Oaktown!

January 5, 2007 3:06 PM

At Organic City you can contribute your Oakland stories, or use their map to find stories around town. And if you're into Oakland history, check out Oakland Chinatown history, go on the Black Panther legacy tour, look at Oakland history in pictures, or Dorothea Lange's negatives, or check out a general view of Oakland history. Why should you care? Oakland is a microcosm of the world. Previously.
posted by serazin (13 comments total)

I guess. "The world" sort of is where you live if you can't afford San Francisco.

Sorry.

Great post.
posted by roll truck roll at 3:20 PM on January 5, 2007

I bet orgasmic city across the way has better stories.
posted by srboisvert at 3:29 PM on January 5, 2007

Don't forget about the cool dudes at Oaklandish. They're doing some really interesting stuff to celebrate all that is awesome about our fair city. And the Oakland Heritage Alliance usually has good tours of off-the-beaten track neighborhoods.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 3:40 PM on January 5, 2007

Oaklandish is great. I used to go to poetry shows there a lot. But then, for some reason, Oaklandish decided they didn't want them there anymore.
posted by roll truck roll at 3:42 PM on January 5, 2007

But I heard there's no there, there.
posted by hal9k at 4:46 PM on January 5, 2007

Hello. I live in Oakland. Turns out there's a there here. It's a large sculpture near the Oakland/Berkeley border on MLK, near the Ashby BART station. Can't find a photo right now, but it's a fun refutation of Gertrude Stein's out of context statement.

She said, "There's no there there" in her 1937 Everybody's Biography, and was referring to her childhood spent in Oakland. When she returned to the city after years spent away, she found her house and school and other places of memory were gone. She'd lost her spatial anchors, so for her, there wasn't a there. For most everyone I know, there's a tremendous identity and vitality tied up in Oakland, and in their reasons for loving living there.

I'm very fond of my city. In the year 2000 I made a website for it, and for the people that live in it: oaklog.com. We're a small, thriving community of friends and strangers, and most all of us either live in Oakland or have a connection to the place. We keep track of restaurants we eat at and books we read and beers we drink and we organize community events. Stop by if you care to and are friendly.
posted by mct at 5:11 PM on January 5, 2007

Sweet- organic city is not just about my town, it's about my 'hood. Over the holiday I had been searching for Oakland blogs, but I hadn't found that one. Thanks!
posted by oneirodynia at 5:53 PM on January 5, 2007

I walk by this building occasionally, and think of this photo. Seeing the picture itself nearly brings tears to my eyes.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:18 PM on January 5, 2007

Wow! Great to see this posted here. I went to grad school with the two creators. This project was part of their Masters thesis in Multimedia. I even have a story posted there.

BTW, it's THE, not A Organic City
posted by cccorlew at 9:46 PM on January 5, 2007

Thanks for the additional links Oaktown lovers!

And here's the "There/Here" sculpture.
posted by serazin at 11:03 PM on January 5, 2007

Wierd. I don't know what I did wrong. here is the link (I hope!)
posted by serazin at 11:04 PM on January 5, 2007

Nine miles and an entirely different weather pattern away. When San Francisco is swimming in pea soup fog, Oakland is usually sunny. Oakland is ranked number three in the U.S. for
best weather.
posted by thedailygrowl at 12:19 AM on January 6, 2007

I'm interested to see what the future of this sort of placemaking/placemapping web stuff is.
posted by Miko at 10:03 AM on January 6, 2007