Rich people may have more money but does that mean they’re less polite? A recent UC Berkeley study examines how body language reveals wealth.

Surfing the world wide couch. from Alba Mora on Vimeo.
By Alba Mora/Special to Oakland North
Would you ever let two strangers crash on your couch? Recently reporter Alba Mora welcomed two couchsurfers into her Berkeley home.

Pushcart vendors from Anna Bloom on Vimeo.
By Anna Bloom/Special to 510 Report
Emilia Otero, and her daughter, Shelly Garza, longtime organizers of food vendors in East Oakland, say they are seeing a marked increase in illegal street vending.
Since 1998, the two women have fought hard for the legitimacy of street vending, founding ACAF, Asociation de Comerciantes Ambulantes de Fruitvale. However, the economy and crime have left the city short on resources. Garza and Otero say that in East Oakland, where the city limits the number of street vendors to 30, there …

Making magic with caulk, insulation and duct blasters, Contra Costa County weatherization specialist Brett Crowe can reduce a house’s energy waste by two-thirds in just half a day.

By late spring, thanks to $5 billion of stimulus funding, thousands of new weatherizers similar to Crowe will be sealing up low-income homes in the Bay Area and across the country. They will primarily come from the country’s 1.7 million unemployed construction workers, retrained as lean, greening machines.

A congregation of look-alike Andy Warhols is not something that happens often. But on Friday March 6, in an Emeryville warehouse that reproduced the 1960s’ dark, industrial-driven art scene fathered by Warhol, the Third Annual Amoeba Art Show took place.

The Factory Party.

Photos by Ali Winston/Special to the 510 Report.

Brittney Johnson/510Report
Scenes from an Auction: As the number of Bay Area foreclosures skyrockets, so does the amount of auctions selling foreclosed homes at a fraction of their original price. Watch potential buyers vie for bargains at a recent auction.

Ali Winston/Special to the 510Report

East 14th Street, more commonly known as International Boulevard, runs from Lake Merritt, through the heart of East Oakland and down through San Leandro.
The boulevard cuts through Vietnamese, Mexican and African-American communities, reflecting city’s diversity. On weekends, the streets in Fruitvale and near Lake Merritt bustle with life.
Other stretches are more desolate – dust gathers in empty store windows, graffiti hints at tensions between street gangs and prostitutes ply their trade at all hours of the day.
Additional link: Exotic Escort on Craigslist

Oakland’s “Unity for the Sake of Change” Presidential Inauguration
Community Viewing at the Oracle Arena
January 20, 2009
Presented in part by Alameda County Board of Supervisor’s Keith
Carson, District 5 Supervisor.