Month: January 2011

5 great bike rides in Oakland

Oakland is considered a great place to ride bikes—it has temperate weather, flat streets, hills and a diverse array of scenery. After Oakland North did a story on 10 great walks in Oakland, we thought a story on five great bike rides in Oakland would be helpful, too.

You Tell Us: Point, shoot, deposit

At first, I thought they might be looking at their victim, reacting to their bloody deed, her with a glee in her face that approached the psychotic, him with a rather more appropriate look of moral ambivalence. I was wrong. They were looking at a check.

Meet the nation’s first green auto showroom on Oakland’s Auto Row

As the market for eco-friendly vehicles grows, car dealers across the country are seeking new ways to capture the attention of green-minded drivers. Honda of Oakland has made a bid to attract those drivers as they shop for their next car on Oakland’s Auto Row by opening the nation’s first showroom dedicated exclusively to the hybrid and alternative-fuel cars of a major car company.

Adoptable Animal of the Week: Paris

Oakland North is continuing with our new feature. Every Tuesday, Oakland Animal Services will spotlight an “Animal of the Week” that’s up for adoption at their facility. This week it’s Paris the kitten.

At Safe Routes to School Workshop, parents brainstorm auto alternatives

Only one generation ago, almost half of all children in the United States walked to school. But today a look at the car-jammed streets outside of schools in the morning and afternoon tells a different story. Only one in ten children now walk to school regularly, with the number of walking and bicycling trips to school made by children down by 65 percent over the last 40 years, according to the U.S Department of Transportation. Parents’ concerns about traffic safety are…

Chinese charter school to open in East Bay this August

Oakland resident Wallace Lee crammed himself into a small room in Oakland’s Chinatown with nearly three dozen other parents on Saturday afternoon to hear plans for what many East Bay residents see as an unfilled gap in the area’s education system: a public school with a Mandarin-English curriculum.

Artist community hosts open house party

Mike Taft isn’t an artist in the traditional sense. But when his entire live-work apartment complex was having an open house art party on Friday—one that he founded and organized—he was of course going to find a way to entertain the crowd. “I’m grinding down a piece of plywood with an angle grinder,” the industrial designer said with a grin.

Busy weekend in Oakland’s parks precedes annual meeting

Lots of people were out on Saturday at two of North Oakland’s most popular parks, Bushrod Park and Mosswood Park, enjoying the warm weather. The photo slideshow above gives an idea of the breadth of activities people took part in. “Parks are important,” Norma Herbert, 59, said from a picnic blanket in Mosswood Park. “Kids need somewhere to go and play.”

New texting program lets students tip police anonymously

Public school students in Oakland now have one more way to let authorities know if something is making them feel unsafe on campus: texting. Beginning last Thursday, a new program at the six major high school campuses in town—Oakland Tech, Skyline, McClymonds, Fremont, Castlemont and Oakland High—allows students to send anonymous text messages to Oakland Unified School District police about anything that worries them, from rumors of a fight on campus to concerns that a weapon has been brought to…