Public Policy
A backlog of unprocessed disability claims in the Oakland Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has led military veterans to call on congressional leaders for assistance to obtain benefits.
Bites off Broadway is back, and maybe this time, thanks to a new food truck ordinance in Oakland, it’s here to stay for the summer.
The city of Oakland has a program that charges fines for banks that fail to maintain blighted homes that have been foreclosed upon that the bank now owns. On Tuesday night, the city council voted unanimously to expand those controls to include homes going through the default process.
The efforts to recall Mayor Jean Quan have been fraught with controversy and confusion. For almost six months, at least four groups spearheaded two independent signature gathering campaigns to remove the mayor from office before her term ends. After heated debates and political tensions, today marks the deadline for the first of the signature gathering efforts. The second group has until July 2.
The City of Oakland should find a way to get out of its interest rate swap agreement with Goldman Sachs, a deal that costs the city $4 million annually, according to a city staff report. The problem before the city council now is figuring out the best way to do that without costing the city more money.
The proliferation of donation boxes around town and the problems associated with them—like the blight added to neighborhoods when the boxes are not maintained by their owners, or concerns that many of the boxes are associated with organizations that don’t employ local workers—caught the attention of Oakland City Council members.
With California’s powerful redevelopment agencies and their corresponding powers now either extinct or on the fence, Oakland and other cities are facing a new problem: how to make use of toxic lands within their jurisdiction.
After an afternoon of largely peaceful protests, confrontation erupted between police and protesters in downtown Oakland after nightfall.
More than 1,000 people congregated in San Antonio Park in East Oakland on 5:30 pm Tuesday, waiting to march back to Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall as Occupy Oakland May Day protests continued into the evening.