Community

OUSD talks plan to refurbish old schools and redistribute resources

On Thursday night, Oakland community members met at the Think College Now campus to discuss the “Blueprint for Quality Schools,” the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)’s plan to refurbish old school buildings and use school resources more effectively. The “community dialogue” was one of four planned for this week, and attracted about 30 people.

Bay Area organizations move quickly to support DACA recipients

As Lily Woo, age 23, got off of her 12-hour flight from Korea, she felt relief to be back home in the Bay Area. Even though this was Woo’s first time visiting the birthplace she had left at age 3, she felt like she was returning from a foreign country. As she approached U.S. Customs, she noticed that the arriving group was being escorted to two different lines: U.S citizens and non-citizens/visitors. Although Woo was returning to the only country…

Oakland rescue crews join hurricane recovery efforts in Texas and Florida

Oakland’s Urban Search and Rescue team hadn’t deployed in nine years. But three weeks ago, when Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Robert Lipp answered the call to respond to Hurricane Harvey, they mobilized a team in under four hours. Immediately following their deployment to Texas, they were re-tasked to assist with rescue efforts in Florida.

Oakland’s first LGBTQ community center opens

Oakland’s new LGBTQ community center opened on September 7 on Lakeshore Avenue. There, people can find services such as help finding housing, mental health and substance abuse counseling, workplace discrimination support and mentoring.

We’re off for the summer — see you in September!

Oakland North is a project of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and now that it’s summer, our students are on break to work internships at other publications. We’ll be back to train a new class of student reporters in early September. Please feel free to explore the site and our past coverage. Our student journalists have been covering Oakland since fall, 2008, and have created more than 5,000 articles, videos, audio pieces and multimedia projects about life in the city. You…