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"content": "\u003cp>West Oakland is one step closer to getting its first full-service grocery store in a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/27/west-oakland-property-prices-peoples-community-market\">As KQED reported last year\u003c/a>, Brahm Ahmadi has been trying to buy land since 2014 in West Oakland — a food desert that has also become a more expensive place to live than it used to be. Ahmadi’s efforts to build People’s Community Market were stalled as land prices shot up. Now an anonymous investor and a well-known nonprofit developer have stepped up to help Ahmadi complete a deal that will allow him to build a market near the San Pablo corridor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the primary focus is on access to good food, there’s also a really big focus on community-building,” says Ahmadi, who envisions a grocery store that would also act as a community gathering space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting this far has been a struggle for Ahmadi, and his story demonstrates the challenges of getting a deal like this done in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How People’s Community Market Got Here\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last couple of years, Ahmadi has tried to buy several properties in West Oakland to build his store. But the $1.2 million he raised wasn’t enough to buy land near West Grand Avenue and Market Street, where his studies showed a grocery store would have the greatest impact. One landowner told KQED that his offers were “sad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi has received help from East Bay Asian Local Development Corp., a well-known nonprofit developer in Oakland, which has helped Ahmadi search for a location for People’s Community Market and has even negotiated deals with landowners, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, it was hard to get a deal done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was extraordinarily difficult,” says Joshua Simon, executive director of EBALDC. “I have been doing this work for many, many years and I’ve never seen a market heat up this fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10891494\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10891494 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Ahmadi.jpg\" alt=\"Brahm Ahmadi told KQED in 2015 that he was not be able to develop People's Community Market at his first-choice location near West Grand Avenue and Market Street in Oakland. The prices for land were too high.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Ahmadi.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Ahmadi-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brahm Ahmadi told KQED in 2015 that he was not able to develop People’s Community Market at his first-choice location near West Grand Avenue and Market Street in Oakland. The prices for land were too high. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What hasn’t helped was the elimination of state redevelopment money, which was once used for infrastructure and other projects, like Ahmadi’s, in neighborhoods that needed it the most. That has left a giant hole to fill in financing projects that are meant to uplift certain neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Working with angel investors and creative foundations and alternative funding sources that take a social equity approach to their investment decisions is a critical piece of this,” says Simon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi eventually met an Oakland native who was willing to help. Ahmadi won’t name his investor but says he owns several commercial properties in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He just believes in this project and in the need in the community,” says Ahmadi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investor has loaned EBALDC $970,000 so that the nonprofit can purchase the property at 3103 Myrtle St. in the San Pablo corridor. EBALDC will then give People’s Community Market a 30-year lease with little rent, says Ahmadi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Two Properties Needed for One Grocery Store\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another, perhaps more complicated, deal was struck with St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church, which is adjacent to where the store will be built. The historic black church has been in West Oakland since the mid-1950s. And it’s not for sale, says church financial secretary Altheria Jinks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gentrification and displacement of longtime Oakland residents is a common conversation at the church, Jinks says. It’s also a conversation that she needed to have with Ahmadi before agreeing to any deals with him, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10891497\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10891497\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Peoples-Market-800x368.jpg\" alt=\"Ahmadi says one of the toughest parts of the deal was getting the church to lease its parking lot space.\" width=\"800\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Peoples-Market-800x368.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Peoples-Market-400x184.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Peoples-Market.jpg 835w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ahmadi says one of the toughest parts of the deal was getting the church to lease its parking lot space. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brahm Ahmadi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I had the discussion with Brahm when they first came to us with that offer. I just feel like a lot of areas in Oakland are seeing gentrification,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi says he understands the church’s concerns, which is why he would show up on Sundays without “the suits” (his lawyer and broker) before even talking about specific details of the deal, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew step one for us was absolutely about trust building,” says Ahmadi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The church has agreed to lease its parking lot to People’s Community Market. Ahmadi says he plans on making improvements like new pavement and lighting. The lease with the church includes a provision in which a certain number of parking spaces are reserved for the church \u003cspan class=\"aBn\">\u003cspan class=\"aQJ\">on Sunday\u003c/span>\u003c/span> mornings, \u003cspan class=\"aBn\">\u003cspan class=\"aQJ\">Wednesday\u003c/span>\u003c/span> and \u003cspan class=\"aBn\">\u003cspan class=\"aQJ\">Friday\u003c/span>\u003c/span> evenings, four \u003cspan class=\"aBn\">\u003cspan class=\"aQJ\">Sunday\u003c/span>\u003c/span> afternoons a year and up to four funerals per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jinks says the grocery store could also have a positive impact on the greater community, perhaps bringing new members to the aging church, or at least help clean up an area that has seen plenty of drugs and crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Developing Neighborhood\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighborhood has been starved of investment. That was a major concern Ahmadi had last year when considering whether to even try and develop a grocery store in that part of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has also been concerned about the crime, blight and drug use in the area — specifically a small triangle park, St. Andrew’s Plaza, which the city has closed and plans to renovate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once open, Ahmadi hopes People’s Community Market will improve community health and community-building. He envisions the store having a social hall with its own separate entrance that could be a venue for guest speakers, workshops and community activities. By evening, it could be an event space for live music, poetry readings and recreation, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be a nonprofit arm to the grocery store that will run programs on nutrition and health education, Ahmadi says. The long-term goal would be to create technology that can track customers’ health and to help them monitor what they’re buying and give recommendations and rewards toward achieving healthy outcomes, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first Ahmadi has to raise even more cash. The store, which he plans to open in late 2017, still needs between $4.5 million to $5.5 million for construction costs. Plus, he plans to raise an additional $800,000 for operating costs after the store opens, through a direct public offering.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>West Oakland is one step closer to getting its first full-service grocery store in a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/27/west-oakland-property-prices-peoples-community-market\">As KQED reported last year\u003c/a>, Brahm Ahmadi has been trying to buy land since 2014 in West Oakland — a food desert that has also become a more expensive place to live than it used to be. Ahmadi’s efforts to build People’s Community Market were stalled as land prices shot up. Now an anonymous investor and a well-known nonprofit developer have stepped up to help Ahmadi complete a deal that will allow him to build a market near the San Pablo corridor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the primary focus is on access to good food, there’s also a really big focus on community-building,” says Ahmadi, who envisions a grocery store that would also act as a community gathering space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting this far has been a struggle for Ahmadi, and his story demonstrates the challenges of getting a deal like this done in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How People’s Community Market Got Here\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last couple of years, Ahmadi has tried to buy several properties in West Oakland to build his store. But the $1.2 million he raised wasn’t enough to buy land near West Grand Avenue and Market Street, where his studies showed a grocery store would have the greatest impact. One landowner told KQED that his offers were “sad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi has received help from East Bay Asian Local Development Corp., a well-known nonprofit developer in Oakland, which has helped Ahmadi search for a location for People’s Community Market and has even negotiated deals with landowners, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, it was hard to get a deal done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was extraordinarily difficult,” says Joshua Simon, executive director of EBALDC. “I have been doing this work for many, many years and I’ve never seen a market heat up this fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10891494\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10891494 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Ahmadi.jpg\" alt=\"Brahm Ahmadi told KQED in 2015 that he was not be able to develop People's Community Market at his first-choice location near West Grand Avenue and Market Street in Oakland. The prices for land were too high.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Ahmadi.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Ahmadi-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brahm Ahmadi told KQED in 2015 that he was not able to develop People’s Community Market at his first-choice location near West Grand Avenue and Market Street in Oakland. The prices for land were too high. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What hasn’t helped was the elimination of state redevelopment money, which was once used for infrastructure and other projects, like Ahmadi’s, in neighborhoods that needed it the most. That has left a giant hole to fill in financing projects that are meant to uplift certain neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Working with angel investors and creative foundations and alternative funding sources that take a social equity approach to their investment decisions is a critical piece of this,” says Simon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi eventually met an Oakland native who was willing to help. Ahmadi won’t name his investor but says he owns several commercial properties in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He just believes in this project and in the need in the community,” says Ahmadi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investor has loaned EBALDC $970,000 so that the nonprofit can purchase the property at 3103 Myrtle St. in the San Pablo corridor. EBALDC will then give People’s Community Market a 30-year lease with little rent, says Ahmadi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Two Properties Needed for One Grocery Store\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another, perhaps more complicated, deal was struck with St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church, which is adjacent to where the store will be built. The historic black church has been in West Oakland since the mid-1950s. And it’s not for sale, says church financial secretary Altheria Jinks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gentrification and displacement of longtime Oakland residents is a common conversation at the church, Jinks says. It’s also a conversation that she needed to have with Ahmadi before agreeing to any deals with him, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10891497\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10891497\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Peoples-Market-800x368.jpg\" alt=\"Ahmadi says one of the toughest parts of the deal was getting the church to lease its parking lot space.\" width=\"800\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Peoples-Market-800x368.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Peoples-Market-400x184.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/Peoples-Market.jpg 835w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ahmadi says one of the toughest parts of the deal was getting the church to lease its parking lot space. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brahm Ahmadi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I had the discussion with Brahm when they first came to us with that offer. I just feel like a lot of areas in Oakland are seeing gentrification,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi says he understands the church’s concerns, which is why he would show up on Sundays without “the suits” (his lawyer and broker) before even talking about specific details of the deal, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew step one for us was absolutely about trust building,” says Ahmadi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The church has agreed to lease its parking lot to People’s Community Market. Ahmadi says he plans on making improvements like new pavement and lighting. The lease with the church includes a provision in which a certain number of parking spaces are reserved for the church \u003cspan class=\"aBn\">\u003cspan class=\"aQJ\">on Sunday\u003c/span>\u003c/span> mornings, \u003cspan class=\"aBn\">\u003cspan class=\"aQJ\">Wednesday\u003c/span>\u003c/span> and \u003cspan class=\"aBn\">\u003cspan class=\"aQJ\">Friday\u003c/span>\u003c/span> evenings, four \u003cspan class=\"aBn\">\u003cspan class=\"aQJ\">Sunday\u003c/span>\u003c/span> afternoons a year and up to four funerals per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jinks says the grocery store could also have a positive impact on the greater community, perhaps bringing new members to the aging church, or at least help clean up an area that has seen plenty of drugs and crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Developing Neighborhood\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighborhood has been starved of investment. That was a major concern Ahmadi had last year when considering whether to even try and develop a grocery store in that part of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has also been concerned about the crime, blight and drug use in the area — specifically a small triangle park, St. Andrew’s Plaza, which the city has closed and plans to renovate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once open, Ahmadi hopes People’s Community Market will improve community health and community-building. He envisions the store having a social hall with its own separate entrance that could be a venue for guest speakers, workshops and community activities. By evening, it could be an event space for live music, poetry readings and recreation, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be a nonprofit arm to the grocery store that will run programs on nutrition and health education, Ahmadi says. The long-term goal would be to create technology that can track customers’ health and to help them monitor what they’re buying and give recommendations and rewards toward achieving healthy outcomes, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first Ahmadi has to raise even more cash. The store, which he plans to open in late 2017, still needs between $4.5 million to $5.5 million for construction costs. Plus, he plans to raise an additional $800,000 for operating costs after the store opens, through a direct public offering.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Kokavulu Lumukanda is a history buff who likes chatting about how his family moved to Oakland from Texas during the first half of the 20th century. First it was his aunt in the ’30s, then his uncle in the ’40s. Lumukanda moved from Dallas to Oakland in 1968 when he was 21 and eventually found himself living in West Oakland — a part of the city that has felt a lot of pressure from gentrification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given that his family has roots in Oakland, he takes personally the displacement of the city’s African-American population — which has dropped 10 percent in the last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t found a place I can really call home yet in this American wilderness,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/250047618″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=’166′ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lumukanda, 68, raised his children in a West Oakland home with the help of housing vouchers and had to leave when his landlord died and the property was sold. Last summer, he moved into the historic California Hotel, an affordable housing building near the Emeryville border. He doesn’t want to leave the neighborhood, a place where he was politically active many years ago, but it’s likely a “foregone conclusion,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10883888\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10883888 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Kukavulu Lumakanda, once politically active in West Oakland, says he's already lost his battle with gentrification.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kukavulu Lumukanda, once politically active in West Oakland, says he’s already lost his battle with gentrification. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland talks about keeping longtime residents from moving away, but the city is struggling to find ways to make that happen. The nonprofit in charge of the California Hotel recently bought the vacant lot next door to build more affordable housing, and has been trying to re-engineer the larger neighborhood — a part of town that hasn’t seen the heavy investment and new development going on elsewhere — with the help of numerous partners and the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But will it work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Hotel is an anchor in the corridor that runs along San Pablo Avenue from Emeryville toward downtown. The hotel was once \u003cem>the\u003c/em> place for African-American musicians and entertainers in the ’50s and ’60s, like \u003ca href=\"http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/88000969.pdf\">Ray Charles and Richard Pryor\u003c/a>. It now serves 149 residents in 137 units through Section 8 housing subsidies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. bought and renovated the hotel in 2012 (it has been used for affordable housing for decades) after its previous owners let it fall into disrepair. The California Hotel now has case managers on hand and psych services, a computer lab and a community garden. Plus , residents in the building can hear live music every third Friday in the hotel lobby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That’s what these people need. They need the whole package. Not just one piece of it,” says resident Raymond Maurice Edwards.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you look out the window and you walk down the street and you see 20 needles and things like that, that’s not a conducive environment to do constructive things,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edwards, 48, has noticed dramatic changes in West Oakland, such as new residents. But he hasn’t seen many of the benefits to his neighborhood that are often brought on when big money moves in. That’s why he applauds EBALDC’s commitment to work with the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chief Operating Officer Charise Fong points out mounds of fresh dirt and new plants on the San Pablo Avenue median. She says that last summer her organization held a series of community meetings during which it received input from residents and community groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10884130\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10884130\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"EBALDC held community meetings last year and asked residents what type of quick turnaround projects they wanted to see. Improving the street median was one project that came from those meetings.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478.jpg 1632w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">EBALDC held community meetings last year and asked residents what type of quick turnaround projects they wanted to see. Improving the street median was one project that came from those meetings. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The residents came together with a design team to think about what are some quick guerrilla-style projects that they could turn around and beautify,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray Kidd, co-chair of West Oakland Neighbors, attended a couple of these meetings and was part of the team that helped improve the median.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was actually more volunteers than there were tools,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kidd says that EBALDC coming to the neighborhood and buying up the California Hotel was a game changer, but he doesn’t think the hotel alone is enough to prevent market forces and private development from having a larger impact, as it has in other areas of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adjacent to the hotel is the vacant lot where EBALDC plans to build about 55 new low-income apartments, many of which will be for families, Fong says. In the meantime, a $1 million grant from the San Francisco Foundation will help pay for programs and “pop-up” events on the site, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10852375\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10852375 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation bought the lot adjacent to the hotel and will build more affordable housing on the site.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. bought the lot adjacent to the hotel and will build more affordable housing on the site. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re actually going to turn that into a temporary community gathering space,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a place where EBALDC can experiment, Fong says, including having pop-up markets where residents can try out small business ideas. There may be a performance space with a temporary stage when the weather gets nicer, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Events will coincide with First Fridays, which are held on Telegraph Avenue, and will have general themes, like the arts or education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EBALDC is also helping lead a larger neighborhood initiative through a partnership called the San Pablo Area Revitalization Collaborative (SPARC), which focuses on improving the health, economy and safety of the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there is a groundswell frankly in the country — certainly in the Bay Area because of all the pressures on people, particularly in low-income communities — to bring everybody on board to figure it out,” says Fong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the SPARC collaborative includes other nonprofits and public agencies chipping in to provide services. For example, every week Heather Smith serves food in the lobby and sets up a makeshift health care clinic where hotel residents can come and get blood pressure readings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can get information here, and we sit down and build relationships and trust in the community,” says Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.5\">Most affordable housing developments have residential services on-site, but this is resident services times 10, says Amber Lamason, EBALDC’s neighborhood and economic development manager.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EBALDC, which has been around since the 1970s, is known mostly for affordable housing. The group was able to pull together to raise the $40 million to renovate the California Hotel apartments. Now the nonprofit will take the next couple of years to raise between $25 million to $30 million to pay for the new development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lumukanda says what EBALDC is trying to do is good. But he recognizes that everyone who wants to see this part of West Oakland improve for the people who live there now is up against a city grappling with rapid change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need two or three more California Hotel-size residential places,” says Lumukanda. “It’s as though these economic pressures will overtake us and our memory of what had gone before will pass.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this experiment works, it may represent one of the few models of how an Oakland neighborhood was able to grow from the ground up.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Kokavulu Lumukanda is a history buff who likes chatting about how his family moved to Oakland from Texas during the first half of the 20th century. First it was his aunt in the ’30s, then his uncle in the ’40s. Lumukanda moved from Dallas to Oakland in 1968 when he was 21 and eventually found himself living in West Oakland — a part of the city that has felt a lot of pressure from gentrification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given that his family has roots in Oakland, he takes personally the displacement of the city’s African-American population — which has dropped 10 percent in the last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t found a place I can really call home yet in this American wilderness,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='’166′'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/250047618″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/250047618″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lumukanda, 68, raised his children in a West Oakland home with the help of housing vouchers and had to leave when his landlord died and the property was sold. Last summer, he moved into the historic California Hotel, an affordable housing building near the Emeryville border. He doesn’t want to leave the neighborhood, a place where he was politically active many years ago, but it’s likely a “foregone conclusion,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10883888\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10883888 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Kukavulu Lumakanda, once politically active in West Oakland, says he's already lost his battle with gentrification.