When I was 12 years old, I left Oakland for a small town on the southern edge of the Carquinez Strait. The towering buildings of Oakland and neighboring San Francisco were replaced by the smokestacks of refineries.  The East Bay is primarily defined by Oakland and Berkeley, but there is

Oakland has had a crime problem for decades, but thanks to left wing policies, the city has seen a significant decrease in violent crime, with the number of homicides dropping from 62 in 1992 to 8 in 2023.

When I was little, I didn’t spend a lot of time at Lake Merritt. I would play with friends in my part of Oakland and rarely venture outside of it. Lake Merritt felt far away. In reality, it was only 3 miles away, but I seldom went. I was always