Did you know that Lake Merritt has a “dead zone,” a section of water near Children’s Fairyland that has such low oxygen levels that nothing can live there?

Did you know the very first wildlife sanctuary to be declared in the United States was at Lake Merritt because it is located on the Pacific flyway for migratory birds?

No?

Well, if you were one of Katie Noonan’s science students at Oakland High School’s Environmental Science Academy (ESA), you would—and you might be about to learn a whole lot more about environmental science on your summer trip to Costa Rica.

Noonan and Oakland High counselor James Wallace will be taking ten students to Costa Rica this August “to tour sites of environmental importance in Costa Rica to better understand human impacts on global ecosystems,” according to their foreign travel request to the Oakland school board. The Global Explorers web site that explains the trip makes it sound way cooler: “Along the way, students will see some of Costa Rica’s amazing diversity, from parrots to howler monkeys and poison dart frogs to bats.”

Oakland High’s ESA program provides students with three years of environmental science classes, culminating in Advanced Placement Environmental Science in their senior year.

The group’s travel is covered by a grant from the AFAR Media foundation, a philanthropic organization associated with AFAR Media, and Global Explorers, a non-profit program that runs educational trips for American school children to locations around the world.  Normally, students pay to participate in these trips and the Global Explorers web site is replete with suggestions for fundraising and reasons why the travel experience is worth so much money.  The group’s new partnership with AFAR however has generated a new option called Learning Afar that will support two low-income US high schools, Yonkers High in New York, and Oakland High, right here in Oakland and just up the hill from Lake Merritt.

“We’re just all about encouraging this kind of travel,” Greg Sullivan, founder and CEO of AFAR Media said. Sullivan said it had not yet been determined how the grant will be awarded next year, whether it will be renewed for the current schools or opened up to a new application process. The school in New York was picked early, Sullivan said, but “we wanted to support a school in our home market too.”

In addition to covering the cost of the Global Explorers trip, AFAR Media, which publishes a magazine, maintains a website and plans to launch a television initiative in 2011 and a book series in 2012, is hosting a retreat for students and teachers before they travel where they will teach the kids about travel writing and photography. The students are welcome to submit any writing and photography they complete during their travel and the best submission will be published in the magazine, Sullivan said.

Only 10 ESA students from grades 10-12 will be going on the Costa Rica trip.  Noonan said that 25 applied by submitting essays, transcripts and family financial statements to Learning Afar.  Acceptance to the trip was both merit and need-based, with 9 of the 10 students qualifying as low income according to the federal government’s free and reduced lunch program.

This is the second year Noonan will be leading a student trip to Costa Rica.  The trip last year was funded by grants from Oakland High School’s School Site Council and from the Port of Oakland’s Breakfast of Champions organization.   This year’s grant makes such a significant local contribution unnecessary, but doesn’t eliminate it altogether. Learning Afar will cover the $2,000 per student needed to cover the cost of the travel, scientific tours, food and lodging in Costa Rica. Noonan estimates that her group still needs to raise about $650 in airfare per student.  They have a number of fundraisers, from car washes to educational demonstrations, planned for this spring and summer.

For Noonan, the fundraising is a necessary part of what she called “a dream” to get to bring her students on such a trip. “It’s going to open their eyes to the beauty and the importance of these places on earth that these are things that we need to protect,” Noonan said.

Noonan, who won the 2009 US Environmental Protection Agency Achievement Award, applied for the Learning Afar grant last August, writing, “too often our students do not have time or resources to view the world outside the perspective of the inner city.  They do not see the connections with other countries and the impacts of our lives on distant lands.”

In addition to her other accolades—Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Department of Energy Teacher Intern in Oceanography, member of the University of Texas’ International Polar Year Research Experience in Antarctica for Minorities team—Noonan is also one of the co-founders of ESA.  Anyone can sign up for the academy starting in the 10^th grade, and no specific grade point average is required.

“The ESA kids do outperform the general population in terms of being qualified for the university,” said James Wallace, a counselor at Oakland High who focuses on ESA. “The majority meet the A-G requirements.”

By way of comparison, only 47 percent of  the Oakland High student body graduates having completed the A-G requirements, or the classes needed for a high school student to be eligible for admittance at a University of California or Cal State University campus.