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_0868-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kukavulu Lumukanda, once politically active in West Oakland, says he’s already lost his battle with gentrification. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland talks about keeping longtime residents from moving away, but the city is struggling to find ways to make that happen. The nonprofit in charge of the California Hotel recently bought the vacant lot next door to build more affordable housing, and has been trying to re-engineer the larger neighborhood — a part of town that hasn’t seen the heavy investment and new development going on elsewhere — with the help of numerous partners and the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But will it work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Hotel is an anchor in the corridor that runs along San Pablo Avenue from Emeryville toward downtown. The hotel was once \u003cem>the\u003c/em> place for African-American musicians and entertainers in the ’50s and ’60s, like \u003ca href=\"http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/88000969.pdf\">Ray Charles and Richard Pryor\u003c/a>. It now serves 149 residents in 137 units through Section 8 housing subsidies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. bought and renovated the hotel in 2012 (it has been used for affordable housing for decades) after its previous owners let it fall into disrepair. The California Hotel now has case managers on hand and psych services, a computer lab and a community garden. Plus , residents in the building can hear live music every third Friday in the hotel lobby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That’s what these people need. They need the whole package. Not just one piece of it,” says resident Raymond Maurice Edwards.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you look out the window and you walk down the street and you see 20 needles and things like that, that’s not a conducive environment to do constructive things,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edwards, 48, has noticed dramatic changes in West Oakland, such as new residents. But he hasn’t seen many of the benefits to his neighborhood that are often brought on when big money moves in. That’s why he applauds EBALDC’s commitment to work with the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chief Operating Officer Charise Fong points out mounds of fresh dirt and new plants on the San Pablo Avenue median. She says that last summer her organization held a series of community meetings during which it received input from residents and community groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10884130\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10884130\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"EBALDC held community meetings last year and asked residents what type of quick turnaround projects they wanted to see. Improving the street median was one project that came from those meetings.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/IMG_1478.jpg 1632w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">EBALDC held community meetings last year and asked residents what type of quick turnaround projects they wanted to see. Improving the street median was one project that came from those meetings. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The residents came together with a design team to think about what are some quick guerrilla-style projects that they could turn around and beautify,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray Kidd, co-chair of West Oakland Neighbors, attended a couple of these meetings and was part of the team that helped improve the median.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was actually more volunteers than there were tools,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kidd says that EBALDC coming to the neighborhood and buying up the California Hotel was a game changer, but he doesn’t think the hotel alone is enough to prevent market forces and private development from having a larger impact, as it has in other areas of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adjacent to the hotel is the vacant lot where EBALDC plans to build about 55 new low-income apartments, many of which will be for families, Fong says. In the meantime, a $1 million grant from the San Francisco Foundation will help pay for programs and “pop-up” events on the site, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10852375\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10852375 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation bought the lot adjacent to the hotel and will build more affordable housing on the site.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/IMG_0873-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. bought the lot adjacent to the hotel and will build more affordable housing on the site. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re actually going to turn that into a temporary community gathering space,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a place where EBALDC can experiment, Fong says, including having pop-up markets where residents can try out small business ideas. There may be a performance space with a temporary stage when the weather gets nicer, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Events will coincide with First Fridays, which are held on Telegraph Avenue, and will have general themes, like the arts or education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EBALDC is also helping lead a larger neighborhood initiative through a partnership called the San Pablo Area Revitalization Collaborative (SPARC), which focuses on improving the health, economy and safety of the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there is a groundswell frankly in the country — certainly in the Bay Area because of all the pressures on people, particularly in low-income communities — to bring everybody on board to figure it out,” says Fong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the SPARC collaborative includes other nonprofits and public agencies chipping in to provide services. For example, every week Heather Smith serves food in the lobby and sets up a makeshift health care clinic where hotel residents can come and get blood pressure readings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can get information here, and we sit down and build relationships and trust in the community,” says Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"line-height: 1.5\">Most affordable housing developments have residential services on-site, but this is resident services times 10, says Amber Lamason, EBALDC’s neighborhood and economic development manager.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EBALDC, which has been around since the 1970s, is known mostly for affordable housing. The group was able to pull together to raise the $40 million to renovate the California Hotel apartments. Now the nonprofit will take the next couple of years to raise between $25 million to $30 million to pay for the new development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lumukanda says what EBALDC is trying to do is good. But he recognizes that everyone who wants to see this part of West Oakland improve for the people who live there now is up against a city grappling with rapid change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need two or three more California Hotel-size residential places,” says Lumukanda. “It’s as though these economic pressures will overtake us and our memory of what had gone before will pass.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this experiment works, it may represent one of the few models of how an Oakland neighborhood was able to grow from the ground up.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Can Oakland Better Support Residents Living in Homeless Encampments?",
"title": "Can Oakland Better Support Residents Living in Homeless Encampments?",
"headTitle": "SF Homeless Project | News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>Milton Murphy crowds in with a small group under the freeway at 35th and Peralta streets in West Oakland on a recent Wednesday morning. Several people who have been living in this camp over the past few months are standing around, some sweeping their spaces, while the sidewalks fill with stacks of their belongings ready to be picked up and either stored or thrown away by the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's the scene of a homeless encampment about to be cleared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have scouts going out to figure out the best place that would be comfortable and suitable for us as homeless people,” said Murphy, who says he's been living on the streets for about 12 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244505475\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'It only took about a month for everybody to get here.'\u003ccite>Milton Murphy,\u003cbr>\ncamp resident\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>A paper sign on a nearby concrete pillar says, “Notice to Vacate: Illegal Encampment,” in stark all-caps lettering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last eight months of 2015, Oakland cleared homeless encampments 162 times, according to the city. The residents, who often seek shelter under overpasses or in areas tucked away from view, pick up their things and move what they can. Many of them won’t use services offered by the city and nonprofits to find housing, and housing in the East Bay is increasingly hard to come by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco and other major cities are \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/01/25/s-f-supervisor-scott-wiener-city-needs-fast-response-to-homeless-tent-camps\" target=\"_blank\">seeing more homeless encampments\u003c/a>. There are an estimated 2,100 homeless people in Oakland, according to a recent count conducted throughout Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as the Bay Area's housing crisis creates more scarcity in Oakland, the city is considering what other options it has.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244478583\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height='166' iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Camps Often Come Back\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homeless encampments in Oakland often begin with just one tent, Murphy tells me. Then they grow and grow. On the morning last week when Murphy and others were cleared from 35th and Peralta, around a dozen tents were still standing, while others had been taken down, their owners in the process of leaving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It only took about a month for everybody to get here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'There is a certain level of housekeeping that we have to do, or it’s just going to get out of control.'\u003ccite>Joe DeVries,\u003cbr>\nAssistant to the Oakland city manager\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Camp clearing is driven by complaints that get funneled through the city’s Public Works Department. The city will alert an encampment 72 hours before crews clean the site, sometimes with the help of police, said Joe DeVries, the Oakland staffer who receives the complaints. DeVries takes offense when people say the city “closes” homeless encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really providing a cleaning,” he said. “We have rat infestations, human waste, feces.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on where the encampment is located, the previous inhabitants will often resettle in the same spot a day later, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So clearing a camp isn't a permanent answer to the city’s homelessness problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do want to provide something different and better than what we’re doing now,” DeVries said. “But there is a certain level of housekeeping that we have to do, or it’s just going to get out of control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Berkeley Students Challenge 'Status Quo'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10585950\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10585950 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland staffer Joe Devries has visited many homeless encampments. He says clearing camps helps maintain the health and safety of residents, and after an area is cleaned it's often quickly repopulated.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland staffer Joe DeVries has visited many homeless encampments. He says clearing camps helps maintain the health and safety of residents, and after an area is cleaned it's often quickly repopulated.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland is currently considering alternative solutions that would better serve the growing number of people living on the streets. The city spends around $240,000 annually on its homeless outreach to try and connect homeless people with services, according to DeVries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But sometimes that outreach doesn't work, or people don't want to use the services. Plus, some of the encampments have really intricate home designs made out of very little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we could provide an area for people where they could live temporarily while we navigated them into a permanent supportive housing -- I do believe that would be really helpful,” DeVries said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legalizing homeless encampments was one recommendation in a report written by students at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, which concluded that “the status quo [regarding the camp-clearing process] serves as a cyclical disruption for camp residents and creates an additional barrier on their pathway to housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who work with the homeless, whether through the city or a network of nonprofits, are currently committed to finding housing for homeless individuals first, said Peter Radu, one of the five students who co-authored the report for the city’s Human Services Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem now is that the East Bay housing market is just so tight and so expensive,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"T4z9JeYT0FikBEKhZkqmElWMWEXS6eSX\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with outreach and case managers striving to provide one-on-one help for homeless people, it’s \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/11/17/for-one-man-looking-for-housing-means-putting-fatherhood-on-hold\" target=\"_blank\">still hard\u003c/a> to find permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the meantime, there are folks on the street tonight with nowhere to go,” Radu said. “There are not enough shelter beds. And even if there were shelter beds, a lot of folks are unable or unwilling to use those shelter beds because of a lot of personal issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legalizing homeless encampments wasn’t among the \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2545922&GUID=434AAC04-C98E-4D9C-A2A9-AB95B964308E&Options=&Search=\" target=\"_blank\">six possible investments\u003c/a> to respond to homelessness proposed to the City Council last week. There were, however, other ideas with “low barriers to entry,\" including creating tiny homes, converting shipping containers into interim housing or modifying a large warehouse for shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The spirit of our recommendation is definitely being met and we’re very excited,” Radu said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The council plans to vote this week on spending $180,000 more on emergency winter shelters, which could double the number of beds currently available in the city. But funding a larger system, which could provide better accommodations for unsheltered people and also lead to permanent housing, is a more complicated feat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>More Respect on the Streets\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244479286\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height='166' iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within two days, a dozen tents have already reappeared under the overpass at 35th and Peralta streets. The sidewalks have been swept and the belongings that lay around just a couple of days ago are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I approach Terrance Dixon, he is lying in his tent, speaking to a friend who sits on a chair right outside the flap. Dixon tells me he is an ex-felon who is addicted to drugs. He's been homeless for a couple of years by choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He points out the tents down the street and says his cousin and friend live down the sidewalk from him. It's a community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all out here,\" he said, \"and we’re struggling together out here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dixon shows me bags of donated food supplies. The bags have soap, a blanket, toothpaste, Kleenex, hand wipes and a toothbrush. He says that he’d rather live on the streets than have to compete for housing and income in the ways society expects him to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even though I’m in a tent, I get more respect than an average man who has got a house got,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Dixon begins to tear up, his wife comes over and gives him a hug, telling him it's all right.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Milton Murphy crowds in with a small group under the freeway at 35th and Peralta streets in West Oakland on a recent Wednesday morning. Several people who have been living in this camp over the past few months are standing around, some sweeping their spaces, while the sidewalks fill with stacks of their belongings ready to be picked up and either stored or thrown away by the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's the scene of a homeless encampment about to be cleared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have scouts going out to figure out the best place that would be comfortable and suitable for us as homeless people,” said Murphy, who says he's been living on the streets for about 12 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244505475&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244505475'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'It only took about a month for everybody to get here.'\u003ccite>Milton Murphy,\u003cbr>\ncamp resident\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>A paper sign on a nearby concrete pillar says, “Notice to Vacate: Illegal Encampment,” in stark all-caps lettering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last eight months of 2015, Oakland cleared homeless encampments 162 times, according to the city. The residents, who often seek shelter under overpasses or in areas tucked away from view, pick up their things and move what they can. Many of them won’t use services offered by the city and nonprofits to find housing, and housing in the East Bay is increasingly hard to come by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco and other major cities are \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/01/25/s-f-supervisor-scott-wiener-city-needs-fast-response-to-homeless-tent-camps\" target=\"_blank\">seeing more homeless encampments\u003c/a>. There are an estimated 2,100 homeless people in Oakland, according to a recent count conducted throughout Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as the Bay Area's housing crisis creates more scarcity in Oakland, the city is considering what other options it has.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244478583&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244478583'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Camps Often Come Back\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homeless encampments in Oakland often begin with just one tent, Murphy tells me. Then they grow and grow. On the morning last week when Murphy and others were cleared from 35th and Peralta, around a dozen tents were still standing, while others had been taken down, their owners in the process of leaving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It only took about a month for everybody to get here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'There is a certain level of housekeeping that we have to do, or it’s just going to get out of control.'\u003ccite>Joe DeVries,\u003cbr>\nAssistant to the Oakland city manager\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Camp clearing is driven by complaints that get funneled through the city’s Public Works Department. The city will alert an encampment 72 hours before crews clean the site, sometimes with the help of police, said Joe DeVries, the Oakland staffer who receives the complaints. DeVries takes offense when people say the city “closes” homeless encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really providing a cleaning,” he said. “We have rat infestations, human waste, feces.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on where the encampment is located, the previous inhabitants will often resettle in the same spot a day later, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So clearing a camp isn't a permanent answer to the city’s homelessness problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do want to provide something different and better than what we’re doing now,” DeVries said. “But there is a certain level of housekeeping that we have to do, or it’s just going to get out of control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Berkeley Students Challenge 'Status Quo'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10585950\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10585950 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland staffer Joe Devries has visited many homeless encampments. He says clearing camps helps maintain the health and safety of residents, and after an area is cleaned it's often quickly repopulated.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland staffer Joe DeVries has visited many homeless encampments. He says clearing camps helps maintain the health and safety of residents, and after an area is cleaned it's often quickly repopulated.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland is currently considering alternative solutions that would better serve the growing number of people living on the streets. The city spends around $240,000 annually on its homeless outreach to try and connect homeless people with services, according to DeVries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But sometimes that outreach doesn't work, or people don't want to use the services. Plus, some of the encampments have really intricate home designs made out of very little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we could provide an area for people where they could live temporarily while we navigated them into a permanent supportive housing -- I do believe that would be really helpful,” DeVries said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legalizing homeless encampments was one recommendation in a report written by students at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, which concluded that “the status quo [regarding the camp-clearing process] serves as a cyclical disruption for camp residents and creates an additional barrier on their pathway to housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who work with the homeless, whether through the city or a network of nonprofits, are currently committed to finding housing for homeless individuals first, said Peter Radu, one of the five students who co-authored the report for the city’s Human Services Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem now is that the East Bay housing market is just so tight and so expensive,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with outreach and case managers striving to provide one-on-one help for homeless people, it’s \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/11/17/for-one-man-looking-for-housing-means-putting-fatherhood-on-hold\" target=\"_blank\">still hard\u003c/a> to find permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the meantime, there are folks on the street tonight with nowhere to go,” Radu said. “There are not enough shelter beds. And even if there were shelter beds, a lot of folks are unable or unwilling to use those shelter beds because of a lot of personal issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legalizing homeless encampments wasn’t among the \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2545922&GUID=434AAC04-C98E-4D9C-A2A9-AB95B964308E&Options=&Search=\" target=\"_blank\">six possible investments\u003c/a> to respond to homelessness proposed to the City Council last week. There were, however, other ideas with “low barriers to entry,\" including creating tiny homes, converting shipping containers into interim housing or modifying a large warehouse for shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The spirit of our recommendation is definitely being met and we’re very excited,” Radu said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The council plans to vote this week on spending $180,000 more on emergency winter shelters, which could double the number of beds currently available in the city. But funding a larger system, which could provide better accommodations for unsheltered people and also lead to permanent housing, is a more complicated feat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>More Respect on the Streets\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244479286&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/244479286'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within two days, a dozen tents have already reappeared under the overpass at 35th and Peralta streets. The sidewalks have been swept and the belongings that lay around just a couple of days ago are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I approach Terrance Dixon, he is lying in his tent, speaking to a friend who sits on a chair right outside the flap. Dixon tells me he is an ex-felon who is addicted to drugs. He's been homeless for a couple of years by choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He points out the tents down the street and says his cousin and friend live down the sidewalk from him. It's a community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all out here,\" he said, \"and we’re struggling together out here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dixon shows me bags of donated food supplies. The bags have soap, a blanket, toothpaste, Kleenex, hand wipes and a toothbrush. He says that he’d rather live on the streets than have to compete for housing and income in the ways society expects him to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even though I’m in a tent, I get more respect than an average man who has got a house got,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Dixon begins to tear up, his wife comes over and gives him a hug, telling him it's all right.