Environment

In Oakland, mixed feelings about urban livestock

As a growing number of Oakland residents embrace urban farming—including the raising of chickens, goats and pigs in their back yards—the city planning commission is investigating the trend’s potentially negative impacts on the surrounding community.

Fir or Plastic? Oakland residents weigh their Christmas tree options

Megan Reed and Christine Landry are in the market for two Christmas trees, as they push a stroller with their infant son through aisles of options at the Simonis Christmas Tree Lot on Telegraph Avenue and 51st Street on a quiet Monday morning. Reed and Landry usually buy one Christmas tree for their home, but they’re going for two this year because grandma is visiting and needs one for her place. “We got kind of the ‘junior Charlie Brown’ for…