Anyone who has shopped for food in a poor urban neighborhood, in Oakland or elsewhere, knows how it goes: Twenty varieties of malt liquor, potato chips, and frozen burritos and one bruised-up, waxy apple. Maybe a half-peeled onion. It’s so common that it’s almost a fact of life in America. Unhealthy food is as intrinsic to poor communities of color as are midnight gunshots and Newport cigarette billboard ads. Click HERE to see the special project
Journalism graduate student Puck Lo writes about her encounters with neo-liberalism around the world and here on the UC Berkeley campus.
Hey hey Oakland North, Quick updates for the day: Elgin Garret, 45, was arrested today for kidnapping and robbery. The OPD posted a photo of Garret yesterday during a robbery at an ATM machine in North Oakland. Sam Laird posted an article that talks about a space at Oakland International High School that may turn into a new park. S. Howard Bransford blogs about a demonstration that took place yesterday in downtown Oakland where people protested charges filed against a…
Coming up later this week: Oakland North’s Lilly Mongeau and Laurel Moorhead follow an Oakland Unified School District lunch from finish to start, examining “natural flavors,” visiting an assembly line, and tracing some ingredients to their surprising overseas origins. A photographic exhibit documenting how free antiretroviral drugs changes the lives of AIDS patients worldwide debuts this Wednesday at the African American Museum and Library. Becky Palmstrom will bring us the story.
Out of the Closet, a chain of second-hand stores, marked Tuesday’s World AIDS day by offering on-the-spot HIV tests at all its locations, including the five Bay Area shops. “In a clinic setting, people are nervous,” one of the test counselors said in Oakland. “This is more casual–it’s kind of better for the community.”
Oakland is one step closer to being chosen as the site for a future World Cup Series soccer match, that is, if the Federation Internationale de Football Association picks the US as a host country for either the 2018 or 2022 tournament. City officials have been vying for the title of US host city since June, and earlier this month they passed a resolution to continue bidding. Although Oakland has already survived a few stages of the bidding process, it…
On 64 year-old Karen Smulevitz’s stretch of 73d Avenue, just trying to cross the street is “an adventure,” she says. A new national report says that although Alameda County scores comparatively well in California pedestrian safety, streets like this are a danger to too many people and American cities.
Five years in the making, the documentary “Aoki,” about the Asian-American activist who was one of the original Black Panther leaders, premieres Thursday night at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater.
Oakland, like some other cities, requires right-to-life protesters to keep a certain distance from women entering or leaving abortion clinics. But clinic escorts–those who accompany women past the sidewalk protesters–face no such restriction. A lawsuit has pushed the issue into federal court.
At the Eastside Arts Alliance, historian Robin D. G. Kelley speaks about his new book examining the life of pianist Thelonious Monk, and upends the myth of Monk as a reclusive jazz genius.
At 23rd and Telegraph, inside a storefront/gallery/craft space called Rock Paper Scissors, neatly hung canvas paintings and framed ink drawings lined the walls. Cards below each piece identified the artist: all are prisoners at San Quentin.
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.
Twenty four of the most talented graffiti artists from California, Chicago, Hawaii and New York battled in West Oakland last Saturday.
Berkeley High is one of five California schools chosen to participate in a cutting-edge program designed to train students for environmentally friendly jobs and careers. State Senator Loni Hancock and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell attended a Wednesday morning assembly unveiling the new curriculum.
By Puck Lo/Oakland North
“I am one of four thousand people in Oakland who will be foreclosed on,” announced East Oakland homeowner Karen Mims. The middle-aged, bespectacled African-American woman spoke with passion, and her voice reverberated in the auditorium-sized room.
Koreans have lived in Oakland for decades, but in 2007 the city allowed a group of landlords the right to tax and manage several blocks on Telegraph Avenue, renaming the strip Koreatown – Northgate. The neighborhood speaks out on the area’s recent name change. Video by Puck Lo and Laurel Moorhead/Oakland North.