Environment
Many Oakland urban farmers raise animals for a healthier, sustainable and cheaper source of food, and their backyard farms can foster positive relationships between neighbors, according to a recent report on urban livestock practices in the city.
Oakland North reporters Megan Molteni and Dylan Bergeson set out to track a raccoon in observance of International Raccoon Appreciation Day. They failed spectacularly.
Oakland’s Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) announced a pilot program Thursday to convert parking spots or unused bus stops into public spaces called “parklets” where people can relax and hang out.
The California Healthy Food Financing Initiative (CHFFI) landed on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk last week, after the state Senate and Assembly both voted to approve it by a wide margin. If signed by the governor, the bill would help bring more grocery stores, farmers’ markets and other sources of produce to under-served communities throughout the state, including West and East Oakland.
Founded in October 2010 by Danny Rosen, Arthur Coulston and Billy Parish, Berkeley-based Solar Mosaic is using Oakland as a proving ground to test for the first time its model of this crowd-funded community solar, with plans to finance five to seven projects, of which the Asian Resource Center (ARC) project is the first.
At the Eat Real Festival in Oakland’s Jack London Square on Saturday afternoon, crowds of people gathered on the waterfront, queuing up for $4 miniature sweet-potato pies and $5 citrus pork sandwiches on organic, brick oven flatbread. But in front of Bay Area Bikes, four cyclists had a different idea—riding gloves were slipped on, four helmet locks clicked shut, and the group rode away from the food festival to get an inside look at some of Oakland’s local food and drink makers.
The scent of locally-raised barbeque meat, organic Asian Fusion cuisine, and many other tasty bites cooked by dozens of food trucks is wafting over Jack London Square for the third annual Eat Real Festival this weekend.
How much life passes through one cubic foot of water in the San Francisco Bay every day? Photographer David Liittschwager set out to answer that question over the course of 14 days this past spring. From a small sailboat anchored in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, he and a team of scientists collected and photographed whatever plants and animals were carried by the bay’s currents into a metal square-foot cube submerged in the upper water column.
The third annual annual Eat Real Festival’s organizers hope the event is so much fun you’ll forget it’s reshaping your assumptions about food. The free event in Jack London Square this weekend, which is billed as half street festival, half block party, will feature local music and film screenings alongside food workshops, demonstrations, contests and scores of vendors.