Sunday newsletter: New coffee hours, new curtains, new corkboard messages
We're back from Denver and are giving thanks for humidity and sea-level oxygen. Also, we missed the space and the friends we made along the way. Luckily, we're back open this week!
ONE BIG THING: Members-only morning hours
Coffee is starting earlier, way earlier. Painted Leopard is going to be slanging coffee starting at 8:30am (!) beginning this Wednesday, December 3. Does this mean you can come grab a coffee and hang much earlier in the day? Yes. Your Local Economy hosts will not be there until mid-late morning, so we are trusting the community to self-manage in those early hours. We have new curtains to differentiate public/member space, and we want to support and respect Painted Leopard while giving you all a new perk of membership, with morning coffee and work time.
Several other things:
There are a handful of slots for Botanical Drawing on Tuesday. We were a bit late to announcing the next Botanical Drawing class with Hannah Hirsekorn on Tuesday. The upside for you, if you're not a planner: there are a few slots there, if you're interested!
There's a member happy hour on Friday afternoon, 4-6pm! No RSVP, come as you are. Or if you're heading to the event Friday night, this'll be a good pregame warmup.
We've added a holiday party with our friends at the Oakland Review of Books on December 18. There is a secret Santa component, and an Herb Caen component, and a mingling component. It's gonna be great.
We fixed Moonclerk. Moonclerk had been giving folks fits when they tried to change their memberships. It turns out there was a dumb thing we had to change deep in the settings. You should now be able to modify your plan easily. Whew.
Corkboard: Community messages
(Yay! People sent in stuff! Send in more stuff to communicate to your fellow members! Honestly, this could become most of the newsletter.)
Bettina writes: "I (and one or two other LE members) will be vending handmade cards and other items in exchange for mutual aid donations to support immigrant families impacted by ICE presence in our community, during Rockridge Holidaze, Saturday Dec. 6, 4-6pm in the College Avenue Presbyterian Church courtyard."
Joshua C writes: Tech Workers Coalition is closing out the year with a December social meetup. Join fellow tech workers and friends for an evening of activities, food, drinks, music, and good company. Whether you've been organizing with us all year or are just curious, everyone is welcome. RSVP here so we can get a head count and send a calendar invite. Thursday, December 4th, 2025, 6:00-9:00 PM, Tamarack (1501 Harrison St, Oakland).
The Week at Local Economy
Painted Leopard will be at the space 8:30am (!) to 2pm, Wednesday-Saturday. Come early, stay often! We will still be open until 4pm, but coffee will wind down at 2pm.
Tuesday, 6pm: Botanical Drawing!
Thursday, 6pm: Mahjong Night. So sorry if you couldn't get a slot. Clearly, this should/will become a regular thing.
Friday, 4pm: Members Happy Hour! Some good bread, some good cheese, some good wine. No RSVP necessary.
Friday, 6pm: Dire Straights Live! Eeeee. This is gonna be fun. Amanda Montei and Tracy Clark Flory's podcast comes live to the space.
Saturday, 1pm: Repair Advice Clinic w/Jenny Odell. The ticketed slots are taken, buuuut I'm sure drop-in lookie-loos will not be turned away.
Sunday, 2pm: Graphic Novel Talk and Charity Art Auction! Come learn about how graphic novels are made and support Chapter 510, which is such an important creative space for young people in Oakland.
Letters of Recommendation
If you are at all interested in podcasts, music, or FELA KUTI, can I recommend Jad Abumrad's new series, Fear No Man? It is so damn good. I learned so much about Nigeria, about Fela, about Black power, about colonialism, and about how Afrobeat works. I laughed out loud, I cried (literally). I apologize in advance if I play Fela for the next month while you're in the space.
If you're a fan of weird sci-fi books from 1970s France and local publishers, Transit's I Who Have Never Known Men is in the center of your Venn diagram. You can pick it up at East Bay Booksellers, where it has been a bestseller, of course.
