Community

Wardrobe For Opportunity helps job-seekers dress for success

The Wardrobe For Opportunity office on 14th Street in downtown Oakland is on the second floor of a commercial building. A buzzer at the entrance grants access to the office, but don’t expect to see a room filled with desks and computers. Those are in a corner just far enough away so clients are not distracted from the space they just entered. The boutique is filled with racks of women’s clothing. Dresses, coats, skirts and tops and a space for shoes. The men’s section is almost as large and carries all the items needed to dress someone in business attire.

Meet Pythagoras and the Oakland Zoo’s other baby boom arrivals

Hundreds of new baby animals were born at the Oakland Zoo over the last few months in what biologists at the facility describe as one of the zoo’s biggest baby booms in many years. The zoo, a sanctuary for more than 660 native and exotic animals located at the far eastern end of Oakland, has recently become home to more than 200 newborn animals including a squirrel monkey, milk frogs and a giraffe, with a few more births expected in the coming weeks.

New emissions rules expected to improve West Oakland air quality

West Oaklanders will breathe easier—literally—in the coming months as they start to feel the effects of recently implemented emissions regulations for trucks at the Port of Oakland. The first phase went into effect in 2010, and tougher rules are on the horizon for early 2014. The regulations are applauded by health experts, who link diesel exhaust to high rates of asthma, but others say these strict rules could put thousands of truck drivers out of work.

At Temescal library, neighbors swap backyard produce and kids’ clothes

Books weren’t the only things flying off the tables at the Temescal branch of the Oakland library on Saturday. In the backyard, boxes full of succulent plums gleamed in the sunshine at the library’s North Oakland crop swap. Gardeners bring their excess yield and set them on the table for others to take. While there, they are free to choose from items on the table that their fellow gardeners have brought to share. Meanwhile, Moms in the basement were giving and getting new ensembles for their kiddos.

Oakland Heritage Alliance offers summertime walking tours

Each year the Oakland Heritage Alliance selects a variety of neighborhoods to visit when it offers its summer walking tours through the city. This year visitors will have the opportunity to visit 16 areas over eight weekends on tours such as the Mountain View Cemetery, Montclair Village and Oakland Walkways and Streetcar Heritage tours. Each trip is led by volunteers for the alliance, who include local history buffs, residents of the neighborhoods, as well as professors and business professionals familiar with the area.