This month’s holiday-themed Akoma market will feature local farmers, food vendors, artists, and retailers selling their wares in a festive—and COVID-safe—environment.
Author Archives: Jacob Simas
Jacob Simas is Managing Editor of The Oaklandside. He joined us from Univision, where he led social-impact initiatives and established the Rise Up: Be Heard journalism training program for young people and community organizers in underserved areas of California. He was a senior editor and director of youth and community media at New America Media, where he led a community news network that amplified student and youth reporting in California news deserts. Simas has lived in Oakland for the past decade with his wife and two children, who attend Oakland public schools. He is an advisory board member for Youth Beat and a former volunteer host and producer with KPFA.
Posted inHealth & Environment
Peace parade planned for Sunday in Oakland neighborhoods suffering from gun violence
The walk in East Oakland will launch a yearlong violence reduction initiative and call for a citywide truce in the wake of surging violence.
Posted inCity Hall & Policing
These Oakland civic groups are finding new ways to mobilize voters during the pandemic
Voter registration efforts have focused on East and West Oakland, where voter turnout has been lowest.
Posted inHow We Work
Work with us to ‘Amplify Oakland’ through first-person storytelling
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing the mic with more Oaklanders who have important stories about life in our city. This is how we’re planning to do it, and why.
Posted inOaklandside
Ahora que la calidad del aire ha mejorado, las pruebas de COVID gratuitas en Fruitvale se realizarán este fin de semana
Los organizadores todavía necesitan voluntarios en persona para ayudar con el evento de prueba al aire libre de dos días, que podría atraer a varios miles.
Posted inHealth & Environment
With skies clear, free COVID testing in Fruitvale to happen this weekend
Organizers still need in-person volunteers to help with the two-day outdoor testing event, which could draw several thousand.
Posted inHealth & Environment
East Oakland’s colliding health crises: Where do we go from here?
A conversation with Native American Health Center’s Dr. Gerard Jenkins on how and why COVID-19 and bad air are impacting three East Oakland zip codes so badly—and what it will really take to help.
Posted inHealth & Environment
Update: Smoke postpones a 2nd mass COVID testing event
Organizers pulled the plug on a mass testing event in Fruitvale, where Latinos have been hit hard by the pandemic.
Posted inHealth & Environment
Air pollution cancels a massive East Oakland COVID testing event. Organizers say they’ll come back stronger
The Eastmont Mall testing event represented an impressive collaboration between grassroots groups—and those partnerships aren’t going away.
Posted inHow We Work
How El Tímpano passes the mic to Spanish-speaking and Indigenous immigrant communities
Journalist Madeleine Bair on Oakland’s media deserts and reaching communities where they’re at.