Development

District 1 City Council candidates take questions from Oakland residents

From Fruitvale to Rockridge, Oakland North reporters spoke recently to residents about the city council elections.  We asked everyone the same question: If you could speak directly to the candidates, what would you like to know? We delivered the most frequent of the residents’ questions, in person to the seven candidates for the District 1 City Council seat.  Their edited answers, one question at a time, will appear in Oakland North every week between now and Election Day.  

If approved, Measure B1 could raise billions for transportation

Nearly $8 billion over the next three decades could flow to Alameda County roads, sidewalks, highways, buses and trains, if voters approve Measure B1 on November 6. The measure would double the existing half-cent sales tax for transportation, to one cent. Measure B1 requires approval from two-thirds of voters to take effect.

City Council poised to vote on two ideas aimed at combating foreclosures in Oakland

The City Council is slated Tuesday to vote on two different approaches to the problem of multiple property foreclosures in Oakland. One tries to help homeowners threatened with foreclosure in the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods, while the other would require investors who snatch up properties under foreclosure to fix them up, both inside and out. The new proposals come on the heels of a report called “Who Owns Your Neighborhood,” which was released last June and details Oakland’s foreclosure mess. The…

Zoo celebrates opening of new veterinary hospital, California Trail project expansion in planning stages

The veterinary facility at Oakland Zoo was once so small and cramped that during one surgery, senior veterinary technician Maria Trenary had to crawl under an operating table, navigating beneath the dangling limbs of an anesthetized tiger, just to get to the other side of the room and continue working.

Now, at the zoo’s new veterinary hospital, which celebrated its grand opening Thursday afternoon, a camel, a bison or even a juvenile giraffe can be easily accommodated in one of the hospital’s revamped surgery suites.

School board hears parents’ objections to consolidation plans

Parents, teachers and students wearing green Kaiser Elementary t-shirts and holding colorful banners gathered outside the Paul Robeson building before the Oakland school board meeting Wednesday evening, in protest against the combining of the school’s kindergarten and first grade classes.

Financial planners offer free advice at Oakland City Hall

At the event held at Oakland City Hall on Saturday, people seeking general information or with specific questions about tax and estate or insurance and benefit planning signed up for 15-minute sessions to speak with certified financial planners who volunteered their services at the fifth annual Oakland Financial Planning Day.