The Year in Review

We break down the East Bay’s best, worst, and occasionally weird stories of 2012.

Stat Box

001

Number of presidential candidates making East Bay campaign stops. Barack Obama visited Oakland and Piedmont while Mitt Romney stuck to the South Bay. However, Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan came to Alamo and Danville.

Celeb Tweet

—Simon Pegg On May 6, in town to film the Star Trek sequel at the Livermore Lab.

Stat Box

682

Number of folds in the March 13 Google doodle designed by Alamo origami master Robert J. Lang.

Trips to “the city” become obsolete

High fashion hit the burbs with the opening of Neiman Marcus in Walnut Creek. Überpopular Castro district eatery Ike’s Place brought its 300-sandwich menu to Oakland in January, and Danville in October. The San Francisco Bay Guardian’s April 11–17 cover story asked, “Is Oakland cooler than San Francisco?” We gave a resounding “hella!”

Stat Box

94

Number of games won by the Oakland A’s in their American League West–winning season.

Celeb Tweet

—Avril Lavigne On April 3, after a surprise visit to Pleasanton’s newest Safeway store.

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13

Number of East Bay–raised U.S. Olympians in London. Individual medal count: four gold and four bronze.

Mostly identified flying objects

After the Great Cannonball Debacle of 2011, we weren’t sure what might fly through the East Bay skies next. Turns out, plenty. Retired space shuttle Endeavour cruised over Lamorinda atop a 747 en route to its new Los Angeles museum home. And car-size pieces of a meteor broke up over the Bay Area, showering debris from San Rafael to Sonoma—and possibly Martinez.

Celeb Tweet

—Steve Martin On August 29, from Blue Agave, before his Wente performance.
 

East Bay Made

Music: ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré! from Oakland band Green Day.
Book: Telegraph Avenue by Pulitzer Prize–winning Berkeley author Michael Chabon.
Film: Brave, from Emeryville animation studio Pixar.

Fountain Head!

Stories that made us stop and think

5/21 San Ramon–raised Jamie Lynne Grumet is featured on the cover of TIME, breast-feeding her nearly four-year-old son.

7/1 California ban on the sale of foie gras goes into effect.

9/4 CHP Officer Kenyon Youngstrom is fatally shot during an Alamo traffic stop.

9/11 Piedmont-raised Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens is killed in Libya.

9/25 Concord PI Christopher Butler is sentenced to eight years in prison.

10/4 Moraga Boy Scout Ryan Andresen is denied Eagle Award.

Stat Box

321,000,000

Dollars spent on the renovation of Cal’s Memorial Stadium, built in 1923.