.  Under the most recent citywide zoning update that is about to take effect, “Crop and Animal Raising Agricultural Activities” are allowed in all residential and commercial zoning districts with a Conditional Use Permit (CUP). The OFPC is working with the Planning Department to draft new UA definitions and amend the UA sections of the Zoning code in order to both clarify and streamline how different types of UA activities are regulated. Instead of one blanket policy that applies to all kinds of UA regardless of scale or intensity of activities, we are proposing definitions (and appropriate operating standards) for three types of UA that will help determine where UA can be practiced in Oakland:

- Residential UA is any form of plant and animal raising activity on a private residential property by an individual or family with the primary purpose of household consumption (regarding sales of Residential UA surplus, see the next point below). We propose that residential gardens be allowed as-of-right (with no additional permits or fees required) in all residential zones.

- Civic UA must be organized and operated by a Community Group, which may include local civic associations, public agencies, non-profit agencies, gardening clubs, homeowners associations, or even a group formed for the purpose of establishing a garden. We propose that civic gardens be allowed in all residential zones, and in most commercial zones (it may be appropriate for some commercial areas, such as our downtown, to require a CUP).

- Commercial UA use is distinguished from Civic UA by the intensity of site cultivation, the size of the site cultivated, and the primary purpose of the site’s use, which is growing vegetables, plants, flowers or for sale (including for-profit and non-profit enterprises). We propose that commercial UA be permitted in Commercial and Industrial Zones, and in residential zones with a CUP.

We welcome comments from the public regarding these definitions and zoning regulations.

2. Update zoning for sales of raw agricultural products to allow for small-scale entrepreneurial activities. Currently, selling raw, unprocessed agricultural products such as produce is regulated by a number of different laws, including Oakland’s zoning code (briefly, where selling can take place) and by city business permitting and licensing (who is allowed to sell). Generally, commercial activity (like selling produce grown onsite) is not allowed under current code in residential zones.

The OFPC supports modifying our code to allow some sales of raw agricultural products in residential zones. Prohibiting produce sales in residential zones may limit both the healthy food access benefits of urban agriculture and the small-scale entrepreneurial opportunities that it provides to residents. A number of cities, such as San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA, Cleveland, OH, and Kansas City, MO have recently relaxed prohibitions on sales in residential areas and allowed gardeners to offer their bounty for-sale with appropriate operating standards in place.  Additionally, we recommend that any CUP process take into account size and scale of the UA operation (considering such issues as gross sales), and offer a tiered cost structure.

In addition to the priority policy recommendations above, there are several other areas where updated policies could benefit Oakland’s urban farmers and gardeners, including raising animals and livestock. For example, Seattle’s new urban agriculture zoning increased the number of chickens permitted per household and added other allowed animals, including potbelly pigs. The OFPC also strongly supports the integration of animals into urban food production systems because they provide products that can improve the diets of Oakland’s residents (e.g. fresh milk, honey, eggs, and meat). Some urban farmers collect wool and goat hair for cottage industries. Finally, manure is an important fertilizer source for sustainable, ecological food production that is not reliant on petroleum-based chemical fertilizers.

The time is ripe to craft regulations that protect and expand UA, while ensuring that it will consistently be practiced in ways that are compatible with surrounding uses. The OFPC has already compiled suggested zoning code language (including a matrix of zones and UA activities) which we have shared with the City of Oakland Planning & Zoning Department, and we encourage you to contact your City Councilmember to encourage them to support these important policy changes.

The OFPC is prepared to help facilitate this dialogue in any way needed. We, along with all those who have signed this letter, believe that the recommendations outlined above will make for a healthier, more vibrant Oakland.

Click here to add your signature.

TransForm – TransForming the Bay Area: The blog is new so it’s hard to know the scope, but judging by its name and TransForm’s mission, it is likely to cover transportation and land use issues in the Bay Area.

Ella Baker Center – Ella’s Voice: Ella’s Voice covers a wide range of issues that the Ella Baker Center works on – the environment, criminal justice, civil rights, and much more. I’ve been following the blog for a while and have enjoyed the mix of story telling, action alerts, and policy updates.

Oakland Urban Paths: This blog announces events Oakland Urban Paths hosts and provides updates on the organization’s work.

Walk Oakland Bike Oakland: The WOBO blog has been going strong for years now, but it appears to have been abandoned. I hope they start it up again soon!

Great Oakland Public Schools: The GO Public Schools blog is the place to find out about everything related to Oakland schools. This blog makes it easy to keep up with what the Oakland school board is doing and to find out how to get involved.

