About this site

The Oakland Observer is always free to read and share. OO's subscribers financially support independent and focused reporting of Oakland news during a time of the increasing dominance of corporate journalism. OO provides the tool everyone needs to make good choices: reliable and accurate information. To this end, OO publishes a weekly roundup of City Council-, Boards-, and Commission-related events, as well as regularly breaking news on Oakland governance, homelessness, policing, and public land. Subscribers receive a newsletter version of OO reporting in their inbox every week. If you want to support by subscribing, you can do that here. In early 2023, the site rebranded as the Oakland Observer and later transitioned from Patreon to Ghost.

What Can You Expect in These Pages?

OO emphasizes granular coverage of the processes that change local laws, pass budgets, propose ballot measures, elect public officials, and hold them accountable. OO isn't motivated by the need to sensationalize events that drives local commercial media. My goal is to create a platform where readers can understand why and how things happen in Oakland. This approach to news gathering is woefully lacking, both here in the Bay Area and pretty much everywhere.

Who am I?

I’m Jaime Omar Yassin, the founder, editor, reporter and publisher of the Oakland Observer. I'm a Colombian-Palestinian-American, in that order. I've lived in a lot of places, but Oakland is my place of birth and has been my home for over two decades. I have a degree in Media Studies from UC Berkeley, attained at the late age of 42. But my number one qualification for doing this work is a relentless passion for documenting Oakland news and events, fueled by my concern about the long-standing inadequacy of local reporting on this wonderful city.