At around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, an Amtrak train traveling 15 to 20 mph collided with another train unloading passengers in Jack London Square at at Webster Street and Embarcadero. At least 18 passengers (or 16, according to HuffPo) were injured as a result of the crash. Most of the injuries were "bumps and bruises" with one girl suffering a broken arm. more ›

Two people were killed and four wounded early Monday morning outside Sweet Jimmie's near Jack London Square. The deadly shootings, it seems, were sparked by the bouncer refusing to admit several patrons. "Several men in a car pulled up to the club and tried to get into the club but were denied entry, authorities said. One of the men became angry, pulled out an assault rifle and opened fire," reports the Chronicle. more ›

A man in a wheelchair was hit by a cargo train rolling through Jack London Square in Oakland early this morning and subsequently trapped underneath the "cow-catcher" on the front of the train. The man was injured but perhaps not severely, and was conscious and talking to rescuers during the 45-minute-long effort to jack up the 130-ton train engine a few inches in order to pull him out. (We will refrain from speculating as to whether the man was intoxicated and/or home-challenged at the time of the accident.) The man was taken to a hospital, and ABC 7's Terry McSweeney, getting into the holiday spirit, says, "this is about as close to a miracle as we're going to get today." more ›

I Food U Food gets all meaty and even gives us the DL on what exactly Moishe's Pippic really means. Well now isn't that special? Feeding my Enthusiasms takes us on a visually pleasing picnic that left us wanting cheese, bread, and wine, ahora! Screw this work crap. Another journey we'd like to take, uh, anytime is to a place serving garlic noodles and crab. Gastronomie lucked into the Jack London Square Crab Crawl recently. more ›

Okay, it's really NOT a soup kitchen, but if you have a boat docked in Oakland’s Embarcadero Cove Marina (down the highway from Jack London Square and across from Alameda's Coast Guard Island), have a pot belly and a brush mustache, and a propensity for telling jokes like: “What kind of fish likes to sing? A tune-y fish!” -- and bursting into laughter at your own brilliance, you, too, have probably enjoyed a basket of fish and chips or a burger at Quinn’s Lighthouse Restaurant and Pub. more ›

Since August 2006, artist Nicole Wintermeyer's blog Arthead SF has been providing a forum for artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond to fully describe the meaning behind their work. We think this is a great idea since we often feel more drawn to a piece of artwork when we know the artist's intentions. Tonight, Oakland's Swarm Gallery presents a group exhibition of artists featured in Arthead, and each piece is accompanied by the artist's description. Swarm is also celebrating their one-year anniversary this evening. While you're at Swarm, have a seat in Tao Urban's "Reading Room" installation, and feel free to touch the art! Arthead's show runs through April 27, and Reading Room runs through May 6. Swarm is located at Jack London Square, just a few blocks from the Alameda/Oakland ferry from San Francisco. Swarm Studios + Gallery 560 Second Street Oakland, CA 94607 more ›

Saxophonist and composer Branford Marsalis is headlining a four-night, mostly-sold-out stand this week at Yoshi's in Oakland's Jack London Square. (Tickets for the 10 p.m. shows tonight, Tuesday and Thursday may still be available at yoshis.com.) The Grammy-winning eldest son of the musical Marsalis family's quartet is touring in support of the haunting, lyrical "Braggtown." SFist recently sat down with Marsalis for our first-ever email interview. more ›

--Children meet cows. more ›

...had the server not been down. (Things look a little better now after hours, but expect further delays tomorrow). Update: Hey! Comments are back! Try 'em so we can see if they're still screwed up! more ›

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Add 15 cents more to your BART card -- Bernal Heights, Baja Noe Valley (what a name), and Upper Mission neighborhood advocates are trying to get BART to revive its 2002 plan to build a new station stop at 30th and Mission. Folks in the area say it's too hard for them to get to either 24th Street or Glen Park by foot, and that they think a new BART stop will help revive the area too. Revive the area? Any area that has Emmy's Spaghetti Shack, El Rio, Mitchell's, Zante's, and Goood Fricken Chicken is doing just fine in our books! BART officials say they'd love to do it, noting that the gap between 24th and Glen Park is the longest uninterrupted segment of the city's BART tracks (2 miles), but need to get the okay from the City before they start, and they'd need to get about 5000 riders at the station for it to be feasible. Check out the specs here (.pdfs). The new station would cost about $444 to $525 million to build. In other news, BART's also looking into whether they should build an extension to Jack London Square too. BART's getting it done! (Though hey guys, maybe you could also look into fixing that switching problem that gets SFist Jon so exercised?) Picture from SFCityscape.com more ›

What's long and green and covered with a bumpy skin? What? A snake? Oh. Uh, and it's a vegetable (well, sort of). That's right, cucumbers! We found cucumbers by the armful at this weekend's Jack London Square farmer's market. Pickling cucumbers, Japanese cucumbers, standard American cucumbers. The abundance flaunted itself, and challenged us to take some into the SFist test kitchen, where we could gently wash and admire this relative of the melon and squash before we sliced them into pieces and popped them into our hungry mouths. The SFist test kitchen is a cruel, cruel place for fruits and vegetables. more ›

"Can you do anything with radishes other than carve them into little shapes?" a friend asked when we told him about our farmer's market haul from Sunday's Jack London Square market. "Of course," we replied confidently, waiting until his back was turned before scurrying off nervously to check our cookbooks.

We confess that we, too, used to use spring radishes for garnish rather than flavor, though they have the same bite we like in their close relatives the turnips. At best, we've put the ubiquitous Cherry Belle radishes onto a crudité platter, where our guests usually just ignore them. We decided it was time to expand our horizons.

Congratulations to our Westside Organics contest winner Niall K., who managed to score himself three deliveries of fresh produce by getting back to us within, oh, thirty minutes or so of the post going up. We should have made the questions harder! Live and learn. Thanks to everyone who entered -- we're sure you'll get some free stuff from us eventually. more ›

Soul food options just haven't been the same since Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles closed up shop in Oakland a couple of years ago. The bay area offshoot of the L.A. institution was first located on Broadway near Jack London, then moved to Grand Avenue, then disappeared altogether. Since then, the only Roscoe Oaklanders could get their hands on was the of the first season of "The Dukes of Hazzard." more ›