Search Results: community photo

City embraces Black Friday, complete with campouts

By 5 am Friday, David Martinez and Derrick Love, both Oakland residents, had spent nearly 48 hours stationed outside the Best Buy on the city’s Mandela Parkway.  The first night, they slept in a borrowed tent. On Thursday they ate Thanksgiving dinner—turkey on paper plates—under the streetlights as the line circling the building formed behind them. “It’s totally worth it,” said Love, who had locked his target on one of the store’s ten $349 laptops that usually sell for $600….

Wildlife calls on the rise in Alameda County

Over the past year, Alameda County residents have called in a rising number of complaints about opossums, skunks, raccoons and other small animals invading their backyards—all signs that human clashes with wildlife might be on the rise.

“Street Style Fashion” workshop helps young designers flourish

Rock Paper Scissors Collective, an Oakland-based volunteer cooperative offering free and low-cost art classes to the community, has offered “Street Style Fashion” workshops since 2007. The workshops, which are presented in partnership with Arts and Creative Expression, are open by application to young fashion designers ages 14 to 25 and focus on teaching participants professional design skills. Each workshop, students begin or continue work on a garment using techniques they develop in class to move their work forward. The clothing the students create ranges from sweatshirts to skirts to dresses.

Oakland Museum foundation aims to cut ties with city

For nearly 20 years, the Oakland Museum of California has operated under a public-private partnership with the City of Oakland and the nonprofit Oakland Museum of California Foundation, sharing the $15 million annual budget and control of operations. But now city officials may remove themselves from that partnership, leaving the nonprofit foundation to run the 41-year-old cultural institution.

Thanksgiving a week away, but the giving is slow

Four three-foot high barrels resembling oversized soup cans sit at Spice Monkey Café and Restaurant in downtown Oakland. Each is emblazoned with photos of smiling children and has “Donate Food Here!” stamped across the black and red label. One barrel is filled with nonperishable canned goodies. Another is half full. And two are completely empty.

Nonprofit program gives local businesses tools to grow

Created In Oakland, a nine month business consulting program, is helping local small businesses grow their businesses through workshops and individual advising. The program, which enrolls roughly 15 businesses each session, has worked with organizations ranging from hair salons to architectural design firms.

Oakland police, firefighters to face-off for charity

“Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for … Guns N’ Hoses!” On Sunday, the Oakland Ice Center will host the third annual charity police versus firefighters hockey match between some of Oakland’s finest, titled “Guns N’ Hoses.”

Breaking: Jean Quan is Oakland’s new mayor

City council member Jean Quan has become Oakland’s newest mayor, according to a provisional announcement made by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Wednesday evening. After the official count ended, Quan received 50.98 percent of the vote, beating former state senator Don Perata, who garnered only 49.02 percent.

East Oakland barbershop owner shot to death by OPD officers

Neighbors and friends of an unarmed East Oakland barber who was killed by Oakland Police Monday night reacted angrily today to the police account of the shooting. Police said the officers were responding to a domestic dispute call between Jones, who was on parole for a firearms offense, and a woman at a nearby laundromat on Bancroft Avenue.

Mehserle protests end with limited damage, lots of arrests

Oakland’s streets are quiet again. Peaceful protests turned into a night of vandalism Friday after the announcement of a two-year sentence for former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. Police officials said 152 people were arrested after protesters at a peaceful rally in Frank Ogawa Plaza stormed the streets of Oakland Friday night. Protesters marched through the downtown area and into East Oakland, blocking traffic, throwing rocks, breaking windows and jumping on cars along the way. Oakland police officials say protesters…

Mehserle sentenced to 2 years, including time served

From a ninth-floor courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Oscar Grant III, was sentenced this afternoon to two years in prison. The sentence, from Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry, will include credit for the time Mehserle has already spent in jail.

Raiders ruin homecoming for Oakland Tech’s Lynch

Marshawn Lynch, the often written and talked-about NFL player who graduated from Oakland Tech High School, made his hometown pro football debut during a trip to Oakland this weekend as a member of the Seattle Seahawks.

He was fresh off a trade that sent him from the Buffalo Bills to the Seahawks. But the visit home didn’t go quite as he had expected.

Former union leader challenges incumbent in school board election

Although three of the seven board members are up for re-election in November, only one seat is being challenged. Incumbents David Kakishiba and Christopher Dobbins have no opposition, and so will automatically retain their school board seats. But Gary Yee, the current board president, has an opponent who is also a longtime adversary—former teachers’ union president Ben Visnick.