Brenda Payton

About Brenda Payton
Brenda Payton has been a journalist for 40 years. She was a columnist at the Oakland Tribune
for 26 years. She contributed to KQED radio’s Perspective series for 20 years. She was a co
-producer of
“Your Loan Is Denied,” a documentary about lending discrimination that aired on PBS’ Frontline. She
was a reporter at the San Francisco Examiner, the Boston Phoenix and the New Bedford Standard Times. She was a lecturer at San Francisco State University, teaching newswriting, reporting and feature writing.
2017-2018 Blogs

2017 Correspondents

October 27, 2017 Brenda Payton

The new group of Oakland Voices Correspondents will begin telling the stories of their neighborhoods in one week. They are They are a diverse group with varied backgrounds and experiences with one thing in common

2016 Blogs

Oakland Voices Reacts

November 17, 2016 Brenda Payton

The Oakland Voices correspondents covered local elections last week, writing about the successful campaigns for expanded protections for renters, a soda tax, a civilian police commission and the not- as- successful, but strongly community-based, campaigns

2016 Blogs

Election Night in Oakland

November 11, 2016 Brenda Payton

The Oakland Voices 2016 correspondents had gathered in the East Bay Times newsroom before heading out to cover our local races, two city council races and three measures – strengthening protections for renters, establishing an

2015 Blogs

Oakland Voices reflect on guns

January 25, 2016 Brenda Payton

Following President Barack Obama’s executive order addressing gun violence and regulations, the Oakland Voices correspondents wrote about their experiences with guns and their thoughts about government efforts to curb gun violence. Probably reflecting much of

Life in East Oakland

Where We Live

September 4, 2015 Brenda Payton

The Oakland Voices correspondents went out into their neighborhoods to survey what was there and what wasn’t — grocery stores, liquor stores, churches, parks. They came back with some insightful observations about community and belonging

oakland voices 2015 team
2015 Blogs

Family Resilience

August 10, 2015 Brenda Payton

[slideshow_deploy id=’8676′]We asked the new Oakland Voices correspondents to write about a family member and resilience. They came back with inspiring stories about siblings raised in foster care, a teen mom who refused to give