now THAT'S oaktown

for a few years in the mid '90's, the flipflop fed called the streets of oakland, ca home and loved every part about it. from living in rockridge (and then at the top of the most ridiculously steep hill above the morcom rose garden on jean street), to working at elmhurst middle school in the flatlands on 98th between east 14th and bancroft, oakland sucked me in.

oakland had, and continues to have, a questionable reputation. oakland headlines always seem to revolve around the negative - ebonics in ousd (as an aside, as someone who worked there at that time - that's not what they were trying to do! it was just a poorly crafted, unvetted proposal that leaked out), rampant crime, and strained race relations. while, in reality, it's a place like any other - the good, the bad, and lots of areas for improvement.

so how excited was i when the newspaper of record acknowledged what i've known forever - oakland's it!