Does anyone remember “Dog Town?” That’s the unflattering name police in Oakland sometimes used to describe the mostly African American neighborhood near the Nimitz Freeway.  When the Nimitz pancaked during the Loma Prieta earthquake in October, 1989, 30 people were killed. Dozens more had to be rescued. Residents of the West Oakland neighborhood rushed to […]

The last time I saw her is the way I want to remember her. She was happier than I had ever seen her in the nearly 10 years we had known one another. And she could laugh out loud when her friends at the Times kidded her unmercifully, saying she was leaving the paper and […]