Oakland restores City Hall plaza and lawn, damaged by Occupy campsite

The bust of Frank H. Ogawa in front of Oakland City Hall. The plaza is fenced off for restoration.

Nearly a year after the Occupy protest coalesced in downtown Oakland, a longsuffering casualty of the protest is finally being attended to as the City of Oakland begins a full-scale restoration of the lawn of Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. The project involves the removal and replacement of all grass sod in the plaza—a new lawn, essentially, from scratch.

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Five Occupy Oakland campers speak about why they joined the protest

"Endism Road," one of the makeshift wooden walkways at the Occupy Oakland camp that has been putting down roots over the past two weeks in the downtown Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.

There used to be grass here, but it didn’t last long―not after the bodies started multiplying and the make-shift community started growing. Now the space is covered in mud and heaps of hay. And a runaway pancake that slid off of someone’s blue-plastic plate. And a stray sock, and a boardwalk of planks. And feet. Hundreds of feet. This used to be Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, but not any more. Welcome to Occupy Oakland.

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Oakland celebrates Mexico’s Independence Day

woman and her daughters

About 200 people celebrated Mexico’s Independence Day at Oakland City Hall on Thursday, as Mexican and Latino residents from all over the city recreated the night of September 15, 1810, when Miguel Hidalgo, a priest from the town of Dolores, called his congregation to join him in a revolt against the Spanish colonial government.

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LIVE coverage of council meeting 7.28.09

Reporting from the Chambers. LIVE! 5:34 p.m. – Agenda lists Nancy Nadel is currently in Jamaica. She will speak via teleconference all the way from Blue Harbour Castle Gardens in Port Maria, Jamaica, West Indies. This will be interesting. 5:47 p.m.  -Council members are in! Ignacio De La Fuente walks in with Animal, the drummer…

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