Development
Imagine a city with blue skies and clear roads, populated by healthy people commuting on quiet, non-polluting buses. That’s how the business magazine Fast Company envisions the perfect city, and it’s borrowing some ideas from Oakland.
With the Oakland City Council set to start deliberating its fiscal year 2010-11 budget during a special meeting Thursday night, Mayor Ron Dellums called a press conference Tuesday morning to introduce his latest version of the budget for the council to consider. But instead of focusing all his time on the budget, thanks to a story that ran on a local television station Monday night, Dellums spent a good portion of the conference defending his record as mayor and his involvement in the budget process.
In a community meeting that was often spirited and at one point even led to a physical altercation, city officials met with Oakland residents Thursday night for the last of three sessions to share ideas about how to close the city’s budget gap.
There are only two requirements to read at Lip Service West: Your story must be true, and can’t be longer than 1,500 words. In this new public reading series sponsored by the San Pablo Arts District Fund, local writers swap tales and bring some nightlife to the Golden Gate neighborhood.
Off of 19th and San Pablo in downtown Oakland lies an unassuming two-story building; if it’s a quiet night, the only giveaway that something is going on inside is a big bouncer with an ear-piece standing out front and a small black and white sign that says “The New Parish.” But inside, the New Parish is Oakland’s newest music venue.
It’s nesting time for the California Least Tern, an endangered species of bird that is beginning to make a recovery out on the Oakland mudflats and at the Alameda Air Station. But as development encroaches on their nesting grounds and their food supply remains uncertain, the birds’ comeback is anything but a sure thing.
Before there was AC Transit or BART, there was the Key System. A privately-owned mass transit company that operated electric railcars, street cars, and ferries, the Key System linked ten East Bay cities and San Francisco, and it shaped the development of this area.
Oakland is a port city. That means commerce, trucks, trains and boats. It also means dredging. Because the channels and ports need to be deep for boats to be able to get in and out, 3 to 6 million cubic yards of sediment have to be dredged every year in the San Francisco Bay. But while dredging is necessary for trade, it also poses a risk for animals that live in the bay
In April, Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland city councilmember at large, announced that she was considering running for mayor this fall. Oakland North reporter Ayako Mie sat down for an exclusive interview with Kaplan to talk about how she hopes to change the city.