Community
Cat lovers gathered to support local nonprofit Cat Town at Meow at the Moon, a fundraiser event that took place Saturday at Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza and City Hall.
Arrive at the corner of Oakland’s Grand Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard and you will hear the sounds of eclectic music emerging from multiple spots along Lake Merritt. Aaron Davis Warren, otherwise known as “Drummer Boy Aaron,” set up his drum set just before 10 a.m. on a recent Saturday to play for the crowd that comes from all directions. The 18-year-old pounds his drumsticks as he smiles widely at his growing audience. To his right, people carrying mushrooms and cabbage emerge…
Students in Oakland were among thousands nationwide who found their dreams postponed last Tuesday, when one of the country’s largest for-profit technical colleges, ITT Technical Institute, closed its doors.
The teenager at the center of a sexual exploitation scandal involving multiple police departments has returned to the Bay Area, according to her attorneys. At a press conference Thursday morning, civil rights attorneys Charles Bonner and Pamela Price said they are planning to sue “everyone involved” in sending Guap to Florida and in her sexual exploitation.
Next spring, Spoiled Boutique owner Mika McCants’ lease will be up for renewal. She’s already paying $2,000 a month for her 400-square-foot storefront in Uptown Oakland, and she’s unsure how her shop will be affected if her landlord raises the rent. “I have seen the city change significantly in both positive and negative ways,” said McCants, whose clothing store has been at 2001 Broadway Street for 11 years. “I’ve seen the gentrification set in, and I would be lying if…
The Oakland Unified School Board meeting Wednesday night was packed—and then it wasn’t. Hundreds of parents and children wearing pro-charter school t-shirts and waving roses filled the left hand side of the gym at La Escuelita Learning Center, spilling over onto the right side where union members from the Oakland Education Association sat. Over twenty cards for public comment had been filed on an item that did not appear on the agenda. But as the board opened the floor to…
Warehouses and industrial parks became the backdrop for some 35,000 hip-hop fans in West Oakland on Monday when a section of 3rd Street was blocked off for the 5th annual Hiero Day music and arts festival.
Thirty-five years ago, Abdul Talev’s grandfather opened a small grocery store in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland. Today, with the family business in his care, Talev is worried a new soda tax will cause him to lose business, or even worse, force him to close his doors. The controversial tax Talev is referring to is Measure HH on Oakland’s November ballot. Measure HH would impose a one cent per ounce tax on the distribution of sodas and other sugary beverages….
On a Friday afternoon in the middle of a staff meeting at Aspire Public School’s Monarch Academy, second grade teacher Karen Schreiner felt her phone buzz. It buzzed again. And again. And again. The call was from an area code she didn’t recognize. Schreiner whispered to her principal that she’d be right back and stepped into the hallway. She called back. It was good news—she’d been chosen as one of five recipients of the Teaching for Tolerance Award. “I know…