Oakland saw a historic drop in homicides in 2025—the fewest since 1967. But even as violent crime falls citywide, debates intensify over surveillance technology, federal immigration enforcement, and civilian oversight of police.
Public safety reporter Roselyn Romero and news editor Darwin BondGraham help us make sense of Oakland’s public safety moment.
Plus: AC Transit tweaks its bus schedule, OUSD enrollment exceeds projections while newcomer students plummet, Vanderbilt buys the old CCA campus, the Oakland Roots compete for Howard Terminal, Teni East Kitchen finds a bigger space, and Oakland hosts the Bay Area’s only official Super Bowl watch party.
Stories we cover in this episode:
Public safety
Education
Transit
Real estate and development
Food
Sports
Find all these stories and more at oaklandside.org. Have feedback or story ideas? Email us at editors@oaklandside.org.
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Tasneem Raja is the Editor-in-Chief of The Oaklandside. A pioneer in data journalism and local nonprofit news startups, she co-founded The Tyler Loop, a nationally recognized community news platform in East Texas. She was a senior editor at NPR’s Code Switch and at Mother Jones, where the team she led helped build the first-ever database of mass shootings in America. She started her career as features reporter at The Chicago Reader and The Philadelphia Weekly, and lives in Oakland with her husband and daughter.