Sports

Bicycle Master Plan, MacArthur BART project

Imagine it’s a warm summer evening after another monotonous day’s soul-crushing workplace tedium.  You get back to your North Oakland abode, slip into something more comfortable, and hop onto your fixie bike, fat-tired mountain bike, or tricked-out scraper bike. You cycle down through Emeryville, onto I-80, and over the Bay Bridge to watch the sunset from Treasure Island.  As orange light bleeds out from behind the San Francisco Financial District’s angular skyscrapers, you feel the cool bay breeze on your…

The Mermaids take the waters at annual cancer swim

The Women’s Cancer Resource Center, an Oakland-based support center for women with cancer, held its fourteenth annual Swim a Mile for Women with Cancer event on October 3rd and 4th at the Mills College pool in East Oakland. Swimmers of various skill sets – from those who walked their laps in the shallow end to those who wore their brightly colored swim caps and Speedos in the deep end – grouped in threes or fours to share lanes and swim…

Hometown hero Henderson honored by alma mater

Recently-minted Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, the former Oakland Tech Bulldog and Oakland Athletic, returned to his old neighborhood on Saturday afternoon for a ceremony renaming a North Oakland baseball field in his honor. Story by Sam Laird/Oakland North

For talented kids, a chance to dance, rap and show their skills

It seems like a tall order. Wanted: fifteen volunteer hip-hop or modern dance performers willing to learn spoken word theater for a Spring show in Oakland and possible national tour. Song, rap, martial arts and aerial dance skills could also come in handy. Oh, yes–and actors must be 12 or younger. The group will be known as “Destiny Junior Company,” and the idea emerged out of Destiny Art Center, a non-profit that runs dance, theater and martial arts classes for…

Paddles up! Giant weekend dragon boat races on Bay

Dragon boats converged on the Bay this weekend from all over the Bay Area and way beyond. Teams from Texas and Canada, as well as the newcomer Oakland Renegades, were among the dozens racing in this year’s International Dragon Boat festival. Videos and story by Laurel Moorhead, Mario Furloni and Paige Ricks.

Game on: Lawn bowlers battle by the lake

On most weekend mornings in September, Oakland residents turn Lake Merritt into their outdoor track, with packs of joggers and cyclists circumnavigating the sunlit lake. But a canopy of gray clouds chilled the air one recent Saturday, making the morning in the emptier-than-usual park feel like winter rather than late summer.

Raider Nation’s back! Now pour me another one.

The late Hunter S. Thompson – no stranger to depravity himself – once called Oakland Raiders fans, “beyond doubt the sleaziest and rudest and most sinister mob of thugs and wackos ever assembled in such numbers under a single ‘roof,’ so to speak, anywhere in the English-speaking world.“ Oakland North caught up with Raider Nation at the Coliseum before Monday’s opening night for the 2009 Silver and Black.   The evening ended in a 24-20 defeat to the visiting San Diego…