By Huda Ahmed/ WEST OAKLAND Although gentrification is not a new issue, it is still a nightmare for many Americans. One example is West Oakland, where a low income, African American population struggle to keep their homes in the midst of the current economic crisis and development, which priced many of them out of the area. As a result, Oakland’s African American population has decreased from 35 to 30 percent in the last six years, according to the figures collected by the U.S. Census in 2000 and 2006.
Last 5 posts by hahmed
- A victim talks about the night of her attack - December 9th, 2008
- Female butcher breaks gender barriers - December 8th, 2008
- An ex-prostitute hopes for change for young sex workers - December 2nd, 2008
- A historic night for Oakland Democrats - November 6th, 2008
- Voice of a voter - November 4th, 2008
November 1st, 2008 at 9:15 pm
How, exactly, has a very small amount of residential development “priced many (longtime residents) out of the neighborhood?” And how is the foreclosure crisis “gentrification”? The idea that people paying market-rate rents in San Francisco would move to the Acorn projects because they’re cheap, the concluding statement of this slideshow, is simply absurd.
The photos of a protest that began this slideshow were in downtown Oakland, not West Oakland, and regarded a plan to increase financing to the Oakland Housing Authority, nothing to do with “gentrification” or development.
It’s disappointing that aspiring journalists, instead of questioning assumptions or looking for new stories, unthinkingly parrot the myths perpetrated by lazy MSM reporters and take the statements of activists and ministers at face value but ignore the investors and new residents who are making West Oakland a better place.
By the way, the census reports in 2000 and 2006 aren’t comparable.
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Hold on – how is tearing down low-income housing projects and selling many of the “mixed-income” Hope VI lowrises at market rate anything BUT gentrification?
Look at Cabrini Green in Chicago, look at Valencia Gardens across the Bay, and look at the outmigration of African-Americans from both cities.
And Oakland, for that matter.
No matter what their intentions, those new residents part of the displacement effect. The result is increasing police presence in West Oakland and more former residents ending up in Richmond, Vallejo, Antioch, and so on.
And investors? The name says it all – they’re largely in it for the money.
None of this is mainstream media propaganda – many of those institutions PUSH this very sort of development. It is the reality on the ground.
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Willie Mays, just because you have some theory about SF doesn’t mean that it applies to Oakland or that the erroneous claims in the slideshow are true. Your statement is not “reality.”
There are no plans to tear down low-income housing projects in West Oakland, and I don’t know of any loss of a OHA housing in West Oakland – they’ve built many units in the last decade, as explained by the OHA director in the slideshow. The new financing plan for OHA currently under discussion is not HOPE. West Oakland residents would tell you that they would really appreciate an “increasing police presence,” but none is forthcoming.
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Here’s some information about Hope VI and the effect it has had on Oakland
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Oakland_renters_displaced_by_Hope_VI_program
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:25 am
There’s a lot of complaining articles on IndyMedia about the Coliseum Gardens project (though all from one person), which tore down 128 units of dilapidated and dangerous housing to build more than 400. Regardless, that was in outer East Oakland, In West Oakland development has come to vacant lots and abandoned warehouses, not from tearing down occupied housing.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Empty lots?
Read this and then let me know if demolishing units involves building on “vacant lots.” Something stood there beforehand..
http://books.google.com/books?id=A5lKleAvQaEC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=oakland+acorn+projects+demolition&source=web&ots=PaPR4wjlff&sig=2z5n-Wss3g7N25peU9ykbBXuDZg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result
“between 1990 and 1994, 1,359 HOUSING UNITS WERE DEMOLISHED IN THE ACORN PROJECTS.”
Want to keep going? Want to know where those families are now?
Contra Costa County, where families living in section 8 housing increased 50% from 2003 to 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/us/09housing.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1218575303-jYkGi+Dt76HbJ25pKn1j7w
These folks are from Oakland. West Oakland.
So this is still a “mainstream media” issue? Gentrification is real, and is a national problem. Oakland is not an exception.
Lo siento..
November 6th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
DTO-
Just an observation-I’ve seen your posts on various Oakland issues for a while and they’re always extremely pro business/development and while I wouldn’t go so far as to call them anti community, they certainly come across as someone with something to gain from supporting big money real estate projects and little experience actually living in, talking to and interacting with the people in the (primarily) lower income communities you’re speaking about.
I have to ask-do you work for a development company and have you actually spent any time in West Oakland? And not just the lofts and underground warehouses but actually with people with history and opinions and experience in the area?
I’m not hating, I respect different points of view and backgrounds and I admire the courage it takes to go against majority opinion and “the Mainstream media” but I like I said, your work always seems to go against community activists and those who live in lower income neighborhoods in favor of the newer, richer, hipper Oakland that seems to be on the horizon. And while this isn’t necessarily pro gentrification, this kind of attitude could be the soil that that gentrification tree springs from. I think your points would be stronger if you could present more of a balanced argument, but right now they usually come across as the work of a PR rep for Big Development, no matter how well researched.
Come down to the Bottoms and/or deep east Oakland one day. See what’s there before jump gung ho into the ring to replace it with the brand new, hipness. This is Oakland, and not everyone wants to turn it into San Francisco.
one,
-D