Christina Phung, 17, and Diana Trung, 18, are seniors in the ESA and both are headed to college next year.  Phung is deciding between Cal State East Bay, San Francisco State and Sacramento State while Trung has already heard that she’s in at UC Davis but still has her fingers crossed for UC Berkeley.

Phung and Trung are also headed to Costa Rica this summer. 

“We’re really excited!” the girls said together when asked how they felt about their upcoming trip to Costa Rica.

“We’re very thankful for [AFAR and Global Explorers] because our families are low-income families and we wouldn’t have been able to do this trip successfully without their support,” said Trung, who lives with her mother and three siblings in East Oakland.

“And we’ve never traveled before!” said Phung, who also lives with her single mother in East Oakland.

Neither girl has ever left California, they said, even though they have both participated in some of the local field trips organized by ESA.  Nevertheless, they clearly understand the global impact of pollution and other environmental hazards.  Explaining how plastic being dumped in the Pacific can be harmful to more than just the fish consuming the plastic, Trung said, “If one fish goes extinct, it’s going to continue like a chain and so the other fish is going to die too.  The other fishes that feed on that specific fish won’t have a food source, so they’re going to all die in the ocean.”

The girls both chose to be a part of ESA in the 10^th grade.  Neither had heard of the program until Kevin Jordan, the other co-director of ESA,told them that the ESA program focused on science and college readiness.

During their first year in ESA, students spend a lot of time at Lake Merritt in order to participate in hands-on science classes, testing the water and systematically observing the wildlife.

Phung says the ESA program is already teaching her more about real world environmental problems than some of her peers know—for example, the role carbon dioxide pollution from truck routes through the city plays in the high asthma rate in Oakland.  “I’m pretty sure that if they knew about the issue, they would step up,” to make changes that could help protect the environment, Phung said.

Phung and a number of her classmates put some of their real world knowledge to action at last Wednesday night at the Oakland Unified School District’s board meeting to ask the board to restrict the use of Styrofoam trays and disposable water bottles used in their school’s cafeteria.  Phung said Styrofoam has been banned in Oakland, so she can’t understand why it would be allowed in Oakland’s schools.

“If the grown-ups are not taking action, I believe that the kids should take action because it’s about their future, not just adults,’” Trung said.

If you wish to donate to students’ airfare for this trip, or for more information, you can email James Wallace at Oakland High School.

The massive fundraiser has raised more than $15 million for the Oakland Museum since the sale began in 1959. The board’s 1,200 volunteers begin to prepare for the sale in May, taking donations throughout the year. In January, they hold a pre-sale for die-hard fans, antique collectors and dealers, but the general public floods the warehouse on a March weekend hoping to score treasures on the cheap.

Nurmi Karen, who has been coming to the sale for at least 30 years, was the first person in line at 3 a.m. It took her two hours to reach the warehouse from her home in Forrestville, north of Santa Rosa. Karen was hoping to add to her collection of over 2,000 Breyer horses, but had already made several purchases at the preview sale in January.

“I’m just coming here for the pure enjoyment of it,” Karen said. “I work for the state, so I have to put it in my vacation planning.” She was also hoping to pick up some audio tapes to entertain her during the two hour trip home.

Jean Dixon, who was number three in line this year, has gotten to know Karen in the 37 years they have both been coming to the sale.

“Nurmi has been first as long as Ive been coming,” she said. “Except one time, I beat her and was first in line.”

Evelyn Hairston, number two in line, arrived at 3:20 a.m., and planned to peruse the vintage clothes, handbags, and Bibles. Hairston was so excited about the sale, she said she never went to bed.

Josie Arroyo and her mother Peggy Flores, who were fourth and fifth in line, have been coming to the sale for ten years. “I like to collect stuff, but I collect to keep it, not to sell. Or maybe that’s called hoarding,” Arroyo said, laughing.

The pair was looking for shoes, or “whatever treasures we might find,” Arroyo said.

The early arrivals spent the morning in folding chairs they had brought with them to the sale.

By 10 a.m., right before the doors opened, volunteers sporting red vests and white coats inside the 96,000-foot warehouse took to their stations and lined up, ready to clap as shoppers rushed in. An announcer started a countdown over the loudspeaker, and once the gate was lifted, shoppers hurried up the ramp to get to the wares.

