Tuesday, 3:30 p.m.: Community Meeting About 40 parents, teachers, and children have come to an after-school meeting in the library that is shared by two elementary schools in the Fruitvale neighborhood: ICS (International Community School) and TCN (Think College Now). Most of the parents are Latinas and they have come to this community meeting because …Read more…
Sidewalk Memorials: A Softer Side of Oakland
Living in East Oakland is like having a close relationship with a problematic relative. You can call your auntie “crazy,” because she’s your auntie, but you can’t let anyone outside the family call her crazy. You understand that she’s multi-faceted and complex. And yes, she can behave erratically, but this does not mitigate your connection …Read more…
Fruitvale after the Ghost Ship fire
Note: this story originally aired on KALW Public Radio 91.7 FM in San Francisco as part of their “Sights & Sounds of East Oakland” series and was published on the KALW website. You can listen to the audio segment at KALW. Oakland Voices correspondent Kat Ferreira lives near the remains of the Ghost Ship warehouse—where 36 …Read more…
Food Desert
East Oakland is considered a food desert. A food desert–according to the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture)–is defined as a “low-access community” where at least 500 people or 33 percent of the census tract’s population live more than one mile from a supermarket. And perhaps because East Oakland is a food desert, taco trucks predominate …Read more…
While Everyone Else Is Sleeping, East Oakland Is Eating
It’s a Monday evening just after 11 p.m. as I pull into the Tacos Los Amigos parking lot on East 14th Street (also known as International Blvd.) I was referred to this taco truck by veteran graffiti writer Ceaver (640, Lords crews), who claimed it as his favorite late night food spot. Known as a …Read more…
O.G. Beat Meet, a video story
A Client’s Choice Pantry in East Oakland Grocery Desert
I arrive around 10:15 a.m. on a recent Saturday at the Flunder Foundation Word of Mouth Food Pantry located at the City of Refuge United Church of Christ http://www.cityofrefugeucc.org/, which is in a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood not far from the Oakland airport. Although the pantry doesn’t open for another 45 minutes, there’s already …Read more…
Faces of Bay Area PLAN’s Family FEST
Dad Hip Hop
“It wasn’t hard to be a Tupac fan when I was in high school,” says Oakland rapper, music producer, record label owner, and dad, Tahajiye Edwards. “But people thought you were a little strange when you were a Freestyle Fellowship fan, you know what I mean? When you showed up dressed up like De La …Read more…
What Will Happen to This Land?
“I’m leaving here today Yes, I’m going back home to stay Yes, I’m walking to New Orleans” Fats Domino This is the first in a series about how one family is addressing inherited land. Taxes are current but the land is undivided among multiple families who left the South during the great migration. No clear …Read more…