Oakland North Radio
Nearly $8 billion over the next three decades could flow to Alameda County roads, sidewalks, highways, buses and trains, if voters approve Measure B1 on November 6. The measure would double the existing half-cent sales tax for transportation, to one cent. Measure B1 requires approval from two-thirds of voters to take effect.
Fragments of jazz progressions and classical nocturnes filled the air at Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company last weekend as customers gathered to admire, play—and purchase—the store’s recently acquired inventory of pianos from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Record lovers have followed Groove Yard from Jack London Square to Temescal to its current spot on Claremont Avenue in Rockridge. The record store, owned by Rick Ballard, specializes in hard-to-find jazz, world, and soul music.
At the 16th Annual Youth Speaks Poetry Slam Finals, thirteen young people between from across the Bay Area held the audience captive with their poems on everything from young love to the broken economy. Hear their poems in this interactive audio piece.
What if you could use something as simple as music to help people dealing with everything from traumatic brain injuries and strokes to neurological disorders and depression?
Image Comics changed the face of the industry with the success of titles like “Spawn” and the “Walking Dead.” At Image, the idea was to create a company where comic creators could bring new ideas to the table and the creators would own their intellectual property without worrying about being underpaid. Spencer Whitney tells us the story of the Berkeley-based Image Comics and how they became the largest independent comic book publisher in the industry.
Charles Porter, 68, has lived his most of his life in the Golden Gate district of Oakland.
Porter grew up in a two-story Victorian at San Pablo Avenue and 63rd Street that his parents purchased for $7,500 in 1949. He spent much of his youth at the Golden Gate rec center and the public library, playing games and reading books. He remembers San Pablo Avenue during the 1950s and 60s as a a commercial corridor—department stores, grocers, barber shops, car mechanics, five and dime stores, donut shops, even a movie theater. Back then, Porter remembers, it was one of the first Oakland neighborhoods to open up for African Americans.
Over the past 60 years, he has watched the neighborhood go through a number of changes, and seen the community change with it. For Porter, the changes are just part of the natural life cycle of the neighborhood.
A group of Bay Area folks come together every year on March 14 to celebrate pi — the mathematical constant and the dessert. Laura Hautala spent a recent Saturday afternoon joining in on the peculiar celebration.
Cities like Oakland would like to see more residents commuting by bike. But urban biking is risky, and sometimes both drivers and cyclists aren’t sure how to keep things safe.