A volunteer looking down on the sale from an office above the warehouse floor was amazed by the site of hundreds of shoppers combing through the merchandise. “I have never seen it from up here before,” said Oona Johnson. “It looks like ants.”

On offer inside the cavernous warehouse: everything from dining tables and chairs to bikes, a kayak and sailboat, an antique wheel chair, costumes, rare books, and strands of pearls, real or fake. One shopper walked out with a bow and arrow, while others picked up old suitcases, antique trunks, lingerie, and even a Dianne von Furstenberg jumpsuit. One woman had even donated an entire collection of crocheted dolls that she had made of every single First Lady, not to mention Tricia Nixon’s entire wedding party.

Volunteer Joan Propp, who works in the household section, has seen some of the sale’s more interesting sales items. She is in charge of barwear, and gets a lot of genitalia-themed donations. “When we get something that’s a little shady, for some reason I always get the risqué box,” she said. “I have no idea how I became the porn queen of the White Elephant sale. It’s a great distinction.” The most interesting item she says she’s seen in thirty years of volunteering? A teddy bear with a secret compartment inside to conceal a flask of liquor.

Donations for the sale are collected throughout the year, and by January, Propp was working on the sale five days a week. “My husband is a CPA, and he’s unavailable until after April 15, so it’s a good time to keep busy,” she said. “The man hours are terrific—you get more out of volunteers than paid employees.”

The total income from the sale won’t be announced for another two weeks, when the Women’s Board will host a party for the volunteers, but the preview sale in January brought in $350,000, a record high, as well an uptick in early shoppers. “It’s the best we’ve ever done in preview,” said Joan Upshaw, a volunteer and cashier. “We had 1,000 more people.”

Last year’s sale—the group’s fiftieth—brought in $1.3 million for the museum. The four most lucrative departments were art, which raked in $110,000, books, photos and music, which made $124,000, jewelry, which brought in $145,000 and furniture $166,000. The total was the second-highest in the sale’s history, and volunteers are hoping to break the $1 million mark again this year. “We keep worrying with the economy, but they keep coming,” Johnson said.

The White Elephant sale continues today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 333 Lancaster Street in Oakland.

Brie Pleasants and Naima Wye collaborate on a sketch.

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, a handful of teenage girls trickled through the door of Rock Paper Scissors Art Collective in downtown Oakland. It looked like a typical after-school powwow: The girls chatted, dropping book bags and grabbing homemade sandwiches, waving hello to a teenage boy quietly sewing in the corner. They all exchanged conversations with a slender, brunette woman sitting at a desk in the center of all the activity.

The brunette, Kristi Holohan, is the director of The Street Style/Dream Seam School of Fashion, an after-school program that fosters creativity and entrepreneurship in high school students interested in the fashion business.  The course, which runs from October to May, meets at three different locations each week so students can sketch, design, hone sewing skills and be around other artists. Students come to sessions at Rock Paper Scissors, MetWest High School near Lake Merritt or at Tassafraonga Recreation Center in East Oakland where fabric, sewing machines and, of course, sandwiches are provided for them.

Holohan, 31, has been sewing since she was 7 years old and is a design artist working in Oakland. Her co-teacher Kenny Mau, 25, is a stylist at BCBG in San Francisco. Their goal, Holohan says, is to let their students enter “a world of art and fashion and creativity.”

As the two-hour class gets underway, someone puts on their iPod, which seamlessly shifts between Motown classics and indie rock, and the students start in on their projects without any direction. Francisco Ziminay, 15, works on hand-sewing a pair of pants. Brie Pleasants, 18, sketches a dress she plans to enter into a contest sponsored by Jo-Ann Fabrics. Liliana Herrera, 16, leans over Pleasants and suggests an easier way to draw in pleats.

Milan Williams, 17, and Holohan are both hunched over a sewing machine working on the beginnings of a bright blue gingham scarf. Williams, who attends Berkeley High, is a newcomer to the class. She loves fashion, she says, but never had any of the technical skills.  “It takes hours to learn how to sew, it takes a lot of focus,” said Williams. “ But, I like that I get to create and be creative and express myself,” she said of the program.

“Kristi is always supportive, with her anything goes,” Williams added.

“I allow them to do whatever they want,” says Holohan about the students’ freedom to pursue creative projects: Some sew, others design hats, and some screen-print and design t-shirts or knit.

