Neighborhoods

The smoky-sweet scent of barbeque wafted over College Avenue on Sunday during the fourth annual Rockridge Out and About Festival, as Oakland residents turned out in droves, despite the blazing hot sun, to sample local businesses’ culinary and artisanal talents.

Residents in North Oakland’s Koreatown-Northgate district may soon be getting some new neighbors—a group of men and women trying to restart their lives after spending time behind bars. Center Point, Inc., a Marin-based non-profit social services agency, is planning to open a day reporting center for parolees from Oakland on the 33rd block of Telegraph.

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.

In this special report, we have created an audio-visual map of the learning resources in Oakland’s Golden Gate neighborhood.

Can you farm in a city like Oakland? Some local urban farmers, community groups and university researchers think so. Working with the City of Oakland, they are re-envisioning the city’s food supply

Anyone who has shopped for food in a poor urban neighborhood, in Oakland or elsewhere, knows how it goes: Twenty varieties of malt liquor, potato chips, and frozen burritos and one bruised-up, waxy apple. Maybe a half-peeled onion. It’s so common that it’s almost a fact of life in America. Unhealthy food is as intrinsic to poor communities of color as are midnight gunshots and Newport cigarette billboard ads. Click HERE to see the special project

Shannon and the Clams is an Oakland-based band that turns life’s awkward moments into damaged pop gems.

First it was chants of “O-T, O-T” that echoed throughout the Laney College gym Saturday. The happy players and coaches of Oakland Tech were celebrating their Oakland Athletic League girls basketball championship, a 72-42 win over Skyline High. A couple hours later, that scene was repeated. This time, it was chants of “Cas-tle, Cas-tle,” as the Castlemont High boys team celebrated its 67-65 win over Oakland High.

This week, the City of Oakland is holding a series of public meetings on a proposed Bus Rapid Transit line that would run through Berkeley, San Leandro and Oakland.