Community
For the last three years, Connor Crabb has been working as a recreation leader at Studio One, a city-run center in Oakland that offers afterschool and summer art classes to children. The 24-year-old Oakland native starts his day at the center around 1:30 pm, going from school to school, gathering students from different sites, then riding back to Studio One with a bus driver. He coaches elementary school students in flag football and basketball, and he helps make sure they…
The California State Bar’s Public Law Section has named Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker the 2015 Ronald M. George Public Lawyer of the Year (PLOY). The award is named after retired the California Supreme Court justice, and honors members of the State Bar who have demonstrated at least a five-year commitment to public law and have achieved exceptional accomplishments in the practice of public law. “It’s the highest recognition that I could receive, because it’s from your peers who know your…
For Oakland’s artists, The Flight Deck, an arts and performance venue, is an open home. But for one theater group in particular, the space means much more than that. Tucked away in the back of The Flight Deck, Gritty City Repertory Theater prepares for their newest play, while its founder, Lindsay Krumbein, is preparing to play the role of company manager, ticket seller and costume designer. Krumbein founded the group in 2012 after an 11-year career as an English and…
Meet Nomin Gambat, a 5-year-old girl who traveled all the way from Mongolia to Children’s Hospital Oakland to seek a clinical treatment for a disease so rare it strikes only 1 in a million people. But coming to the United States for medical treatment is difficult, requiring a special visa and proof that there is no cure for the person’s disease in their home country, and it is a stressful experience for families who must sometimes be separated for long periods while…
East Bay residents are joining with demonstrators across the state to protest against what advocates call “solitary confinement” on the 23rd of each month. The first joint protest was on held in downtown Oakland on March 23, and demonstrators will continue to meet monthly. The date was chosen “to signify the 23 hours a day that these men spend in these tiny cages when they’re subject to solitary confinement” said Laura Magnani, program director at Healing Justice, and the director at…
At the Oakland Cottage Industry Show at the Park Boulevard Presbyterian Church two weeks ago, more than 30 artisans gathered to show their home-made products. Among them was 91-year-old Gene Goodin, who sat quietly in front of his artwork wearing a hat that read “World War II, 1941-1945, Veteran.” To his right was an oil painting of an old train on a railway in the countryside, the brown train crossing a green landscape of hills. He sold it later in…
This year is the driest in recorded history in California. This has forced the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) to declare a stage 4 drought, the highest stage ever announced in the area, although even higher stages can apply if the drought gets worse. EBMUD is asking East Bay citizens to cut down their water usage. Water is a vital resource to survive. But most of the water on Earth is salt water and not directly usable for humans. Only about…
After almost two years of planning, on April 28, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland announced that its Center for Community Health and Engagement had been born. What they call “The Center” will function within Children’s Hospital to coordinate programs focusing on preventive healthcare for children and their families. “The hospital has a huge community benefit portfolio,” said Dr. Barbara Staggers, chief of adolescent medicine at the hospital and executive director at the new center. “Since the Center is just getting off…
The Town Kitchen—an Oakland food startup that employs low-income youth—has graduated from an accelerator program and moved into a brand-new kitchen near Lake Merritt.