Jack London Square is hosting a ton of fun weekly events this summer, including:

Musical Mondays
Live music, board games, and cocktails outside Heinolds’ Last Chance Saloon.  Family friendly, of course!  Mondays through July 27. 5:30 - 8pm

Waterfront Flicks - Every Other Thursday
Fun movies and Oakland trivia games 7:30pm

Dancing Under the Stars - Every Friday
Free outdoor dance lessons Fridays through September 25th. Prix fixe menus at JLS restaurants and a different dance every night! 8:30pm

See details and more events at the Jack London Square website.

Come join us at the 4th Annual Ignite! New Business Expo on Thursday, June 25 from 11am to 3pm at Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland.  See lots of inspiring new local entrepreneurs showing off their products and services, and meet other local business supporters!

It’s free and open to the public.  Details here.

Hope to see you there!

The mainstream media might be reporting about how banks are no longer lending to small businesses the way they used to, but clearly they haven’t stopped by OneCalifornia Bank.  Linda Russell, owner of Mugshots School Photography, just received a $300,00 small business loan from OneCalifornia Bank.  You can read her story about the loan process on her blog.  And see the news release posted below from the U.S. Small Business Administration, reporting on a recent client of OneCalifornia Bank and her success story:

Once A Homeless Mom, This Entrepreneur is Highlighting Recovery Act Successes

Oakland, CA - San Francisco SBA District Director Mark Quinn and Linda Russell, owner of Mugshots School Photography, hosted a press conference June 3 at One California Bank in Oakland to highlight how small businesses are taking advantage of the changes SBA made to its loan programs as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The SBA provisions in the Recovery Act were designed not only to help small businesses keep the doors open, but also to help them grow and create jobs. The Recovery Act programs are now reaching the small businesses and beginning to have an impact, helping them retain and create tens of thousands of jobs nationwide.

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The Bar at Awaken Cafe

For OneCalifornia Foundation, all nominees, finalists, and winners at the Indie Awards are winners because their work ties into the work of the foundation: helping to create this vibrant, diverse, and thriving community that is Oakland! We love the work these businesses and artists do, and think it’s great when it just so happens that their work intertwines with ours! This year, the winner of the Greenie Award was Awaken Café–who, besides brewing a mean latte, serving tasty organic treats, and supporting local musicians and artists, sells their coffee and so much more on our online marketplace, Oakland Unwrapped!

Awaken Café opened its doors last year, but it took lots of hard work and conscious community investigating to bring this community-oriented and eco-conscious café to fruition. (more…)

Greenie Award Winners from 2008 and 2009 with OneCalifornia Foundation's Andrea Walker

On May 15th, Oaklanders and Oakland supporters from all over turned out for OneCalifornia Foundation’s 3rd Annual Oakland Indie Awards, celebrating Oakland’s innovative, socially- and environmentally-responsible businesses and artists. The evening was full of Oakland food, drinks, goods, artists, authors, and music, exhibiting all that Oakland has to offer. And, of course, there were the awards themselves!

Inside the Crucible, an industrial arts training center with a warehouse that can be transformed from classrooms to party central over the course of a few hours, local Oakland businesses and restaurateurs set out samples of their wares and tastes of their food and drink for attendees. (more…)

OneCalifornia Bank may sing the praises of small banks all the time, but it isn’t the only one. Check out this May 2009 article in the New York Times about the successes of small, community-oriented banks. Link to the NYT article.