Politics

Oakland North looked into political spending for three recent local races, breaking down what candidates spent, per voter, for the District One City Council race, the at-large seat and for City Attorney.

After months of fundraising, campaigning and speeches all around the city, five new faces will join the Oakland City Council and the city’s school board. Some of them have never held public office before; others have previously held other roles in local government.

Safeway wants to demolish its Rockridge store, and build on the site a new, two-story complex of about 62,000 square feet. But the proposed expansion to Safeway’s Rockridge store has pitted the company against neighborhood advocates who oppose the project.

This month, the city council’s Public Works Committee will consider a new graffiti ordinance, which aims to bolster Oakland’s current vandalism laws by inflicting harsher penalties on offenders and offering support for property owners frequently targeted by graffiti writers. The “Graffiti Enforcement Program” proposed by City Attorney Barbara Parker and District 3 representative Nancy Nadel, would enhance a section of the city’s municipal code which presently only addresses graffiti abatement procedures and prohibits the sale and possession of pressurized paint cans and markers to minors.

In a federal court document filed Thursday, city officials rejected a motion by local attorneys for a federal takeover of the Oakland Police Department, pushing instead for the creation of two new positions that would monitor the department’s progress in enacting the last 10 of 51 reforms ordered by a federal judge in 2003.

Four years ago, people danced in the streets in front of Everett and Jones BBQ Restaurant in Jack London Square. They embraced loved ones and high-fived total strangers. The news cameras rolled, and non-reporters became journalists as they documented history via grainy pictures from their camera phones. The first African American president in the history of the United States had been elected. Four years later, that same African American president was up for re-election, but the celebration at Everett and…

Voter registration went up between 2008 and 2012, but voter turnout dipped slightly in Alameda County. Use of provisional ballots steadily increasing.

Prop 30 and its effects explained in an Oakland North infographic.

Although voters in Alameda County were in favor of Prop 37—a statewide ballot measure that would have required the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods—the proposition failed to gather enough votes statewide and was rejected on Election Day.