Oakland North is taking a look at the history of Rockridge. Go here to check out our page: We have stories on its early beginnings as a home for Oakland’s upper class by Ryan Phillips, a profile of one of Rockridge’s founding fathers by Amna Hassan, as well as what the area used to look like, in the words of some of its earliest settlers, by Megan Molteni. We also have photos of what the area looked like at the turn of the century.

The inspiration for a web project that contains interviews with 16 people “involved or impacted” by Occupy Oakland came from an exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California that documents the year 1968. “We thought, ‘What we would have done if we had a time machine and could go back to 1968 with a camera and a notebook?’” said Alex Abramovich, a journalist, artist and one of the co-creators of the project. “’What did we wish someone had done?’”

There’s a “culture shift” about bikes happening in the East Bay, Renee Rivera, the executive director of the advocacy group East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC), told a crowd gathered in Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall on Thursday to celebrate Bike to Work Day.

The City of Oakland should find a way to get out of its interest rate swap agreement with Goldman Sachs, a deal that costs the city $4 million annually, according to a city staff report. The problem before the city council now is figuring out the best way to do that without costing the city more money.

Oakland North is continuing with our feature. Every week, we will publish a photo submitted by one of our readers. This week’s photo is by Zoe Chafe.

The proliferation of donation boxes around town and the problems associated with them—like the blight added to neighborhoods when the boxes are not maintained by their owners, or concerns that many of the boxes are associated with organizations that don’t employ local workers—caught the attention of Oakland City Council members.

Oakland North is continuing with our 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 Rhea.

Is Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s 100-block crime initiative working to reduce the city’s debilitating crime problem, or is it just moving city resources to one part of the city, as crime spreads to areas where there are now fewer officers?

Many of the 20,000 people from Ethiopia and Eritrea living in the Bay Area call Oakland home. Oakland North is taking a look at the culture and history of the Ethiopian or Eritrean communities in Oakland with “East Africans in Oakland” a series of profiles on everyday people living in the city.

Oakland North is continuing with our feature. Every week, we will publish a photo submitted by one of our readers. This week’s photo is by Meredith Fenton.

Every day, employees of the city of Oakland’s and the city of Richmond’s public works departments each collect around 30 abandoned mattresses. These discarded beds cause a litany of problems for a city—there’s the cleanup cost (about $500,000 annually for Oakland), they pose a public health risk by attracting insects and rodents, and contribute to neighborhood blight. The issue of abandoned mattresses is a “regional problem” State Senator Loni Hancock (D-Oakland) said Monday during a press event in an area…