Callie Rhoades

1 week ago | oaklandside.org | Callie Rhoades

In case you haven’t noticed the piles of political mailers and unrelenting campaign ads on your social media feeds, Oakland is having a special election, and time is running out to participate. Tomorrow, April 15, is the last day to vote for a new mayor. Also on the ballot for District 2 residents is their City Council seat. And there’s a sales tax measure, Measure A.

2 weeks ago | oaklandside.org | Callie Rhoades

Across from Lake Merritt, past the freeway, front and center in the lead-up to Grand Lake flies a giant pride flag. Behind it is a building featuring the name of its main tenant in big, bold letters: OAKLAND LGBTQ CENTER. Rainbow banners and flags line the streets nearby, so numerous that it’s hard to imagine a time when they were not here. But in fact, they’re a couple years old, and the organization that advocated to install them is only just a little older.

2 weeks ago | oaklandside.org | Callie Rhoades

A deal between the city of Alameda, the port of Oakland, and a group of Alameda residents regarding the airport’s expansion project would reinforce historic inequities and lead to worsening air pollution in East Oakland, according to an environmental nonprofit and coalition of Oakland neighbors. The deal, a legally enforceable settlement agreement, focuses on reducing noise from the airport over Bay Farm Island, a neighborhood of Alameda next to OAK.

4 weeks ago | oaklandside.org | Callie Rhoades

Oakland has some iconic animals. There’s Hank the pelican, and there’s Kevin the peacock, and of course there is the Town’s adored population of “albino” raccoons. In reality, the raccoons do not have albinism; they have leucism, a genetic condition that causes loss of pigmentation. Feared extinct at one point, these cute, light-brown and cream-colored racoons have been spotted on and off at Lake Merritt for years.

1 month ago | oaklandside.org | Callie Rhoades

Back in November, the fish-loving community was chuffed to the gills after several dead Chinook salmon carcasses floated to the shores of Lake Merritt. This was an exciting development: Lake Merritt is part of the Chinook salmon’s natural habitat, including potential spawning grounds in creeks, but pollution, harmful algal blooms, and physical barriers have made it harder and harder for the fish to reach those grounds and thrive there. Did the presence of salmon mean something had improved?