Development
City residents may take some small measure of comfort in knowing their City Council is aware of the discontent regarding the parking measures that went into effect on July 1. “I’ve been doing this for twelve years and this is a big reaction,” said City Council President Jane Brunner, whose District 1 is North Oakland, where many of the sharpest complaints have been directed regarding overzealous parking enforcement and extended hours. “If you have this big of a reaction you…
At a crowded meeting, an Oakland City Council committee this week decided to urge the whole council to re-examine its position on the planned BART-to-Oakland-Airport lightrail connector project, targeted for $70 million in federal stimulus money. Story by Thomas Gorman/Oakland North.
Koreans have lived in Oakland for decades, but in 2007 the city allowed a group of landlords the right to tax and manage several blocks on Telegraph Avenue, renaming the strip Koreatown – Northgate. The neighborhood speaks out on the area’s recent name change. Video by Puck Lo and Laurel Moorhead/Oakland North.
“It’s a sad memory, looking at that, especially at nighttime,” says an Oakland cafe owner whose business view takes in the padlocked, empty theater building that used to be the Parkway. A look at the loss of the popular neighborhood hub and the challenges hampering efforts to bring it back to life. by Sam Laird/Oakland North
Discolored rose petals piled in a corner. Dead rose heads were bending off their stems.“Every time I come here, I get itchy fingers because I want to prune the roses,” said Carol Braves, grasping a pair of clippers as she stared at a limp-looking pink rose bush that was almost as tall as she was. “I feel like a kid in a candy store right now.” For more than 75 years, Oakland’s famous Morcom Rose Garden has been a beautiful…
“I bet you don’t even take the bus,” one West Oakland resident chided AC Transit planner Sean Diest Lorgion. “I take the bus seven days a week.” She was one of scores of Oakland residents crowding a room in the transit building in downtown Oakland Saturday, who had come to hear AC Transit’s presentation on a proposed 15 percent service reduction. Oversize, full-color foldout maps were distributed to all in attendance, detailing the proposed changes. Other handouts included comment forms…
A man crouched beside one of several dozen bicycles that filled a parking lot on the corner of 24th Street and Valdez in Northgate Sunday. On the other side of the lot, beyond folding tables and blankets strewn with bike parts, a Lycra-clad man with grey hair and grey tube socks stood next to his drop handle bike. Between the two, a small boy dressed like Lance Armstrong competing in the Tour de France pedaled furiously in place on a…
Most people would probably find the early-morning sound effects at Marie Henderson’s new place in Sobrante Park yesterday– hammers pounding on a roof, construction voices calling out to each other, and the whirring of power drills—a bit of a nuisance. But to Henderson, they were music to the ears: she was helping build her own home. “My house is progressing very well,” she said happily, brushing off her hands and adjusting the red bandana tied to her head beneath a…
A neighbors’ uprising has helped kill any chance that that the old Parkway will be occupied by a woman who’d requested city permit to open a new business inside–a massage parlor. Story by Mario Furloni/Oakland North.