Despite the diversity of creative pursuits, Holohan is tuned into what her students like to do and where they excel.  “Francisco sews everything by hand,” she said, gesturing towards the corner Ziminay occupied. “Brie here is our P.R. goddess and Naima is an amazing sketch artist.”  Naima Wye, a 16-year-old Berkeley High student was engrossed in the stuffed animal she was sewing, looked up and said,  “I love fashion and street style,” she said. “I have to draw. I get consumed like a zombie.”

Pleasants, a student at Oakland Senior High School, is grateful for Holohan’s individual attention. “I’ve learned about myself. Kristi always tells me how well-spoken and patient I am,” she said.

The Street Style School has been running for three years but Holohan, with the help of co-teacher Mau, has been working to take it in a different direction, one that is more focused on being a professional artist and understanding the industry, she said.  In addition to holding resume writing workshops and mock interviews and providing students with their own business cards, Holohan teaches her students about the negative aspects of the fashion world.  She tries to combat the stereotypes of beauty by showing ads that feature real women, like Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty,” or providing offbeat magazines in addition to more mainstream catalogs and periodicals. Industry specialists such as milliners and t-shirt designers have paid visits to the class. She also invites her students to other art events she hosts to help establish the young artists in the community.

The students have come together to show their work at Oakland Public Library and the Oakland Museum of Children’s Art where they made dresses out of newspaper for an exhibition.  The students have executed photo shoots at the Oakland Public Library as well, organizing everything from the models’ hair and makeup to designing the clothes. They’ve also been setting up a table at the monthly First Friday Art Murmur events in Oakland, selling their homemade jewelry, knit items and hats. They pulled in $100 from their first booth back in February, and used the proceeds to fund more design projects.

For several of the students, like Williams who knits both by hand and on an industrial knitting machine, the designs they produce with the Street Style program will be used in portfolios for art schools and for internships. Herrera, a photographer and painter, works for an Oakland based muralist, has had work exhibited at SFMOMA, the Oakland Museum, Hood Games and Graffiti Jam, an impressive list about which Herrera responds with a shrug — “I’m an artist,” she says.

As part of the day’s lesson, Holohan is teaching the students how to write a press release about the Street Style Program.  Herrera and Wye are in charge of writing it out, and struggle for a moment with the wording.

“Well, what are you trying to say?”  Holohan asked Herrera.

“Just that we’re youth from Oakland,” the student replied, “trying to make a difference and prove that Oakland has hella talent.”

As smells of frying onions and carne asada wafted out of the trucks, we rode through the Fruitvale sampling tacos, tortas, tamales and even some pupusas. Most folks ended the tour at Nieves Cinco de Mayo, an amazing ice cream parlor that has crazy flavors like corn, cheese, curdled milk, and cinnamon.

Before the ride, there was a slight scare among the organizers that too many people would show up and overwhelm the taqueros. The day before, NBC news broadcast a shout-out to the Tour de Taco and the tour’s Facebook invite quickly accumulated 491 confirmed guests. But when all was said and done, probably around 100 people showed up and the taqueros were able to keep the hungry bikers fed (although, at one point in the day, taco truck El Gordo ran out of tortillas and offered people plates of meat instead.)

If you’re sad you missed out on the riding and food, you can gather your friends together and make your own Tour de Taco by following our route:

Meet at the Fruitvale BART:

1. El Ojo de Agua – 12^th St. and Fruitvale Ave.
2. Tamales Mi Lupita – 34^th Ave. and Foothill Blvd.
3. El Gordo – International and 42^nd Ave.
4. Tacos Guadalajara – 10^th St. and Fruitvale Ave.
5. Nieves Cinco de Mayo – 3340 E. 12^th St. and 33^rd Ave.

This spring, Oakland North welcomes a new staff of 13 reporters, all students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Got story ideas? Questions? Complaints? Please drop us a line at staff@oaklandnorth.net

Elise Craig

Elise Craig is a native Northern Californian who started writing at her high school newspaper, The Octagon. After graduating from Georgetown University in 2006, she spent two years as a producer on the breaking news desk of the washingtonpost.com, then quit her job on the InterWebs to get back to the future of journalism: print. She is a second year at the UC Berkeley Graduate school of journalism. 

