“I’m a mechanic,” explains Cynthia Elliott, reclining in her chair and propping her feet on her office desk. A TV episode from the 1960s show “Wagon Train” plays in the background and drawings of human anatomy hang on the wall behind her. She continues, “I approach everything as: What’s broken and how do we fix it?” Elliott is not talking about her day job running an exercise equipment repair service. She is describing the after-hours work that has made her…
Every year, hundreds of costumed children and adults crowd onto handmade benches in an unassuming driveway in Oakland’s Glenview neighborhood to watch “Driveway Follies,” a free Halloween-themed marionette puppet show. This year’s show features psychedelic skeletons stepping out of their skins, a blue-skinned magician, and Mysterious Mose, a creature with the ability to duplicate itself on stage in the most extraordinary way. Closing night is Halloween. At the dress rehearsal, children disguised as unicorns, pirates and ninja turtles squirmed and…
Aboard the Mare Island vessel en route to Oakland, it’s easy to sit back, relax and enjoy a jaunt across the bay. Yet the journey of ferry transportation in the Bay Area hasn’t always been so smooth, and the COVID-19 pandemic reversed strides made in recent years. To recoup riders, the service, which is administered by the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority, cut fares by 30%, reworked schedules to address new commuting trends and weekend demand, and…