Rockridge

No charges against Hassani foster dad

Authorities have declined to charge either of the foster parents jailed last week on suspicion of murdering five-year-old Hassani Campbell, and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office canceled a scheduled afternoon arraignment of the boy’s foster father today. The Fremont boy’s foster parents, his biological aunt Jennifer Campbell and her fiance Louis Ross, had been arrested and held last week on suspicion of murder.  But Jennifer Campbell was released Monday. This afternoon, after police said there was insufficient evidence to…

Lanesplitting 2: Rockridge to Downtown

After a recent move to the area and a less-than-relaxing experience biking from Berkeley to downtown Oakland along Telegraph, I did what it seemed like any wannabe commuter (and novice biker) would: try to find a better route.  I contacted the city last week to learn about some good North Oakland/ Downtown alternatives. Jennifer Stanley, the bicycle and pedestrian facilities coordinator for Oakland, suggested the Webster-Shafter route, which runs from Rockridge to Downtown Oakland.  It’s “one of the most popular routes,”…

Local merchants: Black Friday slid by sort of gray

by MELANIE MASON and HENRY JONES Dec. 1–While retail sales the day after Thanksgiving exceeded expectations, most independent retailers here in North Oakland were removed from the spending frenzy of Black Friday. It wasn’t because of the economic troubles, necessarily—they typically miss out on the action. “Everyone gets drawn away to the big stores,” said Carlo Busby, president of the Temescal Merchants Association and owner of Sagrada boutique, of Black Friday. “As an independent business, we can’t do the deep…

Artist Liz Maxwell invokes nature, math, flight

by SAMSON REINY A few times a year, Liz Maxwell drives from her home in Rockridge up to Calistoga, in the Napa Valley.  For the past 40 years, she has walked the scenic little town for inspiration.  She’ll bring a point-and-shoot camera and snap everything around her.  “It might be a cracked road, moss growing on rock, or the patterns that are left on a wall from dead ivy leaves, they all give me ideas,” she says.  But sometimes she…

Cyclist mugged, threatened on Locksley

by MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Nov. 21–A bicyclist was mugged and threatened four doors from her Locksley Avenue home last week in an incident that police call “a random act,” but that worried neighbors and may have been the second attack on a local cyclist in recent weeks. 

Safeway and Rockridge butt heads once again

by HENRY JONES Nov. 13–Rockridge residents met for the fifth time in three months last night to discuss with Safeway representatives the supermarket’s planned reconstruction on College Avenue.  It was not a cheerful evening.