Bayfair

Illustration by Jessica Reyes-Fajardo

Students reflect on Bayfair as news of its closing spreads.

By Jessica Reyes-Fajardo

Sitting on the wooden bench in the middle of the mall, looking to the right used to be a figure store and to the left used to be a Sanrio store.

Senior Annie Xu, a San Leandro resident, said that there used to be people here, but now there is nothing. All you can see is glass and empty businesses, it’s a ghost town.

Bayfair, one of the first malls in the Bay area opened in 1957 and is closing its doors. It was recently bought out by B3 and Gaw Capital Partners for fifty-seven million dollars, and is being studied for transformation into a mixed-use campus featuring homes, offices, and retail. Bayfair closing down isn’t a surprising change for the community since Bayfair has been slowly losing businesses for years now with people saying it’s crime ridden.

Has Bayfair always been this way? Many people from the community have memories connected with Bayfair rooted from when they were children. It used to be considered a place to hang out at but in recent years ``there really isn’t much to do nowadays” , said Xu, who grew up going to the Bayfair mall.

Bayfair wasn’t always empty, it used to be lively. There used to be crowds of people and each business had its customers and you’d always hear the children’s laughter running around in the play structures.

“I remember it being full of people, eating, actually going to the stores and kids running around playing with chess pieces. It doesn’t really serve anything, it just takes up space because there isn’t much to do anymore”, Senior Kimmy Avelar said.

Avelar believes that the rise of online shopping could have contributed to a decline of Bayfair, “Online shopping has become huge and stores started to close down and people started to come less and less”.

Even with this closing she misses when people would come inside, aside from it becoming a ghost town she misses the community factor, reminiscing how teenagers would come and volunteer and every Sunday, “the community would meet up and do activities every Sunday ” Avelar says. Castro Valley High School Junior Arianna Rosillo, who lives in San Leandro, has their own worries, concerning the businesses surrounding Bayfair, “The farmers market gives a chance for people from different cities to come together and it helps the small

What is being purchased? businesses, I would Macys, Old Navy, PetSmart, hate to see that go away”, Rosillo said.

Cinemark, 24hr Fitness, While some say

Starbucks, Chili’s, and they’ll miss Bayfair, they agree on its

Carrington College closing due to its inactivity; many just have the hope that it What’s staying? will become something

Target, Ulta Beauty, and beneficial for the Jamba Juice community. Xu agrees, “that Bayfair’s space will be used to benefit the community, it shouldn’t just be there holding up space that can be changed to something beneficial”. Along with the other community members Avelar believes that the space should be used for good and be used to actually unite the community. she doesn’t agree with the housing plan . Avelar says, “I’m not fond of housing because it will make everything crowded. I want it to be a place people can have a good time at instead of making the place stuffy”. They all want a change; they want Bayfair to be a place to unify the community like it did back then; they don’t want Bayfair to continue to be empty. With Rosillo saying, “I hope it becomes something new and be lively like it used to be”

“I remember it being full of people, eating, actually going to the stores and kids running around playing with chess pieces. It doesn’t really serve anything, it just takes up space because there isn’t much to do anymore.”

Senior Kimmy Avelar said.