Economy
With California’s powerful redevelopment agencies and their corresponding powers now either extinct or on the fence, Oakland and other cities are facing a new problem: how to make use of toxic lands within their jurisdiction.
After an afternoon of largely peaceful protests, confrontation erupted between police and protesters in downtown Oakland after nightfall.
More than 1,000 people congregated in San Antonio Park in East Oakland on 5:30 pm Tuesday, waiting to march back to Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall as Occupy Oakland May Day protests continued into the evening.
Early this morning at the start of day-long series of marches planned for May Day, a group of more than 100 protestors gathered to protest what they call the “patriarchal capitalistic system.” The group convened on the front steps of the Child Protective Services near Jack London Square as police barricaded the entrance.
Oakland Police officers and protesters faced off in the downtown street Tuesday afternoon, as police fired tear gas canisters and using flash bang grenades to disperse protesters from the intersection of 14th Street and Broadway at about 12:15 pm today.
Early Tuesday morning Occupy Oakland activists kicked off a May Day general strike and protest to challenge what they see as a destructive capitalist system. May Day, which is often called International Workers’ Day, has a long history as being a day for unions to protest on behalf of employees.
The OUSD board voted 5-2 to deny the application of Lazear Elementary, which is slated to close after this school year, to convert to a charter school.
Some Oaklanders grow a bounty of fresh produce in their home gardens, while others are miles away from the nearest grocery store. One day, as he was tending his 800 square-foot backyard garden, this paradox struck Montclair resident Andrew Sigal as particularly unfair. Sigal decided that he would donate any excess food he produced, and he would try to convince his neighbors with gardens to do the same.
Oaksterdam University supporters celebrated 4/20—the calendar date that matches a code word often associated with pot smoking—with a march in Oakland protesting the recent federal raid of Oaksterdam’s facilities and demanding the federal legalization of medical marijuana. At 11 am, supporters gathered at the Federal Building on Clay Street in downtown Oakland. Starting off as a rather small gathering of some 30 medical marijuana activists and patients—many in wheelchairs—the group grew to around 200 people by midday. The protesters waved…