Oakland needs more, and safer bike lanes. With more people moving to the area, more bike lanes will help offset car traffic.
This protected path would encourage bike transit from Lake Merritt and West Oakland to downtown destinations, JLS, and BART, leading to less commuting by car, lower carbon emissions, and more people on the streets to patronize local businesses.
Oakland has a large number of co-ops, social entrepreneurs, and mission-driven companies. These companies in turn generate legal, business, and technical services to service double- or triple-bottom line companies. For example, here's a list of Oakland companies that meet social and environmental accountability standards. The City should help to market these businesses and consider incentives to support them.
In addition to traditional Commercial Lending, the City of Oakland offers KivaZip crowdfunding opportunities to small businesses. Local company Cutting Edge Capital (http://www.cuttingedgecapital.com/) is a go-to resource for Direct Public Offerings. And Social Impact investors such as the Kapor Center for Social Impact (http://kaporcenter.org/) are at the leading edge of Impact Investing. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_investing) How can the City connect local entrepreneurs and businesses to these opportunities?