Sports

As gears begin to turn, Temescal hopeful for new park space

If you could turn a slab of cement and portable classrooms into a vibrant neighborhood park, what would it include? Last night at a community meeting in the Oakland International High School library, a group of approximately 25 North Oaklanders took part brainstorming what a new park could look like in their Temescal neighborhood.

Bikes get hyphy in West Oakland

At a West Oakland warehouse, youth build their own custom bike creations – chopper bikes, tandem bikes, cruiser bikes, and sidecar bikes of various shapes and sizes and colors.

Oakland moves forward in bid to host World Cup games

Oakland is one step closer to being chosen as the site for a future World Cup Series soccer match, that is, if the Federation Internationale de Football Association picks the US as a host country for either the 2018 or 2022 tournament. City officials have been vying for the title of US host city since June, and earlier this month they passed a resolution to continue bidding. Although Oakland has already survived a few stages of the bidding process, it…

Roller Derby in Oakland is only for the rough and tough

Some families hand down dishware and handmade quilts. Other families hand down aliases, casino luck, and hip-smashing, hard-hitting, skirt-rocking roller sports. Jane Hammer’s family falls into the second category. Hammer is team captain and coach for The Oakland Outlaws roller derby team – a group of women athletes who represent, “tenacity, fire, and drive.”

Oakland wants to join U.S. bid for World Cup

Imagine a series of summer afternoons at the Oakland Coliseum a few years in the future. The sun-dappled parking lot has become a Tower of Babel—English, Spanish and a smattering of Scandinavian tongues—but all are mutually intelligible in their passion for one sport: soccer. It might just happen, since Oakland is bidding to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

Oakland Black Cowboy Association revives forgotten memories of the American West

Oakland resident Wilbert McAlister grew up watching Westerns at the movie theater in his rural hometown of Madera, Calif.  For years he reveled in the exploits of white heroes, but as an adult he began to ask himself why none of the actors resembled him or his ancestors, who were ranchers in Oklahoma.  As he explained to Oakland North, this question of identity led him to become president of the Oakland Black Cowboy Association, which keeps East Bay residents connected…