While it never suffered the double-digit vacancy rates of other tony retail districts in the Bay Area, Rockridge lost more than a few businesses over the past two years. Now, a crop of new, and less pricey businesses are moving into empty storefronts.

With plenty of broad, flat streets, West Oakland is a fine place to ride a bike. But for years, the neighborhood has lacked a bicycle store. Bikes4Life, a non-profit near the West Oakland Bart, is filling that niche with a shop where folks can buy a used bike, and have their bike repaired.

Oakland Pride is a big part of who Oaklanders are. Here's a chance for you to channel yours -- The Indies are back and are looking for your nominations. And if you're creatively inclined, you could find yourself in the next show organized by Oakland's popular art collective, Rock Paper Scissors.  

A much awaited restaurant opens -- and Oakland's neighborhood stores give you a Christmas gift by staying open late.

Visit the basement of the Temescal branch library on a warm Saturday in early spring and you’ll see dozens of people wielding clippers, rakes, saws, drills, and other assorted implements. After nine years of operation, the Oakland Public Library’s free tool lending service is an institution. It’s as popular as Temescal’s famous purveyor of fried chicken sandwiches.

Oakland's cash-strapped City Council noticed.

It’s the shopping season, and you’re probably hearing messages from all sides about where to shop and what to shop for and how to shop. There are the big ads promising one sale after another at national chains, there are the neighborhood boutiques promising exquisite – and free – gift wrapping, there are all the museums pleading that you shop in their stores to show your support for their work, there are companies promising to give a portion of the proceeds from their sale to the World Wildlife Fund or some other noble cause that pulls at your heartstrings. And then, there’s the shop local campaign.

Winter's finally here as is the holiday shopping season. Why hit the big box retailers with their long lines when you can buy gifts made right here in Oakland by our many talented local artists and craftspeople? This December offers up many opportunities to shop locally in the town's art galleries. Here are my picks for the best -- and affordable -- art sales this December. 

If you use a computer, and you do because you’re reading this right now, there must have been times when you’ve struggled with a computer application. Perhaps you’d like to start a blog and don’t really know where to start. Maybe you’d like to customize a template for a newsletter, but don’t want to try and find someone on Craigslist for something so minor. And maybe you’re a freelancer and feel like working in a non-café environment once in a while.

Oakland's fashion scene has always had its own flavor. Some say it's fashion forward, others feel it isn't as hip as the city across the bridge. Whatever your take, what you choose to wear -- and in some cases, where you get it from -- tells others a lot about you. 

Even though there's talk of things turning around, people are still dealing with the economic meltdown we've witnessed for several months now. In the Bay Area where the cost of living is already high, it can be especially challenging to find ways to make your dollar stretch. For families with kids, it’s even tougher especially when more and more households are depending on a single income. Here are bargain buys and bites for Oaklanders who need to tighten up their wallets, but still want to enjoy life.

Until 1958, streetcars clicked and clanged over 66 miles of track in the East Bay. Ghosts of the vanished Key Routes remain hidden across Oakland for those interested in finding them. Inspired by the symbols used by the San Francisco, Oakland & San Jose Consolidated Railroad (the precursor to the Key System,) Key-Shirts demonstrate an Oakland pride that can't be pulled up and paved over. The Town is now arriving.

A panel discussion in the Fox Theater about retail development featuring the mayors of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and Emeryville Thursday afternoon seemed like a good opportunity to look at the building before it opens officially to the public on Friday, February 6 with a Social Distortion concert.

This might not seem like the best time to open a new boutique in Oakland, but it's often said that the strongest businesses are born in a recession.

Perhaps that's why Kimberly Walker and Kimberly Burroughs, friends and now co-owners of Kimistry boutique on Lakeshore, didn't shy away from launching their new business in September

When vandals started pounding on the locked door of her restaurant on 17th Street in downtown Oakland Wednesday night, Michelle Nguyen called Pho 84's night shift to the front window to demonstrate strength in numbers. The rioters trashed cars in front of the Vietnamese restaurant, but left Ms. Nguyen, her colleagues, and her customers alone. Pho 84 was lucky. The rioters went on to smash several storefronts on 17th Street including a dressmaker and a sandwich shop on the corner of Franklin Street.

I am happy to announce that Oakland Unwrapped! now includes over 100 places to shop with locally-owned independent Oakland businesses online.

