THE PIONEER Covering the East Bay community since 1961
California State University, East Bay
News, Art, & Culture for the East Bay
THURSDAY OCTOBER 13, 2016
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Amoeba adapts from music to marijuana
Fall 2016 Issue 4
Activists occupy Oakland, celebrate five-year movement By Kali Persall MANAGING EDITOR
GRAPHIC BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER
By Louis LaVenture EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Amoeba Music, known for trading, buying and selling all forms of new and used music will begin to sell a new product soon: marijuana. According to Amoeba Music employee Debby Goldsberry, the Berkeley location applied for and received a permit to sell marijuana last month. The music store, which originally opened in Berkeley in 1990, now has three locations that include San Francisco and Hollywood. According to Amoeba Music officials, the Berkeley store will transform its “Jam Room” into a marijuana dispensary, with a separate entrance from the music area. It will be a collaborative effort with
the Berkeley Compassionate Care Center group, a marijuana collective based in Berkeley and located on Telegraph Avenue, the same street as Amoeba. The new dispensary at Amoeba will be called the Berkeley Compassionate Care Collective; however, it will take at least a few months to make sure they are in accordance with all of the city ordinances that surround marijuana sales. One of the major requirements is a 600 foot buffer zone from all schools and hospitals, something that Amoeba fits. With many consumers going the digital route to obtain music, the physical music industry has taken a blow. According to Amoeba co-founder Marc Weinstein, from 2008 to 2015, the Berkeley location lost 50 percent of all total sales. Billboard Magazine confirmed those numbers and also said
the famous Telegraph Avenue location, which had 90 employees in 2008 had just 35 today. Co-founder David Prinz said the Hollywood location makes on average $20 million annually and the marijuana sales will help subsidize lost income from the other two locations; however, there are no current plans to open dispensaries at the Hollywood or San Francisco locations yet. Weinstein and Prinz both said they did not believe the addition of a marijuana dispensary would discourage patronage of the Berkeley location. “If anything, it should generate a ton of sales,” Weinstein said. “That’s the goal.” Marijuana is a booming industry in California, according to California state records that record the monetary
aspects of the industry. In 2015, dispensaries registered with the state recorded more than $600 million in total sales and more than $55 million in taxes. In 2014, marijuana sales nationwide numbered more than $4.6 billion, $5.4 billion in 2015 and are projected to be more than $7.1 billion in this year. Colorado passed the same amendment in 2012 and the state began selling marijuana in 2014. As of July, Colorado marijuana sales were already more than $500 million, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. Amoeba Music officials said they will keep customers updated of the progress on their website and through emails while the revamping takes place. According to a statement from the collective, they are hopeful to open in a few months.
SEE NEWS PAGE 2
BULLET PURCHASES COULD REQUIRE A PERMIT
SEE FEATURES PAGE 7
BREWERY TAPS DANVILLE FOR ITS NEW LOCATION
COURTESY OF CSU DOMINGUEZ HILLS
Former women's basketball head coach Molly Goodenbour talks with an athlete last year at CSU Dominguez Hills.
Women’s hoops lose leader before she starts By Louis LaVenture EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
SEE SPORTS PAGE 12
SWIMMING STARTS SEASON AT HOME
The departure of athletic coaches from Cal State East Bay is starting to feel like a trend. Molly Goodenbour became the sev-
enth CSUEB head coach in less than two years to leave the school, when she took a job at the University of San Francisco last month. Goodenbour never coached a game at East Bay. This is the eighth head coach at CSUEB to leave or step down in the past year and a half. During former CSUEB
Athletic Director Joan McDermott’s tenure, from April 2015 to August 2016, seven head coaches left East Bay. In addition, head coaches for women’s basketball, track, cross country and softball, as well as men’s soccer, baseball and swimming all stepped down or left
SEE COACH PAGE 10
It’s been five years since activists with the Occupy movement made camp at the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland to protest social inequality and wealth disparity. Today, the tents are long-gone and supporters say Occupy Oakland no longer exists. On Saturday evening, around 150 Occupy sympathizers gathered in the plaza at the corner of Broadway and 14th streets to listen to live music, poetry readings and speeches and discuss the achievements of the movement, according to the Occupy Oakland website. The Occupy movement was born on Wall Street in New York’s financial district on Sept. 17, 2011 when activists protested the federal banking system and called for economic, social justice and democratic reform. The movement has since spread to over 100 cities in the U.S. and 1,500 worldwide, according to Occupy Wall Street. On Oct. 10, 2011 it reached Oakland. Occupy Oakland made headlines on Nov. 2, 2011, less than a month after it began, when thousands of protesters shut down the port of Oakland and called for a citywide general strike. The call to action followed a clash with law enforcement a week prior, which involved the deployment of tear gas, 100 arrests and one reported life-threatening injury, according to the Associated Press. Luz Calvo, a professor of ethnic studies at Cal State East Bay who was involved with Occupy Oakland, said the official movement began to fall apart about a month after it began, largely due to a lack of leadership and structure, as well as racial tensions. “It was very white and I think that the problem was that the white people who were organizing didn’t do so with humility or try to outreach to, listen to and take leadership of Oakland people of color,” said Calvo. Dr. Samsarah Morgan, founder of the Children’s Village at the encampment, said the occupation of the City Hall lasted about a month, before the mayor evicted the protesters and the encampment was destroyed by law enforcement. Protests turned violent quickly and focused on “Fuck the Police” rallies, losing sight of the message of the movement: nonviolent protests against wealthy special interests, according to Morgan. Calvo said decisions about the movement were made at General Assemblies, which first took place nightly when the encampment was still standing, and began to taper off as time went on. The leaders of Occupy Oakland identified as anarchists and subscribed to a rejection of leaders with all decisions made by the people. They also opposed collaboration with the government and law enforcement. Protesters smashed the windows of small businesses and damaged property of average middle class families that had nothing to do with the movement, according to Morgan. Only one or two banks were targeted in the process, the original focus of Occupy, and Morgan said the Oakland movement began to resemble anarchy. “People didn’t want to come to Occupy Oakland because they were afraid of the people there at the encampments,” said Morgan. “[The organizers of Occupy Oakland] were like, allergic to having a focus and a mission. They had no strategy. It was
SEE OCCUPY PAGE 4