Health
It was early, raining and Sunday, but about 300 people still gathered in front of the Oakland Marriot City Center last weekend for the final official training run for the Oakland Running Festival’s marathon and half-marathon races.
An intimate gathering was held Thursday night to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Khadafy Washington Foundation for Non-Violence, an organization founded by heartbroken parent turned community leader, Marilyn Washington Harris. In August 2000, Harris’ 18-year-old son Khadafy Washington was shot and killed. In 2001, she started the foundation to meet the needs of homicide victims’ family members.
The first Walk for Whiskers, a charity event raising funds and awareness for domestic abuse and animal advocacy groups in the Bay Area, was held at Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt on Saturday morning. The cold temperatures and gusty winds had participants and volunteers–and even their pets–bundled up in sweaters and scarves as they made their way around the lake to show their support.
When it comes to the interests of low-income people, affordable housing and clean air advocates usually work side by side in Oakland and the Bay Area. However, the issue of impending air quality guidelines for new or renovated affordable housing sites has caused disagreement between the two groups.
Feelmore510, Oakland’s newest adult store, opened—somewhat appropriately—on Valentine’s Day this week, but it has not been universally welcomed. When Nenna Joiner applied for permits to open the store two months ago, opponents complained that Feelmore510’s Uptown location would put it within 500 feet of several major gathering places for young people, including Youth Radio, a foster housing agency called First Place for Youth, and Oakland School for the Arts. But not everyone objects to the store.
The newly minted Oakland chapter of the Green Party met for the second time on Tuesday evening to talk politics: city redevelopment funds, gang injunctions and whether to support a statewide moratorium on foreclosures.
More than 60 high school and college students sacrificed a lovely sunny Saturday to meet at the Oakland Marriott City Center for a program geared toward encouraging more African Americans to become doctors and practice in the Bay Area.
The Oakland Based Urban Gardens organization — or O.B.U.G.S. — provides healthy food options for Oakland youth ages two to fourteen in six local school gardens. Reporter Lauren Callahan joined West Oakland Middle School students as they harvested greens and learned to make kale salad.
Without voting on a single ordinance, members of a beleaguered Oakland City Council spent Tuesday night’s meeting discussing their two most pressing concerns: threats of prosecution by the state and federal government over the city’s plan to permit industrial cannabis cultivation, and dramatic budget cuts from the governor.