Government
Oakland leaders closed a $265 million city budget deficit by cutting spending across many departments and programs earlier this month in what Councilmember Zac Unger called a “nobody’s happy budget.” But one controversial area of spending is seeing a substantial increase in the new budget: police overtime. Over the last decade, the Oakland Police Department has consistently overspent its overtime budget by tens of millions of dollars each year. Last year, as the city’s fiscal crisis deepened, the police department overspent…
“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. After turning 66 in January, Oakland preschool teacher Rosa Carranza applied for Social Security benefits, receiving $1,126 a month in February and March. But in April, an alarming letter arrived in the mail from the Social Security Administration. “Based on the information we have, we cannot pay benefits beginning March 2025,” the letter said. “We cannot pay you benefits because you are…
“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, Jessie Papalia has felt the panic and confusion among her students and their families at Bridges Academy Elementary in Oakland, a dual-language school with many students who have recently arrived in the United States. “The first week was rough. I had kids asking me if they could sleep at school because they were too…
Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has been charged by the federal government of using her office to enrich herself, her boyfriend and Oakland contractors David and Andy Duong. The eight-count indictment, which was handed down by an Oakland grand jury on Jan. 9 and unsealed Friday, contends that a few weeks before she was elected mayor in 2022, Thao committed to helping David and Andy Duong extend the recycling contract their company, California Waste Solutions, had with the city, and worked…
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s tenure officially ended Tuesday, when Oakland City Council certified the November election results that included the vote to recall her. The local elections were complicated this year by two successful recalls, the second involving Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price; the inclusion of 16- and 17-year-olds in voting for Oakland Unified School Board candidates; and lingering questions about ranked-choice voting after errors in the 2022 election tally prompted a lawsuit and a change after the vote…
When Cherry Chan moved back to Oakland last year after living in Hawaii, she found a city that was struggling with a host of social issues, among them, brazen property crime. Chan works at a shoe shop in Oakland’s Montclair neighborhood, where she says she often sees car break-ins. “It’s become like the wild west,” she said. Early this year, In-N-Out Burger closed its location near Oakland International Airport “due to ongoing issues with crime.” Then Denny’s Restaurant followed suit. Shop owners…
On July 17, 1944, sailors were loading two liberty ships at Port Chicago in Suisun Bay, nearly 30 miles northeast of Oakland, when an explosion went off and killed 320 people, 200 of whom were Black. Among the 390 who were injured, nearly 60% also were Black. After the explosion at the port, which served as a major facility for supplying ammunition during World War II, 258 sailors protested returning to work because of the dangerous conditions and were warned…
With Oakland facing a roughly $80 million hole in the city budget, a heralded new program to bring film productions to town is on the chopping block. The Film Rebate Incentive Program, an effort to lure film and television with rebates on production costs, was approved unanimously in July by the City Council. The $600,000 initiative was left out of a contingency budget that was adopted because the city has not yet received anticipated payments from the $125 million sale…
With just days left before Tuesday’s election, Oakland North interviewed the three candidates running for Oakland’s City Council District 5 seat. District 5 extends from the affluent streets of Park Boulevard to the industrial flatlands of International Boulevard. Incumbent Noel Gallo is running, along with candidates Erin Armstrong and Dominic Prado. Each responded to the questions about their top concerns and policy plans. Their answers are presented verbatim, with editing for clarity and brevity. Noel Gallo Gallo has served as…