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Oakland City Council passed an ordinance Tuesday making it a crime to organize, facilitate or promote sideshows. The ordinance passed with six votes — councilmembers Kevin Jenkins and Janani Ramachandran were absent. Councilmember Noel Gallo originally proposed a stricter ordinance in December that would also have made it a crime to watch a sideshow, but that proposal was rejected and revised. The revisions remove any mention of spectators and “bystander participants.” The city has sought to deter people from participating…
Getting around town might get a lot easier, especially for college students in the East Bay. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission wants to subsidize 20,000 annual Bay Wheels passes for community college and public university students across the Bay Area, with the addition of 600 electric bikes and 19 stations in Oakland. The rollout would begin in 2027 if a proposed contract between Lyft and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission comes to fruition. The project is part of the larger Plan Bay Area…
Hasheem Bason, 33, charged with murdering an Oakland dentist in August, pleaded not guilty last Tuesday. Bason, of Stockton, also is charged with slaying while lying in wait, special circumstances of killing for financial gain and use of a firearm, among other offenses. At 2 p.m, on Aug 21, Dr. Lili Xu was shot and killed when she and her boyfriend pulled up to a curb on the 1000 block of Fifth Ave. in Oakland’s Little Saigon neighborhood. The Oakland…
Music and the smell of grilled meat and seafood wafted in the air as people grabbed food, browsed necklaces and earrings and watched street performances on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland Friday. Thousands of people attend Oakland First Fridays – a free monthly event that features local vendors, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Telegraph Avenue between 27th Street and West Grand Avenue. But its future is uncertain, as organizations struggle to meet the event’s expenses. First Fridays costs about…
Driving in Oakland can sometimes feel like a video game, swerving around potholes to avoid a flat tire or damage to the undercarriage of your car. Potholes have become one of the few apolitical issues that everyone, besides maybe the tire repair shop, can get behind. “Potholes are an unnecessary added stress,” says Oakland resident Logan Marshall. Some are so deep, you can instantly pop a tire driving over them, he added. According to a 2019 Metropolitan Transportation Commission…
After five months of heated meetings, tensions boiled over Wednesday as the Oakland Unified School board voted decisively against a resolution brought by the community to reverse the scheduled closures of seven schools. Board President Gary Yee moved the meeting online after several community members protesting the vote approached the board’s table, a metal chair crashing to the floor as people in the audience moved. Security guards stepped in to maintain order. “I think that they knew that the vote…
For nearly 20 years, the Oakland Unified School District has paid the consequences of relying on the state to bail it out of financial trouble. During that time, it has slashed the budget, cut salaries, laid off staff and closed schools, as it tries to repay a $100 million emergency loan it borrowed in 2003, when the district fell under state receivership. And the cuts keep coming — with 11 schools set to close, merge or downsize in the next…
Hunger striking may be most well known as a political tool used by suffragettes and Irish prisoners, which is why it caught some off-guard recently to see it being used in Oakland to influence a school board decision. Two Oakland Unified School District employees launched a hunger strike in response to proposed school closures in January, signaling that the once drastic measure may change the way communities protest local issues. “Oakland Unified now faces the prospect of many future hunger…
The state of California and an Oakland-based environmental group are suing the pipe casting facility AB&I Foundry for reportedly emitting excessive levels of a carcinogenic chemical into East Oakland’s air. Both lawsuits, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, accuse the foundry of violating California’s Proposition 65 — a law requiring businesses to warn people about significant exposures to harmful chemicals. The state’s lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Rob Bonta on Feb. 15, states that McWane Inc. operating as AB&I Foundry,…