Safety

40th St bike lane plan sets off hot neighbors’ debate

An ambitious east-west bike plan proposal set off agitated debate at a meeting Tuesday in North Oakland’s Longfellow district, where one speaker likened the neighborhood to a bride on her wedding day. The plan to remove medians, he said, is going “to take her dress, smear her make-up, shave her head, and pare her down to a tank top.”

Batts sworn in, city to ease up on wrongway parking tickets

Police Chief Anthony Batts was sworn in at last night’s Oakland City Council meeting, then council members advanced plans for a municipal ID card program, eased enforcement rules for wrong-way parking, and sentenced to death two redwood trees on the site of a controversial development.

Oakland remembers earthquake, Cypress collapse

Ruthann Liu-Johnston brought her red high-heeled shoes to the anniversary ceremony yesterday—not on her feet, but as remembrances. Liu-Johnston was wearing those the day the Cypress Freeway collapsed out from under her. Johnston joined city officials at Cypress Freeway Memorial Park as part of a city-sponsored commemoration called “Reflect. Honor. Prepare: Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake.” She can no longer wear her red shoes, due to severe ankle and spinal injuries she sustained during the earthquake,…

Remembering the surgery inside the freeway collapse

When the Cypress Freeway collapsed twenty years ago, one child survived because a Children’s Hospital surgeon climbed into the wreckage, got down on his stomach amid the other emergency workers, and performed an amputation on the spot. The doctor, James Betts, tells the story.