Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Oakland Residents For Peaceful Neighborhood scores another news touchdown with this story on a riot that broke out at Fremont High School, and which gives an unflinching look at Oakland flatland school violence. Here's the story, as told by ORPN with a link back to their website for the rest of the story: Fremont High Students Riot in Foothill Blvd. A fight between two teenage women escalated into a mob that stopped traffic and attacked elderly bystanders. The brawl began around 12:30 p.m. just outside Fremont High School on Foothill Blvd. at 48th Street. A resident of a house on Foothill Blvd. saw a young man holding a clutch of hair. Soon men in tricked-out cars and on decorated bicycles equipped with boom boxes gathered and escalated the chaos. Traffic could not proceed while the mob occupied Foothill Blvd. One couple took an elderly lady into their vehicle in order to protect her from attack. She had been waiting for the bus. However, the bus driver soon closed his doors and r

Did City of Oakland Cover Up A Toxic Problem At Robert's Tires? That is the question of the day and it's based on a webpage created by "Oakland Residents For Peaceful Neighborhoods" (ORPN) which claims that decades of oil and other toxic chemicals from the Robert's Tire establishment were not cleaned up at the High and MacArthur site, yet a five story senior housing development is being pushed to be approved to be built over it. ORPN writes that both the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda are forcing through approval of the development and they point a finger directly at Oakland City Council Person Jean Quan (District 4 - in photo) and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. Knowing Keith Carson as I do, I don't think he knew of the environmental issue and was just supporting what he saw as much needed housing; but Councilmember Quan apparently did know of this problem and is cast as the "heavy" in this story. The developer at the center of

Yes. Sean Sullivan still leads in our Oakland Focus Oakland City Council District Three race poll with 77 percent of the vote, compared with just over 11 percent for both Greg Hodge and Nancy Nadel. But look, only 35 people elected to take the poll. If I actually promote the poll and drive the numbers to about 200 people, then we've got something worth noting. Stay tuned.

preparing to dig in , originally uploaded by evanyevany . Camino On Grand - Evany's Take On The New Restaurant I happened to drive by a new restaurant called Camino on Grand Avenue, and much farther up the way than any eatery before it. Indeed, it was an accidental pass as I was driving back home with my Mom as passenger who was visiting from Georgia. I have to admit, it's a large and inviting look of a venue from the outside, and so I decided to look up some information on it online and found Evany's take. Now, I don't know her but it seems she lives in the 'hood. But she gives a great review of the place in her blog diary. Here's part of it: For those who share my fear of the “popping eyeball” sensation some cherry-related deserts offer, I can assure you that this is a sweet you can order without risk of off-putting mouth sensations! For that crumble was all sticky and gooey, and not at all pop. Another word to the wise: Don’t miss the jet-propelled ai

I'm not sure I got the value of East Bay Express and Former Oakland Tribune Writer Robert Gammon's recent works on Oakland Council candidates Mario Juarez and Clinton Killian , except that both gossip works added nothing to the campaign race. Gammon spilled the beans on Juarez problems with the Boy Scouts as a youth and on Killian's financial issues, but to read it was like fingers against a blackboard. Annoying. I think everyone deserves a second chance and why that's not true for either Juarez or Killian is not clear to me, nor, I'll bet, can Gammon explain it. That written, Robert's still one hell of a researcher, that's for sure.

Sean Sullivan in West Oakland , originally uploaded by seansullivanforcitycouncil . Ok, this is a totally non-scientific poll that one finds on a blog like this one, and I will explain how I think it's not accurate, but it currently reports that of those who voted while visiting this blog, 73 percent selected Sean Sullivan to be the next Oakland City Council District Three Representative. Now the reason I don't think the poll is accurate and why I think the vote will be much closer than this is that first, many people who vote in District Three don't have blogs or in some cases a computer. Second, and because of the first reason, there are those who will just go and vote for the incumbent because they're too busy to learn of the positions of the candidates. Third, and this is a negative for Council Nadel, I think there's a wave of concern that not much is happening in District Three. Personally, I disagree with that take, but it's expressed by not a few peo

This is the second part of a two-video movie on the debate between incumbent Councilmember Nancy Nadel, and challengers Greg Hodge, and Sean Sullivan