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "West Oakland Property Prices Threaten a Food Activist's Dream",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he property market in West Oakland is booming, but from the corner of West Grand Avenue and Market Street you can't tell that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We looked at that site. That one. That one. The one that’s now been demolished,\" says Brahm Ahmadi. There are seven sites he points to, all of which he's failed to purchase. The cost is just too high, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi has worked for years to bring a full-service grocery store to West Oakland -- where most food sales in the neighborhood are apparently at liquor and corner stores. Meanwhile, wealthier people are moving in, causing rents and property prices to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10657451\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0461.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10657451 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0461-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Brahm Ahmadi says he will not be able to develop a grocery store at his first choice location at West Grand Avenue and Market Street in Oakland.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brahm Ahmadi says he will not be able to develop a grocery store at his first-choice location at West Grand Avenue and Market Street in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi says West Grand and Market would be ideal for the market he envisions. It's one of West Oakland's major intersections, is served by public transportation and already has plenty of potential customers living nearby. But Ahmadi hasn't been able to swing a deal with potential sellers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We were almost every time floored by the counteroffer and how dramatically more they were asking for their properties,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Opening a full-service grocery store looked like a promising venture in 2011.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Some land in the area is going for three times the amount he offered -- well above its assessed value, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi’s offers were sad, says George Kim, who helps manage the West Grand Shopping Center owned by his parents -- one of the seven properties Ahmadi tried and failed to purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim sympathizes with Ahmadi and agrees that the neighborhood needs a grocery store, but Ahmadi's offers weren't even close to what Kim wanted, he says. Recently, he says he was offered more than $9 million for the land. Ahmadi couldn’t offer even half of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A housing development is going up across the street from his shopping center, and Kim says he will probably wait until it's finished before deciding whether to sell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi says he doesn't blame property owners for holding out for more cash. He says that's the \"American way.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The problem is, it has a greater negative impact on the community,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The idea for \u003ca href=\"http://peoplescommunitymarket.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Ahmadi's People's Community Market\u003c/a> spun off of a West Oakland community food organization he founded called \u003ca href=\"http://www.peoplesgrocery.org/\" target=\"_blank\">People's Grocery\u003c/a>. The organization focuses on food justice programs and has brought cooking classes, produce deliveries and a community garden to West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10657496\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10657496 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"People's Grocery has offered West Oakland food justice programs, including this community garden. Ahmadi says the next obvious step, to him, was to open a full-service grocery store.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People's Grocery has offered West Oakland food justice programs, including this community garden. Ahmadi says the next obvious step, to him, was to open a full-service grocery store. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Opening a full-service grocery store looked like a promising venture in 2011. Ahmadi raised $1.2 million from nearly 400 Californians, most of whom were East Bay residents, he says. His efforts were even featured in the\u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/business/smallbusiness/seeking-capital-some-companies-turn-to-do-it-yourself-ipos.html?_r=0\"> New York Times.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Times article was written in the summer of 2013. Ahmadi's fundraising campaign successfully ended later that year, around the time West Oakland property prices and rents were just taking off. Ahmadi has been trying for the last 18 months to find property to buy or lease, but he has failed. It was just bad timing, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What we did was shift to accepting that we’re going to have to pay an exorbitant price to get a piece of land in this neighborhood,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The City's Role\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The city could help pay for a site. But that would be controversial, says Renee Roy Elias, a volunteer with the \u003ca href=\"http://oaklandfood.org/\">Oakland Food Policy Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Do we want taxpayer dollars to go towards this very, very overpriced piece of land?\" she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elias would like to see the city get creative with how it supports equitable access to food and possibly offer more incentives, like tax breaks, to local healthy food projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>More: A Changing Oakland\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/RS16397_IMG_7457.JPG-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/25/west-oakland-activist-wants-to-create-a-cafe-for-everyone\" target=\"_blank\">Activists, Entrepreneurs Fight for a Place in West Oakland’s Future\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/26/can-west-oakland-change-and-stay-the-same-all-at-once\" target=\"_blank\">Can West Oakland Change and Stay the Same All at Once?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/18/sideshows-the-birth-of-oaklands-hyphy-culture\">Sideshows: The Birth of Oakland’s Hyphy Culture\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\"That would set an amazing precedent for future projects like Brahm’s project,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city could also assume a stronger role as mediator between entrepreneurs and property owners, says Elias. A few years ago the city worked aggressively to get a large Foods Co. store to move into West Oakland. The City Council even voted to use \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/ourxperience/2011/02/08/locals-seem-to-support-city-plans-for-new-grocery-store/\">eminent domain\u003c/a> to secure property from owners who wouldn't sell. The deal never panned out. But Ahmadi says he would like the city to work just as hard to help his project.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>If Not the Government, Then Who?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The city has to be careful about what steps it takes to help local businesses and can’t take too many risks, says Ben Mangan, who teaches at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That’s good sometimes and that’s deeply frustrating at other times,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mangan has researched the types of people who do take these risks. They’re called impact investors, and they're usually philanthropists or others willing to put their money on the line for the public good, even though it could involve making a risky investment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You’re often competing in a marketplace where you may be the only one seeking that extra bottom line, and you have to work harder to achieve social impact while your competitors are just looking for a return on investment,\" says Mangan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi says he thinks he's found his impact investor -- a former Oakland resident who went to Wall Street, made some cash, retired young and now is back and wants to help. Ahmadi won’t name him, but he says this potential partner, who would act as landlord until he's repaid, is willing to pay well above market rate for land the grocery store needs. But it would be in a cheaper location than Ahmadi's dream spot at West Grand and Market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a half-mile from that ideal location, at San Pablo Avenue and 32nd Street, Ahmadi is looking at a couple of properties where his market might be built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the area comes with more risk. Across the street, there's St. Andrews Plaza, a compact concrete triangle sporting a few eucalyptus trees. Ahmadi says there is drug use, prostitution and violence around the park. Community groups have been trying to work with the city to find a solution to clean up the area, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I feel if this problem is here and we try to open our doors, the sense of a lack of safety will be a major deterrent to a lot of people shopping here,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, this is his best shot, he says. There are two property owners he needs to convince to sell in order to have enough space for his grocery store. One deal may be signed this week, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second property hasn’t been easy. He’s had no luck contacting the owner, and the city isn’t helping out, he says. If he fails to secure the second property, Ahmadi says, his longtime campaign to bring a full-service grocery to a community that badly needs one could be over.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>he property market in West Oakland is booming, but from the corner of West Grand Avenue and Market Street you can't tell that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We looked at that site. That one. That one. The one that’s now been demolished,\" says Brahm Ahmadi. There are seven sites he points to, all of which he's failed to purchase. The cost is just too high, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi has worked for years to bring a full-service grocery store to West Oakland -- where most food sales in the neighborhood are apparently at liquor and corner stores. Meanwhile, wealthier people are moving in, causing rents and property prices to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10657451\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0461.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10657451 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0461-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Brahm Ahmadi says he will not be able to develop a grocery store at his first choice location at West Grand Avenue and Market Street in Oakland.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brahm Ahmadi says he will not be able to develop a grocery store at his first-choice location at West Grand Avenue and Market Street in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi says West Grand and Market would be ideal for the market he envisions. It's one of West Oakland's major intersections, is served by public transportation and already has plenty of potential customers living nearby. But Ahmadi hasn't been able to swing a deal with potential sellers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We were almost every time floored by the counteroffer and how dramatically more they were asking for their properties,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Opening a full-service grocery store looked like a promising venture in 2011.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Some land in the area is going for three times the amount he offered -- well above its assessed value, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi’s offers were sad, says George Kim, who helps manage the West Grand Shopping Center owned by his parents -- one of the seven properties Ahmadi tried and failed to purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim sympathizes with Ahmadi and agrees that the neighborhood needs a grocery store, but Ahmadi's offers weren't even close to what Kim wanted, he says. Recently, he says he was offered more than $9 million for the land. Ahmadi couldn’t offer even half of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A housing development is going up across the street from his shopping center, and Kim says he will probably wait until it's finished before deciding whether to sell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi says he doesn't blame property owners for holding out for more cash. He says that's the \"American way.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The problem is, it has a greater negative impact on the community,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The idea for \u003ca href=\"http://peoplescommunitymarket.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Ahmadi's People's Community Market\u003c/a> spun off of a West Oakland community food organization he founded called \u003ca href=\"http://www.peoplesgrocery.org/\" target=\"_blank\">People's Grocery\u003c/a>. The organization focuses on food justice programs and has brought cooking classes, produce deliveries and a community garden to West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10657496\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10657496 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"People's Grocery has offered West Oakland food justice programs, including this community garden. Ahmadi says the next obvious step, to him, was to open a full-service grocery store.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0491-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People's Grocery has offered West Oakland food justice programs, including this community garden. Ahmadi says the next obvious step, to him, was to open a full-service grocery store. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Opening a full-service grocery store looked like a promising venture in 2011. Ahmadi raised $1.2 million from nearly 400 Californians, most of whom were East Bay residents, he says. His efforts were even featured in the\u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/business/smallbusiness/seeking-capital-some-companies-turn-to-do-it-yourself-ipos.html?_r=0\"> New York Times.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Times article was written in the summer of 2013. Ahmadi's fundraising campaign successfully ended later that year, around the time West Oakland property prices and rents were just taking off. Ahmadi has been trying for the last 18 months to find property to buy or lease, but he has failed. It was just bad timing, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What we did was shift to accepting that we’re going to have to pay an exorbitant price to get a piece of land in this neighborhood,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The City's Role\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The city could help pay for a site. But that would be controversial, says Renee Roy Elias, a volunteer with the \u003ca href=\"http://oaklandfood.org/\">Oakland Food Policy Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Do we want taxpayer dollars to go towards this very, very overpriced piece of land?\" she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elias would like to see the city get creative with how it supports equitable access to food and possibly offer more incentives, like tax breaks, to local healthy food projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>More: A Changing Oakland\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/RS16397_IMG_7457.JPG-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/25/west-oakland-activist-wants-to-create-a-cafe-for-everyone\" target=\"_blank\">Activists, Entrepreneurs Fight for a Place in West Oakland’s Future\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/26/can-west-oakland-change-and-stay-the-same-all-at-once\" target=\"_blank\">Can West Oakland Change and Stay the Same All at Once?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/18/sideshows-the-birth-of-oaklands-hyphy-culture\">Sideshows: The Birth of Oakland’s Hyphy Culture\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\"That would set an amazing precedent for future projects like Brahm’s project,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city could also assume a stronger role as mediator between entrepreneurs and property owners, says Elias. A few years ago the city worked aggressively to get a large Foods Co. store to move into West Oakland. The City Council even voted to use \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/ourxperience/2011/02/08/locals-seem-to-support-city-plans-for-new-grocery-store/\">eminent domain\u003c/a> to secure property from owners who wouldn't sell. The deal never panned out. But Ahmadi says he would like the city to work just as hard to help his project.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>If Not the Government, Then Who?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The city has to be careful about what steps it takes to help local businesses and can’t take too many risks, says Ben Mangan, who teaches at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That’s good sometimes and that’s deeply frustrating at other times,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mangan has researched the types of people who do take these risks. They’re called impact investors, and they're usually philanthropists or others willing to put their money on the line for the public good, even though it could involve making a risky investment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You’re often competing in a marketplace where you may be the only one seeking that extra bottom line, and you have to work harder to achieve social impact while your competitors are just looking for a return on investment,\" says Mangan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadi says he thinks he's found his impact investor -- a former Oakland resident who went to Wall Street, made some cash, retired young and now is back and wants to help. Ahmadi won’t name him, but he says this potential partner, who would act as landlord until he's repaid, is willing to pay well above market rate for land the grocery store needs. But it would be in a cheaper location than Ahmadi's dream spot at West Grand and Market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a half-mile from that ideal location, at San Pablo Avenue and 32nd Street, Ahmadi is looking at a couple of properties where his market might be built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the area comes with more risk. Across the street, there's St. Andrews Plaza, a compact concrete triangle sporting a few eucalyptus trees. Ahmadi says there is drug use, prostitution and violence around the park. Community groups have been trying to work with the city to find a solution to clean up the area, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I feel if this problem is here and we try to open our doors, the sense of a lack of safety will be a major deterrent to a lot of people shopping here,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, this is his best shot, he says. There are two property owners he needs to convince to sell in order to have enough space for his grocery store. One deal may be signed this week, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second property hasn’t been easy. He’s had no luck contacting the owner, and the city isn’t helping out, he says. If he fails to secure the second property, Ahmadi says, his longtime campaign to bring a full-service grocery to a community that badly needs one could be over.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]nside a warehouse in West Oakland, a child swings upside down in the air, attached to a harness and a rope that’s hooked onto metal rafters. A man shouts to the girl, “Kick your legs up,” encouraging her to complete a trapeze routine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades ago this space was a “company of machines that made machines,” said Lili Gaudreau, owner of \u003ca href=\"http://www.trapezearts.com/\">Trapeze Arts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now it’s a school for circus arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The building is in the southwest corner of West Oakland. You’d almost have to be lost to find it, even though it’s located right near the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It couldn’t be in a better place, but it’s like the forgotten stepsister,” Gaudreau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10656277\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10656277 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The building occupied by Trapeze Arts was once a used by a heavy manufacturing company.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The building occupied by Trapeze Arts was once used by a heavy manufacturing company. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To some, that has been the story of West Oakland, once a hub for World War II shipbuilding and manufacturing, where people migrated from the South to live and work. At its height, around 1950, there were 40,000 residents in the neighborhood. Today roughly 25,000 people live there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220998621&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Some are concerned that the speed at which West Oakland is changing is leaving behind economic equity and human dignity.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>After the war, thousands of people and jobs left for the suburbs, and several public projects destroyed parts of West Oakland. Decades of blight and crime followed, with little revitalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now West Oakland is experiencing an influx of new money and people, driven by the demand for space in the Bay Area. Rents and home prices have soared. It's been hard for the city to keep up, and some are concerned that the speed at which West Oakland is changing is leaving behind economic equity and human dignity.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Industrial Spaces Could Play a Role in Creating Economic Equity\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Achieving a new neighborhood can be done in a lot of different ways, said Brian Beveridge, co-director of \u003ca href=\"http://www.woeip.org/\">West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project\u003c/a>, a nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think leadership and public policy need to use a different lens,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the redevelopment happening now is focused on big developments and projects with strong capital, leaving out a portion of the population that has been underserved for years, said Beveridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other critics say many of the people who have been struggling in West Oakland for decades are being displaced, rather than lifted, by this new tide of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/137309375?title=0&byline=0\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I mean, you want to deal with racism, then deal with racism,\" Beveridge said. \"Racism is an economic issue. People are shut out of the economy.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There needs to be more innovative thinking in government and more “handholding” for local entrepreneurs to create more economic opportunities for them to succeed, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10656541\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/2646498376_66bccac51c_b.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10656541\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/2646498376_66bccac51c_b-400x533.jpg\" alt=\"Some space in Emeryville's Public Market is leased by small food, retail and health-related businesses.\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/2646498376_66bccac51c_b-400x533.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/2646498376_66bccac51c_b.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some space in Emeryville's Public Market is leased by small food, retail and health-related businesses. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonholmberg/2646498376/in/photolist-5Nb1tf-rfHCiM-a4eGG-rfHFk8-ryQfX5-wtnv1Q-wHEUVJ-otxA4T-uPgwTs-92qXmV-5Fav1R-3fHppm-5FeMXq-5Nb37J-87P5qP-dKUq3H-j9PB56-do5tPp-j9N8hM-dKUpst-73P5Lj-5cYfii-5d3zJf-dYNTaL-dYHc5R-c3e2DA-bWZk1G-bWZkSu-7oaryc-gkiqjX-edouet-5Nb5vW-sfoPa-5N6P3D-aPXcnp-85kn8o-52RZLm-52RZuL-dHWyey-52MKzB-qvtiH9-rqHPZG-rHc7Xa-4RKdN9-qtQusW-4RF3en-4RF4ue-a4cVC-MQvi5-5GrPKb\" target=\"_blank\">Flickred!\u003c/a>/Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Beveridge likes the idea of creating a large space -- perhaps the size of a Costco -- that could accommodate lots of smaller vendors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why couldn’t we take a warehouse and do that effectively with 30 or 40 small businesses?” said Beveridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The space could be a destination spot, like the Public Market in Emeryville or Market Hall in Rockridge, he said. But in West Oakland, it would look and feel like the local businesses in that community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This would give the city a chance to live up to the values it preaches, such as equity and integrity, said Beveridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Oakland Lacks Resources to Support All Kinds of Business\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The city doesn’t have the staff that would support such a project, said Margot Lederer-Prado, with the city's economic development office. She is also the person at City Hall who knows the most about the current and future status of industrial properties in Oakland. Her job is find space for new or expanding businesses, but not necessarily the microbusinesses that Beveridge is talking about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need someone like me, who rolls up the sleeves and writes the grants,” she said. Someone who can spend the time and energy to see a project through, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>More: A Changing Oakland\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/RS16397_IMG_7457.JPG-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/25/west-oakland-activist-wants-to-create-a-cafe-for-everyone\" target=\"_blank\">Activists, Entrepreneurs Fight for a Place in West Oakland’s Future\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/18/sideshows-the-birth-of-oaklands-hyphy-culture\">Sideshows: The Birth of Oakland’s Hyphy Culture\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">Oakland’s Sobrante Park Fights to Resurrect a Neighborhood Jewel\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Some have criticized the\u003ca href=\"http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PBN/OurOrganization/PlanningZoning/OAK028334\"> West Oakland Specific Plan\u003c/a>, adopted by the city in 2014, for not including enough direction on how to equal the playing field for current residents. The plan itself states that it's important to retain and preserve West Oakland's industrial land and the job base that it supports. And in that document, Lederer-Prado asks how the city can court new industries while preserving \"existing quality jobs that have provided generations of Oakland residents with a decent living wage.