Month: January 2011
Making the right decision can be hard when you’re young, especially when you’re raised in a violent neighborhood. But some community organizations are working to train urban youth in Oakland to think through their decisions more clearly, and help transform their community.
Police Chief Anthony Batts came to Oakland with the promise that he would have the resources to do the job. Instead of beefing up the department, it has been cannibalized. We have gone from 803 cops to 656 with more losses predicted because of attrition. The city has no plans to recruit new cops. Now it looks like Batts may want to leave.
Oakland North is continuing with our new feature. Every Wednesday, we will publish a photo submitted by one of our readers. This week’s photo is by Brett Spencer.
Say you’re at the Rockridge BART station and you’re planning to ride your bike to downtown Oakland. You get on Shafter Avenue—the main through street with the least amount of traffic—and begin riding. The Webster/Shafter corridor, as bike route is called, is one of the several dozen projects the City of Oakland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program will be working on in 2011.
As sure as it’s the New Year, it’s also school selection season in Oakland. Obsessing about kindergarten is one of those things almost every middle-class parent here does, as normal as buying a family membership at the zoo.
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 Nutmeg the dog.
Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts is being considered for the job of San Jose’s new police chief, after just more than a year of service in Oakland. Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Holly Joshi confirmed that Batts is one of two finalists for the position, but said that neither Batts nor the San Jose Police Department have made any decisions yet.
Underneath a network of highways, off of Martin Luther King Jr. Way in the Longfellow neighborhood, is a big expanse of green grass in the Grove Shafter Park. Here Oakland’s newest public dog park was opened on Saturday.
Typically when people think of scones, they think of the muffin’s inferior pastry sibling—a dry, crumbly thing that tastes like flour. But Remedy Coffee is serving up scones that are not typical. With flavors like huckleberry cream, cheddar scallion and blood orange along with a texture that’s buttery and flaky, they melt in your mouth more easily than a cupcake.
Plant a tree, help clean up a neighborhood, or attend a peace celebration or film festival in honor of the 25th Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Here’s a list of events going on in Oakland — if you know of some we left out, please feel free to add them in the comments!
About 30 teachers gathered Thursday to demonstrate in front of three banks at the Rockridge shopping center at 51st Street and Broadway. McClymonds Teacher Craig Gordon explained the group was there to “demand that schools and public services be bailed out” the same way that banks were bailed out during the mortgage crisis.
The famed Harlem Globetrotters are rolling through Oakland for two games this weekend and will bring all of their trademark basketball skills and antics with them, as well as their distinctive messages of fun, kindness, and inclusion.
Community events and activities for the weekend of January 14-16. Got an event we didn’t know about? Please add it in the comments!
Four charter schools presented petitions to renew their charters at the Oakland Unified School District board meeting last night. Students, teachers and parents from the Oakland schools crowded the boardroom and took turns asking the board to let their schools continue to operate for five more years.
Nearly 100 people held candles and listened to speakers at a vigil in downtown Oakland for Arizona congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, and the other victims of Saturday’s shooting. Congresswoman Barbara Lee told the crowd the vigil was for all the victims of Saturday’s shooting, “whether they had a title or not.”
The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers faced off in an offensive slugfest on Wednesday night, but despite being ahead most of the game, the home team was unable to secure the lead when it mattered most, eventually succumbing to the more widely popular California team, 115-110.