Safety
17 years after the Oakland firestorm, one of the first firefighters on the ground comes back to remember. Click here for photos and his audio interview with reporter Linnea Edmeier, herself a veteran fire fighter.
By CLARE MAJOR OCT. 27 — Less than 24 hours after an Oakland woman was fatally stabbed by her estranged husband and dumped from a car near the Caldecott Tunnel, public and non-profit leaders convened for the 5th Annual Report and Forum on Domestic Violence & Sexually Exploited Minors at City Hall. Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan, who led the forum, said she sees “some significant progress here in Oakland, and, quite frankly, a long way still to go.”
From garden furniture to potted plants, North Oakland residents have noticed mysterious disappearances from their yards and porches. Click here for the story.
Neighbors of this Golden Gate neighborhood motel say they’re fed up with what seems to go on inside. Click here for the story.
by SAMSON REINY Lined with coffeehouses and bookstores, bakeries and flower shops, College Avenue is one of North Oakland’s busiest streets. Sidewalks are frequently jammed as couples stroll idly side by side, dogs mosey around testing the length of their owners’ leashes, and friends sip café lattes while chatting on the outside tables. Large trees, planted every several yards, make up for their hoggish use of walkway space with plentiful shade. What is not as easily reconciled are the occasional…
By BAGASSI KOURA As the busy holiday season nears, North Oakland residents and business owners can expect an added hassle as Bay Area Rapid Transit officials embark on a yearlong earthquake retrofit project. Sometime between Thanksgiving and the New Year, construction workers will descend on the area around the Rockridge BART station and begin a makeover that will reconstruct it section by section. Noisy machines breaking concrete will drown out carolers and airborne dust will dim the twinkle of tree…
By ISABEL ESTERMAN OCT. 14 — The red flag fire warning for the Oakland hills was lifted this morning, but officials urge residents to remain vigilant. The area is no longer being whipped by the 35 mph gusts that raised concerns over the weekend, but conditions in the drought-stricken hills are reminiscent of the weeks before the devastating 1991 Oakland firestorm.
by CLARE MAJOR The cards would look much like any other ID card—driver’s license, student or employee ID—that people use in Oakland every day. The new cards would display a photo, name, and address; a magnetic strip would run across the back. And these cards, issued by the City of Oakland, would be available to illegal immigrants—and could cause the kind of controversy that has erupted over similar programs in San Francisco and New Haven, Conn. The proposed municipal ID…
Read a Twitter feed of the council meeting here By ISABEL ESTERMAN and MARTIN RICARD OCT. 8 — It’s hard to know what to expect when taking a cab ride in Oakland. But in a city that operates more than 60 taxi companies, some problems have become irritatingly predictable: People left stranded in an area because a driver deemed it too dangerous, remote or unprofitable; taxis initially dressed with good tires just to pass inspection, only to have them later…