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Oakland doesn’t really get to decide which businesses move in and which move out on private property, said Lederer-Prado. And the city is not prepared to buy property to develop because of what it costs, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the plan acknowledges that there is a skills gap between residents and the kinds of jobs that are expected to grow in the region, such as tech, life sciences and green energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those with families who may have been unemployed for one or two generations -- it is hard to relate,” said Lederer-Prado.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Providing Jobs is About Human Dignity\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some businesses moving into the area are providing good entry-level jobs for locals while trying to improve the area. If you pass Ocho Candy on Adeline Street, you might see Rich Turner taking a break. His apron is covered in organic chocolate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the people in the community out here come by and knock on the door,\" he said. \"And they are constantly looking for work. It’s hit and miss.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turner will tell you he’s come a long way. Last year, he was living in a halfway house in downtown Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fresh out of prison, you don’t really have much to fall back on,\" he said. \"And I did 10 years, so I didn’t have too much waiting for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Turner was given a chance to work at Ocho Candy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was the best thing next to sliced bread,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10656278\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10656278\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Rich Turner, 32, says Ocho Candy has helped improve the safety of the neighborhood.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rich Turner, 32, says Ocho Candy has helped improve the safety of the neighborhood. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The owner, Denis Ring, said he tries to hire locally. But he estimates Ocho retains around 20 percent of local hires, adding that some employees just don’t have the simple skills -- such as showing up -- to stay with the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he gives them a chance. He said it’s about human dignity -- and that for a neighborhood like West Oakland, providing jobs is one of the best things any business can do.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>nside a warehouse in West Oakland, a child swings upside down in the air, attached to a harness and a rope that’s hooked onto metal rafters. A man shouts to the girl, “Kick your legs up,” encouraging her to complete a trapeze routine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades ago this space was a “company of machines that made machines,” said Lili Gaudreau, owner of \u003ca href=\"http://www.trapezearts.com/\">Trapeze Arts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now it’s a school for circus arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The building is in the southwest corner of West Oakland. You’d almost have to be lost to find it, even though it’s located right near the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It couldn’t be in a better place, but it’s like the forgotten stepsister,” Gaudreau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10656277\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10656277 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The building occupied by Trapeze Arts was once a used by a heavy manufacturing company.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0327-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The building occupied by Trapeze Arts was once used by a heavy manufacturing company. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To some, that has been the story of West Oakland, once a hub for World War II shipbuilding and manufacturing, where people migrated from the South to live and work. At its height, around 1950, there were 40,000 residents in the neighborhood. Today roughly 25,000 people live there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220998621&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Some are concerned that the speed at which West Oakland is changing is leaving behind economic equity and human dignity.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>After the war, thousands of people and jobs left for the suburbs, and several public projects destroyed parts of West Oakland. Decades of blight and crime followed, with little revitalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now West Oakland is experiencing an influx of new money and people, driven by the demand for space in the Bay Area. Rents and home prices have soared. It's been hard for the city to keep up, and some are concerned that the speed at which West Oakland is changing is leaving behind economic equity and human dignity.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Industrial Spaces Could Play a Role in Creating Economic Equity\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Achieving a new neighborhood can be done in a lot of different ways, said Brian Beveridge, co-director of \u003ca href=\"http://www.woeip.org/\">West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project\u003c/a>, a nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think leadership and public policy need to use a different lens,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the redevelopment happening now is focused on big developments and projects with strong capital, leaving out a portion of the population that has been underserved for years, said Beveridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other critics say many of the people who have been struggling in West Oakland for decades are being displaced, rather than lifted, by this new tide of money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/137309375?title=0&byline=0\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I mean, you want to deal with racism, then deal with racism,\" Beveridge said. \"Racism is an economic issue. People are shut out of the economy.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There needs to be more innovative thinking in government and more “handholding” for local entrepreneurs to create more economic opportunities for them to succeed, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10656541\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/2646498376_66bccac51c_b.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10656541\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/2646498376_66bccac51c_b-400x533.jpg\" alt=\"Some space in Emeryville's Public Market is leased by small food, retail and health-related businesses.\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/2646498376_66bccac51c_b-400x533.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/2646498376_66bccac51c_b.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some space in Emeryville's Public Market is leased by small food, retail and health-related businesses. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonholmberg/2646498376/in/photolist-5Nb1tf-rfHCiM-a4eGG-rfHFk8-ryQfX5-wtnv1Q-wHEUVJ-otxA4T-uPgwTs-92qXmV-5Fav1R-3fHppm-5FeMXq-5Nb37J-87P5qP-dKUq3H-j9PB56-do5tPp-j9N8hM-dKUpst-73P5Lj-5cYfii-5d3zJf-dYNTaL-dYHc5R-c3e2DA-bWZk1G-bWZkSu-7oaryc-gkiqjX-edouet-5Nb5vW-sfoPa-5N6P3D-aPXcnp-85kn8o-52RZLm-52RZuL-dHWyey-52MKzB-qvtiH9-rqHPZG-rHc7Xa-4RKdN9-qtQusW-4RF3en-4RF4ue-a4cVC-MQvi5-5GrPKb\" target=\"_blank\">Flickred!\u003c/a>/Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Beveridge likes the idea of creating a large space -- perhaps the size of a Costco -- that could accommodate lots of smaller vendors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why couldn’t we take a warehouse and do that effectively with 30 or 40 small businesses?” said Beveridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The space could be a destination spot, like the Public Market in Emeryville or Market Hall in Rockridge, he said. But in West Oakland, it would look and feel like the local businesses in that community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This would give the city a chance to live up to the values it preaches, such as equity and integrity, said Beveridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Oakland Lacks Resources to Support All Kinds of Business\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The city doesn’t have the staff that would support such a project, said Margot Lederer-Prado, with the city's economic development office. She is also the person at City Hall who knows the most about the current and future status of industrial properties in Oakland. Her job is find space for new or expanding businesses, but not necessarily the microbusinesses that Beveridge is talking about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need someone like me, who rolls up the sleeves and writes the grants,” she said. Someone who can spend the time and energy to see a project through, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>More: A Changing Oakland\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/RS16397_IMG_7457.JPG-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/25/west-oakland-activist-wants-to-create-a-cafe-for-everyone\" target=\"_blank\">Activists, Entrepreneurs Fight for a Place in West Oakland’s Future\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/18/sideshows-the-birth-of-oaklands-hyphy-culture\">Sideshows: The Birth of Oakland’s Hyphy Culture\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">Oakland’s Sobrante Park Fights to Resurrect a Neighborhood Jewel\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Some have criticized the\u003ca href=\"http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PBN/OurOrganization/PlanningZoning/OAK028334\"> West Oakland Specific Plan\u003c/a>, adopted by the city in 2014, for not including enough direction on how to equal the playing field for current residents. The plan itself states that it's important to retain and preserve West Oakland's industrial land and the job base that it supports. And in that document, Lederer-Prado asks how the city can court new industries while preserving \"existing quality jobs that have provided generations of Oakland residents with a decent living wage.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Oakland doesn’t really get to decide which businesses move in and which move out on private property, said Lederer-Prado. And the city is not prepared to buy property to develop because of what it costs, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the plan acknowledges that there is a skills gap between residents and the kinds of jobs that are expected to grow in the region, such as tech, life sciences and green energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those with families who may have been unemployed for one or two generations -- it is hard to relate,” said Lederer-Prado.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Providing Jobs is About Human Dignity\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some businesses moving into the area are providing good entry-level jobs for locals while trying to improve the area. If you pass Ocho Candy on Adeline Street, you might see Rich Turner taking a break. His apron is covered in organic chocolate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the people in the community out here come by and knock on the door,\" he said. \"And they are constantly looking for work. It’s hit and miss.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turner will tell you he’s come a long way. Last year, he was living in a halfway house in downtown Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fresh out of prison, you don’t really have much to fall back on,\" he said. \"And I did 10 years, so I didn’t have too much waiting for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Turner was given a chance to work at Ocho Candy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was the best thing next to sliced bread,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10656278\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10656278\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Rich Turner, 32, says Ocho Candy has helped improve the safety of the neighborhood.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0369-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rich Turner, 32, says Ocho Candy has helped improve the safety of the neighborhood. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The owner, Denis Ring, said he tries to hire locally. But he estimates Ocho retains around 20 percent of local hires, adding that some employees just don’t have the simple skills -- such as showing up -- to stay with the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he gives them a chance. He said it’s about human dignity -- and that for a neighborhood like West Oakland, providing jobs is one of the best things any business can do.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Activists, Entrepreneurs Fight for a Place in West Oakland's Future",
"title": "Activists, Entrepreneurs Fight for a Place in West Oakland's Future",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]nside a cafe on West Oakland's Seventh Street, a patron plays an untuned piano. A volunteer sits on a couch, while others tend a coffee bar. Occasionally a customer walks in, but not often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proprietor, Tony Coleman, says he's on a mission to turn this still-unnamed establishment into a place where old and new residents get involved. He sees a place for people from the community to come up with their own solutions to their problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was once called the Revolution Cafe,” he says. “It was like a community hub, and we plan to bring it back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In West Oakland, a lot of conversations could start with that phrase: “It was once ...”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades ago, before freeways, BART and a sprawling post office complex shattered what was already a fragile neighborhood, Seventh Street boasted clubs that drew the biggest names in jazz and blues. You can see hints of that history in the faded Esther's Orbit Room and in Slim Jenkins Court, an affordable housing complex named after the owner of a long-gone Seventh Street supper club.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West Oakland has never fully recovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>Welcome to West Oakland: A Changing Neighborhood\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Meet those working to improve the lives of all in the community -- the newcomers and long-time residents.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/137198857?title=0&byline=0\" width=\"775\" height=\"436\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>The neighborhood has long struggled with crime and blight, and much of the area has been under heavy gentrification pressure as the recovery, tech boom and displacement of San Francisco workers have gained momentum. And neighborhood activists complain that city officials haven't offered much leadership in addressing the area's issues, let alone managing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“It was like a community hub, and we plan to bring it back.”\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Tony Coleman\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to get it ready. But who are they getting ready for?” he says.\u003cbr>\nThe neighborhood is simmering with activity and more development is coming. The writing is on the wall, Coleman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coleman says he's a community activist at heart, not a businessman. But he acknowledges that it may take the same aggressive business-savvy sense that's being deployed around the neighborhood to create the kind of establishment he dreams of -- a place that will serve everyone in the community. Even then, a lack of property ownership and a lack of adequate resources mean that small-business owners like Coleman will have to find more creative ways to stay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You Have to Make Your Rents Affordable\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several years ago, Coleman was searching for a space that could serve his vision. But he didn't have a lot of money or a line of credit. He walked up and down Seventh Street. Rents were too high, he says. Then he found the property owned by Lucy Lequin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to make your rents affordable,” she says. “I made it affordable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10655376\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 660px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10655376\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Tony Coleman says he wants long-term residents to have a stake in West Oakland as it improves.\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-400x225.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tony Coleman says he wants long-term residents to have a stake in West Oakland as it improves. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1995, Lequin helped convince the city to create a historic district around several properties she owns on the block of Seventh between Peralta and Campbell streets. Since then, there have been numerous entrepreneurs who have leased her properties. But most have failed, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coleman, whose cafe had a soft opening about a month ago, is the latest to give it a shot. He owns a bike shop at Seventh and Peralta called \u003ca href=\"http://www.bikes4life.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Bikes 4 Life\u003c/a>, which he opened around five years ago. He has now leased four of Lequin's properties, including the cafe space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I liked his vision,” says Lequin. “I liked what he wanted to do in the community. He’s been a great asset.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220818690\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many property owners in the neighborhood, Lequin doesn’t hide her frustration at city bureaucracy. She says it’s hard for small businesses to comply with Oakland’s rules and regulations. And she echoes what others have said -- that the city is too focused on large development and doesn't focus enough on smaller businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lequin has since moved out of Oakland, and after 20 years she’s ready to sell her property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have kind of surrendered to the fact that I am not the one that’s going to be able to see to move forward,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>West Oakland Has Very Little Money \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There isn’t a lot of cash in West Oakland for businesses or neighborhood improvements, says Patrick Lane, who works in neighborhood investment in the Office of the City Administrator. In the past, the largest stream of city funds came from West Oakland's designation as a redevelopment area, which made property tax revenue available for some local projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>More: A Changing Oakland\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/RS16397_IMG_7457.JPG-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/18/sideshows-the-birth-of-oaklands-hyphy-culture\">Sideshows: The Birth of Oakland’s Hyphy Culture\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">Oakland’s Sobrante Park Fights to Resurrect a Neighborhood Jewel\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>That money could be used to pay for parks, facade improvements and smaller neighborhood efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it took West Oakland awhile to accept working with the city's redevelopment agency. That's partly because residents in West Oakland were weary of the city's involvement in development, Lane says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is very little funds in West Oakland at this point,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state abolished redevelopment agencies several years ago to help balance its budget. Lane estimates that West Oakland lost out on roughly $7 million in redevelopment funds, an amount that was likely to grow substantially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loss of funds has made it harder for the city to offer support to would-be small business owners like Coleman, Lane says. But if the area becomes more affluent, Lane says, Coleman will have to adapt his business model. That could mean higher cafe prices, which would make it more difficult to serve lower-income residents, he said. If Coleman can't adapt, and he doesn't have a landlord who keeps the rent low, the outlook isn't so good, says Lane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The cafe by itself probably won’t be able to pay its rent when it gets [to be] a successful neighborhood,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Some on Seventh Street Have Made It Work\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you walk a few blocks from Coleman's cafe and toward the West Oakland BART Station, you’ll reach the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mandelafoods.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Mandela Foods Cooperative\u003c/a>. When you walk inside, one of the first things you notice is the bright display case where you can purchase an assortment of drinks. The store also stocks organic foods, candy made by local makers and fresh produce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10655639\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10655639 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-800x470.jpg\" alt=\"Mandela Food Co-op owner/worker, Adrionna Fike. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\" width=\"800\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-800x470.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-400x235.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-1440x846.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-1920x1129.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-1180x694.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-960x564.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mandela Food Co-op owner/worker, Adrionna Fike. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The cooperative's mission is food justice, but the store serves everyone, says Mariela Cedeno, director of social enterprise and microfinance at Mandela Marketplace -- the co-op’s nonprofit arm. When wealthier customers purchase the higher-priced goods, it allows the store to keep the markup of fresh healthy produce lower, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The store has become an anchor business for the neighborhood, Cedeno says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"When new residents come in they're spending their money there, and the native residents have business ownership,\" she says. \"What makes Oakland great is lifting up the culture of Oakland. And the culture of Oakland are the native residents.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took cooperation and collaboration to make the co-op work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the beginning, $200,000 in redevelopment funds helped build the grocery store. The co-op is also leasing its space on Seventh Street from another nonprofit, Bridge Housing. Even with all the help, it took three years for the co-op to break even, Cedeno says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'He's Going To Have To Trust Somebody'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are plenty of people who want to collaborate in West Oakland. Take Seneca Scott, a former official with the Service Employees International Union who volunteers at the Bottoms Up Community Garden. The garden is on a vacant lot that Tony Coleman rents from Lucy Lequin, and Scott had what he thought was a great idea for the neighborhood: a beer garden. He even had an investor lined up, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10655378\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10655378 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-1440x1080.jpg\" alt=\"Thelma Williams is a volunteer chef who says she helps out, free of charge, because she wants her neighborhood to improve.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteer chef Thelma Williams is making spaghetti to sell for $5 a plate. She will also make beans and rice for people who don't have much money, she says. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Scott couldn't persuade Coleman to go along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s going to have to trust somebody,” Scott says. “And if you’re not willing to do that it’s not going to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott says he's moved on and is now trying to collaborate with neighborhood groups to bring a farmers market to West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have a lot of time here,\" Scott says. \"Things are getting expensive by the month. Rents going up by the month. And we do have some really good opportunities to act right now, and so we’re just going to act.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coleman says he's more of a \"free spirit\" than Scott is -- and that he's trying to take action with the property he's renting, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just trying to make good with it while I got it, and then try to do as much good as I can during the time that I have it,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Longtime residents and their advocates seek ways to benefit from seismic changes coming to neighborhood.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>nside a cafe on West Oakland's Seventh Street, a patron plays an untuned piano. A volunteer sits on a couch, while others tend a coffee bar. Occasionally a customer walks in, but not often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proprietor, Tony Coleman, says he's on a mission to turn this still-unnamed establishment into a place where old and new residents get involved. He sees a place for people from the community to come up with their own solutions to their problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was once called the Revolution Cafe,” he says. “It was like a community hub, and we plan to bring it back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In West Oakland, a lot of conversations could start with that phrase: “It was once ...”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades ago, before freeways, BART and a sprawling post office complex shattered what was already a fragile neighborhood, Seventh Street boasted clubs that drew the biggest names in jazz and blues. You can see hints of that history in the faded Esther's Orbit Room and in Slim Jenkins Court, an affordable housing complex named after the owner of a long-gone Seventh Street supper club.