Politics

Frank Snapp walks up 40th Street, just east of Broadway, with a wheelbarrow full of plants and a plastic green garden hose slung in rounds over his shoulder. His olive sunhat shades denim blue eyes. It’s a 78-degree day in North Oakland and the heat rising off the asphalt makes it seem even hotter, but the fair-skinned, red-haired Snapp is in his element. He is a gardener like many gardeners, but three things set him apart: He has a remarkable depth…

City residents may take some small measure of comfort in knowing their City Council is aware of the discontent regarding the parking measures that went into effect on July 1. “I’ve been doing this for twelve years and this is a big reaction,” said City Council President Jane Brunner, whose District 1 is North Oakland, where many of the sharpest complaints have been directed regarding overzealous parking enforcement and extended hours.  “If you have this big of a reaction you…

At a crowded meeting, an Oakland City Council committee this week decided to urge the whole council to re-examine its position on the planned BART-to-Oakland-Airport lightrail connector project, targeted for $70 million in federal stimulus money. Story by Thomas Gorman/Oakland North.

After four hurricanes hit Haiti over a span of 30 days last November, an estimated 30,000 refugees headed to the United States. Now many of them face deportation. On Wednesday, groups like Oakland-based Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) marched with signs outside the federal building in downtown Oakland urging people to be aware of the Haitians’ situation and asking President Obama to grant them temporary protected status.

Dozens gathered at Lake Merritt in Oakland Sunday afternoon at a rally for healthcare reform. Laurel Moorhead and Becky Palmstrom captured the event in video and audio slideshow form.

Koreans have lived in Oakland for decades, but in 2007 the city allowed a group of landlords the right to tax and manage several blocks on Telegraph Avenue, renaming the strip Koreatown – Northgate. The neighborhood speaks out on the area’s recent name change. Video by Puck Lo and Laurel Moorhead/Oakland North.

Journalist David Bacon remembers the first time he saw farmworkers chased and dragged away by immigration officials in the mid-1970s. He talks about his new book, “Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants.” By Puck Lo/Oakland North

A neighbors’ uprising has helped kill any chance that that the old Parkway will be occupied by a woman who’d requested city permit to open a new business inside–a massage parlor. Story by Mario Furloni/Oakland North.

The fifth annual 9/11 film festival, sponsored by the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance, began last night at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater.