Community

The city of Oakland filed a complaint Wednesday against the federal government in order to stop officials from seizing the nation’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, claiming the government took too long to take legal action against Harborside Health Center and that the federal statute of limitations regarding seizures has expired.

The veterinary facility at Oakland Zoo was once so small and cramped that during one surgery, senior veterinary technician Maria Trenary had to crawl under an operating table, navigating beneath the dangling limbs of an anesthetized tiger, just to get to the other side of the room and continue working.

Now, at the zoo’s new veterinary hospital, which celebrated its grand opening Thursday afternoon, a camel, a bison or even a juvenile giraffe can be easily accommodated in one of the hospital’s revamped surgery suites.

Community events and activities for the weekend of October 12-14, 2012. Got an event we didn’t know about? Please add it in the comments!

In 2009, Tomás Alvarez III sat at his desk as a group of nine teenagers filed into his classroom at Oakland High School. This was the fifth year of his Beats, Rhymes and Life program, which uses hip-hop music as a form of therapy for at-risk teenagers. Alvarez began the class in the usual fashion, playing instrumental beats on a boom box. As the class gathered in a circle and began to freestyle, Alvarez recalls, he recognized something particularly special…

Armed with green forms listing license plate numbers, car models and driver descriptions, residents of the San Antonio neighborhood aim to do what billboards and tow trucks could not—reduce prostitution in their community.

Every week, Oakland North will publish a photo submitted by one of our readers. This week’s photo is by Sara Ferguson.

There may be no stronger tie of identity between city and team than Oakland has with the Athletics. Known to the rest of the country as the sometimes-suffering underdog, the city of Oakland and its baseball team both benefit from the fierce loyalty of locals. This sentiment was at Frank Ogawa Plaza Monday night, when Mayor Jean Quan and representatives from the Oakland A’s held an eleventh-hour rally for fans ready to welcome home their team home from Detroit.

A middle-aged swimmer paused at the end of the pool, between laps, and studied the man in the next lane fiddling with his goggles, who had just frog-kicked the length of the 100-foot-long pool, along the bottom, in one breath. She had been wondering about him for weeks. His swimming habits were unique. For example, she had never seen him swim on the water’s surface. More unusual—disconcerting, actually—was what he did when he reached the deep end. He would sink…

Oakland North is continuing with our feature. Every week, Oakland Animal Services will spotlight an “Animal of the Week” that’s up for adoption at their facility. This week it’s a dog named Boots.