North Oakland Now
Good afternoon Oakland, As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake this Saturday, there are several events being held to celebrate Oakland’s recovery. Here’s what’s going on: The Great California ShakeOut, California’s earthquake preparedness program, held the largest earthquake drill EVER this morning at 10:15 a.m. Did you shake it out? We did! Article to come… The city of Oakland plans to commemorate the anniversary with a ceremony and preparedness fair at Cypress Freeway Memorial Park on…
Good morning Oakland, If you’re still drying out like we are, here are a few things to catch up with this morning: A new hyper-local website, Richmond Confidential, went live yesterday, part of the same initiative behind oaklandnorth.net and missionlocal.org. Oakland North is tweeting again, so check out our Twitter page! A 3.7 magnitude earthquake was reported near Sunol yesterday, so if you thought you felt the ground shaking last night at around 8:30, turns out you were not just…
Good morning Oakland, We hope you’re staying dry out there as the first rainstorm of the winter season is upon us. Here’s some recent news that caught our attention: If you were planning to head over to the Taste of Temescal festival tonight, hold off! Head over next Tuesday instead to enjoy this delicious culinary crawl. CalTrans announced yesterday new features to the Bay Bridge that will allow added protection against earthquakes once the new East Span opens in 2013….
Good afternoon Oakland, You may be noticing that we look a little different today. New look. (Isn’t it pretty?) New layout. (Don’t get lost!) New sections right up there at the top. (Go ahead, go play.) Let us know what you think about the new look in the comments. This North Oakland Now blog will also look different in the coming days. We’ll use this space as a review of Oakland’s most recent news and as a highlight of what’s…
What does it take to bring Allen Michaan, the owner of the Grand Lake Theater and one Oakland’s most public and outspoken liberal voices, to the same table with some of Oakland’s more conventional capitalists – the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and small business owners? In Oakland these days, it all comes down to parking. Michaan, of course, is well-known around town for the anti-Republican messages that regularly grace the Grand Lake’s marquee. Lately, however, those messages have been directed…
Flowers and photographs mark the corner of 54th and Gaskill Streets in Northwest Oakland, a reminder of a Labor Day shooting that claimed the life of Desiree Davis, an ambitious high school senior. Yet at a street fair planned for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, members of a neighborhood church plan to transform that same place of loss into a site of community healing. Minister Lorenzo Franklin of Humanity Baptist Church said health screenings, basketball and children’s crafts…
You have to look as far as New Zealand to find another country where drug companies can advertise products directly to patients. In the United States’ less regulated pharmaceutical market, patients can struggle to sort out competing claims about various drugs. And with Americans over 65 taking 34 percent of all prescription drugs, senior citizens are among the individuals most vulnerable drug-related complications. Poisoning is the fastest growing cause of accidental death among seniors, particularly from overdoses of over-the-counter and…
A dispatch from last night’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting, at Oakland City Hall: First, where the sidewalk ends, to quote the late Shel Silverstein, might be closer to home than you think. At the intersection of 29th Avenue and Ford Street in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, along the Nimitz freeway, a half-mile from the Fruitvale Bart Station, and a mere four blocks from Lazear Elementary School, the sidewalk, literally, ends. A pedestrian walkway comes to a stop,…
In part one of the Discovery Channel’s “Gang Wars Oakland,” which aired Monday, viewers saw Oakland streets beset by drugs and violence. From a prison interview with a crime lord named M.A.C. to a ride-along with Oakland PD’s Gang Unit, the program depicted a cycle of murder and retaliation that, filmmakers say, “keeps on spinning faster.” The emotional core of the story came during the funeral of Ronnie Grier, a 16-year-old who was found shot to death near a 580…