Public Policy
While the teachers’ strike ended weeks ago, the Oakland Unified School District’s financial troubles are far from over. Less than 24 hours after the strike, on March 4, the school board narrowly voted to cut $22 million dollars from next year’s budget. The move was to keep the district from financial ruin, but school libraries are among the programs being affected by the cuts. We focused on the story of just one library at Frick Impact Academy in East Oakland…
The Oakland teachers’ strike officially ended on Sunday evening, but the debate over their contract and district budget cuts is still not over. The vote on Sunday was far from unanimous. Members of the teachers’ union—the Oakland Education Association—gathered at the Paramount Theater for four hours of debate before voting on whether or not to approve the tentative agreement, or TA, reached by union and the Oakland Unified School District. Teachers held signs that read “Say no to the sellout…
The City of Oakland is working to provide safe sites for homeless living in their RVs and more sanitation services at encampments in an effort to help address the city’s homeless crisis.
After more than five hours of public comment and heated debate, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to approve nearly all of an ad hoc committee’s recommendations to demilitarize the county’s controversial Urban Shield annual training program. They voted 4-0 to eliminate SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) deployment exercises and the event’s weaponry and military gadget show, shifting the focus of the training event to natural disaster preparedness. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office launched the annual Urban…
Oakland city council voted in an emergency moratorium to temporarily protect duplex renters from rent control exemptions. These exemptions apply to housing units where a landlord lives within the duplex or triplex with the renters.
Senator Kamala Harris leaned into her East Bay roots as she held the first official rally of her presidential campaign in Oakland on Sunday. Stepping onto a podium in the shade of a flag-draped Oakland City Hall, Harris waved at the largest crowd ever gathered in her support, unable to contain a broad, excited smile. An estimated 20,000 people poured into Frank H. Ogawa Plaza and overflowed into the streets surrounding Oakland City Hall. Cheers and chants drawing out the…
Incarceration doesn’t just affect the incarcerated, it alters the lives of their loved ones as well. Families struggle to maintain these relationships because of the financial and emotional burdens that the prison system places on them.
In an election cycle full of stunning upsets, organizer Cat Brooks looks to ride the wave of progressive women of color running and winning.
Tales of Two Cities reporters explore all things repurposed — from buildings and bridges to names, Lyft rides, school meals, and cannabis.