San Francisco Magazine just held a launch party for their highly anticipated, special edition Oakland issue. I attended this fabulous event with Realtor Bruce Wagg, and Partners Heidi Marchesotti and Mindy Sun of Highland Partners. We took off aboard the USS Potomac (otherwise known as Roosevelt’s floating White House), for a cruise around beautiful San Francisco Bay, and ended the night with an after cruise event at Encuentro in Jack London Square.
The USS Potomac was originally commissioned in 1934 as the Cutter Electra, then was renamed the Potomac in 1936, serving as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential yacht until his death in 1945. Of course, it was a very different time then, so if you were expecting P. Diddy’s yacht, well that it was not! However, the USS Potomac has been refurbished to the tune of $5M, and is a feat of engineering. Cruising around San Francisco Bay taking in the sunny weather and views of the new and old Bay Bridges, while toasting Oakland’s success in SF Magazine’s inaugural issue, was a nice weekday treat.
Apart from my own Highland Partners posse, among the crowd were business owners, entrepreneurs, politicos, models, artists, and members of Oakland’s glitterati. We talked Oakland growth with Ashara Ekundayo, of Impact Hub Oakland, an amazing co-working space and entrepreneurial incubator located in the heart of Oakland. We also rubbed shoulders with San Francisco Magazine’s editorial staff, including Editor-in-Chief Jon Steinberg.
We met Michael DeFlorimonte, publisher of theREGISTRYBayArea.com. Chad Filiault, Eric Lewin, John Gardner and Evan Landry from Nissan West Region were in attendance, as were Greg Bath from Infiniti’s West Region. We talked shop with Kevin and Vanessa of Red Oak Realty and Faramarz Moeen-Ziai of Commerce Mortgage. Yet a nice surprise for me was that Rebecca Kaplan, popular mayoral candidate attended the celebration at Encuentro (whom I use to see around at Mills College).
The Oakland issue of SF Magazine is a huge boom for the city. Oakland is currently undergoing a renaissance. Going hand-in-hand with this theme was the after cruise party which showcased the many talented residents of Oakland at Encuentro. Encuentro is a wonderful neighborhood wine bar and café in Jack London Square which features an eclectic, vegetarian menu and organic/sustainable wines from small, local, and old world vintners. In the back was an art show displaying local Oakland talent where we enjoyed the food and libations of Encuentro while perusing the art and connecting with other guests.
SF Magazine’s Oakland issue covers everything from a “week in the life of an art warehouse”, to the lesbian dreamscape, to the quasi-legal party scene and the town’s latest real estate deals. If you want to more details about Oakland’s latest real estate news, ask me about that—I’m all over it! Another hot topic in this issue is “The Gentrifier’s Guide to Getting Along”, which has a lot of people talking. Also in this issue is an all-inclusive guide to Oakland’s eating and drinking scene, featuring the top 100 hotspots. Grab your copy before they’re all sold out!
