Community
A Mills College documentary project called Economic Edge is focusing on an area that includes the Fruitvale and San Antonio neighborhoods in Oakland. They are asking people how the economic downturn is affecting them, their businesses and their lives. In addition to producing documentary reports, they will also create a portrait of the area using a map and people’s stories. You can find their website here. What are the stories you want to be told? If you’d like to suggest ideas,…
The East Bay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, SPCA, is hosting a spaying and neutering marathon on Saturday, February 28th, at both their TriValley and Oakland locations. Their goal is to spay and neuter one hundred Chihuahuas, pit bulls, and cats that belong to low-income families.
Immigration has become one the most divisive, controversial and compelling topics of our time. It is also one of the most underreported and misunderstood issues in the country. More than half of the Bay Area population is estimated to be foreign-born, according to data by the Census Bureau, which increases the need for more balanced coverage of immigrant communities in our neighborhoods.
As soon as Reverend Daniel Buford took the podium in the council chambers at Oakland City Hall on Tuesday night, bright, hand-drawn, multi-colored signs with inscriptions like “Stop the Swap,” “Give the $ Back” and “Not another dollar to Goldman Sachs” popped up around the room. Buford, a minister at Allen Temple Baptist Church on International Boulevard, began speaking about the city’s relationship with Goldman Sachs, and a rate-swap deal the city and the bank agreed to in 1997 relating to $187 million in city debt.
Oakland North is continuing with our feature. Every week, we will publish a photo submitted by one of our readers. This week’s photo is by Sean Reinhart.
A variety of programs that the state once funded—focusing on, among other things, criminal justice, mental health and social services—will now be the responsibility of local jurisdictions, usually the county, because of state budget cuts. Just how these cuts will play out in Alameda County, and what to do about the “financial tsunami that is coming our way,” as County Supervisor Keith Carson called it, was the topic of a budget forum hosted by the county supervisors on Tuesday morning in downtown Oakland.
Oakland North is continuing with our feature. Every Tuesday, Oakland Animal Services will spotlight an “Animal of the Week” that’s up for adoption at their facility. This week it’s Sir Galahad.
Take a look at Temescal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – a place where rail lines ran across Telegraph Avenue, and businesses thrived on the side – and Temescal today. What has changed? What has survived?
One of Temescal’s oldest subdivisions was once of the state’s grandest amusement parks. On the blocks of what are now Spanish stucco-styled homes bordered by Shattuck and Telegraph Avenues to the east and west and between 56th and 58th Streets, Oakland’s Idora Park at one time brought thousands of visitors from near and far for its myriad attractions. Built in 1903 by railroad baron and borax king Rodney Ingersoll, the park was open about 30 weeks a year and boasted…