For those of you who want to support Oakland when you shop, please consider supporting your locally-owned stores and artists, in the neighborhoods, at art galleries, and at shopping fairs.  And if you want to shop online..

As the mood shifts from worrying about the economy to worrying about finding cool (and affordable) gifts for the holidays, rest easy. You do not need to kill someone on your way into Walmart. Your local retailers have been busy coming up with some options for you.

Virginia Woolf wrote -- across the broad continent of a woman's life falls the shadow of a sword. On one side of that sword, she said, there lies convention and tradition and order, where “all is correct.” But on the other side of that sword, if you're crazy enough to cross it and choose a life that does not follow convention, “all is confusion. Nothing follows a regular course.” Her argument being, a path less taken will be sure to provide excitement, but at what cost?

It’s that time of the year again when everything seems to revolve around shopping. The ads scream “Sale!,” a certain kind of music starts playing in cafes and malls, and you feel like you need to go shopping to fit in.   

There’s no dearth of charming stores and boutiques in Oakland. You’ve already heard the pitch about why you need to shop locally, right?

The newest item of the day from Oakland Unwrapped: Show the world how you feel about plastic as you head out to the market.

It’s easy to miss Café Sidamo. It’s tucked away in a corner on Telegraph Avenue that doesn’t get much foot traffic. It isn’t downtown and it isn’t in Temescal. And if you’re driving, it’s so small that you would easily miss it if you weren’t looking for it.

I sometimes hear quirky stories that are actually true. It’s the nature of my family and friends to be entertaining. This is a story of a young boy from the “old neighborhood” who had his wish come true. Over 40 years ago, Old Oakland used to be the Latino barrio. Close your eyes and imagine the Fruitvale District in West Oakland. It was a thriving community of single family homes filled with down home folks, schools, businesses (including my family’s, La Borinquena), and tons of kids playing in Jefferson Square Park.

A baby blanket from Mariposa Baby

Everyone has a different idea of bliss. It could be a glass of wine for someone and a shopping spree for others. It could be a stimulating conversation or a long walk around the lake. It could also be a good deep tissue massage.

Painted Face from Janine MacBeth

Skylier Blanchard is an enterprising woman. She trained to be a commercial artist, practiced law for seven years, and then became a designer who recently hit upon the idea that Oakland needs its own fashion week.

"I know that fashion brings power to a community," says Skylier.

If you're in the mood to shop, here's the new item of the day.

The EcoMetro Guide is a one-of-a-kind resource: a coupon book, directory, a source of ideas and inspiration. It's your guide to living sustainably in the East Bay.

Check out this beautiful item of the day from Oakland Unwrapped. Gold charms of dagger and skull make peace with a vintage blue heart charm and huge chunk of carved amethyst.

Do you like to shop online? And do you like to shop at unique, independent retailers? Then here's something for you.  

We launched our new website almost a month ago, marking the end of NovoMetro.com and the beginning of TheOakbook.com. We'd like to thank all our readers who've stayed with us through this transition.. and a big thank you to all who took the time to give us their feedback. 

Please take five minutes to answer a few questions that will give us a better sense of how to tell the Oakland stories you want to hear.

Local artist Jenny Hurth's business is rooted in her passion--reusing  materials that would otherwise go to waste.

"I've been working so hard on a bike messenger bag prototype that I missed all the Earth Day parties," she says. "Maybe my contribution for 2008 will be yet another messenger bag out there on the roads."

Hurth ventured into the eco-friendly business of bags, notebooks, and curtains made of recycled banners in 2005 after working for 20 years as a maker of custom slipcovers. She didn't consider herself a "designer" but always had a knack for creating gifts for friends and family with materials that were lying around.

Believe me, I know-downloading music is great. There’s nothing like being able to listen to anything from Amy Winehouse to Dead Kennedy’s to Merzbow with just a little point and click. And since it’ so damned easy - and with everyone and their momma offering free and $.99 downloads-so damned cheap, there’s no harm in spending some time on your tush grabbing tunes.

But ya know what else is great? Record stores.

The clocks have been set ahead and pastel saccharine bunnies line store aisles. Soon, co-workers will return from sick leave with suspicious tan lines, and allover-print hoodies will give way to t-shirts in East Bay schoolyards.

