Last week, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and five East Bay communities were fined $389,300 in penalties for violating the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2014 Clean Water Act settlement. Oakland was penalized the most harshly, collecting $226,500 worth of those fines for its failure to both repair its sewage system’s defects and to prevent sewage from overflowing into the San Francisco Bay. The effects of overflooding—not just in private homes and neighborhoods, but also into the bay—are deadly for…
Next time you drive through a massive pothole in Oakland, remember to dial 311. On Monday, the city announced the launch of OAK 311, a new service that facilitates communication between Oakland residents and the city’s various maintenance crews in charge of city services. In a press release sent Monday, Mayor Libby Schaaf said that one of her highest priorities is to make Oakland a “responsive and transparent government.” Now, residents calling from within Oakland can simply dial 311 to…
When Rafiullah Amiri, who had immigrated to the United States from Afghanistan, noticed that many women within his immigrant community were confined to their homes—shocked by the culture difference and unable to speak the language of their host country—he had an idea: They could earn money cooking.
Tensions ran high at the BART Police Citizen Review Board (BPCRB) meeting on Monday as the family of a slain Oakland man attended to protest the involved BART Police officer’s return to active duty. On January 3, Shaleem Tindle died after being shot outside of the West Oakland BART station by BART Police Officer Joseph Mateu, according to a statement from the Oakland Police Department. According to news reports, the officer heard gunshots before running to the scene, where he…
Oakland Councilmember-at-large Rebecca Kaplan hosted a community meeting on homeless solutions Monday to address what she believes is the city’s number one concern: the number of unhoused people living on Oakland’s streets.
U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer on whether its third version violates federal immigration law or the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against religious discrimination
On the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and 39th Street in Oakland lies a quaint, red brick bookstore decorated with murals of prominent black figures and tattooed with bold lettering. I spotted Malcolm X on one side of the building and on the other, the outline of Africa accompanied by the virtues “dignity,” “honor,” “respect,” “justice” and “compassion.” Inside Marcus Books, a wealth of stories echo the same themes—from Maya Angelou’s complete poetry book to James Baldwin’s I…
A $4 billion bond measure that will determine funding for California’s local and state parks will appear on ballots during the June statewide direct primary election.
After years of waiting and yearning, more than 1,300 immigrants from 95 countries became United States citizens at a ceremony held at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland last Tuesday morning.