Jaylen Brown asked the group gathered at Oakstop, a community organization not far from where the Celtics star attended college at California-Berkeley, to excuse him. He felt under the weather and warned his voice would sound monotone. The attendees at the event, some chatting through earlier speakers including the mayor, locked in when he stepped to the podium. Discussing gentrification, abandoned buildings, incarceration rates and how business development could combat those woes in Oakland and other cities, Brown introduced a new business district plan above 19th Street Station at the heart of the city that hopes to inspire locals to build and sustain wealth locally. “The bad news is it’s gonna take a lot of work, but the good news is we’re ready to fight,” Brown said in his brief speech. “It’s a different world, it’s a different generation…the world is changing through technology and innovation … before it took expertise, resources and a lot of excess motivation to start a business. In today’s time, through the use of technology, it’s much more accessible and practical to start a business.”