Oakland design fair encourages participants to play

Frank Ogawa Plaza hosted Oakland’s first design fair on Super Bowl weekend. The organizers of the event, Our City, chose local artists to center their designs around the theme of play. The designs ranged from an outdoor living room installed with picture frames that allowed passersby to upload selfies; an adult-sized board of Mancala, a…

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Oakland at Work: The rump of “Oscar Grant Plaza”

Ed and his dog Einstein host a free buffet at Frank Ogawa Plaza.

The acoustics are perfect in Frank Ogawa Plaza, the site of City Hall, on a Sunday. The clang of pots and pans resonate in a corner where a table is set up with turkey, gravy, and other Thanksgiving fixings covered with foil to keep it warm. “On the last Sunday of every month we like…

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Thursday morning, 11 am

Oakland North reporters went out to different locations across Oakland on Thursday, October 22, between 11 a.m. and noon to observe what happens throughout the city on an ordinary weekday morning.

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Bay Area Rising rallies against gender violence

Frank Ogawa Plaza was filled with over 100 people wearing pink clothing or pink ribbons on Friday in support of ending violence against women. The rally was led by Bay Area Rising, an all-volunteer team dedicated to feminist principles and ending violence against women all over the world. A branch of the 1 Billion Rising…

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Fans rally as A’s look to playoffs

Oakland A's right fielder Josh Reddick with A's fans.

Mayor Jean Quan and members of the Oakland city council joined local fans at Frank Ogawa Plaza on Oct. 1 for “A’s Oaktober Rally” – a free public celebration honoring the 2013 Oakland Athletics. The A’s clinched a playoff spot this season by winning the AL West Division and will host the Detroit Tigers in the American League Division Series on Friday and Saturday at O.co Coliseum.

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Two arrests, no reports of vandalism, graffiti after Occupy march

Michael “Big Mike” Preyer, who works for the City of Oakland, washes away remnants of the chalk art created by Chalkupy yesterday at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Photo by Pendarvis Harshaw.

Apart from patches of dusty, multicolored chalk art on the sidewalks—a remnant of Chalkupy—little evidence of last night’s march and gathering commemorating the first police raid on an Occupy Oakland encampment remained Friday morning. Despite declarations that the group would hold an all-night vigil, and rumors that they might attempt to set up a new encampment, the only people at Frank Ogawa Plaza this morning were security guards, commuters and City of Oakland maintenance workers.

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After peaceful downtown march, Occupy protesters return to plaza

A police line at 12th Street and Lake Merritt watch protesters move by. Photo by Sam Rolens.

On the night of the one-year anniversary of the police raid on the first Occupy Oakland encampment, a crowd of Occupy Oakland protesters zig-zagged on a march through the downtown before returning to Frank Ogawa Plaza, where they declared that they planned to hold an all-night vigil. The six-hour protest Thursday night, which drew no…

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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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Man shot and killed near Occupy Oakland encampment

crime scene occupy oakland ogawa plaza

On Occupy Oakland’s one-month anniversary, a man was shot and killed on the outskirts of the encampment Thursday afternoon. Witnesses at the scene said the victim was shot at around 5 pm, following an altercation with a small group of African American men that erupted near the portable toilets on the northeast side of the encampment.

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Filmmaker Michael Moore rallies Occupy Oakland crowd

As Mayor Jean Quan fielded reporters’ questions on Friday about the clash between police and protesters earlier this week, she was suddenly drowned out by cheers coming from outside as documentarian and activist Michael Moore arrived to speak to a gathering crowd of hundreds on the steps of City Hall.

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