A Tour of West Oakland – Photo essay

TOUR OF WEST OAKLAND A Photo Essay

Reginald Lee James Intro to City and Regional Planning (CP110) Semester: Summer 2012 Instructor: Carrie Makarewicz

The phrase, “A Picture is a Thousands Words,” may be cliche, but it’s true.

Especially in the case of this story of West Oakland.

During our neighborhood tour of West Oakland, we surpassed a variety of sites that have changed over the 150 years of the city’s incorporation. The neighborhood continues to evolve as time passes.

These photos barely tell a sliver of that story. Still, they tell parts of many stories: development, environmental racism and justice, segregation, urban renewal, construction and destruction, reuse and reclamation of space, and much more.

Top, Mandela Homes on Seventh Street are affordable housing units with parking spaces underneath. The development is located across the street from the West Oakland BART Station.

Left, the development has retail units below and resident units above. The three-floor structures span across about three/four blocks along Seventh Street, including a credit union, Subway restaurant, $.99 cent store, and a food cooperative.

Seventh Street was the original “Uptown” for Black residents in West Oakland. Once a thriving business district, it was destroyed when urban renewal led to the creation of both the U.S. Post Office building and BART.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Right, the People’s Cooperative Credit Union, is a community financial institution in a neighborhood where many have depended on check cashing stores and pay day loans.

Bottom-right, harkening to the City Beautiful Movement, this public art project features a quote from Nelson Mandela.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Above, The 8th Street Corridor is a part of the Bay Trail. The trees give the blocks, lined with older Victorian homes and new mixed used housing, a distinctive character.

It’s a preferred route for bicyclists.

Left, Mandela Parkway is the former site of the Cypress Freeway, an Urban Renewal project that removed numerous homes and businesses in the mid-20th Century.

After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquate, when the structure fell, it was replaced with this parkway, named after an anti-Apartheid leader.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Top, a mural commemorates the 1968 Olympics when Bay Area college students Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the “Black Power Salute” in Mexico City. The gesture hints at West Oakland’s history as a part of the Black Power Movement.

Left, one of the hundreds of liquor stores throughout the flatlands of Oakland. These stores often lack access to affordable, quality fruits and vegetables.

Bottom-left, a rooster in an urban garden off Mandela Parkway. Since the 1800s, gardens have been popular in West Oakland, but they’ve resurged in the past 5-10 years.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Left, a family plays in Mandela Parkway, the former site of the Cypress Freeway. A toxic facility is visible in the background. Creative reuse of urban landscape, or environmental racism?

Bottom-left, public artwork near a site commemorating Loma Prieta earthquake.

One of many trucks that traverse this neighborhood, coming and going from the Port of Oakland, the fifth largest container port in the Nation. Many children in West Oakland suffer from Asthma.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Left, new Bike and auto lanes being stripped on 14th Street west of Adeline Street.

Bottom-left, California Cereal facility towers over the former site of Cole Elementary School.

There is also a recycling facility here. Although Cole is now the headquarters OUSD’s police, children were exposed to here for years.

Bottom right, the Love family matriarch remembered by educators with a plaque at current site for Pivotal Point Youth Services.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Top, West Oakland Middle School is now KIPP, part of a national private charter school organization.

Middle, community garden connected to elder facility. A group member is designing extension.

Bottom, New bike lanes striped on 14th Street.

Right, group crosses new pedestrian crosswalk.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Top, City Slicker Farms grows and distributes produce in West Oakland.

Bottom-left, the City Slicker Farm at Ralph Bunche school is a partnership to create a Community Market.

Right, the pool at Defremery Park is operated by OPR– Oakland Parks and Recreation, the only opportunity for many neighborhood children to learn how to swim.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Top, City Slicker Farms grows and distributes produce in West Oakland.

Bottom-left, the City Slicker Farm at Ralph Bunche school is a partnership to create a Community Market.

Right, the pool at Defremery Park is operated by OPR–Oakland Parks and Recreation, the only opportunity for many neighborhood children to learn how to swim.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Top, billboard above heap of trash, container, and in front of industrial site.

Middle-left, truck exits recycling facility. Popular place for cans, bottles, plastics, and cardboard.

Bottom-left, railroad tracks leading past industrial sites.

Bottom-right, green street scape with industrial sites in background.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Top-right, sign to discourage drugs and prostitution in area juxtaposed with Truck Route sign (and a smaller, impromptu posting).

Top-left, mural brings light to an industrial, gray area Middle, industrial area with food truck serving workers, and mail truck.

Bottom, railroad tracks tell the tale of this industrial area. The road is not newly paved like other areas, since it is primarily traveled by trucks and other freight vehicles.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Top, work-live lofts and homes were built in the last decade.

Bottom, a man drags a shopping cart filled with cans and bottles to Alliance Metals, a recycling facility on 34th Street in West Oakland.

Class Tour of West Oakland

City Slicker Farms’ Community Garden Program has a site at Fitzgerald & Union Plaza Park.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Right, a woman feeds Doves (Pigeons) through fence around empty lot near 33rd & San Pablo.

Above her, a lard Clear Channel billboard for casino.

Bottom-left, Blue Bird Market, a liquor store near the California Hotel. The California Hotel has had many lives: posh hotel, site known for prostitution, low-income housing and recently the site of resistance to gentrification.

Right, garden on 33rd Street using empty lot.

Class Tour of West Oakland

Cover Photos Top-right: Cooper A.M.E. Zion, this church has served Oakland’s African American community for over 100 years. The church was forced to move during Urban Renewal and settled in its current location near 14th Street on Myrtle Street.

Top-left, a Victorian style home in West Oakland, the area is known for large homes with yards.

Cypress Liquor sits adjacent to Mandela Parkway, where the Cypress Freeway and Cypress Projects once sat.

Bottom-right, a mural underneath the 580 Interstate freeway.

The freeway separates Emeryville from Oakland, and sits near the California Hotel.

Class Tour of West Oakland