North Oakland Now
Good morning, all. Your daily dose: At last night’s City Council meeting, a four-member committee voted unanimously in support of a proposal to increase the tax on Oakland’s medical marijuana dispensaries. It’s one way to start increasing what will likely be an $65 million budget deficit in the coming fiscal year. Though they’d see a relatively large jump in their tax rate, from $1.20 per $1,000 in receipts to as much as $24, dispensary owners seem to be on board….
Happy rainy day, North Oaklanders… and here I bet you thought it was spring. Today’s news: the Women’s Reproductive Health Clinic has closed after more than three decades, citing the recession. Bad news for women’s health, surely, but also a sign of how much the state’s budget crisis is affecting local economies. WCC Executive Director Linci Comy told the Tribune that since the state has frozen all payments for services already provided, the clinic couldn’t make its rent. Budget crisis…
Hello everyone, and welcome back to North Oakland Now… we’ve been on spring break and sadly remiss in updating, but now we’re back! Some news of note today: The Chronicle reports that the number of homeless people in the Bay Area is climbing, and we may not even know how bad it is yet. For some more context (because I know you’re not sick of reading about it yet), check out this comparison between today’s recession and the Great Depression,…
We’ll have more on this soon, but for now I just wanted to draw your attention to a few new details about the police shooting that took place over the weekend. According to the Oakland Tribune, the suspect in the shootings was a recent parolee trying to navigate a broken system. Last week we profiled some people who are making it through this system, but it’s not easy for them or for anyone else. I’ll be keeping an eye on…
I was driving down Shattuck Ave this afternoon – the 6th anniversary of the Iraq war – and out of the corner of my eye I noticed quite a commotion out front of the Marine recruiting center. I circled around to get a better look, and saw the huge windows at the front of the Center being replaced. There were baseball-sized holes in the windows, and dripping red paint. Read an article about the vandalism from the Oakland Tribune.
Good morning! It looks like it’s getting a little more crowded here in Oakland. The population in every Bay Area county grew last year for the first time since 2000 according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Alameda County added an estimated 20,722 residents. An Oakland man who is a member of the Surenos street gang is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl, according to police. He sent her threatening text messages while she was undergoing…
Good morning Oakland North! It isn’t a big news day today; the top story is that the Oakland City Council deadlocked over funding for children and youth during their meeting Tuesday night. The city cannot afford the funding mandated by Measure OO, passed by voters in November, and the council cannot decide what to do. They didn’t agree to repeal Measure OO nor did they vote for a compromise that allows at least moderate funding increases for youth programs….
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Kaiser Permanente, the Oakland health maintenance organization, is cutting 860 information technology jobs nationwide. About 130 of the 260 employees at the Walnut Creek center will be affected by the job cuts. Ex-1970s radical, Sara Jane Olson, was freed from prison in Chowchilla, California. She plead guilty and served seven years for placing pipe bombs under Los Angeles Police Department patrol cars and participating in a robbery of a Sacramento bank while she in the…
Good Monday, The U.S. Department of Labor gave a $1.9 million grant to the new San Francisco Bay Area Clean Energy Career Project (BayCEC) last fall, which will train more than 250 students in clean energy careers such as solar installation, green marketing, and energy auditing and retrofits for homes and offices starting this summer and are free for laid-off participants. Five teens escaped from a San Mateo County juvenile detention facility but have been put back in custody…