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Lunar New Year parade
2023-01-29 15:30Oakland had its parade today. 11am-1pm scheduled. I got there at noon, and things seemed to wrap up by 12:20. It was... small. I saw a dragon and escort car, some Vietnamese women in nice dresses, some Native American kids in Native American costume, a couple big panda suits, some people holding political signs, some people waving US and China flags, and only a bit more. Wrapping around to the start point, I did see what might have been things in advanced state of disassembly, so it's possible I missed some things. But the parade area was only a few blocks long to begin with.
Photos here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindstalk/albums/72177720305626548 They seem to have brought joy to some friends on Slack, so that's good. I was rather "that's it?" myself, though the opportunity to get both fresh and frozen dim sum helped make the trip pay off. Myself, I noted that fan embedded in one of the pandas, I assume for some powered ventilation for the person trapped inside.
Album also includes some later exploration of Chinatown, and of downtown Oakland west of Broadway. Which was very dead. So dead. A few open restaurants, a completely dead plaza, a handful of people walking around. Also, no grocery stores nearby apart from Chinatown itself. But there's a park with a lot of big civil rights sculptures. Henry Kaiser Memorial Park.
Walgreens on Broadway was open but with limited food: milk, frozen pizzas and such, fresh sandwiches, snacks. Not even bread or pasta that I noticed, though I could have missed an aisle. So enough traffic that they think someone will buy those sandwiches but not enough to sell basic groceries. (By contrast, a North Berkeley Walgreens a few years ago sold enough fresh produce, at good enough prices, to fill the otherwise missing supermarket niche there.)
Why do I care? Research into the health of the neighborhood. Partly intellectual, partly in case I find an Airbnb there someday.
I should note that Chinatown itself was fairly alive. I hesitate to say lively, it doesn't have the crush of people I associate with San Francisco or even Vancouver, but various restaurants and grocery stores had long lines. I was willing to wait at Big Dish to get my fresh dim sum, but passed on LG Market's frozen ha gow and tempting citrus due to lines. Ming's Tasty had its usual sidewalk line, not that I intend any interactions there myself other than delivery.
Most tragically R'noodles, where I actually get my frozen dim sum, had no siu mai other than "sweet rice". I shall have to console myself with soup dumplings instead.
Photos here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindstalk/albums/72177720305626548 They seem to have brought joy to some friends on Slack, so that's good. I was rather "that's it?" myself, though the opportunity to get both fresh and frozen dim sum helped make the trip pay off. Myself, I noted that fan embedded in one of the pandas, I assume for some powered ventilation for the person trapped inside.
Album also includes some later exploration of Chinatown, and of downtown Oakland west of Broadway. Which was very dead. So dead. A few open restaurants, a completely dead plaza, a handful of people walking around. Also, no grocery stores nearby apart from Chinatown itself. But there's a park with a lot of big civil rights sculptures. Henry Kaiser Memorial Park.
Walgreens on Broadway was open but with limited food: milk, frozen pizzas and such, fresh sandwiches, snacks. Not even bread or pasta that I noticed, though I could have missed an aisle. So enough traffic that they think someone will buy those sandwiches but not enough to sell basic groceries. (By contrast, a North Berkeley Walgreens a few years ago sold enough fresh produce, at good enough prices, to fill the otherwise missing supermarket niche there.)
Why do I care? Research into the health of the neighborhood. Partly intellectual, partly in case I find an Airbnb there someday.
I should note that Chinatown itself was fairly alive. I hesitate to say lively, it doesn't have the crush of people I associate with San Francisco or even Vancouver, but various restaurants and grocery stores had long lines. I was willing to wait at Big Dish to get my fresh dim sum, but passed on LG Market's frozen ha gow and tempting citrus due to lines. Ming's Tasty had its usual sidewalk line, not that I intend any interactions there myself other than delivery.
Most tragically R'noodles, where I actually get my frozen dim sum, had no siu mai other than "sweet rice". I shall have to console myself with soup dumplings instead.
