The polls have closed after Oakland’s first Election Day under ranked-choice voting, and it may be a few more days before residents will know who their next mayor will be. But former California State Senate President Don Perata has taken the lead in the first ballot count.

At campaign events during the last week, former State Senate President Don Perata is suggesting that Oakland needs a firmer hand in City Hall and that he’s the one to provide it.

A day in the life at City Hall: Sitting in on City Councilmember Jean Quan’s Monday staff meeting, a half-hour lightening round of Oakland public policy to prepare for the week ahead.

In an event designed to showcase a wide cross-section of Oakland leaders backing her candidacy, Jean Quan said she wants to be a mayor who spearheads change through “block by block” community organizing.

It’s an early February twilight in Rockridge, and commuters are making their way from the BART station to homes and shops along College Avenue. Mayoral candidate Jean Quan and a small group of canvassers are gathering around a silver Prius on Claremont Avenue.

Oakland residents filled the City Council chambers last night, pleading for a reprieve from an additional $15.3 million in city budget cuts to close the deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

However you define North Oakland, the Temescal neighborhood is at the center of it.

We have a busy year planned at Oakland North, as we’ll follow the mayor’s race; a new police chief’s efforts to keep Oakland’s crime rate on the decline; redevelopment initiatives in Upper Broadway and Golden Gate; and ongoing budget problems at the city and state level.

UC Berkeley unleashed 18 reporters on North Oakland back in late August. Here are some of the stories they found in the last four months.

Even during UC Berkeley’s winter break, Oakland North has a few more tricks up its sleeve. In the next few days, we’ll showcase some stories that we weren’t able to run during the semester.

In 2008, Alameda County law enforcement responded to almost 7,000 domestic disturbance calls. The Alameda County Family Justice Center helps many of these people navigate legal and social services available to them represent them in court.

The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir performed its annual Christmas concert on December 23 at the 12th Street City Center.

Ten days from now, the calendar will change and usher in a new decade. The last time this happened, it was a slightly bigger deal, as we were changing centuries and millennia along with it. But still, a lot has happened in the past 10 years. Computers didn’t melt down during Y2K, but it wasn’t long before the United States was attacked on 9/11 and entered two wars that remain with us. Here in California, Arnold Schwarzenegger led a recall…

After a flurry of political developments (and snow) in Washington D.C. this weekend, Congress is on the verge of passing a health care bill that would provide coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans. Liberals bemoan the bill’s lack of a government-administered “public option” for health care, while conservatives complain it will create skyrocketing deficits and unprecedented federal intrusion. No one–not the suddenly famous Olympia Snowe, the hard-bargaining Joe Lieberman, or Barack Obama himself–is getting exactly what they want from health…