World's Most Unpatriotic Flippers Repaint Oakland Flag House
Back in March, we brought you news of a little one-bedroom bungalow in East Oakland's Fairfax neighborhood painted to resemble an American flag. Though it was in shabby condition, and not nearly as prim and decked out as its Seattle cousin, the motif was admittedly perfect for a house located on a street named Vicksburg, which is also the name of a Mississippi city and Confederate stronghold the Union Army defeated during the Civil War. This spring, the Oakland house was on the market for a scant $129,000, and the inside was even more of a color blast than the outside, with a full-on turquoise kitchen and a cotton-candy-pink bathroom.
A little white three-bedroom house in North Oakland is blocking the neighboring UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland's expansion, and the hospital is offering would-be owners the home free of charge if they can take it away. The hospital will also give the new owner the $20K it would otherwise spend on demolishing the structure. Moving the home will be expensive, however: the Chronicle notes that it will likely need to be carved into pieces so that it can fit under the elevated BART tracks and travel safely on roads. [SFGate]
Despite community opposition, the Oakland City Council approved a controversial tower near Lake Merritt last night. The tower will bring between 298 and 364 new units of housing to the site, and the developers have agreed to pay $8 million for below-market-rate housing off-site. There are still claims that the sale violates California's Surplus Lands Act, which mandates the prioritization of public land for below-market-rate housing. That means that lawsuits delaying the project could be forthcoming. [San Francisco Business Times]
Wouldn't $628,318 [have] been a more appropriate price? —Robert Folsom, via Facebook [Awesome Round House in Oakland Wants an Even $674,000]Awesome Round House in Oakland Wants an Even $674,000
Photos via Liz RusbyWhat would it look like if Don Draper owned a yurt? According to a tipster who clued us into the listing of 46 Melvin Court in the Oakland Hills, it would look quite a bit like this two-bedroom round house that came on the market last week asking $674,000. The circular home, known as the Nolan House, is exactly 30 feet in diameter. It was built back in 1967 by architect Leon Meyer, who also designed an Alamo round house that gained some attention for its restoration back in 2006. In the Oakland version, absolutely everything, from the kitchen counters to the bathroom sink, is rounded. Even the spa out back is a perfect little circle.
Oakland's city council has delayed a vote on the sale of public land near Lake Merritt that would be used as the site of a controversial residential tower. The planned 298-unit rental project has drawn ire from neighborhood groups and protesters concerned over rising housing prices. The city council has asked developer UrbanCore for more community benefits and will vote on the sale on June 16. [Business Times]Sad Chart Confirms SF Isn't Adding New Housing Fast Enough
Background graphic: Percentage of housing supply need met, 2007-2014, via the San Francisco Business TimesBetween 2007 and 2014, San Francisco granted permits to 16,449 new housing units, just 53 percent of the 31,193 total it needed to keep up with population growth, as projected by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). The city's dismal performance just about guarantees more graphs (like this one) summing up our equally dismal building record in the years to come. Meanwhile, Oakland met just 26 percent of its identified need, permitting just 3,852 units out of a needed 14,629. ABAG tallied up the results from the entire Bay Area in one handy but depressing spreadsheet, reported the San Francisco Business Times.
A 24-story residential towerplanned for the eastern edge of Oakland's Lake Merritt was approved yesterday despite the gentrification fears of neighbors who protested the project on the grounds that it included no below-market-rate housing. When complete, the high-rise building will have 298 units. The Oakland Planning Commission recommended that the developer put $5.1 million toward off-site BMR housing, although that recommendation is not binding. [SF Business Times]
Oakland's newest public sculpture at the 19th Street BART station has a unique ability: It changes color with the weather. Shifting Topographies, made by artist Dan Corson, is inspired by the hills of Oakland, the paint jobs on cars around the city, and the blue of the BART station itself. The color shifts among various shades of blue and green as the weather changes, and when the sun goes down, light projections move across its surface. [CityLab]
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Behold This Awesome Dress Made from 192 BART Farecards
Photo via BartableFinally someone has found a use for old BART tickets. Oakland fashion designer Sean Porter spent three years collecting 192 BART cards with pointless amounts of money left on them and, in October, began sewing them together in a silhouette inspired by the Transamerica Pyramid. He finished sewing in December, and now the dress is on view in the window of Piedmont Fabrics in Oakland. As with all couture, we have to wonder at its practicality.
Over in Oakland, a very patriotic one-bedroom house painted to look like an American flag has gone up for sale. The ask is just $129,000, a bargain price that would require mortgage payments of $480 per month after a 20 percent down payment. Of course, the buyers may also need to drop some cash on renovating the place given its current, uh, creative color scheme. In addition to the Old Glory motif on the exterior, there are turquoise and pink walls throughout the interior, plus a kitchen that looks like something out of a Technicolor nightmare. [Hotpads]From Hobbit Huts to Yurts, 12 Tiny House Vacation Rentals in Northern California
Whether or not you can squeeze your life into a tiny house on a permanent basis, sometimes it's nice to try on a smaller abode for its tiny, tiny size. We've scoured short-term rental listings all around Northern California to find the best tiny-house rentals for your next trip. From Mendocino to Santa Cruz, here now is your guide to the houseboats, tree houses, hobbit huts, and, yes, water towers conspiring to lure you with the charms of grass roofs, backyard pizza ovens, and showering out of doors.
BART is thinking of banning vaping, which as of yet has been unregulated on the system's trains. The proposed ordinance prohibiting e-cigarettes will be introduced today at a 5 p.m. meeting at the Kaiser Center in Oakland, with a vote to follow in February. Let the record show that manspreading is still perfectly legal. [SF Weekly; BART; previously]
At Oakland City Hall today, protesters will rally against the Nuisance Eviction Ordinance, a 10-year-old law that was originally created to give officials the power to initiate evictions against tenants who face drugs or weapons charges. More recently, the law was expanded to include solicitation, gambling, and prostitution, but in such broad terms that charges don't have to be brought, or a warrant obtained, against a tenant before the eviction begins. The protest, which starts at 12:30, will be one of 60 gatheringsheld around the country to denounce violence against sex workers. [Curbed inbox; CityLab]SF Is Tops for $1M Home Sales, but Oakland Is Rising Faster
One of Oakland's most expensive homes, a "Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired" spaceship-thing in Claremont Hills, seeks $21 million.More homes have sold for $1 million or above in San Francisco this year than in any other city in the United States, according to real estate website Redfin's latest luxury housing report. San Francisco has had 782 sales break the seven-figure mark so far this year, a number that is 16 percent above the figure from the same time last year and more than double 2011's number. Although San Francisco came out on top, Oakland showed one of the biggest surges in seven-figure sales this year. There have been 104 $1 million or above sales in Oakland so far. That's nearly 68 percent more than last year and a staggering 352 percent more than 2011, when only 23 Oakland houses topped $1 million.
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