Environment
by MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Oct. 2 — In the five months since a drought was declared in the East Bay, Oakland residents have been warned against washing cars in their driveways, running half-empty washing machines, and asking for too much tap water at restaurants. This morning, officials had one thing to say in response: Thanks for your effort, but we’re still in trouble.
By MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Renee Cheney-Cohen, the coordinator of Alameda County’s immunization program, says the words with conviction. The phrase is her mantra as she reaches out to community groups, organizes free immunization clinics and works through the busy back-to-school vaccination season, insisting to parents that just because a disease isn’t common doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. Cheney-Cohen’s assertion is echoed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics, which placed incidences of vaccine-preventable diseases at all-time…
By MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Measles, mumps and polio may sound like plagues of days long past, but they are among the infections that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aims to hold at bay to this day through required and recommended immunizations, for children and adults alike.
Story and slideshow by MARTIN RICARD SEPT. 29 — As anyone who has traveled on two wheels along some of the city’s busiest streets knows, bicycling through Oakland can be a challenge. There are already more than 85 miles of designated bike routes for cyclists. But some of the bike lanes are confusing, not all the roads are paved and there are some areas that are just plain not safe to ride on. That’s where Walk Oakland Bike Oakland thinks…
by KRISTINE WONG Sep. 27 — Most Saturdays, Mosswood Park is filled with a lively mixture of families, dog walkers, and weekend soccer warriors. Today, a different group of voices rang out from the park’s center stage – those of environmentalists, builders, and students who rallied for new jobs to improve both the economy and the environment. The rally, sponsored by the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, featured remarks by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Oakland City Council…
By SAMSON REINY The warehouse of the Alameda County Community Food Bank is a center of constant activity. Every day, delivery trucks bustle in and out of loading zones as workers drop off grocery deliveries from growers and discount sellers, volunteers sort and package food items, and employees from local nonprofit agencies go “shopping” for needed products. And as the holiday season approaches, companies and schools will begin their canned food drives, which have become classic exercises in civic engagement….
By MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Sept. 23 — In a compromise over city parking costs, the City Council finance committee agreed today to recommend moderate residential parking permit fee increases — in exchange for starting a performance audit into what was repeatedly called an “inefficient” parking division.
story and audioslides by LINNEA EDMEIER Sept. 21 — Reading, writing, arithmetic and recycling? For students of Civicorps Elementary School, in North Oakland, Saturday’s Coastal Cleanup Day wasn’t just another day at the beach. It was another day of fulfilling Civicorps’s mission of “participating in the life of the community.” At Saturday’s event, Resek, a third grader at Civicorps giggled while he worked alongside his cousins and mother, Ashley Allison. They were cleaning up around the Lake Merritt Boathouse in…
audio slides by MAGGIE FAZELI FARD and KRISTINE WONG Sept. 21 — Neighbors in Temescal spent the day cleaning up Temescal Creek, as part of the California Coastal Cleanup Day.