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West Oakland has never fully recovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>Welcome to West Oakland: A Changing Neighborhood\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Meet those working to improve the lives of all in the community -- the newcomers and long-time residents.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/137198857?title=0&byline=0\" width=\"775\" height=\"436\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>The neighborhood has long struggled with crime and blight, and much of the area has been under heavy gentrification pressure as the recovery, tech boom and displacement of San Francisco workers have gained momentum. And neighborhood activists complain that city officials haven't offered much leadership in addressing the area's issues, let alone managing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“It was like a community hub, and we plan to bring it back.”\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Tony Coleman\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to get it ready. But who are they getting ready for?” he says.\u003cbr>\nThe neighborhood is simmering with activity and more development is coming. The writing is on the wall, Coleman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coleman says he's a community activist at heart, not a businessman. But he acknowledges that it may take the same aggressive business-savvy sense that's being deployed around the neighborhood to create the kind of establishment he dreams of -- a place that will serve everyone in the community. Even then, a lack of property ownership and a lack of adequate resources mean that small-business owners like Coleman will have to find more creative ways to stay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You Have to Make Your Rents Affordable\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several years ago, Coleman was searching for a space that could serve his vision. But he didn't have a lot of money or a line of credit. He walked up and down Seventh Street. Rents were too high, he says. Then he found the property owned by Lucy Lequin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to make your rents affordable,” she says. “I made it affordable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10655376\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 660px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10655376\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Tony Coleman says he wants long-term residents to have a stake in West Oakland as it improves.\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-400x225.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/tony-headshot-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tony Coleman says he wants long-term residents to have a stake in West Oakland as it improves. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1995, Lequin helped convince the city to create a historic district around several properties she owns on the block of Seventh between Peralta and Campbell streets. Since then, there have been numerous entrepreneurs who have leased her properties. But most have failed, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coleman, whose cafe had a soft opening about a month ago, is the latest to give it a shot. He owns a bike shop at Seventh and Peralta called \u003ca href=\"http://www.bikes4life.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Bikes 4 Life\u003c/a>, which he opened around five years ago. He has now leased four of Lequin's properties, including the cafe space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I liked his vision,” says Lequin. “I liked what he wanted to do in the community. He’s been a great asset.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220818690&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220818690'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many property owners in the neighborhood, Lequin doesn’t hide her frustration at city bureaucracy. She says it’s hard for small businesses to comply with Oakland’s rules and regulations. And she echoes what others have said -- that the city is too focused on large development and doesn't focus enough on smaller businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lequin has since moved out of Oakland, and after 20 years she’s ready to sell her property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have kind of surrendered to the fact that I am not the one that’s going to be able to see to move forward,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>West Oakland Has Very Little Money \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There isn’t a lot of cash in West Oakland for businesses or neighborhood improvements, says Patrick Lane, who works in neighborhood investment in the Office of the City Administrator. In the past, the largest stream of city funds came from West Oakland's designation as a redevelopment area, which made property tax revenue available for some local projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>More: A Changing Oakland\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/RS16397_IMG_7457.JPG-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/18/sideshows-the-birth-of-oaklands-hyphy-culture\">Sideshows: The Birth of Oakland’s Hyphy Culture\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/19/oaklands-sobrante-park-fights-to-resurrect-a-neighborhood-jewel\">Oakland’s Sobrante Park Fights to Resurrect a Neighborhood Jewel\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>That money could be used to pay for parks, facade improvements and smaller neighborhood efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it took West Oakland awhile to accept working with the city's redevelopment agency. That's partly because residents in West Oakland were weary of the city's involvement in development, Lane says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is very little funds in West Oakland at this point,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state abolished redevelopment agencies several years ago to help balance its budget. Lane estimates that West Oakland lost out on roughly $7 million in redevelopment funds, an amount that was likely to grow substantially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loss of funds has made it harder for the city to offer support to would-be small business owners like Coleman, Lane says. But if the area becomes more affluent, Lane says, Coleman will have to adapt his business model. That could mean higher cafe prices, which would make it more difficult to serve lower-income residents, he said. If Coleman can't adapt, and he doesn't have a landlord who keeps the rent low, the outlook isn't so good, says Lane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The cafe by itself probably won’t be able to pay its rent when it gets [to be] a successful neighborhood,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Some on Seventh Street Have Made It Work\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you walk a few blocks from Coleman's cafe and toward the West Oakland BART Station, you’ll reach the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mandelafoods.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Mandela Foods Cooperative\u003c/a>. When you walk inside, one of the first things you notice is the bright display case where you can purchase an assortment of drinks. The store also stocks organic foods, candy made by local makers and fresh produce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10655639\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10655639 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-800x470.jpg\" alt=\"Mandela Food Co-op owner/worker, Adrionna Fike. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\" width=\"800\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-800x470.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-400x235.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-1440x846.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-1920x1129.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-1180x694.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/fike_wide1-960x564.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mandela Food Co-op owner/worker, Adrionna Fike. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The cooperative's mission is food justice, but the store serves everyone, says Mariela Cedeno, director of social enterprise and microfinance at Mandela Marketplace -- the co-op’s nonprofit arm. When wealthier customers purchase the higher-priced goods, it allows the store to keep the markup of fresh healthy produce lower, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The store has become an anchor business for the neighborhood, Cedeno says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"When new residents come in they're spending their money there, and the native residents have business ownership,\" she says. \"What makes Oakland great is lifting up the culture of Oakland. And the culture of Oakland are the native residents.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took cooperation and collaboration to make the co-op work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the beginning, $200,000 in redevelopment funds helped build the grocery store. The co-op is also leasing its space on Seventh Street from another nonprofit, Bridge Housing. Even with all the help, it took three years for the co-op to break even, Cedeno says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'He's Going To Have To Trust Somebody'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are plenty of people who want to collaborate in West Oakland. Take Seneca Scott, a former official with the Service Employees International Union who volunteers at the Bottoms Up Community Garden. The garden is on a vacant lot that Tony Coleman rents from Lucy Lequin, and Scott had what he thought was a great idea for the neighborhood: a beer garden. He even had an investor lined up, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10655378\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10655378 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-1440x1080.jpg\" alt=\"Thelma Williams is a volunteer chef who says she helps out, free of charge, because she wants her neighborhood to improve.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-400x300.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/IMG_0241-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteer chef Thelma Williams is making spaghetti to sell for $5 a plate. She will also make beans and rice for people who don't have much money, she says. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Scott couldn't persuade Coleman to go along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s going to have to trust somebody,” Scott says. “And if you’re not willing to do that it’s not going to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott says he's moved on and is now trying to collaborate with neighborhood groups to bring a farmers market to West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have a lot of time here,\" Scott says. \"Things are getting expensive by the month. Rents going up by the month. And we do have some really good opportunities to act right now, and so we’re just going to act.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coleman says he's more of a \"free spirit\" than Scott is -- and that he's trying to take action with the property he's renting, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just trying to make good with it while I got it, and then try to do as much good as I can during the time that I have it,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In West Oakland, mint-green paint covers up a large swath of letters on the side of a concrete wall. Lauren Westreich has already brought out the paint four times since relocating her business here in February. She remembers helping paint her neighbor’s wall, too, which was hit by graffiti 30 feet high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Somebody came in literally the next day and took a spray can of paint and just scribbled on the wall every inch of freshly painted surface,” said Westreich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s cost of cleaning up graffiti has been increasing, not including the dollars spent by private business owners like Westreich. While the city is hungry to keep and grow business in areas like West Oakland, a new task force with limited resources is trying to address an old symbol of urban grit in the face of a changing Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suspects are not from around here, says Assistant to the City Administrator Joe DeVries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I caught a couple of guys with spray paint in their back pockets taking pictures of their work and they had Washington plates. I caught another guy doing this, taking pictures of the graffiti art, with Oregon plates over in West Oakland,” said DeVries, who is a member of the city’s new graffiti task force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a Wednesday morning, DeVries looks through a green book that has pictures of Oakland graffiti. Colorful monikers fill the pages; he calls them “criminal vandals.” The task force he’s a part of is trying to track who is tagging what and how much money each name has cost the city and private business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10585950\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10585950 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"City administrator Joe DeVries say Oakland is trying to build cases against illegal graffiti writers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">City staffer Joe DeVries say Oakland is trying to build cases against illegal graffiti writers.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2013, Oakland passed a law that allowed the city to fine people caught tagging or defacing property without the owner’s consent. The idea is to help the city recoup costs without sending the case to court, where the level of proof is higher, said DeVries. The city hasn’t fined anyone under the law yet, he said, but there are two major cases that the task force is working on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DeVries said Oakland has had success with its illegal dumping task force, which has caught around 150 people and gathered about $50,000 in fines over the past year. But it’s easy for people to take a snapshot of a license plate from a phone, he said. With graffiti, it’s harder to identify people in pictures and prove their guilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Graffiti Costs Increasing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Oakland saw an increase of more than 50 percent in costs for graffiti cleanup between 2012 and 2014. Last year, the city spent $1.2 million on graffiti. Caltrans is also cleaning up more graffiti on state-owned property in the city. In fiscal year 2012, that totaled 339,985 square feet (roughly six football fields). But the real costs, to private businesses, can’t be calculated, DeVries said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10586027\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10586027\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"If cited, an Oakland business owner has 10 days to clean up graffiti.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">If cited, an Oakland business owner has 10 days to clean up graffiti. \u003ccite>(Susan Cohen/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland requires businesses to remove graffiti on their own. DeVries said the city doesn’t have the resources to provide paint each time a building is defaced. But he said city officials also don’t drive around picking out buildings to cite. Oakland relies on complaints to the Public Works call center and the city’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.seeclickfix.com/oakland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SeeClickFix website\u003c/a>, which allows anyone to report blight and other problems directly. There were more than 6,000 graffiti complaints last year, according to the city’s open data website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The perpetrators of the graffiti know this is a low-level crime,” said Michael Herling, chairman of the group West Oakland Business Alert, which has identified graffiti as one of nine obstacles to keeping and growing business in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herling’s West Oakland janitorial company faces a concrete wall that’s part of the recycling center across the street. While not a fan of graffiti, Herling admits there’s a big difference between the type of colorful pieces on that wall, called burners, and the “throw-ups” right next door to him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2hgKsrOvkk\">\u003cem>Click here to see a video explaining the different types of graffit\u003c/em>i\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One side is actually kind of cool art and the other side is graffiti,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10587933\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10587933 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Across the street from Michael Herling's business in West Oakland is the 'cool art.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Across the street from Michael Herling’s business in West Oakland is the ‘cool art.’ \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10587934\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10587934 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-800x600.jpg\" alt='Across from the \"cool art\" is the more typical graffiti that business argue leads to blight and other problems.' width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On Herling’s side of the street is the more typical graffiti that West Oakland business owners say hurts business growth. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Murals as Solution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/05/19/why-dont-murals-get-covered-by-graffiti-in-the-mission\">As KQED reported\u003c/a> in its Bay Curious series, some street art gets more respect from graffiti writers than others. Herling said that he hasn’t seen any tags on the tops of the large, more artistic pieces across the street. That’s why some cities see value in spending money on murals. In the 2013-14 city budget, $400,000 was allocated for graffiti abatement, with a concentration on murals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But getting that money has been like “pulling teeth,” said Desi Mundo, founder of Community Rejuvenation Project, which has painted more than 100 murals around the city. The allocation for murals has been the only proactive step the city has taken to address graffiti, he said, and Oakland’s new law that allows the city to fine people caught writing graffiti isn’t going to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a waste of time, a waste of funds,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mundo says the only solution is supporting more public art like murals, \u003ca href=\"http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_24389671/extortion-art-oakland-grapples-graffiti\">which have also been controversial\u003c/a> for some business owners who fear retaliation if they don’t allow graffiti artists the right to use their buildings. Mundo dismisses that, but he also knows some illegal graffiti writers don’t respect private owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To them, “a blank wall is a blank wall,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mundo says murals offer a way to connect with communities where they’re at. One of his most recent projects is the Alice Street mural downtown, which pays tribute to community leaders and the city’s culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to see community-led projects that reflect back on the history,” Mundo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10587986\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10587986 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Desi Mundo says murals should reflect the communities they are in. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Mundo recognizes that there has been a shift in the demographics of graffiti writers in Oakland and that “there’s definitely a greater disconnection between the neighborhood and the people who are going out and painting illegally.” At the same time, what’s making Oakland attractive to these outsiders is the city’s vibrant arts and culture scene, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland is capitalizing on the very thing they’re trying to destroy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DeVries said he would support property owners and graffiti writers who want to work harmoniously to find more community spaces for graffiti art. But the city’s resources are thin, he said, and the conversation would have to begin with graffiti writers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would likely embrace it if the community embraced it. But if the community is feeling literally vandalized and terrorized by this, we’re not going to embrace that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10585968\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10585968 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"West Oakland business owner Lauren Westreich says her business has been hit by graffiti four times since opening in February. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">West Oakland business owner Lauren Westreich says her business has been hit by graffiti four times since opening in February. (Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Right now, businesses are feeling vandalized, and they’re not getting very far addressing the problem. If a business is cited, it has 10 days to clean up the graffiti, but some have said they can’t paint over it quickly enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Business owners like Lauren Westreich continue to report and paint out graffiti immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very difficult to continue to do it when it feels like there isn’t a robust response because of limited resources and time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Westreich said spending time and money on problems like graffiti and illegal dumping detracts attention and resources from much larger problems Oakland faces, like economic and social justice.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In West Oakland, mint-green paint covers up a large swath of letters on the side of a concrete wall. Lauren Westreich has already brought out the paint four times since relocating her business here in February. She remembers helping paint her neighbor’s wall, too, which was hit by graffiti 30 feet high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Somebody came in literally the next day and took a spray can of paint and just scribbled on the wall every inch of freshly painted surface,” said Westreich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s cost of cleaning up graffiti has been increasing, not including the dollars spent by private business owners like Westreich. While the city is hungry to keep and grow business in areas like West Oakland, a new task force with limited resources is trying to address an old symbol of urban grit in the face of a changing Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suspects are not from around here, says Assistant to the City Administrator Joe DeVries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I caught a couple of guys with spray paint in their back pockets taking pictures of their work and they had Washington plates. I caught another guy doing this, taking pictures of the graffiti art, with Oregon plates over in West Oakland,” said DeVries, who is a member of the city’s new graffiti task force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a Wednesday morning, DeVries looks through a green book that has pictures of Oakland graffiti. Colorful monikers fill the pages; he calls them “criminal vandals.” The task force he’s a part of is trying to track who is tagging what and how much money each name has cost the city and private business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10585950\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10585950 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"City administrator Joe DeVries say Oakland is trying to build cases against illegal graffiti writers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15949_IMG_0024-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">City staffer Joe DeVries say Oakland is trying to build cases against illegal graffiti writers.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2013, Oakland passed a law that allowed the city to fine people caught tagging or defacing property without the owner’s consent. The idea is to help the city recoup costs without sending the case to court, where the level of proof is higher, said DeVries. The city hasn’t fined anyone under the law yet, he said, but there are two major cases that the task force is working on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DeVries said Oakland has had success with its illegal dumping task force, which has caught around 150 people and gathered about $50,000 in fines over the past year. But it’s easy for people to take a snapshot of a license plate from a phone, he said. With graffiti, it’s harder to identify people in pictures and prove their guilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Graffiti Costs Increasing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Oakland saw an increase of more than 50 percent in costs for graffiti cleanup between 2012 and 2014. Last year, the city spent $1.2 million on graffiti. Caltrans is also cleaning up more graffiti on state-owned property in the city. In fiscal year 2012, that totaled 339,985 square feet (roughly six football fields). But the real costs, to private businesses, can’t be calculated, DeVries said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10586027\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10586027\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"If cited, an Oakland business owner has 10 days to clean up graffiti.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15929_IMG_0323-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">If cited, an Oakland business owner has 10 days to clean up graffiti. \u003ccite>(Susan Cohen/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland requires businesses to remove graffiti on their own. DeVries said the city doesn’t have the resources to provide paint each time a building is defaced. But he said city officials also don’t drive around picking out buildings to cite. Oakland relies on complaints to the Public Works call center and the city’s \u003ca href=\"http://en.seeclickfix.com/oakland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SeeClickFix website\u003c/a>, which allows anyone to report blight and other problems directly. There were more than 6,000 graffiti complaints last year, according to the city’s open data website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The perpetrators of the graffiti know this is a low-level crime,” said Michael Herling, chairman of the group West Oakland Business Alert, which has identified graffiti as one of nine obstacles to keeping and growing business in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herling’s West Oakland janitorial company faces a concrete wall that’s part of the recycling center across the street. While not a fan of graffiti, Herling admits there’s a big difference between the type of colorful pieces on that wall, called burners, and the “throw-ups” right next door to him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2hgKsrOvkk\">\u003cem>Click here to see a video explaining the different types of graffit\u003c/em>i\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One side is actually kind of cool art and the other side is graffiti,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10587933\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10587933 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Across the street from Michael Herling's business in West Oakland is the 'cool art.