Oakland Food Policy Council: OFPC is a 21-seat council that studies the Oakland food system and makes recommendations to the City of Oakland on ways to make the system more equitable and sustainable. Their blog covers what the Council does but also discusses Oakland food policy more generally.

Americans for Safe Access – Medical Cannabis: Voices from the Frontlines: This is a blog I started, back when I worked at ASA (if you look through the archives you can find many posts from me). It covers local, state, and national medical cannabis issues from an activist perspective.

California League of Conservation Voters – Groundswell: This is the blog of the organization I currently work for so you can find posts from me there. We write about environmental policy issues, candidates, and elected officials, with a focus on California, but with a smattering of local and national posts.

Center for Environmental Health – Generation Green: Based in Oakland, CEH works to eliminate harmful chemicals from our lives. This blog provides tips on how to avoid dangerous chemicals, updates on policy, and more.

This list is not exhaustive so if you know of any other Oakland based organizations that have blogs, please let me know so I can add to this list. If there’s interest, I might make the list part of my blogroll or create a page with this list.

UPDATE – Addition via a comment:

Reconnecting America – Half-Mile Circles: “The Half-Mile Circles blog is a place to share information about recent research, innovations and other issues related to TOD and livable communities. We also invite experts to talk about their work.”

While the Bay Area was abuzz about the snowfall that wasn’t a few weeks ago, the fresh produce that the Alameda County Community Food Bank relies on was freezing in the fields. We were two truckloads short of food last week (that’s 80,000 pounds), and the impact of the freeze on newly planted crops will be felt well into the summer months.

We won’t see broccoli, cauliflower and sweet potatoes for a month … maybe not until summer. Other staples, like apples, corn and peppers, will cost us 60 to 70 percent more. That adds up to about $10,000 per month in additional expense for the Food Bank –- for far less fresh food.

You can help us bridge the gap by donating to the Frost Bite Fund today.

Yesterday, I received the following message that the Food Bank asked me to post:

You met the Winter Challenge!

You are part of a caring and compassionate community that met and surpassed the Winter Challenge, raising $51,126 — nearly $500 from Living in the O readers alone.

A generous donor matched every dollar contributed, bringing the grand total to more than $100,000.

With an untimely frost stopping shipments of healthy staples like broccoli and cauliflower, and increasing prices for other items, this support is even more critical for the Food Bank.

Because we’re distributing more than 10 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables a year, these rising costs add up quickly. Your support of the Winter Challenge helps the Food Bank provide nourishment — and hope — to keep our community healthy.

Thank you for rising to the Winter Challenge!

To everyone who donated – thank you! It’s great that we helped the Food Bank reach its goal.

But the month is not over yet and it’s still important to give. I have to admit that I completely forgot to give after posting this initially, but there’s no sense in feeling guilty when I can give now instead.

So whether you can give $5 or $500, please donate today. Your donation will help our community meet its most basic needs.

While the Bay Area was abuzz about the snowfall that wasn’t a few weeks ago, the fresh produce that the Alameda County Community Food Bank relies on was freezing in the fields. We were two truckloads short of food last week (that’s 80,000 pounds), and the impact of the freeze on newly planted crops will be felt well into the summer months.

We won’t see broccoli, cauliflower and sweet potatoes for a month … maybe not until summer. Other staples, like apples, corn and peppers, will cost us 60 to 70 percent more. That adds up to about $10,000 per month in additional expense for the Food Bank –- for far less fresh food.

You can help us bridge the gap by donating to the Frost Bite Fund today.

The Food Bank has broken record levels of distribution every year – and in 2010, for the first time, more than half of the food that went out our doors was fresh fruits and vegetables.

While this is great news for the low-income families whose access to produce is limited, it means we are much more sensitive to weather events like the recent freeze. With less food available, the price of the foods we purchase will go up, and the surpluses we rely on will dwindle and perhaps disappear.

“We get most of our produce for pennies on the dollar,” said Ron Clark of the California Association of Food Banks, which administers the Farm to Family program. “An increase of a nickel per pound can add up quickly – when we’re trying to make those food dollars stretch as far as we can, this freeze is a huge hit.”

Food-drive donations simply can’t make up for this shortfall. Impacts are expected well into the summer months.

How can you help?

The Food Bank is fortunate that this frost came at the same time as our Winter Challenge. A generous donor has offered to match every donation up to $50,000 until March 31. With 23 days left in March, we have $20,000 still to go to meet that goal.

In 2009, the Blogoaksphere Virtual Food Drive brought in more than $2,500 for the Food Bank. We know that with your help, we can continue to distribute the foods needed most in low-income communities.

Please give to the Frost Bite Fund – your donation will go twice as far!

