U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon announced a $500,000 federal allocation for firefighters in Berkeley and several nearby communities to train together. Firefighters from Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Kensington, and Richmond have formed a consortium to share facilities and enhance training efforts.
The transformation of Pacheco Marsh from a scarred dumping ground into a pristine wetland represents a significant achievement in environmental restoration, showcasing the potential for nature to reclaim industrial sites.
Large blooms across the state typically occur after an intense rain year, and while blooms started appearing in late January, mid-March to late May is when spring colors are at their peak.
SF Beer Week is back again, from February 20 to March 1, offering the Bay a chance to celebrate all of its amazing breweries and beer-focused bars with a mix of eclectic events that you don't need to even love beer to be scrambling to attend. Before Nosh gets into some of the specific thirst-quenching, note-worthy East Bay events that you should attend this beer week, let's get two major categories out of the way: events centered around one beer type and then food pairings.
Oakland Restaurant Week returns March 12-22, 2026. Named #1 Best Food City in the U.S. by Condé Nast Traveler in 2024 and 2025, Oakland's diverse culinary scene enticed with 140+ participating restaurants, from cultural concepts to MICHELIN-recommended spots. Explore exclusive menus, special offers, and unique activations celebrating the city's culture and cuisine. Don't miss this 10-day feast of global flavors in one of America's top food destinations.
Introducing the delicious dozen. These are the 12 most popular Nosh stories of 2025 covering the most exciting East Bay food news of the year. Included in the stories below, you'll find tales of hidden gardens, childhood friends teaming up to open a restaurant in their old neighborhood, and a two-mile, single-street culinary journey. Bookmark this page, and come back to dig into one of these stories anytime you need a break from holiday treats, presents, or people over the final week of the year.
While there are now multiple Boichik locations, including three in San Francisco, our favorite remains the original one at 3170 College Avenue in Berkeley-right as the Elmwood merges into Rockridge. The team members at all the locations are friendly and hard-working, but if we had to choose a favorite individual, we would have to name Temmy. She's a beloved fixture who is often front and center at Boichik.
Like a generational boxer moving through the ranks, reaching the pinnacle of each weight class before moving on to the next, tougher matchup, Tallboy's rise in the East Bay nightlife scene has been meteoric. But, instead of using jabs, hooks and slips to get there, it's dishing out martinis, vegan hot dogs, free popcorn and revelry. In addition to more than a half dozen martinis, the Tallboy menu includes alcoholic slushies, house jello shots, and creative cocktails like the Pretty Privilege, with Maker's Mark, Aperol, oloroso, strawberry, rhubarb and lemon.
When we ask readers what they would change about Streetsblog San Francisco, the top result is always the same: they'd like to see more coverage. More coverage of transit agencies and elected boards, more coverage outside of the major Bay Area cities of San Francisco and Oakland, and of course more coverage of their favorite mode of transportation. And we'd love to do all of that, but the reality is it's just not possible to cover everything with one full-time editor.
There will be moments, even years, when I forget about Vik's Chaat. But then I suddenly remember the giant, crispy, thin masala dosa, and a temporarily dormant craving returns. It's hard to find a place in the East Bay that has chaat the spicy, fun, Indian street snacks. I remember poking the garbanzo bean-filled pani puris and watching cholle bhature puff up as a cook fried it. Eating at Vik's is a hands-on, visceral experience.
The East Bay Bike Party is a monthly mobile party for riders of all ages, experience levels, and bike types, to meet, ride, and play together in the streets on the second Friday of the month with upwards of 400 riders usually meeting near an East Bay BART station at 7:30 pm. Every month is a different costume theme, so dress your best and bring some music too.
No timeline exists for when police departments and sheriff's offices across Alameda and Contra Costa counties will end public access to their radio feeds, because they don't know why the system didn't work this week as planned, said David Swing, the head of the East Bay Regional Communications System Authority. The former Pleasanton police chief spoke during a board meeting Friday for the entity, adding that technicians planned to conduct tests in Martinez on a backup radio channel to try to root out the issue.
The glitch appears rooted in a broader, little-publicized push to silence police scanner traffic across Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Until that technological snafu, dozens of agencies this week had timed their scanners to go dark to the public throughout the East Bay Regional Communications System Authority the board overseeing a switch that has been widely condemned by police accountability and open government advocates.