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15953_IMG_0219-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Across the street from Michael Herling’s business in West Oakland is the ‘cool art.’ \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10587934\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10587934 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-800x600.jpg\" alt='Across from the \"cool art\" is the more typical graffiti that business argue leads to blight and other problems.' width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15955_IMG_0222-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On Herling’s side of the street is the more typical graffiti that West Oakland business owners say hurts business growth. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Murals as Solution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/05/19/why-dont-murals-get-covered-by-graffiti-in-the-mission\">As KQED reported\u003c/a> in its Bay Curious series, some street art gets more respect from graffiti writers than others. Herling said that he hasn’t seen any tags on the tops of the large, more artistic pieces across the street. That’s why some cities see value in spending money on murals. In the 2013-14 city budget, $400,000 was allocated for graffiti abatement, with a concentration on murals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But getting that money has been like “pulling teeth,” said Desi Mundo, founder of Community Rejuvenation Project, which has painted more than 100 murals around the city. The allocation for murals has been the only proactive step the city has taken to address graffiti, he said, and Oakland’s new law that allows the city to fine people caught writing graffiti isn’t going to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a waste of time, a waste of funds,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mundo says the only solution is supporting more public art like murals, \u003ca href=\"http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_24389671/extortion-art-oakland-grapples-graffiti\">which have also been controversial\u003c/a> for some business owners who fear retaliation if they don’t allow graffiti artists the right to use their buildings. Mundo dismisses that, but he also knows some illegal graffiti writers don’t respect private owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To them, “a blank wall is a blank wall,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mundo says murals offer a way to connect with communities where they’re at. One of his most recent projects is the Alice Street mural downtown, which pays tribute to community leaders and the city’s culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to see community-led projects that reflect back on the history,” Mundo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10587986\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10587986 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15957_IMG_02091-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Desi Mundo says murals should reflect the communities they are in. \u003ccite>(Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Mundo recognizes that there has been a shift in the demographics of graffiti writers in Oakland and that “there’s definitely a greater disconnection between the neighborhood and the people who are going out and painting illegally.” At the same time, what’s making Oakland attractive to these outsiders is the city’s vibrant arts and culture scene, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland is capitalizing on the very thing they’re trying to destroy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DeVries said he would support property owners and graffiti writers who want to work harmoniously to find more community spaces for graffiti art. But the city’s resources are thin, he said, and the conversation would have to begin with graffiti writers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would likely embrace it if the community embraced it. But if the community is feeling literally vandalized and terrorized by this, we’re not going to embrace that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10585968\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10585968 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"West Oakland business owner Lauren Westreich says her business has been hit by graffiti four times since opening in February. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/RS15951_IMG_0027-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">West Oakland business owner Lauren Westreich says her business has been hit by graffiti four times since opening in February. (Devin Katayama/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Right now, businesses are feeling vandalized, and they’re not getting very far addressing the problem. If a business is cited, it has 10 days to clean up the graffiti, but some have said they can’t paint over it quickly enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Business owners like Lauren Westreich continue to report and paint out graffiti immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very difficult to continue to do it when it feels like there isn’t a robust response because of limited resources and time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Westreich said spending time and money on problems like graffiti and illegal dumping detracts attention and resources from much larger problems Oakland faces, like economic and social justice.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "West Oakland Residents Voice Frustration Over Continued Violence",
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"content": "\u003cp>West Oakland residents filled a room in the Willie Keys Community Center to standing room capacity Thursday night, March 19, to voice frustration over violence on their streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scheduled bi-monthly meeting of the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council, Beat 7x, turned into a reaction to the death of third-generation West Oaklander \u003ca href=\"http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_27730216/two-more-charged-in-shooting-death-of-oakland-mother\" target=\"_blank\">Chyemil Pierce\u003c/a> on March 9. Pierce was killed by a stray bullet while trying to usher her children to safety. A photo of Pierce was on display.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the back-and-forth between those in attendance and the Oakland Police officials focused on response time and consistency with community policing efforts. At one point Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent tried to explain over rising complaints from the audience that dispatch decisions are not about sending an officer with nothing to do, but taking an officer from one call to go to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\"I'm beyond frustrated… It's the same thing over and over.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As if to illustrate the point midway through the meeting, five Oakland police officers in attendance rushed out to a shooting on 40th street, the border between West Oakland and Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whent said issues of response time and dispatch decisions that have drawn criticism since the shooting are under constant need of improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Answering 911 calls and sending officers out to the scene is our number one complaint citywide,” he said. “We are nowhere near where we should be. I’d be the first to admit it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland police did offer solutions. Four of the people involved in the shooting that killed Pierce had been arrested. The crime house where the shooting had taken place had been cleared out. And three problem areas, including the 800 block of Mead, 32nd and San Pablo, and 34th and Peralta, would be addressed in future Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police are forming a committee, including civilian neighbors, to change the St. Andrews Plaza at 32nd and San Pablo. Police Capt. Drennon Lindsey said the area needed environmental changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeking long-lasting solutions so we don’t have to deal with the same reoccurring problems,” Lindsey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"VRAJTLnurU8GkGyIcjC7jsMkMp7HQlaZ\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents weren’t impressed. They want more police walking the streets who stick around longer on the beat. They want dispatchers sending police before shots are fired. The police, many insisted, don’t know the area, the crime, the drug trade and the criminals like they did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m beyond frustrated… It’s the same thing over and over,” Doug Taylor said, while another, Sennix Sams, shouted virtually identical words addressing Oakland police officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Same thing. Same people. Same corner,” Sams shouted, despite appeals to keep civil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applause broke out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just dumb luck my neighbors haven’t been killed like [Chyemil Pierce] was,” Thomas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whent said the department would work to ensure the institutional knowledge would be better passed from those working the beat to new officers being assigned. He also said funding from newly passed Measure Z could provide more officers patrolling on foot and on bikes, which helps make them more accessible to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This helps build these relationships, which is certainly the cornerstone of community policing,” Whent said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tempers continued to rise, however. Moderator Natalie Thomas, chair of the NCPC, had her hands full keeping the meeting in order. She worked the room to calm tempers, even rubbing the shoulders of Sams when he grew so irate he rose and yelled across the room. Others, frustrated that questions were pre-arranged, shouted from the back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody knows what’s going on,” one resident shouted about the police officers, dispatch and others tasked with keeping the neighborhood safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilwoman Lynette Gibson rose to spoke at the height of verbal jarring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to recognize there is a lot of pain,” she said, reminding her constituents that she entered office highly critical of Oakland police. “There is room to be critical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also reminded them that these meetings must lead to solutions that will be both long-term and short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am a West Oakland mother,” she said, citing her children and grandchildren live in the same community. “Let’s get that very clear. This is not esoteric for any one of us in this room because we are all aware it could have been one of our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://oaklandlocal.com/2015/03/street-outreach-makes-anti-violence-presence-felt-violent-streets/\" target=\"_blank\">West Oakland Street Outreach\u003c/a> worker Victor Pouncil, out walking the streets on his usual beat, attended the meeting. Street Outreach Team Leader Akil Truso encouraged people to reach out to those involved in crime on their streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to deal with the street outreach team so we can help build a relationship with the guys you are complaining about,” Truso said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid the growing emotional outbursts and overspilling frustration, Thomas urged the audience to rise in a show of support and a willingness to volunteer to help with genuine solutions. Nearly everyone rose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hear you all acting as if there is no hope,” Truso said. “I’m stitting here. That’s me out there for 20 years. If I can stop doing it, then so can they.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>West Oakland residents filled a room in the Willie Keys Community Center to standing room capacity Thursday night, March 19, to voice frustration over violence on their streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scheduled bi-monthly meeting of the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council, Beat 7x, turned into a reaction to the death of third-generation West Oaklander \u003ca href=\"http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_27730216/two-more-charged-in-shooting-death-of-oakland-mother\" target=\"_blank\">Chyemil Pierce\u003c/a> on March 9. Pierce was killed by a stray bullet while trying to usher her children to safety. A photo of Pierce was on display.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the back-and-forth between those in attendance and the Oakland Police officials focused on response time and consistency with community policing efforts. At one point Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent tried to explain over rising complaints from the audience that dispatch decisions are not about sending an officer with nothing to do, but taking an officer from one call to go to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\"I'm beyond frustrated… It's the same thing over and over.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As if to illustrate the point midway through the meeting, five Oakland police officers in attendance rushed out to a shooting on 40th street, the border between West Oakland and Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whent said issues of response time and dispatch decisions that have drawn criticism since the shooting are under constant need of improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Answering 911 calls and sending officers out to the scene is our number one complaint citywide,” he said. “We are nowhere near where we should be. I’d be the first to admit it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland police did offer solutions. Four of the people involved in the shooting that killed Pierce had been arrested. The crime house where the shooting had taken place had been cleared out. And three problem areas, including the 800 block of Mead, 32nd and San Pablo, and 34th and Peralta, would be addressed in future Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police are forming a committee, including civilian neighbors, to change the St. Andrews Plaza at 32nd and San Pablo. Police Capt. Drennon Lindsey said the area needed environmental changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeking long-lasting solutions so we don’t have to deal with the same reoccurring problems,” Lindsey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents weren’t impressed. They want more police walking the streets who stick around longer on the beat. They want dispatchers sending police before shots are fired. The police, many insisted, don’t know the area, the crime, the drug trade and the criminals like they did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m beyond frustrated… It’s the same thing over and over,” Doug Taylor said, while another, Sennix Sams, shouted virtually identical words addressing Oakland police officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Same thing. Same people. Same corner,” Sams shouted, despite appeals to keep civil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applause broke out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just dumb luck my neighbors haven’t been killed like [Chyemil Pierce] was,” Thomas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whent said the department would work to ensure the institutional knowledge would be better passed from those working the beat to new officers being assigned. He also said funding from newly passed Measure Z could provide more officers patrolling on foot and on bikes, which helps make them more accessible to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This helps build these relationships, which is certainly the cornerstone of community policing,” Whent said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tempers continued to rise, however. Moderator Natalie Thomas, chair of the NCPC, had her hands full keeping the meeting in order. She worked the room to calm tempers, even rubbing the shoulders of Sams when he grew so irate he rose and yelled across the room. Others, frustrated that questions were pre-arranged, shouted from the back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody knows what’s going on,” one resident shouted about the police officers, dispatch and others tasked with keeping the neighborhood safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilwoman Lynette Gibson rose to spoke at the height of verbal jarring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to recognize there is a lot of pain,” she said, reminding her constituents that she entered office highly critical of Oakland police. “There is room to be critical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also reminded them that these meetings must lead to solutions that will be both long-term and short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am a West Oakland mother,” she said, citing her children and grandchildren live in the same community. “Let’s get that very clear. This is not esoteric for any one of us in this room because we are all aware it could have been one of our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://oaklandlocal.com/2015/03/street-outreach-makes-anti-violence-presence-felt-violent-streets/\" target=\"_blank\">West Oakland Street Outreach\u003c/a> worker Victor Pouncil, out walking the streets on his usual beat, attended the meeting. Street Outreach Team Leader Akil Truso encouraged people to reach out to those involved in crime on their streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to deal with the street outreach team so we can help build a relationship with the guys you are complaining about,” Truso said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid the growing emotional outbursts and overspilling frustration, Thomas urged the audience to rise in a show of support and a willingness to volunteer to help with genuine solutions. Nearly everyone rose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hear you all acting as if there is no hope,” Truso said. “I’m stitting here. That’s me out there for 20 years. If I can stop doing it, then so can they.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_141852\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-141852\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/OaklandGentrification-640x480.jpg\" alt=\"Zephyr Gate, a new condo complex several blocks from the West Oakland BART station. (Sam Harnett/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new condo complex several blocks from the West Oakland BART station. (Sam Harnett/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/158872548″ params=”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false” width=”100%” height=”20″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once, you may have gone to West Oakland to hear James Brown or Aretha Franklin play the clubs on Seventh Street. The street was the center of a neighborhood rich in African-American history. NBA legend Bill Russell lived in West Oakland, and the Black Panthers had an office on Peralta Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the clubs closed decades ago and Bill Russell is long gone. In their wake, a new wave of residents are sweeping into the neighborhood — many of them white, and many of them coming from San Francisco because of the tech boom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the 2010 census, Oakland has more white inhabitants than black residents for the first time since the 1970s. Neighborhoods have been changing for decades, but the expanding tech industry is speeding up the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, sky-high rents are pushing people out of San Francisco, with many ending up in West Oakland, the first BART stop on the east side of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last few decades, West Oakland has seen an increase of abandoned factories and shuttered businesses. Danita Robinson, a member of the Center Street Baptist Church on Tenth Street, says for a long time nobody would invest in West Oakland. But she says there is now more development in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_141920\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 378px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-141920\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/EsthersOrbitRoom-640x593.jpg\" alt=\"Esther's Orbit Room\" width=\"378\" height=\"351\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The now-defunct Esther’s Orbit Room on Seventh Street in West Oakland. The unassuming club played host to many greats of jazz, blues and R&B, including Etta James, Al Green, B.B. King and Tina Turner. (Photo: RadioNicole/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For instance, developers recently built a high-end condo complex in West Oakland called Zephyr Gate. It’s a couple of blocks long and within walking distance from the West Oakland BART stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was so abandoned for such a long time,” Robinson says. “Now it is all nice over there and Mr. Google and Mr. Doctor are living there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Referring to to an old nickname for one section of the neighborhood, she asks, “What could we have put back there outside of these condos that would have been beneficial to the West Oakland area, especially what we call the lower bottoms down here?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenna Stormwell-Gougis lives in a Victorian across from the Center Street Baptist Church. She bought the house a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was the only white person on this block 10 years ago,” she says, “and now, I would say the block is 40 percent white.” She says lots of new people are riding by on bikes and popping in and out of old Victorian houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danita Robinson doesn’t think of the newcomers as West Oaklanders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I call them San Franciscans,” she says. “Why else would you be moving to this area and not another area of Oakland? Because it’s three blocks from the BART station.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”jYESxOMr9ASis6f6knorcmBnwUnzx4Ye”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn Phillips is the program co-director at Causa Justa::Just Cause. His organization published a report that shows some market-rate rents in West Oakland to be higher than in Rockridge and the Oakland Hills — two of the most affluent areas in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we looked at that data it blew us away,” Phillips says. “We did not know that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rent is rising throughout Oakland. The real estate company Trulia says rents increased 10.8 percent in May from the year before. That is the third highest rent hike in the country behind San Diego and San Francisco. The median price for a two-bedroom is now $2,450 a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a regional pressure that is being created,” Phillips says. “It is rippling out from San Francisco.” Soon he says, it will hit neighborhoods farther out in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In gathering data for their report, Causa Justa::Just Cause found an increase in the eviction and displacement of Africans-Americans from Oakland. Phillips says the current demographic change is just the final stage after decades of disinvestment in the area: “We understand gentrification to be pretty long-term, long-evolving historic process that is actually very systematic in nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_141922\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 340px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-141922\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/10thWood-640x570.jpg\" alt=\"10th and Wood\" width=\"340\" height=\"302\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">10th and Wood, a new sandwich shop near the Zephyr Gate condo complex. (Photo: Sam Harnett/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ron Lindsey can tell you first-hand how the long-term process played out in West Oakland, where he grew up. His father and uncle worked at the Navy shipyard. He saw that get shut down and the factory jobs shipped overseas. Then the businesses on Seventh Street started closing. He can still point out where they all were — a clothing store, a shoe shine parlor, barber shops, candy shops and night clubs. “All of these were black businesses,” Lindsey says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After companies outsourced the neighborhood’s factory jobs, the tax base eroded and social services were cut. Unemployment and violence spiked. Lindsey watched as highways and train lines carved up the neighborhood. The elevated BART rails got built right over Seventh Street. Now where there was once music, there is the screech of trains, drowning out everything below. People left. Eventually, so did Lindsey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phillips says gentrification is this whole progression, from job loss to neighborhood decay to redevelopment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danita Robinson says even though things are changing, there is no way for her to move up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to be low-rent,” Robinson says. “I don’t want to be low-income. I would like to move up. I can’t afford that condo. It looks nice. I want to be in that condo. But you killed all my jobs, so how am I gonna get in that condo?