Environment
Urban planner Garlynn Woodsong writes in with an idea for making Oakland’s streets safer while making the city a little greener. In this essay, he re-imagines Market Street after a “road diet” and some strategic replanting.
Big bikes, small bikes, kid’s bikes and tall bikes — they were all out in force on Sunday. It was Oakland’s first Oaklavía—an event that closed down the Broadway corridor, from Grand Avenue to Jack London Square, to all cars. Bikes, pedestrians, unicyclists and rollerbladers cruised up and down the street checking out the booths and activities on the sidewalks.
Imagine a city with blue skies and clear roads, populated by healthy people commuting on quiet, non-polluting buses. That’s how the business magazine Fast Company envisions the perfect city, and it’s borrowing some ideas from Oakland.
It’s nesting time for the California Least Tern, an endangered species of bird that is beginning to make a recovery out on the Oakland mudflats and at the Alameda Air Station. But as development encroaches on their nesting grounds and their food supply remains uncertain, the birds’ comeback is anything but a sure thing.
With Oakland’s fire season expected to begin within the next few weeks, Oakland North reporter Dara Kerr spoke with Fire Chief Gerald A. Simon about what it means to be the head of Oakland’s Fire Department, what led him to the job, and about Oakland’s unique fire and safety needs.
Oakland is a port city. That means commerce, trucks, trains and boats. It also means dredging. Because the channels and ports need to be deep for boats to be able to get in and out, 3 to 6 million cubic yards of sediment have to be dredged every year in the San Francisco Bay. But while dredging is necessary for trade, it also poses a risk for animals that live in the bay
It’s rose season — and to celebrate this perennial, on Sunday the East Bay Rose Society held its 63rd rose show at Oakland’s Lakeside Garden Center at Lake Merritt.
Some were in spandex, others in dresses or suits and they rolled into downtown Oakland for Oakland’s 16th Annual Bike to Work Day.
While the Port of Oakland’s activities may not be able to show whether the recession is over, or when it will end, it reveals a lot about the nature of the local and regional economies. Inside each shipping container lies a story about Northern California and its relationship with the rest of the world. Take the story of the almonds.