In her first appearance as Oakland’s mayor-elect, Libby Schaaf held a press conference wearing a striking red dress, a necklace of the Oakland tree, a bamboo earrings and riding — unforgettably — in a fire-snorting snail-shaped chariot. All of these were made in Oakland, and all of them had a story.
These local makers, and the idea of Oakland as a “maker city,” have been a central point in Schaaf’s run up to being sworn in as mayor, down to the transportation (an Oakland-made art car) she used at her victory press conference.
Mustafa Ahadi came to the United States as a refugee after working as a medical translator with the US Armed Forces in Kabul. “This is a good country to find the dreams,” he says.
Meet Oakland’s new hybrid cafe-coworking space and the man behind it.
A second night of protests in Oakland started peacefully but became aggressive, with looting, vandalism, and fires in the streets in the Temescal and in Emeryville.
Oakland is feeling the effects of protests that swept the city after Monday night’s news from Ferguson. Vandalised businesses are boarded up, some closed. The police department announced that 43 were arrested during Monday’s protests.
The Alameda County Registrar of Voters recently released a map that casts a new light on the recent mayoral race in Oakland, which suggests that the outcome was more complex than a simple winner and loser.
Without the cells of Henrietta Lacks, the world would have no polio vaccine, cancer treatments, or in-vitro fertilization. This year, Samuel Merritt University will learn about her life as one community, and through it important lessons in medical ethics, informed consent, and human compassion.
As results from Tuesday’s election continue to come in, mayoral candidate Libby Schaaf claims an early lead in first choice voting. Additionally, Measures N, Z, BB and FF all receive the necessary votes to pass.
With fifteen mayoral candidates and more than a handful of measures on this year’s ballot, Oakland voters make their voices heard.
We followed Oakland mayoral candidates Courtney Ruby, Joe Tuman, Bryan Parker and Mayor Jean Quan for a day on the campaign trail and documented what they are doing in their final push before Tuesday’s election.
17-year-old Sophie Elkin, named Oakland’s 3rd Youth Poet Laureate in August, writes about what she knows: the grit and grandeur of Oakland’s people and places and the less tangible but no less real world of adolescence. After a childhood struggling to come out to herself and her parents, Sophie hopes her poetry will help other women to find their voices the way she has.
Some historians estimate that as many as one third of cowboys in the old West were black, but black cowboys are largely absent in mainstream pop culture. As the Oakland Black Cowboys Association celebrates 40 years, its members reflect on what being a black cowboy means to them and their families.
Beloved Rockridge bookstore Diesel turns 25 this week. It celebrates its past and looks to the future.