More bare arms will inevitably mean more of that symbol of adolescent enlightenment, or ironic capitalism, depending on your perspective: the Che shirt. And with each sighting of the two-tone mug of the handsome revolutionary with wispy long hair and gazing eyes, Yvan Iturriaga will cringe.

Online marketplaces run the gamut. From the global Amazon to the local Oakland Unwrapped, there's something for every taste and sensibility. This Friday, a new Oakland -based online store is going to join the mix: Mosaic.

If you’re missing the holidays, or perhaps just the shopping and bustle, stop pining now.

If you're searching for Malik Cooper, here's a hint: the fro's gone. The prodigious afro, along with an endearing smile and a Zen-like patience to teach African-American history to Midwestern frat boys, distinguished the Berkeley native in MTV's Real World seven years ago.

Mr. Cooper's back in town, minus the fro. He's been back for several years, in fact, but he's been too busy for celebrity appearances. Still, if you want to be reminded of why he made you proud to be from the Bay, I can tell you where he's at. On a quiet block of downtown Oakland, look for a gray storefront with no signs.

Question: What do you get when you combine barbecue sauce, African American history, Santa Claus, and a corner store?

Answer: The Everett and Jones Gift shop, an unassuming storefront that's become a center of neighborhood pride and during the month of December, home base for Old St. Nick while he visits the neighbors around Fruitvale Ave and E. 27^th Street.

As the calendar counts down toward Christmas, believers and pagans alike are scrambling to complete their holiday shopping. For the reader holed up in an office downtown, NovoMetro presents a last-minute holiday shopping guide featuring the DTO’s hottest shops. All of the listed stores are open today and tomorrow, and several are open Sunday and Monday as well.

If you're still looking for last-minute gifts, try the newsstand. Not just any newsstand -- head over to Issues, the place where you can find almost every magazine under the sun.

As residents of Glen Ave. for eight years, Noella Teele and Joe Colley knew they wanted to open a store near their home, but they weren’t sure what kind of shop to try. The answer came one cold January morning when Noella couldn’t find a copy of indie music mag The Wire to read over brunch. A newsstand was exactly what the area needed.

While the heyday of Oakland's shopping may be decades in the past, a fat wallet still has many ways to slim down in this town. Offset your craving for consumption by keeping your luxury local. Because it’s spendy but somewhat sustainable, NovoMetro offers a selection of nearby gifts to spoil that special someone.

There are many shopping destinations just beyond Oakland’s borders, from San Francisco’s glamorous luxury to North Berkeley’s granola crunch. Yet here in town, scattered across major thoroughfares, local merchants strive to bring “the world to your door.”

NovoMetro invites the reader to take the motto “shop local” to the extreme, armed with a bus pass and sturdy shoes. Kicking off a series of holiday shopping guides throughout Oakland’s commercial districts, from North to East and in-between, here are ten gift ideas for the little ones in your life.

Have you ever spent a day shopping for your home and loved each second of it, even though somewhere in the pit of your stomach, you feel like you're wasting a lot of time? If so, you need to visit Leah Hennen's lovely blog about home design, More Ways to Waste Time.

The first serious rains of the season drive home a reality that farmers' market devotees have been aware of the past few weeks. The summer vegetable season will soon be done. Those serious about eating local seasonal produce know that the last fresh tomato will soon be sold. While it’s comforting to contemplate opening jars of canned tomatoes to make a Bolognese sauce in January, the dwindling selection of perfect fresh tomatoes at the farmers' market and the increasing abundance of chard casts a certain chill on the seasonally disciplined vegetable aficionado. Wait. You did can your own tomatoes this year, right?

Cari Borja, the Oakland designer and maker of all things beautiful and (often) frilly, has finally opened her own store, and she's inviting everyone to her grand opening party. It's this Saturday, September 29. If you can't make it, you can stop by her pre-party sample sales on Thursday and Friday. Special note to all shopaholics:  She's got a sale on jackets, dresses, and other outfits for women, and on kids' wear.

Stephanie Rubin didn’t have pets in mind when she began her first green roof construction last spring. But when a landscape designer is also a dog owner who greets visitors wearing her mutt’s collar around her neck, it should come as no surprise that her invention has, in effect, gone to the dogs.

We had just lost our cable. Not for any other reason than it was too expensive and we were saving pennies. So, my boyfriend and I were looking for new options to how to spend an evening. I, a fan of good ol’ times like Monopoly and Life, thought to meander in a Dr. Comics & Mr. Games store on Piedmont Avenue before a movie. And discovered many things to do every evening.

