Safety
Many of Oakland’s community health problems can be traced to a history of bad city planning and land use, an expert from the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) said last Wednesday during a panel discussion at the American Institute of Architects East Bay offices in downtown Oakland. Sandra Witt, the County’s deputy director of planning policy and health equity, referred often to a report published last year called “Life and Death from Unnatural Causes: Health and Social Inequity in…
By Casey Miner/Oakland North Dr. Barry Krisberg is an expert on released prisoners in a city that’s full of them. Of the 12,000 people on parole or probation in Alameda County, roughly half live in Oakland, though the city is home to only a third of the county’s residents. Given those numbers, Krisberg, president of the Oakland-based National Council on Crime and Delinquency, says a few more released inmates—which is what the city may get if the state is forced…
story and video by MARTIN RICARD One week last August, Carlos Martinez, a civil engineer who lives in the Temescal district, was expecting a special envelope in the mail. It was his 37th birthday, and his sister from Dallas had told him she was sending him a gift card. She said she was going to send it through the postal service, as most people do. Only the gift card never arrived.
Trapped by cultural tradition and poor English, some Korean women find Oakland’s Isabel Kang for help escaping domestic abuse. Click here for the story.
by CLARE MAJOR, MAGGIE FAZELI FARD, and SAMSON REINY Dec. 1 — It was still dark when Josh and Jessica woke up this morning, and there was a damp chill in the air. By 7 a.m., the couple stood outside the MacArthur BART station, each holding a sign printed with an AIDS statistic. Morning commuters streamed past them. “Who makes eye contact — that’s when you go for the card,” said Josh, informational postcards in hand. “Even if they just…
Named after a Rockridge pediatrician who was murdered a decade ago, this free service brings volunteer doctors to children who need them. Click here for the story.
By ANNA BLOOM Once officers receive badges from the Oakland Police academy, they usually begin to gravitate to an area of expertise. “When you come on patrol, you specialize,” Oakland Police Sgt. Bernard Ortiz says. “Some guys become motor-men, they love giving tickets. Some guys are dope guys.” For a long time, Ortiz was a dope guy. For ten years, he negotiated streets in high-speed chases, responded to shootouts and participated in drug busts in East and West Oakland. There,…
The van with all the laptops inside, going slowly up and down the street? Could be an example of “war driving”–casing neighborhoods for wireless networks. Click here for the story.
by HENRY JONES Nov. 16–International Boulevard and 68th Street was a big spectacle Friday night. Orange cones, squad cars, and floodlights took over the southbound side of International. Tow trucks idled around the corner. Cops waved traffic through with big red flashlights, looking like authoritarian movie theater ushers, stopping every fifth car to check for driver’s licenses and any signs of intoxication. An audience of at least fifty people from the neighborhood watched from across the street, most dressed in…