Education
Up in the Oakland hills, the Oakland Zoo spreads across 45 acres and offers up attractions such as the African Savanna, Children’s Zoo, Tropical Rain Forest and Australian Outback to explore. With 440 types of different animal species, from lions to lemurs to lesser flamingos, it’s hard to get it all in with one days visit.
2010 was a tumultuous year for Oakland as both the city and state faced a heated election season, the courts weighed the validity of controversial measures passed during previous elections, and the effects of the 2008 financial collapse continued to reverberate throughout the local economy, but it was also a year of new beginnings. Oakland North presents a guide to the year’s top stories.
Plans to open a sex boutique in downtown Oakland near a school and several youth program offices have caused some mixed reactions among neighboring businesses, although opponents seem unlikely to appeal a recent decision by the Oakland City Planning Commission allowing the shop to operate within close proximity to a school.
During the holiday season people tend to get presents of new computers, cell phones, televisions and more. While it’s exciting to upgrade your electronics, it leaves you with old gear that’s often hazardous to simply throw away. Here’s a guide to where to recycle electronics in Oakland.
All Oakland public libraries will close from Christmas Day until January 4. The 10-day closure comes from a combination of winter holidays and mandatory furloughs caused by shortfalls in the city budget.
The East Bay Agency for Children’s Therapeutic Nursery School in Oakland cares for pre-school age children with behavioral or emotional problems, often a result of past traumatic experiences including abuse, neglect or prenatal drug exposure.
Despite the gloomy weather, Bay Area skywatchers will be eagerly awaiting tonight’s total lunar eclipse, which falls on the northern winter solstice—the moment at which the Earth’s axis is tilted farthest from the sun, giving us our shortest day and longest night of the year, and heralding the first day of winter. According to NASA Science News, there’s only been one other lunar eclipse on the northern winter solstice in the last 2,000 years … and that one was back in 1638.
The Crucible, Oakland’s non-profit arts education center began in a small Berkeley warehouse in January 1999. Listen in as reporter Mary Flynn explores The Crucible and the art of motorcycle maintenance.
It’s that time of year again—time for school-age kids and their parents to pick which Oakland public school they’d like to attend. Starting on December 6 and running through January 14, Oakland’s “options process” is meant to provide students and parents with greater flexibility and allow them to select the schools that are best suited to their particular needs.