Allison Davis

Allison Davis grew up in Baltimore but has never watched the Wire. After fleeing the suburbs for New York City to attend Barnard College, she worked for Jane, Teen Vogue, The New York Times Syndicate, and CNN and was a Senior Writer at The Columbia Eye. Now, as a second year at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, she is focusing on long form magazine writing and cultural criticism—a fancy term for watching too much TV.

Mary Flynn

Originally from Lakewood, WI, I’ve lived (mostly) in the great city of Madison, WI, for the past 8 years. I arrived in Berkeley just before the start of the fall semester, and already I’m learning to love the California sun when it shows its face (especially when we get to point and laugh at fog-enshrouded San Francisco across the bay). I have a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Go Badgers!) in English and Communication Arts, TV/Film/Radio. I come to Berkeley having recently completed an 8-year stint (whew!) as a broadcast journalist in the Wisconsin Army National Guard. I served a year-long tour in Iraq in 2004 as a broadcast journalist, and then another year in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as Media Relations Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC). Although I’ve been very proud to apply my skills set in service to my country, I’ve chosen to hang up my patrol cap in favor of the journalist’s pen for a while. I look forward to each day that gives me an opportunity to meet new people in the East Bay, learn their stories, and then explore new ways of reporting those stories to the North Oakland Community.

Will Jason

Will Jason first caught the reporting bug covering Little League baseball at age 12. A Los Angeles area native, he spent seven years on the East Coast before finding his way back to California. Before enrolling at UC Berkeley, he was a reporter for the North Bay Business Journal in Santa Rosa.

Dara Kerr

Born in Colorado, it’s only natural that Keeping it Wheel blogger Dara Kerr has bicycles in her blood. Even though memories of the Red Zinger, Coors Classic, Vecchio’s (the best bicycle shop ever) and countless hills, trails and roads to ride make her nostalgic for home—she’s happy to be riding around, watching and learning how they do in Northern California. Besides Keeping it Wheel, she likes to take pictures, make videos, produce radio pieces and write long stories about MC Hammer’s back-up dancers, robots, raptors and civil wars.

Paula Lehman 

Born and raised in New York City, I love covering colorful “towns.” I’ve written for magazines and daily papers for over 5 years and have interests in general news, sports and music. Spent my undergraduate days at Duke University. I worked at BusinessWeek magazine between college and my master’s program when I moved to the west coast.

Melanie Mason

Melanie Mason grew up in Los Angeles, where she was raised a Lakers fan, and then went to Georgetown University, where she became a Hoyas fan.  Now in the Bay Area, she is not particularly fond of the Warriors, but enjoys it here nevertheless.  She has worked for The New Republic, PBS NewsHour (back when it was called The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer), Politico and the New York Times’s Bay Area Blog.  This is her third semester reporting for Oakland North. 

Ayako Mie 

Ayako Mie is a student at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.  Mie is originally from Tokyo, Japan. Prior to coming to the Journalism School, Mie worked as a reporter for Tokyo Broadcasting System, a leading network television in Japan. She mostly covered international affairs including New York City immediately after the September 11th, North Korean nuclear issues and U.S. war on terror. In 2005, she served as a Washington, DC correspondent for Tokyo Broadcasting System.

At the Berkeley Journalism School, Mie has been working on two of the school’s hyper-local web sites, Mission Local and Oakland North, providing coverage to underserved communities. Now, she is in love with hyper-local reporting!  

Mie enjoys reading, cooking, walking around the city and traveling.  Her most favorite things is walking around New York City and find latest fashion trend. Mie currently lives with three awesome housemates in Berkeley.

Lillian Mongeau

I grew up in the Boston area, and California is the eighth state I’ve lived in.  So far it’s winning major points!  My undergraduate degree from Barnard College is in English and creative writing.  After graduating in 2004, I spent some time as a ski bum and part-time nanny before moving to Roma, Texas (a Mexican border-town) to teach seventh grade English as a Teach for America corps member.  I am still very interested in education and I look forward to reporting on Oakland’s schools this year and am always interested in hearing from readers about issues and events that deserve some press-time.  In my free time, I am an incessant reader.  I also love to ski, bike, run, swim, and eat.

Ryan Phillips

Ryan is a Berkeley native, and graduated from Berkeley High School. He was a literature major at UC Santa Cruz, and received his degree in 2004. Ryan then spent four years with the Santa Cruz Sentinel, where he was a staff reporter, page designer and later sports editor. In 2008, Ryan moved to New York City to spend a year leading volunteer groups in construction projects as part of a Habitat for Humanity first-time homebuyer program in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Ryan is interested in sports and investigative reporting.