We knew we were in it for the long haul and this process could take years so when I saw this sign on a storefront just two blocks from our house back in October (in the midst of super stressful campaign season) I literally jumped up and down:

There are many places to get drinks near my house, all a relatively brief walk away. But the only restaurant or bar of any kind within 5 blocks of my house is the Drunken Fish sushi restaurant. It’s an excellent restaurant and we eat there a lot, but we’ve been hoping for a new spot to open that we could walk to within a couple minutes. This bar or whatever it was going to be, no matter how great or mediocre, would fulfill this desire.

Every time I passed 30th and Broadway, I checked to see if any progress had been made, but in November and December it still looked the same:

In January real progress was being made. The paper and graffiti came off the windows, construction was going on inside, and lights were put up. I started asking friends who work for the City if they knew anything about the time line but nobody knew when they would open. I looked online to see if there was a website or Yelp page, but found nothing.

In early February (or maybe late January?), they put their sign up, and I felt both excited and annoyed. Excited because it was clear they’d be open soon, annoyed because of the total lack of creativity of their name:

Are restaurant and bar owners so uncreative that they can’t come up with names for their businesses? 2022, Bar 355, and now 3000 Broadway. Ugh, I hope this trend ends soon.

But even though the name annoyed me, I still checked in almost daily on their progress, soon seeing bottles behind the bar and workers milling about inside. I checked again with friends at the City – still, no word on the opening date.

Yesterday, on my way back from Rockridge I hopped off the bus and saw someone walk in to 3000 Broadway. I then noticed an open sign. This time I didn’t jump up and down, but I was very excited. I needed to get home so I didn’t go inside but I’ll be sure to check it out this week. Finally, another super local place to grab a drink and a bite to eat. Plus, evidence that Broadway will continue to develop on its own, whether the specific plan moves ahead or not.

I probably harvested again haphazardly at least once more before the end of the campaign season, and I think I recall planting some seeds – more radishes, carrots, and some mixed greens (kale, chard, collards, etc.). But then it was the end of campaign season, and after that we went on our honeymoon to Hawaii, and then it was Thanksgiving (the first we’d ever hosted at our home), and December flew by.

So somehow we managed to basically forget about our garden for nearly three months. We never watered (not necessary with the steady rainfall and general moisture in our neighborhood due to the creek), we didn’t plant anything new, and we didn’t pull any weeds. After a while, I was kind of scared to look. I went outside periodically to grab some herbs for dinner, but it was always dark and I tried not to look around too much.

Finally, a couple of weekends ago, on a cold but sunny Saturday, I decided to face the garden. Maybe it was because I felt so good after going to the grand opening of the 81st Avenue Library, but whatever it was, I decided it was time to at least check in.

I was pleasantly surprised that some of our veg was still growing and very healthy. The dead tomato plant had completely disintegrated, the pepper plant was dormant but still alive (peppers manage to be perennial in the East Bay), the radishes were still flourishing, some of the greens had grown, and some of the lettuce had survived.

I neglected the maintenance work and got to harvesting, since I didn’t have much time that day. I poked around the radishes and found one big enough to pull out. Sadly, just that one was ready (I think I need to seriously thin them in the future so there’s room to grow). Then I cut a bunch of collard greens. I made my way over to the lettuce, cut off all the flowers, and harvested a decent sized basket full.

I looked around for anything else worth harvesting and was about to go inside when the huge pot filled with dirt at the back of the garden called to me. To an observer, it would have looked like just a pot of dirt – there was absolutely nothing growing in it. But I knew better. I knew that for a couple of months we had planted potatoes, then covered the plants almost entirely with dirt, then planted another layer, and so on until the pot was filled and the plants were bursting over the edges. You’re supposed to wait until the plants yellow and start to die but that must have happened during our period of neglect.

Clearly, these potatoes were ready to be dug up. I started digging around with a trowel and my hands and soon started to find tiny potatoes that were smaller than dimes. A bit lower down the potatoes I found were dime sized, then nickel sized, and then quarter sized. I knew that the deeper I went, the bigger the potatoes would get, but it was hard work because the soil was packed fairly tight, I didn’t have a shovel, and it’s difficult to see the potatoes unless you look very carefully (and even then, you’ll surely miss some). At this point, I was rushing, as I had a little over an hour until I needed to be showered, dressed and ready for a gala so I left the pot half full, planning to come back to it some day in the future.

Harvesting made me want to spend more time in the garden – it seems only right since it provides for me even when I neglect it – so I hope I’ll have time soon to weed and to plant our spring crops. Until then, I’ll continue to grab herbs and will go back to the pot of dirt to hunt for potato treasures again.