Bolts of bright fabric in brocades, silks, flannels, linens line the expansive floor of this Bay Area craft institution. But look closely, and you’ll find bare spots and hollow cavernous openings between rolls of cloth and under the shelves. It would still be a bounty of bolts for a smaller store, but in this large Broadway semi-warehouse locale, it looks like low stock. And longtime customers notice it immediately.

The end of August heralds the “whining season” from school kids begging for the latest fashions. They’re tired of discount department stores and generic clothing. They want style. You’re tired of price tags with triple digits. You want bargains. So, how do you blend bargain hunting with scoring the cool clothes? If you live in Oakland, you’re already saying, “Easy, take a cruise off the beaten path, make a left here or there, and you’ll find hip, locally owned boutiques that aren’t charging L.A. prices for the hottest styles.”

Here’s a listing of just a few shops that feature hip clothing for kids from school-age to college. Most stock reasonably priced items, along with higher-end clothing and accessories. If you don’t find what you like here, just ask store customers for other hidden Oakland hot spots.

One doesn’t usually associate Oakland with flagship fashion boutiques. Marc Jacobs or Karl Lagerfeld can’t be found toiling away in ateliers behind elegant landmark stores. But when Caramia Visick opened her boutique last October, Oakland became the center of her internationally-distributed jewelry empire. Favor (5337 College Ave) offers her resin-based collection, produced on-site, as well as accessories from local and national artisans.

Johnelle Mancha still remembers the surprised looks people would give her when they'd stumble upon her store soon after it opened in Old Oakland. Before leaving, they'd always say, "Good luck." It was obvious they thought she'd made a mistake opening a French-themed housewares and gifts boutique in an area that still was just a lot of potential. But Johnelle never doubted herself. "You cannot doubt what you're doing," says the 27-year-old wisely.

Even before the 10K Plan and the beginnings of an economic revival breathed new life into long-neglected stretches of downtown Oakland, a tree-lined block of 17th Street stood out among the skyscrapers. Eager to embrace downtown’s resurgence, 17th Street’s merchants formed a business association called SOBO – South Of Broadway Oakland. This Saturday, SOBO hosts their second street fair, and they say it will be full of fashion and fun.

This Saturday, SOBO throws its second block party. Last year's event had a decent turnout, we heard. And so, this year, they're saying it's going to be bigger and better. The leafy 17th Street will be dressed up, and retailers up and down the street will have specials to woo you.

A year ago, Amy Cools had just $1,500 to her name. Today, she has a popular fashion boutique, and hopefully, much more in her bank account.     

Amy Cools’ little boutique, Afterglow, is turning One. And Amy’s celebrating with a birthday bash. She deserves it. It’s been a hard year. Retail isn’t easy. And it doesn’t help if you get burgled twice in a span of three months.

If you like to shop, the Nite Souk will be the blessing you've waited for all summer. It's going to bring together many trendy vendors that aren't easy to find in one place. James Dawson of Fiftyseven-thirtythree is one of them. He's hip, and so are his designs. Ly chatted with him about Oakland and the night festival.

A wooden Moderne commercial building on Grand Avenue, across from Lake Merritt’s freshly-restored pergola, houses services that cater to people in different stages of life. Teen debutantes are photographed at Positive Images, marking the beginning of their adulthood, while Sunset Casket Outlet inexpensively provides for a funeral. Between the teens and discount caskets, two-month old boutique Melt (582 Grand Ave) outfits life at its most vividly stylish.

Maybe your trusty old bicycle needs some repairs or a tune up. Maybe you need a new bike, or at least one that is new to you. In either case, you should check out the Pioneer Bike Shop at 11 Rio Vista Avenue, just off Piedmont, near Kaiser.

Dainty cast-iron storefronts and wide brick sidewalks usually don’t invite graffiti. But inside Old Oakland’s historic buildings, street art meets fine art in the form of high-concept sneakers.

In the Bay Area, where almost everyone seems tech-savvy, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if clothes (and their designers) go hi-tech.

Tilden Yamamoto has created prototypes of outfits that are fashion-forward -- and still functional. “I’ve done work for Nike, NASA and NASCAR,” he says. Recently, Tilden created a flattering racing outfit for NASCAR’s growing legion of female drivers.

