North Oakland Now

Today Oakland North officially welcomes its reporting crew back to school for the start of the new semester! Our group this spring will include Oakland North veterans from the fall 2009 group, the spring 2009 group, and even the founding fall 2008 group, plus we’ll be joined by some new friends who previously worked on our sister sites, Mission Local and Richmond Confidential. We’re ready to go, and it’s going to be awesome! Stay tuned for more breaking news, in-depth features, and…

However you define North Oakland, the Temescal neighborhood is at the center of it.

We have a busy year planned at Oakland North, as we’ll follow the mayor’s race; a new police chief’s efforts to keep Oakland’s crime rate on the decline; redevelopment initiatives in Upper Broadway and Golden Gate; and ongoing budget problems at the city and state level.

Even during UC Berkeley’s winter break, Oakland North has a few more tricks up its sleeve. In the next few days, we’ll showcase some stories that we weren’t able to run during the semester.

Ten days from now, the calendar will change and usher in a new decade. The last time this happened, it was a slightly bigger deal, as we were changing centuries and millennia along with it. But still, a lot has happened in the past 10 years. Computers didn’t melt down during Y2K, but it wasn’t long before the United States was attacked on 9/11 and entered two wars that remain with us. Here in California, Arnold Schwarzenegger led a recall…

After a flurry of political developments (and snow) in Washington D.C. this weekend, Congress is on the verge of passing a health care bill that would provide coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans. Liberals bemoan the bill’s lack of a government-administered “public option” for health care, while conservatives complain it will create skyrocketing deficits and unprecedented federal intrusion. No one–not the suddenly famous Olympia Snowe, the hard-bargaining Joe Lieberman, or Barack Obama himself–is getting exactly what they want from health…

Residents of North Oakland gathered last night to discuss a November crime surge, including three shootings in Bushrod and Golden Gate. City Council Member Jane Brunner discussed the city’s response, including the possibility of a bound measure to fund Oakland’s police force during challenging budgetary times. Oakland North’s Richard Parks filed this report. Close to one year after one of BART’s police officers killed Oscar Grant in the Fruitvale station, the transit agency is searching for a new police chief….

In describing Oakland, or at least a part of it, the author Gertrude Stein once famously said, “There is no there there.” The quote has a checkered past. Scholars have pointed out that Stein meant she could not find her childhood home in Oakland when returning to the city in 1930s after decades of living in Paris. Yet it’s often been taken out of context since she said it, to mean Oakland is a place with no character. For the…

2009 is drawing to a close, but there’s still unfinished business in Oakland politics before year’s end. Oakland North’s Richard Parks is investigating the city’s parking permit renewal system, which has come under scrutiny for inefficiency and excessive cost. The City Council has promised action. Look for a story later in the week. The Oakland Unified School District may try to close its budget deficit by closing certain schools. If final decisions are made at OUSD’s meeting tomorrow, Oakland North’s…