Rain isn’t the only thing that's happened to Oakland this past week. OL’s fabulous team of journalists gave you some top-notch coverage of news ranging from local government, to arts and culture, to courtroom drama. Our city was in full effect, winning at the glitzy Grammys and facing the ghost town effects of foreclosure with open eyes.  Oakland Local is always trying to make our site more convenient for our readers, so we’ve compiled our five most popular stories of the week.

1.   This week, Oakland proved that it cares very much about two things: 1) the way our community looks and feels  2) holding big banks accountable for the foreclosure mess, including negligence in maintaining empty properties. Irene Florez wrote our top story this week - an article on a blight walk - a two hour public tour which sought to increase public awareness on this issue. The piece included some action steps on how to report blight in your neighborhood.

2.  Reporter Jennifer Inez Ward wrote our second most popular story. The Port of Oakland, the “fifth busiest container port in the United States”, is closing a deal to redevelop Oakland Army Base, which closed in 1999. Read up on the Executive Director's “State of the Port” address.

3.   Have you been following OL’s Oakland gang injunction series? Eric K. Arnold covered the February 16 hearing, and his article provoked a lively response in our “comments” section. Read up on this controversial topic and the civil rights attorneys, gang members, criminologists and community members who have opinions about it.

4.   Oakland has a vibrant poetry scene, and a community that loves its poets. Niema Jordon’s profile of Mouth Off, hosted by Mr. Prentice Powell, made our top five.

5.   OL’s editor/publisher Susan Mernit shared a piece about Oakland’s own 2011 Grammy winner. Leslie Ann Jones won “Best Classical Contemporary Composition”. Go Oakland!

About

Tehea Robie is a novelist, Live Poet, and a lover of hybrid forms. She was a finalist for the 2005 Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers, and has been published in Five Fingers Review and Controlled Burn. She has been a featured poet at venues all around the Bay, such as Love Jones, Fluid, LIP all Grrrl MC Battle, Show Your Scars, 2009 Women’s Pavilion at San Francisco Pride, Evolution Networking, I Am A Man Fundraiser, and Shepeoples. She was raised by an exquisite, fierce, working-poor mother. She received her MFA in Writing and Consciousness.