Cheese is the new wine. Chocolate is the new wine. Beer is the new wine. The new wines get old, but real wine never does.

If you liked some of the clothes you saw and read about in the article on Cari Borja, here’s a chance to own some of them. She’s having a couple of sample sales.

Before an army of construction cranes and canary cardboard conquered much of downtown Oakland, Seventeenth Street and Old Oakland boasted boutiques and bistros. Now, new merchants are setting up shop on once-forlorn avenues.

On busy MacArthur Boulevard, several blocks uphill from Fruitvale Avenue, a boutique named Suede sits behind a handsome Mediterranean façade. Fashion retail may be a bit edgy for the Dimond district, but Suede is on the edge of the Dimond. “Technically, it’s Bret Harte,” explains Darchell Hamilton, proprietor of the one-year-old shop (2170 MacArthur Blvd). But a few blocks can’t stop Ms. Hamilton from seeing what Farmer Joe and other East Oakland entrepreneurs have also seen: an opportunity.

Afterglow, the little store on Telegraph in Temescal that sells clothes and accessories, was broken into early Friday morning. For a young entrepreneur trying to get off the ground, this was quite a blow.

But it was a peculiar theft.

Paws and Claws is not your typical pet store. It’s to pet stores what Whole Foods is to grocery stores. Everything is natural and organic. It even offers kosher kibble.

The recent pet food recall may have made people start paying more attention to what they’re feeding their animals. But Ruth Villasenor and Diane Pfile have been carrying organic and natural pet foods in their store for almost three years now.

Exploring the city for NovoMetro these last few months, I have found that hip young women have many shopping choices. Sadly, the same is not true for my gender. With San Francisco’s palatial Macy’s men’s store only a hop, skip, and BART ride away, few Oakland retailers have taken a chance on stylish men’s clothing. Fruitvale’s workwear and downtown’s suiting, now that the local Gap stores are closing, may seem like our only options. But alert entrepreneurs are on the case.

When Marie Deleris votes for a new leader in her native France on May 6, she’ll be able to empathize with the candidates as they’re judged. For she would have just learned two nights ago what the judges at the Oakland Indie Awards thought of her 11-months-old store in downtown Oakland.

One ideal of urban living is the opportunity to buy food on foot from a variety of local merchants. Walking from produce purveyor to butcher to fishmonger, perusing the wares and taking in the street life has far more appeal than navigating the parking lot and pushing a cart under the hum of fluorescent lights. This kind of grocery shopping is still just an ideal for many neighborhoods in Oakland, but not in Chinatown.

Cherry blossoms have been lost to storm gutters. The hills look bright green as the sun blazes down on them. There are days when it feels like Spring's here, especially when you realize that the birds and bees are back. Fertility might as well be the trend of the season.

As Cari Borja looked at the 12th-century tower in front of her, she said something she’d never imagined she’d ever say. “I want to make clothes for the sirens.”

Cari was honeymooning in the Land of the Sirens, which extends from Sorrento to the Amalfi Coast on Italy's Tyrrhenian Sea. Local folklore had it that it was the spot where the Sirens lured sailors to the rocks with their music. As punishment, the sirens were themselves turned into rocks.

Walking into the Clean Skate Shop kind of feels like being back at the neighborhood crashpad. It's like that one cool house where all the kids kicked it after school and on weekends.

On one couch a group of young guys are chilling, drawing and watching skateboarding videos, while on another, an older cat helps a youngster fix the wheels on his board. The walls and art gallery in the back are covered with graffiti pieces from local writers, and hip hop blasts from the speakers. Kids skate in and out from the sidewalk to the half pipe in the back. Add a bong and a make-out room - and it'd be just like high school.

In Telegraph’s art gallery district, it’s hard to not stop at a high-windowed store that has vibrantly crowded clothing racks and text-heavy window displays.

If you can’t shop locally in Oakland, you don’t want anything. The city is full of independent potters, glassblowers, jewelers, seamstresses, painters, cooks, vintners, chocolate makers, bookbinders, and bakers. For Oaklanders, a “big box” is the one we use to take home our Arizmendi pizza. A hamburger chain means Barneys. It’s a city of storefronts: storefront churches and storefront schools. Like Dun Dun, the Panamanian-born hip-hop artist we profiled on Tuesday says: Oakland is a city of hustlers. And to us, that’s a good thing.

