Neighborhoods
By OAKLAND NORTH STAFF Sept. 27—They cheered, they jeered and they rolled their eyes. Some even slurped “Obama-Mama” cocktails—a special concoction of coconut rum and pineapple juice—at one of the dozens of debate-watching parties held throughout Oakland and Berkeley on Friday night. Ardent supporters of Barack Obama or John McCain gathered to watch the season’s first presidential debate at neighborhood bars, restaurants, homes and corner stores.
The renovated Raimondi is a start–but Oakland kids’ sports fields are often big expanses of ankle-twisting ground squirrel holes and dirt. Click here for the story.
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.
By MARTIN RICARD SEPT. 23 — Over the summer, some North Oakland residents were furious with the city when they unexpectedly got tickets for parking their cars in front of their homes after they had already paid to renew their residential parking permits.
Plans for ambitious supermarket reconstruction are being rethought as trouble neighbors and local business owners; . Click here for the story.
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.
By MAGGIE FAZELI FARD SEPT. 6 — A short stretch of 58th street in North Oakland was alive with the sights, sounds and smells of Latin America this morning as local artisans lined the sun-bleached curb with their small works and residents took time out to talk, eat, laugh and dance in the street. But this was no block party. Alongside the artists sat women’s healthcare advocates, and behind the makeshift bandstand on the corner of Telegraph Avenue and 58th Street…
A public meeting will be held 7-9 p.m. Wednesday at Claremont Middle School to discuss controversial plans to expand the Safeway supermarket on College Avenue in Rockridge. This will be the first meeting of a stakeholders group organized by Safeway after opposition from neighborhood organizations stymied building plans released in June. The existing store was built in 1964, and occupies about 25,000 square feet. Safeway’s most recent building plan proposed to double the store’s floor space by taking over an…