Coffee shops used to be the social hub of the community until laptops and wireless Internet turned them into libraries that serve food. In North Oakland, one coffee shop is trying to get the conversation started again. Shilanda Woolridge reports.
Golden Gate
Actual Cafe in Golden Gate goes laptop free on the weekends
February 6, 2010 – 11:21 am
In an effort to keep Actual Cafe an actual cafe, starting this weekend owner Sal Bednarz will embark upon a month-long social experiment to create the kind of social atmosphere that existed before wireless internet and mobile computers. Bednarz wants people to step away from their Facebook profiles and connect face-to-face.
After five years of Measure Y, Oakland asks “Is community policing the answer?”
January 21, 2010 – 9:00 am
A string of robberies in the Golden Gate neighborhood raises questions about the effectiveness of community policing five years after the passage of Oakland’s Measure Y.
At Children’s Hospital, a request for cash over toys drops donations for families affected by AIDS
November 12, 2009 – 7:57 pm
Drop in donations this year is leaving Children’s Hospital with few gifts to give away.
Northwest Oakland shooting injures one person
November 12, 2009 – 1:51 pm
A Wednesday shooting that injured one person is just the latest incident on a troubled corner, according to people who work in the neighborhood.
Residents consider Golden Gate redevelopment plan
October 31, 2009 – 7:20 am
Golden Gate residents hear officials from Oakland’s Redevelopment Agency explain how becoming part of a city redevelopment area could change the neighborhood.
In a Festival of Lights, Emeryville youth dance with Indian legend
October 22, 2009 – 6:48 pm
At the Golden Gate Public Library on Tuesday night, a diverse group of young dancers celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights, continuing a tradition that is thousands of years old .
40th St bike lane plan sets off hot neighbors’ debate
October 21, 2009 – 10:53 pm
An ambitious east-west bike plan proposal set off agitated debate at a meeting Tuesday in North Oakland’s Longfellow district, where one speaker likened the neighborhood to a bride on her wedding day. The plan to remove medians, he said, is going “to take her dress, smear her make-up, shave her head, and pare her down to a tank top.”
Trash and treasure up-for-grabs this Friday
October 20, 2009 – 7:21 pm
This Friday, U.C. Berkeley’s Marchant Building in North Oakland will be cleared of tables, drawers, wooden chairs, a futon frame, sofas and office supplies. They’d like you to take it. As much as you want. Free. But bring a truck.
Walking quiet streets in Golden Gate
October 1, 2009 – 8:11 pm
The streets around San Pablo were quiet in the late September sun last Wednesday afternoon. The shouts of kids playing jump rope at Berkeley-Maynard Academy, a charter elementary school, punctuated the quiet. Join the walk in these photo images.
Golden Gate residents confront neighborhood crime
September 30, 2009 – 5:15 pm
After a recent spate of crime, Golden Gate neighbors refused to retreat into their homes, instead walking the area’s streets in a show of solidarity. But fighting a neighborhood crime problem isn’t always easy.
3rd graders hear their President urge them on
September 8, 2009 – 6:41 pm
Fifteen pairs of eyes in Muslimah Mohammed’s class at Santa Fe Elementary School were fixed on the television screen this morning, watching President Obama address the nation’s students.
“I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school,” the President began, drawing cautious nods from the attentive third-graders, who had actually started [...]
Oakland Home Values a Block-by-Block Prospect
February 8, 2009 – 6:19 pm
By Elise Craig and Melanie Mason/Oakland North
On the corner of 34th Street and Market Street in Oakland, a Coldwell Banker sign is attached to a chain link fence in front of a house with graffiti-covered boarded windows. Beside it, a black arrow on a yellow plastic sign points to a real estate auction up the [...]
Neighbors band against multiplying group homes
December 9, 2008 – 4:54 pm
Golden Gate residents complain the proliferation of group care facilities hurts the neighborhood–and that nobody would try this in, say, Rockridge. Click here for the story.
“Problem-solvers” try a different kind of policing
November 20, 2008 – 6:51 pm
By ANNA BLOOM
Once officers receive badges from the Oakland Police academy, they usually begin to gravitate to an area of expertise. “When you come on patrol, you specialize,” Oakland Police Sgt. Bernard Ortiz says. “Some guys become motor-men, they love giving tickets. Some guys are dope guys.”
For a long time, Ortiz was a dope guy. [...]
Motel’s a sleazy neighbor, residents complain
October 16, 2008 – 4:39 pm
Neighbors of this Golden Gate neighborhood motel say they’re fed up with what seems to go on inside. Click here for the story.