Oakland Unwrapped, a non-profit that aims to deliver customers to small local businesses via an online marketplace, is celebrating that independent, hustler spirit with the First Annual Oakland Indie Awards. The party is May 4, but make your nominations now. The deadline is April 1.

Two years ago, an electronics shopper may have wandered between 10th Street’s cell-phone stalls and found, deep in the dank, curry-scented warrens of the Excellent Commercial Center, bright and trendy women’s clothing. Kiki Boutique (933A Franklin) has since moved to a prominent location in a new building. The surprisingly stylish store is still a fashionable oasis on the edge of Oakland’s crowded Chinatown.

Amy Cools, one of Oakland’s hottest young designers, sells her gorgeous purses and clothes from her shop, Afterglow, on Telegraph Ave. Using classic shapes and vintage upholstery for her bags, her high-quality goods are sweatshop-free and high quality. She makes all her goods in the shop, where she displays other designers who share her values, too.

Many local fashion writers, including myself, often try to answer the question, “What are we wearing?” Without the resources to do a scientific survey of Oakland’s closets, even the most astute observer has only a general impression of local style. However, for the curious, consignment shops can offer a peek into a neighborhood’s wardrobe.

North Oakland bartender Danielle Marinovich has always been creative. The tall, toned, and tattooed motorcycle enthusiast began sewing as a child. But it was the death of her sister that inspired her to launch her own clothing line, Stitches for Bitches, and write a children’s book. In December, she opened Who’s Your Betty (5517 College Avenue), a women’s clothing, accessories, and housewares boutique nestled next to historic Rockridge church-turned-bar Ye Olde Hut.

Oakland Goods visits "Piedmont Ave's best-smelling home decor shop," and Fruitvale's messiest bakery.

NovoMetro contributor Jessica Hilberman has turned her keen eye for cool stuff on the city’s flourishing retail scene in a new blog she’s called Oakland Goods. Do you have an idea where she should go next? Let her know.

Last New Year’s eve, Ken, head of security at the Easy Lounge, a Lakeshore hotspot, dressed formally as he kept a stern eye on the door. He wore a dapper brown suit and a minimalist overcoat, with the brown wool scarf seen all season on office workers. Two stitched skull patches adorned the simple knit. “It’s so I can clean up, and still be a little punk,” he said proudly, after receiving several compliments.

The I. Magnin building isn’t quite the shopping mecca it once was, but it might be inching towards becoming one again.

It will, if Mika McCants’ instincts are right.

Ms. McCants isn’t the only one whose gut brought her to the area. The Art Deco architecture of the shopping and entertainment district now called Uptown has already attracted both developers and Oakland residents. The historical facades of buildings like the Cathedral Building, the Fox Theater, and the Floral Depot Building are being restored while the buildings are adapted for the twenty-first century.

The weather report calls for more bone-chilling temperatures in the coming days for Oakland. You could just crank up the heat and wait for our Mediterranean climate to make its return. But why not use the cold snap as an excuse to explore the city? Here are a few suggestions for how to stay warm ranging from the cheap to the pricey.

Some Oaklanders might remember holiday shopping in downtown Oakland as a blur of posh department stores. No more. Today, many consider the area completely bereft of retailing. Even those who know otherwise are often daunted by the thought of going to the various boutiques scattered over several districts.

But with last-minute shopping upon us, there are few places more convenient  for Oaklanders than downtown. NovoMetro offers a baker’s dozen of gifts, all available in the historic city center.

Old Oakland is a 140-year-old neighborhood where media offices and chic restaurants share city blocks with bail bondsmen and charity shops.

Now, an architect has decided to test the much-touted promise of this six-block-district with a new boutique: Drift. 

Like its neighborhood, Drift thrives on diversity, beauty, and the juxtaposition of the elegant and the rough. Downtown Oakland’s first high-end denim shop carries brands like Joe’s, Kasil, and PaperDenimCloth in a clean, cool space next to Café 817.

You intend to start early, searching out special treasures for friends and family, but by Christmas crunch time, it seems like holiday shopping always ends with a trip to the mall and a fistful of gift cards. This year, keep your mileage low and keep your tax dollars in Oakland by buying locally made goods. We scoured the city for the best offerings at a variety of prices. There’s something unique for everyone on your list.

Discovering Oakland