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson cleans houses for a living, and her husband works two jobs. The couple is expecting a baby, so she hopes they can find better employment soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: The caption for the top photo in this post has been updated. The original caption identified the condo displayed as part of Zephyr Gate, which KQED has not been able to confirm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_141852\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-141852\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/07/OaklandGentrification-640x480.jpg\" alt=\"Zephyr Gate, a new condo complex several blocks from the West Oakland BART station. (Sam Harnett/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new condo complex several blocks from the West Oakland BART station. (Sam Harnett/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”20″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/158872548″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&inverse=false&auto_play=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/158872548″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once, you may have gone to West Oakland to hear James Brown or Aretha Franklin play the clubs on Seventh Street. The street was the center of a neighborhood rich in African-American history. NBA legend Bill Russell lived in West Oakland, and the Black Panthers had an office on Peralta Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the clubs closed decades ago and Bill Russell is long gone. In their wake, a new wave of residents are sweeping into the neighborhood — many of them white, and many of them coming from San Francisco because of the tech boom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the 2010 census, Oakland has more white inhabitants than black residents for the first time since the 1970s. Neighborhoods have been changing for decades, but the expanding tech industry is speeding up the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, sky-high rents are pushing people out of San Francisco, with many ending up in West Oakland, the first BART stop on the east side of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last few decades, West Oakland has seen an increase of abandoned factories and shuttered businesses. Danita Robinson, a member of the Center Street Baptist Church on Tenth Street, says for a long time nobody would invest in West Oakland. But she says there is now more development in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_141920\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 378px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-141920\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/EsthersOrbitRoom-640x593.jpg\" alt=\"Esther's Orbit Room\" width=\"378\" height=\"351\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The now-defunct Esther’s Orbit Room on Seventh Street in West Oakland. The unassuming club played host to many greats of jazz, blues and R&B, including Etta James, Al Green, B.B. King and Tina Turner. (Photo: RadioNicole/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For instance, developers recently built a high-end condo complex in West Oakland called Zephyr Gate. It’s a couple of blocks long and within walking distance from the West Oakland BART stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was so abandoned for such a long time,” Robinson says. “Now it is all nice over there and Mr. Google and Mr. Doctor are living there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Referring to to an old nickname for one section of the neighborhood, she asks, “What could we have put back there outside of these condos that would have been beneficial to the West Oakland area, especially what we call the lower bottoms down here?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenna Stormwell-Gougis lives in a Victorian across from the Center Street Baptist Church. She bought the house a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was the only white person on this block 10 years ago,” she says, “and now, I would say the block is 40 percent white.” She says lots of new people are riding by on bikes and popping in and out of old Victorian houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danita Robinson doesn’t think of the newcomers as West Oaklanders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I call them San Franciscans,” she says. “Why else would you be moving to this area and not another area of Oakland? Because it’s three blocks from the BART station.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawn Phillips is the program co-director at Causa Justa::Just Cause. His organization published a report that shows some market-rate rents in West Oakland to be higher than in Rockridge and the Oakland Hills — two of the most affluent areas in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we looked at that data it blew us away,” Phillips says. “We did not know that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rent is rising throughout Oakland. The real estate company Trulia says rents increased 10.8 percent in May from the year before. That is the third highest rent hike in the country behind San Diego and San Francisco. The median price for a two-bedroom is now $2,450 a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a regional pressure that is being created,” Phillips says. “It is rippling out from San Francisco.” Soon he says, it will hit neighborhoods farther out in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In gathering data for their report, Causa Justa::Just Cause found an increase in the eviction and displacement of Africans-Americans from Oakland. Phillips says the current demographic change is just the final stage after decades of disinvestment in the area: “We understand gentrification to be pretty long-term, long-evolving historic process that is actually very systematic in nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_141922\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 340px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-141922\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/10thWood-640x570.jpg\" alt=\"10th and Wood\" width=\"340\" height=\"302\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">10th and Wood, a new sandwich shop near the Zephyr Gate condo complex. (Photo: Sam Harnett/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ron Lindsey can tell you first-hand how the long-term process played out in West Oakland, where he grew up. His father and uncle worked at the Navy shipyard. He saw that get shut down and the factory jobs shipped overseas. Then the businesses on Seventh Street started closing. He can still point out where they all were — a clothing store, a shoe shine parlor, barber shops, candy shops and night clubs. “All of these were black businesses,” Lindsey says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After companies outsourced the neighborhood’s factory jobs, the tax base eroded and social services were cut. Unemployment and violence spiked. Lindsey watched as highways and train lines carved up the neighborhood. The elevated BART rails got built right over Seventh Street. Now where there was once music, there is the screech of trains, drowning out everything below. People left. Eventually, so did Lindsey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phillips says gentrification is this whole progression, from job loss to neighborhood decay to redevelopment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danita Robinson says even though things are changing, there is no way for her to move up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to be low-rent,” Robinson says. “I don’t want to be low-income. I would like to move up. I can’t afford that condo. It looks nice. I want to be in that condo. But you killed all my jobs, so how am I gonna get in that condo?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson cleans houses for a living, and her husband works two jobs. The couple is expecting a baby, so she hopes they can find better employment soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Skaters Want to Legalize Abandoned West Oakland Skatepark",
"title": "Skaters Want to Legalize Abandoned West Oakland Skatepark",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_141520\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/LowerBobs640_2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-141520\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/LowerBobs640_2.jpg\" alt=\"Skaters at West Oakland's unsanctioned Lower Bobs skatepark. (Andrew Stelzer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Skaters at West Oakland's unsanctioned Lower Bobs skate park. (Andrew Stelzer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span> dead-end street in West Oakland’s Lower Bottoms neighborhood runs right into a sidewall of Interstate 880. For years, this was a vacant patch of concrete, with an enormous pile of illegally dumped dirt filling a lot next door. For a time, it became the scene of laughter, ollies and kick flips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of skateboarders decided to create an oasis in this impoverished corner of the city late last year, but recently agreed to abandon the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel happy here,” Kevin Jenkins said when the park was still open. He’s one of the dozens of skaters and supporters who built the Lower Bobs skate park, which takes its name from the Lower Bottoms neighborhood and the business next door, Bob’s Warehouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody’s bothering me,” he said. “I’m not doing drugs. I’m not on the corner wasting my time doing some other stuff I shouldn’t be doing in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With school out for the summer and a shortage of resources for sports and other activities, Jenkins says a volunteer-built skate park in a neglected part of Oakland is just what the neighborhood needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We stopped graffiti,” he said. “We cleaned up a dump. We gave kids skateboards. I’ve never built a skate park in my life. I built one — I wanna keep it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But keeping Lower Bobs might not be so easy. It was built without permission and in the face of numerous warnings to stop, said Joe DeVries, assistant to Oakland’s city administrator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came out when it was just a really small berm and I said, ‘You guys really need to stop. I’ll try to help you on the inside; we’ll try to make it legal,’ ” DeVries said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He thought he had the Lower Bobs skaters’ agreement, but when he drove by a few days later, “They were fully going at it, construction,” DeVries said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"No trespassing\" signs were erected, and ignored. A fence was put up, and torn down. A skate park organization called Gauntlet stepped in to negotiate with city officials, which led to a neighborhood meeting in April. The majority of community members at that meeting expressed support for what they see as a bright spot in a neighborhood plagued by violent crime and blighted by illegal dumping.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'We cleaned up a dump. We gave kids skateboards. I’ve never built a skate park in my life. I built one — I wanna keep it.'\u003ccite>— Kevin Jenkins\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I believe that it makes my community safer,” said Vlad Levitansky, who owns 10th & Wood, a cafe around the corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been an incredibly positive addition to the community, because they’re creating something, be it illegally,” he added. “But you have all sorts of people who are coming together working on something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>City-Skater Cooperation in San Diego\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A video posted online chronicles the construction of Lower Bobs. The park is the latest in a tradition of DIY skate parks, some of which have been legalized in other parts of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego’s Washington Street Skatepark was created in 1999, and after forming a nonprofit and negotiating with the city, it now draws skaters from across the U.S. The Channel Street Skatepark in San Pedro was constructed in 2002. Skater Andy Harris, president of the San Pedro Skatepark Association, says then-Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn was an important ally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With moms dropping off minivans full of kids at Channel Street, it was clear the skaters had created a safe and important space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really think the thing that saved us from the get-go was just a really good working relationship with local government,” Harris said of Hahn, who is now a U.S. congresswoman (D-Los Angeles). “[Hahn] saw the benefit of community members coming together to build something that the city had completely failed to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keith Williams, or K-Dub, spearheaded the construction of Town Park, a legitimate skate park in West Oakland that opened in 2008. The well-known skater and community activist told those at the neighborhood meeting that government bodies need to be more open to working with skaters, or they leave them with few options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland is about seven parks underserved,” Williams said. He added that people who need a place to skate are likely to take matters into their own hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So when you don’t serve that recreation, then you get folks who have access to trucks and concrete and skills, wood and labor, to just do,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But most Oakland skaters have yet to find their champion inside the system. Two other illegally constructed Oakland skate parks have been demolished in recent years, although both were on land owned by Caltrans, not the city. Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who represents the neighborhood where Lower Bobs was built, said she’s willing to work with the skaters — but they need to change their approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a way you come into a community respectfully, but this isn’t it,” Gibson McElhaney said. “No matter how beautiful it is, this isn’t a respectful way to arrive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The skaters who built the park have agreed to stay away for now. But with no one managing the area, vandalism, drug use and a homeless encampment have all appeared. In the meantime, Gauntlet is working to obtain insurance, inspections and money to buy or lease the site.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_141520\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/LowerBobs640_2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-141520\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/LowerBobs640_2.jpg\" alt=\"Skaters at West Oakland's unsanctioned Lower Bobs skatepark. (Andrew Stelzer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Skaters at West Oakland's unsanctioned Lower Bobs skate park. (Andrew Stelzer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span> dead-end street in West Oakland’s Lower Bottoms neighborhood runs right into a sidewall of Interstate 880. For years, this was a vacant patch of concrete, with an enormous pile of illegally dumped dirt filling a lot next door. For a time, it became the scene of laughter, ollies and kick flips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of skateboarders decided to create an oasis in this impoverished corner of the city late last year, but recently agreed to abandon the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel happy here,” Kevin Jenkins said when the park was still open. He’s one of the dozens of skaters and supporters who built the Lower Bobs skate park, which takes its name from the Lower Bottoms neighborhood and the business next door, Bob’s Warehouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody’s bothering me,” he said. “I’m not doing drugs. I’m not on the corner wasting my time doing some other stuff I shouldn’t be doing in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With school out for the summer and a shortage of resources for sports and other activities, Jenkins says a volunteer-built skate park in a neglected part of Oakland is just what the neighborhood needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We stopped graffiti,” he said. “We cleaned up a dump. We gave kids skateboards. I’ve never built a skate park in my life. I built one — I wanna keep it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But keeping Lower Bobs might not be so easy. It was built without permission and in the face of numerous warnings to stop, said Joe DeVries, assistant to Oakland’s city administrator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came out when it was just a really small berm and I said, ‘You guys really need to stop. I’ll try to help you on the inside; we’ll try to make it legal,’ ” DeVries said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He thought he had the Lower Bobs skaters’ agreement, but when he drove by a few days later, “They were fully going at it, construction,” DeVries said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"No trespassing\" signs were erected, and ignored. A fence was put up, and torn down. A skate park organization called Gauntlet stepped in to negotiate with city officials, which led to a neighborhood meeting in April. The majority of community members at that meeting expressed support for what they see as a bright spot in a neighborhood plagued by violent crime and blighted by illegal dumping.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'We cleaned up a dump. We gave kids skateboards. I’ve never built a skate park in my life. I built one — I wanna keep it.'\u003ccite>— Kevin Jenkins\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I believe that it makes my community safer,” said Vlad Levitansky, who owns 10th & Wood, a cafe around the corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been an incredibly positive addition to the community, because they’re creating something, be it illegally,” he added. “But you have all sorts of people who are coming together working on something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>City-Skater Cooperation in San Diego\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A video posted online chronicles the construction of Lower Bobs. The park is the latest in a tradition of DIY skate parks, some of which have been legalized in other parts of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego’s Washington Street Skatepark was created in 1999, and after forming a nonprofit and negotiating with the city, it now draws skaters from across the U.S. The Channel Street Skatepark in San Pedro was constructed in 2002. Skater Andy Harris, president of the San Pedro Skatepark Association, says then-Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn was an important ally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With moms dropping off minivans full of kids at Channel Street, it was clear the skaters had created a safe and important space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really think the thing that saved us from the get-go was just a really good working relationship with local government,” Harris said of Hahn, who is now a U.S. congresswoman (D-Los Angeles). “[Hahn] saw the benefit of community members coming together to build something that the city had completely failed to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keith Williams, or K-Dub, spearheaded the construction of Town Park, a legitimate skate park in West Oakland that opened in 2008. The well-known skater and community activist told those at the neighborhood meeting that government bodies need to be more open to working with skaters, or they leave them with few options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland is about seven parks underserved,” Williams said. He added that people who need a place to skate are likely to take matters into their own hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So when you don’t serve that recreation, then you get folks who have access to trucks and concrete and skills, wood and labor, to just do,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But most Oakland skaters have yet to find their champion inside the system. Two other illegally constructed Oakland skate parks have been demolished in recent years, although both were on land owned by Caltrans, not the city. Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who represents the neighborhood where Lower Bobs was built, said she’s willing to work with the skaters — but they need to change their approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a way you come into a community respectfully, but this isn’t it,” Gibson McElhaney said. “No matter how beautiful it is, this isn’t a respectful way to arrive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The skaters who built the park have agreed to stay away for now. But with no one managing the area, vandalism, drug use and a homeless encampment have all appeared. In the meantime, Gauntlet is working to obtain insurance, inspections and money to buy or lease the site.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "in-air-pollution-dispute-questions-over-who-benefits-who-pays-in-oakland-army-base-development",
"title": "Air Pollution Controversy Swirls Around Oakland Army Base Development",
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"content": "\u003caside class=\"aligncenter\"> [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrKwTm5jldE&w=640&h=360]\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jahvonn Mair was only 4 when he was diagnosed last year with asthma. He’s still so tiny that his inhaler apparatus is half as big as his head, and his twice-daily doses have slipped into his everyday routine alongside watching cartoons and playing with a favorite stuffed monkey named George.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jahvonn lives in West Oakland, a neighborhood clogged with air pollution from the surrounding freeways and the Port of Oakland. Residents here are twice as likely to go to the emergency room with asthma as people in Alameda County overall. They’re also more likely to die of cancer, heart disease or lung disease — all illnesses with known links to polluted air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now officials and activists are tussling over a massive development project underway right next door, at the decommissioned Oakland Army Base. The project promises to bring much-needed jobs and economic benefits to Oakland and beyond. But health officials fear it could worsen the already toxic air in West Oakland, sticking residents with more than their fair share of the burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hope and Risk\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopes for the remade former base, decommissioned in 1999, are high. The city and the port are turning about 300 acres of it into a \u003ca href=\"http://www.oaklandglobal.com/\">modern trade and logistics hub\u003c/a> right next to the current port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once it’s up and running in 2020, the new trade center will have an additional shipping terminal, a bigger rail yard and ample facilities for handling and sorting cargo. It will give the port area the capacity to handle hundreds of thousands more cargo containers each year. And the city predicts it will provide at least 2,000 new jobs, plus an economic boost reaching into the American Midwest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Oakland Army Base was an economic engine for West Oakland especially, and Oakland and the region generally,” says Fred Blackwell, Oakland’s interim city administrator. “So the notion of bringing it back and having it be an economic engine for the neighborhood and the city once again … is pretty exciting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The need for jobs is real — in the city and in this neighborhood in particular. West Oakland’s unemployment rate is typically higher than the city’s overall, which dipped below 10 percent at the end of last year. With that in mind, city officials placed a job recruiting center for the Army Base project at 18th and Adeline streets, smack in the middle of West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_134748\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 319px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/trucks-west-oakland.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-134748\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/trucks-west-oakland-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Every day at the Port of Oakland trucks line up for 7-8 hours waiting to unload their trucks onto the diesel ships. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"319\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Every day at the Port of Oakland trucks line up for seven or eight hours waiting to unload their cargo onto the ships. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED) \u003ccite>( Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So what’s the potential harm?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Construction, which began last fall, will require heavy-duty diesel trucks and construction vehicles to make tens of thousands of trips to and from the site. And the new trade center will ultimately host a lot more freight activity than the port alone does today — all of which takes fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents point out that the impact will be somewhat offset by the efficiency of shifting more cargo from trucks to trains. Still, the project’s official \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/221109312/Environmental-Impact-Report-on-Oakland-Army-Base-and-Air-Quality\">environmental analysis\u003c/a> predicts that it will “significantly and unavoidably” expose nearby residents to toxic air pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a worst-case scenario, the analysis says the project could raise a West Oaklander’s lifetime risk of cancer by close to 100 cases per 1 million people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That number might sound small. But local activists and health officials argue that West Oakland — a community that’s about half African-American and 85 percent nonwhite, where residents make about half the county’s average household income — is already bearing an unfair burden. Public health studies have found that the life expectancy for someone born and raised in West Oakland is at least 15 years less than someone born and raised in the Oakland Hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The health problems are not all because of air pollution. Still, David Vintze, the air quality planning manager at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, says West Oakland can’t take any more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our own studies have shown a two to three times increase in the amount of pollution in that community versus any other place in the Bay Area,” Vintze says. “That community is already too overburdened to be saturated with more particulate matter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jahvonn lives in the Ironhorse apartment building on 14th Street, literally next door to Interstate 880 and directly across the freeway from the Army base. He calls his asthma attacks “heart attacks” and says they make his stomach hurt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His mom, Charlotte Lynn, keeps him indoors more often since his diagnosis. When he does go outside, it’s often to the second-floor courtyard of his apartment building, where he and his friends ride bikes within direct view of the interstate. Many of them also have asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing by the courtyard’s railing, Lynn watches one tractor-trailer truck after another drive by, leaving the port of today. “All you can see is trucks on the freeway,” she says. “That’s it, trucks, trucks, trucks. See? There’s another one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Is Enough?