Yesterday, an Oakland woman called 911 late afternoon and informed the dispatcher that she had just drowned her 16-month-old son in their bathtub at their "nice, well-kept" Lake Merritt.apartment. According to the Chronicle, "when police and paramedics arrived at the family's apartment on the 1100 block of Third Avenue, they found the child dead, Holmgren said. The mother had injuries 'consistent with somebody who possibly tried to hurt themselves.'" Yes, this is depressing as......

What would Batman and Robin think? With its chic industrial/gothic design, the new “market hall” style Whole Foods that opened recently near Lake Merritt in Oakland certainly could be used for a set on the next Batman flick. (Note: we won’t be defending or condemning the corporation itself here. We instead refer you to Mark Morford’s sharp analysis of the friendly giant.) We wish we’d known about the opening day festivities, what with an......

Update: 11:45 a.m.: Here's your roads: W-80 to S-880 is closed (from Berkeley to the Oakland airport). E-80 to E-580 is closed (from SF to Lake Merritt and Piedmont). Alternate routes: BART or AC Transit. From SF, you could take S-880, surface streets to downtown Oakland and get on W-980 to get onto the intact sections of S-580. Or you could just take BART or AC Transit. Did we mention you should take BART......

Last Saturday, a fight broke out at the "Hyphy High School Bash" at the Marin County Corte Madera Recreation Center. The police raced to the scene upon hearing reports of gunshots and a Golden Gate Transit bus being blocked on Tamalpais Drive by 80 teenagers. They couldn't confirm whether shots had been fired, but someone had sprayed pepper spray into the crowd and around the same time, someone broke into a nearby elementary school. Hilariously,......

We're covering for SFist Jon today! --Left in SF asks progressives to play nice in the Migden-Leno race. Hilariously, Chris Daly refuses, twice. --Beyond Chron gives the lowdown on David Latterman and Rich DeLeon's SPUR talk about recent city voting trends. --PartyParty is unhappy about Gavin Newsom's plans to veto the 6 month trial of car-free Saturdays in Golden Gate Park (despite reports saying that it doesn't reduce the number of park visitors). --Getty v.......

While the Castro has that fabulous organ, the Red Vic (1727 Haight St at Cole) wins the prize for best popcorn, a very important aspect of our movie-going experience. Tonight the Red Vic screens the D.A. Pennebaker documentary, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, a cinema verité cult classic depicting David Bowie getting ready for and playing one of the last Ziggy-era concerts, featuring glam rock guitarist extraordinaire, Mick Ronson (who grew up Mormon).......

A few years back, it seemed like everyone we knew was vacationing in Thailand. To keep ahead of the curve in fashionable Southeast Asian travel destinations, we're heading over to the Main San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin @ Grove) to see Wendy Yanagihara, author of “Lonely Planet’s Guide to Vietnam,” talk about her travels in said country and learn all about the off-the-beaten-path gems so we can nod sagely and make intelligent comments......

--Love the San Jose public library -- just don't love the San Jose public library. --An Angelides aide says they found the "hot blooded Latino" audio clip on a publicly-accessible website. Also, former Steve Westly manager Garry South seems to be calling Matier and Ross a lot. --The City of Oakland accidentally turned down a historic garden by Lake Merritt, and now has to make it into condos. --Water fountain pressure is low at Oakland......

Besides the homicide rate, Oakland residents' quality of life continues to be impaired by wasteful immigrants flocking to the shores of Lake Merritt - the Canada geese, also causing trouble in Richmond, as reported recently by the East Bay Express. The Lake Merritt geese population produces an estimated ton of fecal matter a day. The geese have also been sighted exhibiting aggressive pedestrian behavior not unlike that of Oakland's human residents, known for holding up......

The cops have arrested a man wanted for slipping Rohypnol into a woman's drink at a bar located on the 200 block of Castro Street in Mountain View. The woman, who had drunk an unattended drink at the bar, came to as she was being assaulted by a "chubby" white man in his 20s in the backseat of a car. The man was arrested without incident at a San Jose Sharks game. You know how when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail? Yesterday, the SFPD blew up yet another "supicious package" they thought was a bomb. The streets around Post and Taylor were blocked off for about two hours as the package was blown up. The cops are still investigating whether it was a real bomb or not. And the Lake Merritt Bakery and Restaurant in Oakland will be closed as its owners recover from a two-alarm blaze Thursday morning. The fire started on the roof, and they think it might have been electrical. The owners are going to repair the place, and then they're hoping to open 24 hours a day. (We're always in favor of more 24 hour places in the area!) The owners hope that the remaining roof rafters will be strong enough to hold up its iconic red MERRITT sign. ...

Hey, Oaklanders! Check out this shot of Lake Merritt, taken just hours ago on this beautiful grey day, and ask yourself: What will it look like when all the big trees are gone? No joke, it's happening. Remember when we passed Proposition DD, a $198 million dollar bond measure for our parks? Guess we shoulda read the fine print, because part of what we approved is a "Master Plan" for Lake Merritt which calls for......

Here at SFist, we like to highlight local bloggers who are at the top of their game. But sometimes we also like to use this column to show our support to kids who are new to the neighborhood. So even though this guy has only written one post (though it has gotten 46 comments so far), we want to encourage him to keep cranking away at his site. Who's the man in question? Why,......

Your intrepid junkie takes the lower deck of the Emperor Norton to report on some news from the Oakland City Council: city councilman Danny Wan, who represents Oakland's District 3 (Grand Lake and Chinatown), has announced his resignation from the council, stating that he couldn't afford to stay on as a city councilmember and also support his aging parents. Wan was one of three Asian-Americans council members, and the only member who was openly gay (out of 8). Wan emigrated from Taiwan at an early age (we can't find any biographical information about him online), attended Cal and UCLA Law School, and was first appointed to the City Council in 2000. He then was elected in 2002 to a four-year position. His legislative highlights include sponsoring a bond to restore Lake Merritt, passing laws requiring city publications to be printed in languages other than English, and his efforts to have Oakland recognize same-sex marriage licenses from SF (which was stymied only when the Supreme Court found them unconstitutional). We're sad to see him go (and feel slightly shamed by his Asian street cred on the elder respect thing). ...