Callie Shanafelt

Callie Shanafelt grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, WA. She started her undergraduate work at an international school now called Global College. She studied film and video in New York, Kenya and South Africa before returning to Washington State and completing her degree at the Evergreen State College. After graduation she worked on a radio program and TV show called Voices of Diversity, which sparked her love of journalism and all its possibilities. In journalism school, she plans to continue with TV and radio and develop multimedia skills. Swimming and karaoke are her preferred stress relievers.

Josh Wolf

Josh Wolf grew up in Wrightwood, a tiny village in Southern California. In 2002, he moved to the Bay Area. Before becoming a journalist, Josh studied film and psychology at UC Santa Barbara and San Francisco State. He wanted to make movies with big-budgets and subversive scripts, but soon discovered that reality was exciting enough. Josh has worked at CNET, Peralta TV, and KPFA radio. He most recently wrote for the Daily Post in Palo Alto. Josh still can’t decide whether it’s more important to print the news and raise hell, or to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Shilanda Woolridge

Shilanda Woolridge spent the last ten years as a professional nerd, managing computer labs, teaching, consulting and performing desktop tech support. After work she was a stringer for the Arts & Entertainment department of the Austin American Statesman. She covered the spoken word beat and fringe theatre. Woolridge is from Louisiana, but was raised everywhere and nowhere as an Air Force brat. She enjoys travel, learning languages, speculative fiction, and baking pastries. She has come to UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism for a paradigm shift. Her goals are to become a multidisciplinary journalist and an academic.

Graduate Student Researcher 

Tasneem Raja

Tasneem Raja is a multimedia reporter working in print, video, and design. This summer, she was a Bloomberg fellow with News21, a Carnegie-Knight initiative for digital innovation in journalism. Previously, she was a staff writer at the Chicago Reader, and a contributing writer at the Philadelphia Weekly. See more of her work at tasneemraja.com.
Instructors

Richard Koci Hernandez

Richard Koci Hernandez is a national Emmy award winning video and multimedia producer and worked as a photographer at the San Jose Mercury News for 15 years. His work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and international magazines, including Stern. In 2008, Richard was awarded a national Emmy award for the New Approaches to Documentary category for his work on the Mercury News video entitled, Uprooted. In 2003, Richard was the recipient of the James K. Batten Knight Ridder Excellence Award. His work for the Mercury News has earned him two Pulitzer Prize nominations. His photography and multimedia work has won numerous awards on the national and regional level, including two Emmy nominations. Richard was named deputy director of photography and multimedia after spearheading the creation of MercuryNewsPhoto.com. Koci Hernandez is currently a visiting Fellow at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism supported by a Ford Foundation grant to produce digital news sites for San Francisco Bay Area communities.

Kara Platoni

Thirteen years ago, I was a J-school student here! Back then we still covered local news — we produced a weekly newspaper — but in those pre-Internet days the only way we could distribute it was via smudgy Xerox, and most of what we wrote never made it far outside of the J-school. We never imagined that one day thousands of people from around the world would be able to read our reports from Oakland. After graduating, I continued to work as a Bay Area reporter; I spent eight years as a staff writer at the East Bay Express, and am now the senior editor at Terrain, a Berkeley-based quarterly environmental magazine. I’m also a freelance science writer for whose work has appeared in nerdly publications like Air & Space, Popular Science and Smithsonian. You can see more of my work at KaraPlatoni.com.

Faculty Advisor

Cynthia Gorney

I was a reporter for The Washington Post for 16 years, grew up in San Francisco (Lowell High School and U.C. Berkeley), and have lived in North Oakland since 1983–raised kids here, coached girls’ soccer, remember when Rockridge Market Hall was a seasonal pumpkin patch or Christmas Tree lot. Since leaving the Post I’ve written for a variety of national magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Runners World and Sports Illustrated, while also teaching here at the Graduate School of Journalism. The new reporters on this site are terrific, full of ideas, and eager to hear from you. Talk to them with any feedback, suggestions, corrections, and guidance on how to see this region through your eyes.

Photos courtesy of Congo SQ West, Rita Daniels and Rara Tou Limen.