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health concerns notwithstanding, everyone, including Vintze, wants the Army base project to go on. What’s disputed is whether the city is doing enough to limit emissions and protect West Oakland residents such as Jahvonn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blackwell points to a thick \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/221282783/Air-Pollution-Mitigation-Plan-for-Oakland-Army-Base-Redevelopment-Project\">air-quality plan\u003c/a>, dozens of pages long and required by state law, and says: “I think we have gone about as far as we can go to try to mitigate these issues while still having a viable project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vintze, along with the Alameda County Public Health Department and local environmental activists, disagrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has to be some other things put into place in order to limit the impact of what they’re going to do,” says county Public Health Director Muntu Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is doing more than the law demands in at least one regard, by requiring heavy construction vehicles, like backhoes, to install cleaner engine technology a year ahead of the state’s mandated schedule (though for some vehicles that’s still not for another two to four years).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But air quality and public health authorities wanted the city to go further. They \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/221058904/BAAQMD-Letter-to-Oakland-7-22-13\">asked Oakland officials\u003c/a> to require diesel filters on all the trucks hauling materials to the construction site, as trucks serving the port must have. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/221108341/Oakland-Response-Letter-to-BAAQMD-9-23-13\">city said no\u003c/a>. The City Council had voted to require that fully half the labor for this project come from Oakland, officials explained. And if they required expensive filters, they’d squeeze out too many small, independent Oakland truckers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The West Oakland community, it’s their health, it’s their life,” says Vintze. “It shouldn’t be minimized for profit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Tagami is an Oakland native, CEO of California Capital and Investment Group, and the project developer. He points out that he’s already meeting or exceeding the legal requirements for air quality control, and calls the regulators who are complaining about the project “rogue individuals” who have become overzealous in their oversight role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a handful of shake-down people who want to ring the bell and argue and complain that something more can be done, but I haven’t seen them create many jobs,” he says. “Yelling at the rain is not going to make the rain stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is, indeed, not stopping. Vintze and others have basically given up on further changing the construction plans. Now they’re hoping to get stronger protections into the plan for trade center operations in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_134750\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 650px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/inhalers.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-134750 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/inhalers.jpg\" alt=\"In Jahvonn Mair's preschool class of 22 students, 7 have been diagnosed with asthma and use an inhaler. Here they display their inhalers. From left to right, Akirah Armstrong, (behind) Adrian Kemp, RiJai Malone, Omarr Daniel (front), Jahvonn Mair and Sarquan Holland. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"650\" height=\"452\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Jahvonn Mair’s preschool class of 22 students, seven have been diagnosed with asthma and use an inhaler. Here they display their inhalers. From left to right, Akirah Armstrong, (behind) Adrian Kemp, RiJai Malone, Omarr Daniel (front), Jahvonn Mair and Sarquan Holland. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This community has suffered egregiously at the hands of the freight industry,” says Brian Beveridge, who lives in West Oakland and co-directs a local environmental group, the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project. “We deserve better than to just be told, ‘Well, we’re all going to do the best we can not to break the law.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To soothe some community fears, the developer installed three air-quality monitors around West Oakland and \u003ca href=\"http://ngem.com/OAB_AQM/\">publishes the data\u003c/a> daily, online. One of the monitors is on the roof of Jahvonn Mair’s school, Prescott Elementary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if pollution spikes, though, the city acknowledges that the devices aren’t precise enough to show whether the construction is the cause. And there’s nothing in writing that says what the developer must do to correct it. Instead, says Blackwell, the city administrator, the monitors’ main purpose is to tell if overall pollution in the neighborhood rises or falls over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Unknowns\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tagami and other proponents argue that the project could actually pave the way for cleaner air in West Oakland in the long run. It’ll enable companies to handle more cargo on site, instead of trucking it around the region for processing. And it could bring electric power to some cranes and docked ships instead of having them burn diesel. In fact, the California Transportation Commission, which is putting up nearly half the cost of the $500 million project, based its grant in part on the promise of cleaner air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, it’s impossible to predict now whether those improvements will be enough to totally counteract the emissions coming from ships, trains and trucks moving many tons more cargo each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beveridge says he hopes it will but — like the promise of economic benefits for West Oakland — he’ll believe it when he sees it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s an old saying. … A rising tide raises all boats,” he says. “That’s great if you have a boat. But if you don’t have a boat, a rising tide just sooner or later goes above your nose and you’re finished.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, across the interstate, Charlotte Lynn keeps the windows closed to the traffic. She says she wants to move her son to a healthier place, but she earns just over $1,000 a month as a part-time certified nurse assistant, and the Oakland Housing Authority says it doesn’t have the money to move her right now. She’s applying to the Housing Authority for a medical exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to move ASAP,” she says, an urgency in her voice. “I want to get out of here. … But there’s nothing I can do, I have to stay here. You know how they say some people get stuck in certain places? We’re stuck.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Air Pollution Controversy Swirls Around Oakland Army Base Development | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"aligncenter\"> \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/GrKwTm5jldE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/GrKwTm5jldE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jahvonn Mair was only 4 when he was diagnosed last year with asthma. He’s still so tiny that his inhaler apparatus is half as big as his head, and his twice-daily doses have slipped into his everyday routine alongside watching cartoons and playing with a favorite stuffed monkey named George.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jahvonn lives in West Oakland, a neighborhood clogged with air pollution from the surrounding freeways and the Port of Oakland. Residents here are twice as likely to go to the emergency room with asthma as people in Alameda County overall. They’re also more likely to die of cancer, heart disease or lung disease — all illnesses with known links to polluted air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now officials and activists are tussling over a massive development project underway right next door, at the decommissioned Oakland Army Base. The project promises to bring much-needed jobs and economic benefits to Oakland and beyond. But health officials fear it could worsen the already toxic air in West Oakland, sticking residents with more than their fair share of the burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hope and Risk\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopes for the remade former base, decommissioned in 1999, are high. The city and the port are turning about 300 acres of it into a \u003ca href=\"http://www.oaklandglobal.com/\">modern trade and logistics hub\u003c/a> right next to the current port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once it’s up and running in 2020, the new trade center will have an additional shipping terminal, a bigger rail yard and ample facilities for handling and sorting cargo. It will give the port area the capacity to handle hundreds of thousands more cargo containers each year. And the city predicts it will provide at least 2,000 new jobs, plus an economic boost reaching into the American Midwest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Oakland Army Base was an economic engine for West Oakland especially, and Oakland and the region generally,” says Fred Blackwell, Oakland’s interim city administrator. “So the notion of bringing it back and having it be an economic engine for the neighborhood and the city once again … is pretty exciting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The need for jobs is real — in the city and in this neighborhood in particular. West Oakland’s unemployment rate is typically higher than the city’s overall, which dipped below 10 percent at the end of last year. With that in mind, city officials placed a job recruiting center for the Army Base project at 18th and Adeline streets, smack in the middle of West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_134748\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 319px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/trucks-west-oakland.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-134748\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/trucks-west-oakland-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Every day at the Port of Oakland trucks line up for 7-8 hours waiting to unload their trucks onto the diesel ships. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"319\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Every day at the Port of Oakland trucks line up for seven or eight hours waiting to unload their cargo onto the ships. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED) \u003ccite>( Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So what’s the potential harm?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Construction, which began last fall, will require heavy-duty diesel trucks and construction vehicles to make tens of thousands of trips to and from the site. And the new trade center will ultimately host a lot more freight activity than the port alone does today — all of which takes fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents point out that the impact will be somewhat offset by the efficiency of shifting more cargo from trucks to trains. Still, the project’s official \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/221109312/Environmental-Impact-Report-on-Oakland-Army-Base-and-Air-Quality\">environmental analysis\u003c/a> predicts that it will “significantly and unavoidably” expose nearby residents to toxic air pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a worst-case scenario, the analysis says the project could raise a West Oaklander’s lifetime risk of cancer by close to 100 cases per 1 million people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That number might sound small. But local activists and health officials argue that West Oakland — a community that’s about half African-American and 85 percent nonwhite, where residents make about half the county’s average household income — is already bearing an unfair burden. Public health studies have found that the life expectancy for someone born and raised in West Oakland is at least 15 years less than someone born and raised in the Oakland Hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The health problems are not all because of air pollution. Still, David Vintze, the air quality planning manager at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, says West Oakland can’t take any more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our own studies have shown a two to three times increase in the amount of pollution in that community versus any other place in the Bay Area,” Vintze says. “That community is already too overburdened to be saturated with more particulate matter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jahvonn lives in the Ironhorse apartment building on 14th Street, literally next door to Interstate 880 and directly across the freeway from the Army base. He calls his asthma attacks “heart attacks” and says they make his stomach hurt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His mom, Charlotte Lynn, keeps him indoors more often since his diagnosis. When he does go outside, it’s often to the second-floor courtyard of his apartment building, where he and his friends ride bikes within direct view of the interstate. Many of them also have asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing by the courtyard’s railing, Lynn watches one tractor-trailer truck after another drive by, leaving the port of today. “All you can see is trucks on the freeway,” she says. “That’s it, trucks, trucks, trucks. See? There’s another one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Is Enough?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health concerns notwithstanding, everyone, including Vintze, wants the Army base project to go on. What’s disputed is whether the city is doing enough to limit emissions and protect West Oakland residents such as Jahvonn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blackwell points to a thick \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/221282783/Air-Pollution-Mitigation-Plan-for-Oakland-Army-Base-Redevelopment-Project\">air-quality plan\u003c/a>, dozens of pages long and required by state law, and says: “I think we have gone about as far as we can go to try to mitigate these issues while still having a viable project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vintze, along with the Alameda County Public Health Department and local environmental activists, disagrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has to be some other things put into place in order to limit the impact of what they’re going to do,” says county Public Health Director Muntu Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is doing more than the law demands in at least one regard, by requiring heavy construction vehicles, like backhoes, to install cleaner engine technology a year ahead of the state’s mandated schedule (though for some vehicles that’s still not for another two to four years).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But air quality and public health authorities wanted the city to go further. They \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/221058904/BAAQMD-Letter-to-Oakland-7-22-13\">asked Oakland officials\u003c/a> to require diesel filters on all the trucks hauling materials to the construction site, as trucks serving the port must have. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/221108341/Oakland-Response-Letter-to-BAAQMD-9-23-13\">city said no\u003c/a>. The City Council had voted to require that fully half the labor for this project come from Oakland, officials explained. And if they required expensive filters, they’d squeeze out too many small, independent Oakland truckers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The West Oakland community, it’s their health, it’s their life,” says Vintze. “It shouldn’t be minimized for profit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Tagami is an Oakland native, CEO of California Capital and Investment Group, and the project developer. He points out that he’s already meeting or exceeding the legal requirements for air quality control, and calls the regulators who are complaining about the project “rogue individuals” who have become overzealous in their oversight role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a handful of shake-down people who want to ring the bell and argue and complain that something more can be done, but I haven’t seen them create many jobs,” he says. “Yelling at the rain is not going to make the rain stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is, indeed, not stopping. Vintze and others have basically given up on further changing the construction plans. Now they’re hoping to get stronger protections into the plan for trade center operations in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_134750\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 650px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/inhalers.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-134750 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/inhalers.jpg\" alt=\"In Jahvonn Mair's preschool class of 22 students, 7 have been diagnosed with asthma and use an inhaler. Here they display their inhalers. From left to right, Akirah Armstrong, (behind) Adrian Kemp, RiJai Malone, Omarr Daniel (front), Jahvonn Mair and Sarquan Holland. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"650\" height=\"452\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Jahvonn Mair’s preschool class of 22 students, seven have been diagnosed with asthma and use an inhaler. Here they display their inhalers. From left to right, Akirah Armstrong, (behind) Adrian Kemp, RiJai Malone, Omarr Daniel (front), Jahvonn Mair and Sarquan Holland. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This community has suffered egregiously at the hands of the freight industry,” says Brian Beveridge, who lives in West Oakland and co-directs a local environmental group, the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project. “We deserve better than to just be told, ‘Well, we’re all going to do the best we can not to break the law.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To soothe some community fears, the developer installed three air-quality monitors around West Oakland and \u003ca href=\"http://ngem.com/OAB_AQM/\">publishes the data\u003c/a> daily, online. One of the monitors is on the roof of Jahvonn Mair’s school, Prescott Elementary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if pollution spikes, though, the city acknowledges that the devices aren’t precise enough to show whether the construction is the cause. And there’s nothing in writing that says what the developer must do to correct it. Instead, says Blackwell, the city administrator, the monitors’ main purpose is to tell if overall pollution in the neighborhood rises or falls over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Unknowns\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tagami and other proponents argue that the project could actually pave the way for cleaner air in West Oakland in the long run. It’ll enable companies to handle more cargo on site, instead of trucking it around the region for processing. And it could bring electric power to some cranes and docked ships instead of having them burn diesel. In fact, the California Transportation Commission, which is putting up nearly half the cost of the $500 million project, based its grant in part on the promise of cleaner air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, it’s impossible to predict now whether those improvements will be enough to totally counteract the emissions coming from ships, trains and trucks moving many tons more cargo each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beveridge says he hopes it will but — like the promise of economic benefits for West Oakland — he’ll believe it when he sees it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s an old saying. … A rising tide raises all boats,” he says. “That’s great if you have a boat. But if you don’t have a boat, a rising tide just sooner or later goes above your nose and you’re finished.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, across the interstate, Charlotte Lynn keeps the windows closed to the traffic. She says she wants to move her son to a healthier place, but she earns just over $1,000 a month as a part-time certified nurse assistant, and the Oakland Housing Authority says it doesn’t have the money to move her right now. She’s applying to the Housing Authority for a medical exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Oakland Says Skateboarders Must Stop Using Skate Park Near I-880",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132328\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-132328\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/skatepark-640x450.jpg\" alt=\"skatepark\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo by Andrew Stelzer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland says skateboarders need to immediately stop using a homemade skate park in order for the park to possibly gain legal status in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of skaters last year built the park, where Ninth Street dead-ends into Interstate 880 in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Riggs, one of several supportive residents, says it’s been a positive development in an area blighted by trash dumping and other dangerous activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do we want a skate park there, or do we want what happened to the skate park that used to be under the highway?\" she said. \"It's a homeless encampment, where disgusting, terrible health hazard dumping occurs every single day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny Thursday afternoon, a half-dozen skaters used the homemade park -- most of them said they helped build it and that they come here nearly every day. The overwhelming sentiment was one of pride, both for cleaning up an eyesore and helping to build something of value.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We put our own blood, sweat and tears into this place,” said Kevin Jenkins. “We stopped graffiti, we cleaned up a dump. We gave kids skateboards. I've never built a skate park in my life. I built one, I wanna keep it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Said Rich Bogard: “Building something with my own hands means way more than somebody else taking charge and doing what they wanna do. It’s a waste if the city wants to come tear it down. All this is doing is adding fun for kids so that they’re not out skatin’ schools and financial districts over in San Francisco and here in Oakland. It’s a safe haven for cats. I don’t think the city sees it like that. I think they see it as a danger or a liability—insurance problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, assistant city administrator Joe Devrees acknowledged that legal concerns are driving the city’s attempt to immediately stop the skating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a kid cracks open their head and is permanently injured at that skate park, the city will be sued,” Devrees said recently at a Prescott neighborhood meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And even though we’ve said no trespassing, because of the high cost of legal expenses, the city will pay out a huge settlement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Reese Jordan is hopeful a solution can be found. He was the only skater at the park Thursday afternoon who made it down to the neighborhood meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You want something, you’ve got to do it yourself. It's kind of the American way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson-McElhaney said she initially offered to help legitimize the project, but promises to halt further construction were broken. She said skaters need to pay for a property assessment and inspection, and show the ability to provide insurance and buy or lease the property.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_132328\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-132328\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/04/skatepark-640x450.jpg\" alt=\"skatepark\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo by Andrew Stelzer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland says skateboarders need to immediately stop using a homemade skate park in order for the park to possibly gain legal status in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of skaters last year built the park, where Ninth Street dead-ends into Interstate 880 in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Riggs, one of several supportive residents, says it’s been a positive development in an area blighted by trash dumping and other dangerous activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do we want a skate park there, or do we want what happened to the skate park that used to be under the highway?\" she said. \"It's a homeless encampment, where disgusting, terrible health hazard dumping occurs every single day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny Thursday afternoon, a half-dozen skaters used the homemade park -- most of them said they helped build it and that they come here nearly every day. The overwhelming sentiment was one of pride, both for cleaning up an eyesore and helping to build something of value.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We put our own blood, sweat and tears into this place,” said Kevin Jenkins. “We stopped graffiti, we cleaned up a dump. We gave kids skateboards. I've never built a skate park in my life. I built one, I wanna keep it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Said Rich Bogard: “Building something with my own hands means way more than somebody else taking charge and doing what they wanna do. It’s a waste if the city wants to come tear it down. All this is doing is adding fun for kids so that they’re not out skatin’ schools and financial districts over in San Francisco and here in Oakland. It’s a safe haven for cats. I don’t think the city sees it like that. I think they see it as a danger or a liability—insurance problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, assistant city administrator Joe Devrees acknowledged that legal concerns are driving the city’s attempt to immediately stop the skating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a kid cracks open their head and is permanently injured at that skate park, the city will be sued,” Devrees said recently at a Prescott neighborhood meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And even though we’ve said no trespassing, because of the high cost of legal expenses, the city will pay out a huge settlement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Reese Jordan is hopeful a solution can be found. He was the only skater at the park Thursday afternoon who made it down to the neighborhood meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You want something, you’ve got to do it yourself. It's kind of the American way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson-McElhaney said she initially offered to help legitimize the project, but promises to halt further construction were broken. She said skaters need to pay for a property assessment and inspection, and show the ability to provide insurance and buy or lease the property.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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