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Positively 17th Street
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Oakbook
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Last Updated on January, 08 2009 at 04:25 PM
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| When vandals started pounding on the locked door of her restaurant on
17th Street in downtown Oakland Wednesday night, Michelle Nguyen called
Pho 84's night shift to the front window to demonstrate strength in
numbers. The rioters trashed cars in front of the Vietnamese
restaurant, but left Ms. Nguyen, her colleagues, and her customers
alone. Pho 84 was lucky. The rioters went on to smash several
storefronts on 17th Street including a dressmaker and a sandwich shop
on the corner of Franklin Street. |
When vandals started pounding on the locked door of her restaurant on 17th Street in downtown Oakland Wednesday night, Michelle Nguyen called Pho 84's night shift to the front window to demonstrate strength in numbers. The rioters trashed cars in front of the Vietnamese restaurant, but left Ms. Nguyen, her colleagues, and her customers alone. Pho 84 was lucky. The rioters went on to smash several storefronts on 17th Street including a dressmaker and a sandwich shop on the corner of Franklin Street.
On Thursday, store owners on 17th Street nailed plywood over windowpanes in case downtown Oakland suffered another night of vandalism. Ms. Nguyen decided boarded windows would be bad for business. "You have to show them you're not afraid," she said.
Better safe than sorry
A hot bowl of pho in downtown Oakland is as good a way as any to show solidarity with merchants stricken by Wednesday's violence, and with the friends and family of Oscar Grant, who asked for calm and for the vandals "to stop hurting our family."
The dressmaker's window on 17th Street.
Meantime, City Hall is offering assistance to merchants whose businesses were damaged Wednesday night. For more information contact Aliza Gallo at the Community and Economic Development Agency, 510-238-7405 or by email at agallo@oaklandnet.com.
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