Community

Adoptable animal of the week: Sugar

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 rabbit named Sugar. Sugar been at the shelter since August 2011. Shelter life just isn’t for him and he can’t wait to find a home where he’ll get lots of indoor space. Sometimes he puts up front and pretends he’s not up for cuddling, but he secretly loves to. His new owners just need…

Oakland schools celebrate the new year with a festival for students and parents

On Saturday morning parents, students, volunteers and school district staff held hands as they danced to the beat of a drum in the gymnasium of Fruitvale’s United Academy for Success as part the Oakland Unified School District’s first Back to School Festival. They formed a circle, led by members of the Medicine Warriors, a Native American dance troupe. “This dance signifies friendship and unity,” George Galvis of the Native American community center Intertribal Friendship House said to the crowd.

Children’s Hospital Oakland celebrates 100th birthday at Fairyland

At Children’s Fairyland on Saturday, a three-tiered yellow and pink birthday cake stood towering several feet in height, papered with handwritten messages like, “Thank you for our son,” “Thanks for helping our daughter live a healthy life, ” and “1969 – Thank You. My Heart is Yours 4Ever. Saving My Life.”

Piedmont Avenue residents and merchants debate new BevMo! store

Ever since the Blockbuster on Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue went out of business in April, the building that housed the video rental store has remained empty. Recently, though, a prospective new tenant appeared: a sign on the door notified passersby that the liquor franchise Beverages and More (BevMo!) has applied for a permit to move into the former movie rental store.

Pandora and the Great Wall of Oakland team up to showcase local video and music

The online radio station Pandora has teamed up with the Great Wall of Oakland, a monthly video art screening, to host an evening of local music and video shorts this Friday. The “Homegrown” event on September 7 will debut Pandora’s “Sounds of Oakland,” a sampling of local music, which will accompany video shorts projected on the wall in Oakland’s Uptown district. It also marks the first collaboration between the two Oakland-based organizations. “We approached Pandora because their specialty is music…

August pilot program tests lifting BART ban on bikes during commute hours

BART officials, transit riders, and bicycle advocates have given a provisional thumbs up to a pilot program that ran on Fridays this August, allowing cyclists and their bikes to board trains during rush hour. Bikes are not usually allowed on Transbay trains during peak commute periods, which cover weekday mornings from roughly 6:30 to 9 am and during the afternoons from about 4:30 to 7 pm. According to BART Communications Department Manager Alicia Trost, bicycles are restricted from trains during…