Mickey Capper

As early returns trickle in, Oakland voters and candidates wait

In a packed home in the Grand Lake neighborhood, supporters of Mayor Libby Schaaf and her campaign’s volunteers nibbled on quesadillas and checked back and forth between CNN and the front door to see when the candidate would arrive. Everyone from Jon Sarriugarte, the artist who designed the now-famous snail car, to city hall officials like District 3 Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, waited under orange and blue streamers. Schaaf’s older sister, Chris Schaaf, even drove in from Castro Valley to…

Electric scooters: covering the first and last mile in Oakland

Love them or hate them, electric scooters are now a regular sight on city streets across the nation. Since they first came to Oakland this summer, they’ve been operating in a legal gray area—there was no legislation in place to regulate them. That changed in September, when the Oakland City Council passed an ordinance to develop permits for scooter companies.