by Paula Lehman/OAKLAND  Voters in Oakland, where there have been over 100 homicides so far in 2008, on Tuesday turned down a ballot measure that would have put 105 officers and 75 police services technicians on the street over the course of three years. But it wasn’t a lack of campaigning that ruined Measure NN’s chances; instead, many people believe that it was the unfulfilled promise of an earlier crime-fighting measure that killed this year’s initiative.

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By Ali Winston/WEST OAKLAND

The Oakland Police Department will have to look for new sources of funding after Measure NN fell short of the required two-thirds margin.

With 100% of votes tallied, 59,933 votes were in favor of NN, and 49,415 against – or 54.95% for and 45.05% against.

Ballot Measure NN would have allowed the Oakland Police Department to add more officers and buy needed equipment such as police cars and new crime-fighting technology.

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by Ali Winston/WEST OAKLAND

For some people, hip-hop embodies everything that’s wrong with America’s youth. In West Oakland, one organization sees it as a lifeline for students who are on the verge of dropping out.

The Bay Unity Music Project, run by the Bay Area Video Coalition, teaches beat-making, songwriting, and audio/video editing programs in 11 schools across Oakland. Begun in 2004 at McClymond High School in West Oakland, BUMP was intended to address the widening “digital divide” between wired, affluent areas of the Bay and inner city neighborhoods. The program is funded in part through Measure Y, Oakland’s crime-prevention program designed to steer at-risk youth away from street violence through job programs, mentoring programs, and community involvement. Read the full story

by Angela J. Bass/WEST OAKLAND

They showed up with pillows, sleeping bags, and basketballs, muttering to each other about the chicken and spaghetti they were promised but that was nowhere in sight.

Shooting hoops, eating dinner, and then joking with friends before getting some shut-eye at an all-male sleepover was the whole point in coming to West Oakland’s Boys and Girls Club last Friday night, according to some of the 52 12- to 17-year-old black boys in the building.

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