Development

40th St bike lane plan sets off hot neighbors’ debate

An ambitious east-west bike plan proposal set off agitated debate at a meeting Tuesday in North Oakland’s Longfellow district, where one speaker likened the neighborhood to a bride on her wedding day. The plan to remove medians, he said, is going “to take her dress, smear her make-up, shave her head, and pare her down to a tank top.”

Jobs for underemployed benefit all, study finds

The East Bay Community Foundation released a report Tuesday that outlines the employment hurdles facing many immigrants with limited English proficiency, individuals previously imprisoned, and former foster care recipients in Oakland and recommends ways community groups and private employers can help remove the barriers.

Batts sworn in, city to ease up on wrongway parking tickets

Police Chief Anthony Batts was sworn in at last night’s Oakland City Council meeting, then council members advanced plans for a municipal ID card program, eased enforcement rules for wrong-way parking, and sentenced to death two redwood trees on the site of a controversial development.

Right turn on wrong-way parking?

Just when you thought the Oakland parking wars had come to an end, parking rules are once again on the agenda. The City Council will consider easing enforcement against wrong-way parkers tonight.

New refugees from rural Burma, grappling with modern California, find an ally in Oakland

In the last three weeks, seven new families have finally won the right to move to Oakland. The most recent family arrived October 7, and like the others, was picked up at San Francisco International Airport after a 16-hour flight, taken to a sparsely furnished apartment on 19th street in East Oakland, and given a week’s expense money. With this final trip up I-80 and across the Bay Bridge, a journey that began in the depths of the jungles of…