Development
Tuesday night’s Oakland Public Safety Committee meeting’s main agenda item—reviewing a report about holding a special election to amend the regulations that govern the Oakland Police Commission—was initially upstaged by jarring testimony from former Councilmember Wilson Riles Jr. about his arrest last week. Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan introduced the issue for the committee to address. “Our colleague, former Councilmember Wilson Riles, was arrested—” Kaplan began, but was interrupted by members of the crowd yelling, “brutalized!” “And brutalized, and improperly treated,…
West Oakland’s community-developed air pollution plan passes first hurdle
The Oakland City Council voted earlier this month to move forward with a new plan for preventing violence. This is the latest development in the city’s ongoing efforts to establish the new Department of Violence Prevention.
A fast, low-emission bus line is on track to begin service at the end of this year. That could be a boon for bus riders. But some merchants on International Boulevard say it’s caused problems for business.
Oakland City Hall was packed Tuesday night, with nearly every seat filled by a resident who had something to say. As the meeting crept towards the midnight hour, people trickled out and one man left huffing in exasperation. Most of the people were there to talk about the last agenda item of the evening, the impending Vacant Property Tax Act authored by Council President Rebecca Kaplan, Dan Kalb (District 1), and Abel Guillén (District 2). The tax, on the ballot…
On Wednesday afternoon, Oakland residents prepared for the power to go out, anticipating cuts that were initially expected to begin in Alameda County at noon. Parts of the Oakland hills and East Oakland are the most likely to be affected by the outages, which Pacific Gas and Electric estimates will affect 32,680 county residents. PG&E officials plan to cut power to parts of more than 30 Northern California counties as a wildfire prevention measure. This decision followed the last two…
It was a record shop. Then it sat empty. Now it’s a community hub for non-profits. And at its housewarming party on Friday night, a crowd of roughly 250 people crammed into the space belonging to Restore Oakland, Inc. to learn about how it would be available for Fruitvale residents to use. Before making their way into the space, guests and curious onlookers watched a powerful and colorful performance from Danza Azteca Cuauhtonal, a group that practices indigenous cultural rites….
Imagine downtown Oakland with parks wrapping around it and even more high rises. Maybe Interstate 980 is gone and has been replaced with a pedestrian-friendly boulevard. That’s all part of Oakland Planning and Building Department’s proposed vision for the next 20 years.
NIMBY, one of East Oakland’s scruffy DIY artist warehouse spaces, is closing on September 30 after not being able to compete with rent premiums cannabis businesses can afford.