Environment
Berkeley High is one of five California schools chosen to participate in a cutting-edge program designed to train students for environmentally friendly jobs and careers. State Senator Loni Hancock and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell attended a Wednesday morning assembly unveiling the new curriculum.
In a corner of the cavernous Elihu M. Harris State Building lobby in downtown Oakland, a group of enthusiastic people gathered around a table covered in Ziploc bags of brightly colored pills. Story by Lillian R. Mongeau.
Creek to Bay Day served as a rallying point for North Oakland residents looking to keep their creek clean. Video by Kate McLean and Thomas Gorman.
Frank Snapp walks up 40th Street, just east of Broadway, with a wheelbarrow full of plants and a plastic green garden hose slung in rounds over his shoulder. His olive sunhat shades denim blue eyes. It’s a 78-degree day in North Oakland and the heat rising off the asphalt makes it seem even hotter, but the fair-skinned, red-haired Snapp is in his element. He is a gardener like many gardeners, but three things set him apart: He has a remarkable depth…
A man crouched beside one of several dozen bicycles that filled a parking lot on the corner of 24th Street and Valdez in Northgate Sunday. On the other side of the lot, beyond folding tables and blankets strewn with bike parts, a Lycra-clad man with grey hair and grey tube socks stood next to his drop handle bike. Between the two, a small boy dressed like Lance Armstrong competing in the Tour de France pedaled furiously in place on a…
Most people would probably find the early-morning sound effects at Marie Henderson’s new place in Sobrante Park yesterday– hammers pounding on a roof, construction voices calling out to each other, and the whirring of power drills—a bit of a nuisance. But to Henderson, they were music to the ears: she was helping build her own home. “My house is progressing very well,” she said happily, brushing off her hands and adjusting the red bandana tied to her head beneath a…
On a hot day in West Oakland, children and parents sat at rows of desks in a warehouse classroom. It was dark, the fan hummed and people chattered in low voices. A sense of expectation filled the room. In three hours, every child would get a voucher for a free computer
As tens of thousands of children in North Oakland returned to school this week, local health officials and school districts were already bracing for the upcoming flu season, said Alameda County Public Health Department spokesperson Sherri Willis. “For the first time ever, we have two strains of flu and two vaccines to deal with. That would be a tall order even if one of those wasn’t a pandemic,” Willis said, referring to the swine flu virus, which since the school…
Five years ago, Oakland Technical High School teacher Deirdre Snyder wrote some notes at a teacher meeting where the teachers were imagining a new kind of academy within Tech–a program that might help teach students how to make careers out of protecting the environment. At the kickoff celebration last night for Tech’s new Green Technology Academy, Snyder–who teaches Spanish and Environmental Studies, and who will now help head the new Tech program–said, “We need to do this, because without it…