Bay Area

11 Local Restaurants Host a Caribbean Heritage Month Celebration at Oakland’s Brookdale Park on June 29

This year, Goodridge and Merissa Lyons, is expanding the event to include 11 more Caribbean restaurants in Oakland. The restaurants included are: AlaMar Dominican Kitchen, Calabash Oakland, Cocobreeze Caribbean Restaurant, Jamaica Sweet Spices, La Perla (Puerto Rican cuisine), Level 13 Oakland, Minto’s Jamaican Restaurant, Mystical Mixes Oakland, Sobre Mesa, Sweet Fingers Jamaican Restaurant, and T’chaka Haitian Cuisine.

Published

11 months ago

June 28, 2024

Oakland Post

A celebration of Caribbean Heritage Month last year in front of Cocobreeze Restaurant at 2370 High St. Photo courtesy Annabelle Goodridge.

By Daisha Williams

June is known for a lot of things: weddings, graduations, LGBTQ Pride Month, Black Music Month, and, of course, Juneteenth.

But since 2006, June is also Caribbean History Month. It was nationally recognized in the United States after the House of Representatives adopted H. Con. Res. 71, sponsored by Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

It is a time of celebration, culture, and family for Caribbean people and their descendants. The recognition honors the significance of Caribbean people and their descendants in the history and culture of the United States.

On June 29, several restaurants will hold a free Caribbean Heritage Month event at Brookdale Park at Brookdale Avenue and High Streets in East Oakland from 12 -8 p.m.

As characterized by Annabelle Goodridge, owner of Cocobreeze, a Caribbean restaurant a few blocks away at 2370 High Street, the annual event is a way of giving back to the community that has allowed them to prosper.

This year, however, Goodridge and Merissa Lyons, is expanding the event to include 11 more Caribbean restaurants in Oakland. The restaurants included are: AlaMar Dominican Kitchen, Calabash Oakland, Cocobreeze Caribbean Restaurant, Jamaica Sweet Spices, La Perla (Puerto Rican cuisine), Level 13 Oakland, Minto’s Jamaican Restaurant, Mystical Mixes Oakland, Sobre Mesa, Sweet Fingers Jamaican Restaurant, and T’chaka Haitian Cuisine.

Along with food there will be live performances, and an award ceremony. Everything at the event is free, including all the delicious food being offered.

From the Visit Oakland website: “Bring a flag to represent your country! DJ’s representing the Caribbean diaspora will be spinning all your favorite Soca, Dancehall, Reggae, Latin and Afrobeat hits. Games and fun for the entire family! Bring blankets and chairs for the park.”

When talking about goals for this event Lyons, Goodridge’s daughter, said that they’re hoping to “shine a light on the beautiful diversity of the Bay Area, to create awareness of a variety of cultural dishes, highlight the fun of trying new things, bring family-friendly fun to Oakland and educate the community about Caribbean culture and offer support to local restaurants.”

Ahead of the event, Cocobreeze and the other restaurants created a ‘bucket list’ contest including foods from all the participating restaurants. Attendees have the option of completing the ‘bucket list’ by visiting each of the restaurants before the event. Winners for the bucket list activity will be announced on Saturday. The prize is a $20 gift card for each of the restaurants included in the event.

Cocobreeze also cultivates community in ways outside of this event. One is through their youth apprentice program which shows high schoolers the ways of the industry and the foods of their culture. They are currently working on expanding this program so that it is available for young adults as well as teenagers.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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May 30, 2025

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.