Politics

City Hall OKs Oakland City ID program. Well, sort of.

The City Council voted 6 to 1 in favor of the ordinance allowing Oakland to have a City ID program – as long as council members Ignacio De La Fuente and Jean Quan can do their math homework. De La Fuente and Quan received strong support from a packed hall but council members Desley Brooks and Larry Reid were vocal about looking at the economics of the program-especially given Oakland’s $83 million budget deficit. “You are forcing it down our…

Budget Diaries: Just your average meeting, or the end of Oakland as we know it?

The apocalypse seems near on Thursday.  The Oakland City Council will meet for six hours to grill various department heads about their proposed cuts to balance the city budget.  This is, many will say, the worst fiscal situation they have ever seen.  Ever. Thanks to a declining economy the general fund, which is the city’s annual income for almost half of its budget, is at least $83 million short of the $500 million it needs to pay for such services…

Oakland’s May Day, from a youth perspective

  Youth Perspective of May Day from Betty Bastidas on Vimeo. 17-year old Lupe from Oakland, whose parents were recently deported, gives us her perspective on the meaning of May Day for young people in this part of the world and shares her reasons for becoming involved. 

Oakland’s Neighborhood Public Radio expands the boundaries of broadcasting

By Samson Reiny/Oakland North Ever wondered what Oakland’s Lake Merritt sounds like at 4am? Without being there, you could have listened any time of the day if you were within a mile’s range and tuned in to 87.9 FM from April to July of 2007.  Normally a jangle of static on the dial, the frequency was temporarily the site of “Talking Homes,” a radio program where 12 to 15 residents living near Lake Merritt volunteered to set up low-power transmitters…