Oaklanders often criticize the news media for focusing disproportionately on the horrifying or the scandalous. And let’s face it: this is a complicated city with its share of challenges to overcome. At The Oaklandside, we’re not immune to overdoing it on the doom and gloom.
Yet so much to revel in happens here, too. Triumphs, progress, creation, and joy — thanks in large part to people in the city looking out for their neighbors, holding the powerful accountable, and building on their visions for what the city can be. We thought we’d take a moment to remember some of the good news from 2025, because there was plenty!
More kids enrolled in Oakland schools
The Oakland Unified School District’s enrollment numbers grew this year, for the first time in almost a decade. This is good news for lots of reasons. It means parents aren’t giving up on Oakland schools, and it also means more revenue, because the state allocates funding to districts based on their attendance numbers. A lot of factors likely contributed to the unexpected bump, including a $5 million investment in enrollment office staffing and marketing and the expansion of who’s eligible for transitional kindergarten.
Meanwhile, the district stemmed principal turnover, producing more stable schools — at least for now.
Sidewalks will get fixed
Two Oakland residents with disabilities, Nicole Brown-Booker and Michael Curran, sued the city in 2023, in a class-action lawsuit over the conditions of the city’s sidewalks. This summer, the suit reached a remarkable settlement, in which the city committed to repairing 78,000 sidewalks and 11,000 broken curb cuts over the next 25 years. We talked to one of the plaintiffs about what promises to be a powerful transformation for those who use wheelchairs, strollers, or walkers.
We won a baseball championship
Look, we all miss the A’s. But Oakland’s new 2-year-old baseball team are already champions. The Ballers closed out a phenomenal 2025 season on top, and Oakland turned out to celebrate the West Oakland Pioneer League team at a parade and rally. Meanwhile, the Oakland Roots soccer side brought the Coliseum back to life, breaking an attendance record at their home opener in March.
Bald eagles hatched in Oakland
For the first time in recorded history, bald eagles successfully hatched some eaglets in Oakland — and bird lovers were overjoyed. Their chosen home? A eucalyptus tree in Mountain View Cemetery at the top of Piedmont Avenue. The Bay Area is a natural habitat for bald eagles, but the population has been struggling to rebound from the ravages of the pesticide DDT for decades.
Loard’s came back
Oakland’s iconic 75-year-old ice cream shop, Loard’s, reopened its spherical flagship shop in June at MacArthur Boulevard and Coolidge Avenue in the Dimond District. The old-fashioned shop had been closed for four years. It came back just in time for summer.
Violent crime dropped
Perhaps the most positive news of the year: Violent crime in Oakland is way down, for the second year in a row. As of late November, the city had seen 59 homicides, compared to 114 at the same time in 2023. Between 2020 and 2023, upward of 100 people were killed in Oakland each year. Robberies and sexual assaults have also declined. The rise and then fall in violent crime in Oakland is in step with national trends since the pandemic began. Of course, this good news is highly qualified, as any violent tragedy in Oakland is one too many.
Affordable housing was on a roll
Back in 2018, when new apartment buildings seemed to be springing up in Oakland by the day, there was one type of construction blatantly lacking: housing for low-income residents. The city has finally made significant progress on that front, issuing permits for hundreds of new affordable housing units over the past couple of years, and building hundreds more. Measure U, the bond measure passed by voters in 2022, is partially to thank for this momentum, having raised $350 million for affordable housing in Oakland.
The county invested in food security and immigration defense
As the Trump Administration pursued an immigration crackdown and slashed safety net services, vulnerable residents in Oakland and throughout the county faced significant impacts. Alameda County leaders stepped up to fill the gaps. The Board of Supervisors invested more than $10 million for food assistance in the wake of cuts to SNAP, the food assistance program. The Board of Supervisors also approved millions for immigration defense, as calls to the county hotline skyrocketed.
BART hosted a love train
About 200 young adults flirted and maybe even found love on BART’s in-motion speed-dating extravaganza. The transit agency hosted the dating event on a train traveling between the downtown Berkeley and 24th Street Mission stations on Valentine’s Day.
Oakland is genius
Local author Tommy Orange was among this year’s MacArthur Fellows — also known as MacArthur “genius grant” recipients. Fellows receive open-ended $800,000 awards. Orange wrote the acclaimed novels There There and Wandering Stars, interconnected books that follow generations of Native American characters in and beyond Oakland.
We got a nobody’s happy — but nobody’s laid off — budget
Admittedly, one city councilmember called the 2025-2027 $4.2 billion spending plan passed this spring the “Nobody’s Happy Budget.” But Oakland officials were tasked with closing out a massive deficit and they pulled it off. Despite initial plans, the council was able to adopt a budget that avoided layoffs of city employees. And the mayor and council worked together to get the plan passed quickly, instead of tussling over clauses and provisions up until the deadline.
A food justice organization expanded
Saba Grocers Initiative, a food justice and distribution organization, got a plum state grant worth $2 million to open a “food hub” at Jack London Square. Through the hub, Saba will shuttle food from local farms to schools, hospitals, food banks, and other sites across the county. They also plan to expand their existing program distributing food to corner stores. Separately, Saba sued the city of Oakland over its handling of a different, federal grant. The suit was settled this fall for $500,000, helping highlight flaws in the city’s grant system.
Queer Oakland resisted
It’s been a challenging year for queer organizations, which have faced a sharp rollback of federal grant programs, erasure of language and documents recognizing them, and a slew of executive orders challenging their existence. In Oakland, the diverse queer community has come together in the face of hardship, celebrating together at events like the Oaklash drag festival, and supporting one another through organizations like Lavender Seniors, a 30-year-old LGBTQ+ elders group. A group called Rainbow Families Action also ramped up efforts to support transgender youth.
Oakland’s food scene got recognition
Anyone who’s eaten out in Oakland can attest to our delicious and diverse offerings. This year, the rest of the world took note. Oakland was deemed the best food city in the United States in Condé Nast’s readers’ awards for the second year in a row. And Sun Moon Studio in West Oakland became the second Oakland restaurant to receive a Michelin star…