Community

Over 350 lively people made up of fraternities, sororities, campus clubs, individual students, and community members registered for the event at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza on Sunday afternoon. Each was hopeful that they would beat the Maui, Hawaii contingent that set the last record with a 300 foot-long California Roll in 2001.

There’s nothing like a beautiful Saturday to remind you of all the yardwork that remains to be done before the winter rains return in a few weeks. So this past Saturday, members of the California Writers Club, along with Councilmember Jean Quan and other city employees, gathered to celebrate the CWC’s 100th anniversary—and begin the groundwork for a new walkway around the Abbey, Oakland poet Joaquin Miller’s historical home. The two-year project, which will include building the handicap-accessible walkway and…

Oakland resident Wilbert McAlister grew up watching Westerns at the movie theater in his rural hometown of Madera, Calif.  For years he reveled in the exploits of white heroes, but as an adult he began to ask himself why none of the actors resembled him or his ancestors, who were ranchers in Oklahoma.  As he explained to Oakland North, this question of identity led him to become president of the Oakland Black Cowboy Association, which keeps East Bay residents connected…

As part of Oakland’s Principal for a Day program, Port official Diann Castleberry learns how to write tardy slips, subs for the secretary, and grapples with the Odyssey.

At a commemorative interfaith service in Oakland, supporters of gay marriage gathered to reflect on the year since state voters approved the ballot initiative restricting marriage in California to man-woman couples.

Oakland as a future soccer World Cup host, racial disparity in the awarding of city contracts, and a possible teen youth center in West Oakland were among the discussion items at Oakland’s City Council meeting Tuesday night.

The third annual Scraper Bike Day celebrates yet another Oakland phenom that has gone bigtime. An O.N. video, plus music that will get stuck in your head.

In Mosswood Park’s community garden, two local businessmen have installed a growing area that displays their new eco-technology. It’s got vegetables, goldfish, and self-contained watering–and it’s set off deep divisions among the neighbors.

Dutiful sons and daughters keep alive the Mexican tradition of honoring the dead with flowers, food and drink.