Jumoke Hinton-Hodge, an Oakland school board member who represents District 3 (West Oakland, Jack London, Lake Merritt and Adams Point), gives us a recap of an event Mayor Jean Quan held on Feb. 5 in West Oakland and shares her hopes for the city’s new leader. – Katy

A recent town hall meeting with Mayor Jean Quan was inspiring, and I wanted to share some reflections.

The meeting was held at the Lowell school site, which is home to West Oakland Middle School and KIPP Bridge Academy. The mayor plans to hold a town hall in all seven districts by the completion of her first one hundred days in office. I was pleased to hear that she chose to hold her first town hall in District 3, and I appreciated that it was held at a school as a reminder to folks that schools are the center of our community.

Read the rest of this entry »

West Oakland may not have a full-service grocery store (that’s another story), but it does have another produce stand. Here are some photos we took on Tuesday at Hoover Elementary School’s new weekly market.

The Oakland school district and the East Bay Asian Youth Center opened two more stands this week — at Hoover in West Oakland and Global Family and Learning Without Limits in East Oakland — bringing the total to 12. They plan to expand the number to 25 by September. Glenview Elementary has one too, run by parent and community volunteers.

These mini farmer’s markets are open to the public, as well. Here’s the schedule: Read the rest of this entry »