Rockridge
Video by MARTIN RICARD Every week, young adults and the young at heart gather at the Rockridge BART station to play one of the most hallowed of playground games: four-square. With cars and trains zooming by above, the group — known as 4 Square of the East Bay — takes over a row of parking spaces, sharing the lot with medieval sword fighters and bike polo players, to compete for fun and for camaraderie.
By BAGASSI KOURA As the busy holiday season nears, North Oakland residents and business owners can expect an added hassle as Bay Area Rapid Transit officials embark on a yearlong earthquake retrofit project. Sometime between Thanksgiving and the New Year, construction workers will descend on the area around the Rockridge BART station and begin a makeover that will reconstruct it section by section. Noisy machines breaking concrete will drown out carolers and airborne dust will dim the twinkle of tree…
By ISABEL ESTERMAN OCT. 14 — The red flag fire warning for the Oakland hills was lifted this morning, but officials urge residents to remain vigilant. The area is no longer being whipped by the 35 mph gusts that raised concerns over the weekend, but conditions in the drought-stricken hills are reminiscent of the weeks before the devastating 1991 Oakland firestorm.
On Sept. 28, the annual “Out and About” street fair turned central Rockridge into one giant fashion show, food fair, and babystrollers convention. Video by CHRISTINA SALERNO and HENRY JONES.
By LINNEA EDMEIER Oct. 8 — The anxiety over the possibility of some school shutdowns played out in tonight’s Oakland Board of Education meeting as individuals and groups took the microphone to passionately say, “Don’t close our small schools.” In the wake of announcing a plan to study closing certain schools in order to increase fiscal stability, the Board found itself on stage tonight—literally and figuratively. Under spotlights, seated in a row behind a blue-skirted table lined with microphones, the…
North Oakland car owners have been reporting a new kind of thief–the stealing is done from underneath the car. 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.