Community
A group of 100 students, lawyers and community organizers rallied in front of Oakland City Hall Wednesday afternoon to demonstrate their opposition to the proposed Fruitvale gang injunction which would limit the activities of 40 alleged Norteño gang members.
At a time when local governments talk more about cutting public services than providing new ones, Oakland’s newest library branch bucks the trend. No modest affair, the new 81st Avenue Library opens its doors Saturday in one of the city’s most troubled areas.
At a long table set with small lamps giving off an amber-hued glow, 15 people sit alongside each other, stooped over sketchpads, drawing. Some people are working with pen and ink, others paint with watercolors, while some draw with charcoal or pencils. Every person sitting at the table is a professional artist and was invited to Levende East for a weekly event called “Drawing Wednesdays.”
Oakland North is continuing with our new feature. Every Wednesday, we will publish a photo submitted by one of our readers. This week’s photo is by Graham Woods.
Thirty-five Oakland restaurants are participating this week in Oakland’s first Restaurant Week, a project of Visit Oakland, the city’s official marketing organization. Lauren Callahan reports.
Oakland North is continuing with our new 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 Paris the kitten.
Oakland resident Wallace Lee crammed himself into a small room in Oakland’s Chinatown with nearly three dozen other parents on Saturday afternoon to hear plans for what many East Bay residents see as an unfilled gap in the area’s education system: a public school with a Mandarin-English curriculum.
Mike Taft isn’t an artist in the traditional sense. But when his entire live-work apartment complex was having an open house art party on Friday—one that he founded and organized—he was of course going to find a way to entertain the crowd. “I’m grinding down a piece of plywood with an angle grinder,” the industrial designer said with a grin.
Lots of people were out on Saturday at two of North Oakland’s most popular parks, Bushrod Park and Mosswood Park, enjoying the warm weather. The photo slideshow above gives an idea of the breadth of activities people took part in. “Parks are important,” Norma Herbert, 59, said from a picnic blanket in Mosswood Park. “Kids need somewhere to go and play.”