West Oakland, Oakland, California
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37°48′43″N 122°17′42″W / 37.81194°N 122.29500°W
West Oakland is a
History
The land which comprises part of West Oakland was granted to
In the 1880s and 1890s, a large number of shops and small and medium-sized houses were built to accommodate the large number of European Americans, African Americans, Portuguese, Irish, Mexicans, Japanese, and Chinese immigrants who settled in West Oakland. Many African Americans were employed as porters for the
West Oakland experienced a decline in
As the railroads declined and Americans turned to the automobile for transportation in the 1950s, many employees moved away. When the
West Oakland was also home to the first Mexican and Latino community in Oakland. Fleeing the
Groups of African American residents of West Oakland mobilized to resist the "urban renewal" projects during this period. The
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to the present
In the
Environment
Environmental racism is when a particular group (most often racial minorities or those with specific disadvantages) is subject to dangerous pollutants and deprived of access to basic resources such as clean air, water, healthy groceries, etc. In West Oakland, a case study revealed that the predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods in this area were exposed to disproportionate levels of diesel exhaust from 6,300 container trucks that frequented this route on their way to and from the Port of Oakland and a prominent US Post Office distribution center.[3] Air pollution generated from traffic and truck idling is tied to early asthma onset in children, and approximately 64 pounds of diesel particulate matter emissions were released into the air in a single day in West Oakland according to one study.[3] Residents in the surrounding neighborhoods reported regular findings of diesel exhaust soot on windows and vents of their homes. In part to environmental racism, these people could be exposed to ‘‘90 times more diesel particulates per square mile per year than the state of California.’’[3] After this information came to light, community organizers called together a case for a new truck route ordinance that would re-navigate container trucks and their harmful emissions away from the neighborhood. Currently, the community is more engaged in environmental decision-making to protect their families.
Neighborhoods
West Oakland consists of the following neighborhoods:
- Acorn Industrial
- Acorn Projects
- Campbell Village Court
- Cypress Village
- Clawson
- Desert Yard
- Dogtown
- Ghostown
- Hoover/Foster
- Lower Bottoms
- McClymonds
- Oak Center
- Oakland Naval Supply Depot
- Oakland Point
- Prescott
- Port of Oakland
- Ralph Bunche
- South Prescott
Non-profit organizations
- City Slicker Farms is an urban agriculture non-profit 501(c)3 organization established in West Oakland in 2001 to address the food access needs of West Oakland residents. They operate the Community Market Farms, Backyard Garden, and Urban Farming Education programs, aimed at empowering West Oakland community members to meet the basic need for fresh, healthy food by creating sustainable, high-yield urban farms and backyard gardens.
- Urban Releaf is an urban forestry non-profit 501(c)3 organization established in West Oakland in 1998 to address the needs of communities that have little to no greenery or tree canopy. They focus their efforts in under-served neighborhoods that suffer from disproportionate environmental quality of life and economic depravity.
- The Crucible is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit industrial arts education facility in West Oakland that fosters a collaboration of arts, industry, and community. From metal fabrication, blacksmithing, neon, glass blowing, ceramics, welding, kinetics, and fire dancing, The Crucible provides arts education programs to over 5,000 adult and youth students annually.
- Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement has served the West Oakland community since 1995. Housed in a former convent building at 920 Peralta Street, the Center provides family support services, arts and cultural programs (including art shows and theatrical events in the summer), health care initiatives (such as the first Northern California Breathmobile), and youth enrichment programs. The Prescott-Joseph Center partners with many local schools, community-based organizations and artists.
- Mandela Marketplace is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with local residents, family farmers, and community-based businesses to improve health, create wealth, and build assets through cooperative food enterprises in low income communities.
- Seminary of the Street seeks to cultivate a movement of "love warriors" in resistance to every form of violence and deathliness and in the service of the flourishing of all life. Their headquarters, WORSHP House, at 1724 Filbert Street, is also an intentional community and forms the nucleus of the organizations's West Oakland Reconciliation and Social Healing Project and its associated Alternatives to Gentrification Program.
- Zoo Labs is a non-profit music accelerator which teaches business to artists. Central to this process is their Music Residency Program.
- Saint Vincent's Day Home provides comprehensive early learning programs for toddlers and preschoolers, a licensed full-day kindergarten, and before- and after-school programs. They enroll children ages two to six and are open from 7am to 5:30pm Monday through Friday.
- Oakland Black Cowboy Association holds the annual Oakland Black Cowboy Parade and Festival the first weekend of October in DeFremery Park[4]
References
- ^ Bagwell, Beth. Oakland, The Story of a City, 1996, Oakland Heritage Alliance, 2nd ed.
- ^ Oakland Museum Latino History project http://www.museumca.org/LHP/
- ^ PMID 21551381.
- ^ Rasilla, Azucena (September 30, 2021). "Film about Oakland Black Cowboys leader debuts at Eli's Mile High Club". The Oaklandside. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
Further reading
- Bagwell, Beth, Oakland The Story Of A City, Oakland Heritage Alliance, 2nd ed., 1996
- Putting the "There" There: Historical Archaeologies of West Oakland]