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37°48′43″N122°17′42″W / 37.81194°N 122.29500°W /37.81194; -122.29500
West Oakland is aneighborhood situated in the northwestern corner ofOakland,California,United States, situated west ofDowntown Oakland, south ofEmeryville, and north ofAlameda. The neighborhood is located along the waterfront at thePort of Oakland and at the eastern end of theSan Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. It lies at an elevation of 13 feet (4 m).
In 1820, Luis Maria Peralta received the land that now makes up a portion of West Oakland. In the 1850s, a group of men who had been leasing the land from his son Vicente,Horace Carpentier,Edson Adams, and [[Andrew J. Moon began illegally selling small farm plots west of what is now Market Street.[1] One of thesquatters, Horace Carpentier, became Oakland's first mayor in 1854. The population grew after 1863, when theSan Francisco-Oakland railroad connected central Oakland to the San Francisco Bay ferries. In 1869, West Oakland became the terminus of thetranscontinental railroad, and the population grew again as railroad workers settled in the neighborhood.
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.[2] Many African Americans were employed as porters for thePullman Palace Car Company, and the headquarters of their union, theBrotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was at 5th and Wood Streets. The writerJack London lived in West Oakland in the late 19th century, and his novelThe Valley of the Moon is set in West Oakland. Many of the houses built in that period are still standing today and make up the quaint character of the neighborhood. In 1906, many people left homeless by the1906 San Francisco earthquake settled in West Oakland. The original wooden train station at 16th and Wood Streets was replaced in 1912 by a largeBeaux Arts structure which is still standing, though it was severely damaged in the1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
World War I brought new job opportunities in the shipyards and, with it, an influx of workers and business growth. By 1930, West Oakland was a thriving, predominatelyAfrican-American neighborhood of about 2,800 residents. Seventh Street was lined with jazz and blues clubs.Marcus Garvey'sUniversal Negro Improvement Association had its West Coast headquarters at 8th and Chester Streets.
West Oakland experienced a decline inthe Depression in the late 1930s, and some residential areas became dilapidated. In the 1940s[3] and 1950s, dozens of blocks were bulldozed and replaced with public housing projects. However in the 1940's, "West Oakland’s Seventh Street was hailed as a cultural haven for African-Americans" and was a cultural center with thriving community and joy despite the historical post-war challenges.[4]The 1940s and World War II saw a new influx of workers for the shipbuilding industry and the newly constructedOakland Army Base and Naval Supply Center.
As the railroads declined and Americans turned to the automobile for transportation in the 1950s, many employees moved away. When theCypress Freeway, a double-decker freeway connecting theSan Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge with theNimitz Freeway, was built in the 1950s above Cypress Street, it effectively split the neighborhood in half and isolated it from downtown Oakland. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, block after block was razed, and thousands of residents were displaced for the building of the massive Oakland Main Post Office, theWest Oakland BART Station, and theAcorn Plaza housing projects. These projects coincided with a period of economic decline characterized by unemployment, poverty, andurban blight.
West Oakland was also home to the first Mexican and Latino community in Oakland. After theMexican Revolution, Mexicans started settling in West Oakland in the 1910s. Mexican and Puerto Ricans also settled in West Oakland[5] to work on the railroads, at the port, and in industry and opened many local businesses. InWorld War II, the Latino community grew as Mexicans from theSouthwestern United States settled in West Oakland to work in wartime industries Also, 5000 Braceros came to Oakland to work in theSouthern Pacific Railroad West Oakland yard. In the 1950s and 1960s, urban renewal, construction of the Nimitz Freeway, andBART displaced most of the Latino community, which settled in theFruitvale and East Oakland areas. West Oakland became a primarily African American neighborhood with a small Hispanic population.[6]
Groups of African American residents of West Oakland mobilized to resist the "urban renewal" projects during this period. TheBlack Panthers grew out of this resistance, and West Oakland became the center of the Black Panthers in the late 1960s. Their main office was on Peralta Street, and they distributed free breakfasts to children in St. Augustine's church on West Street. DeFremery Park was the site of Black Panther rallies and social programs.Huey P. Newton was convicted of manslaughter after allegedly shooting an officer on 7th Street, and Newton himself was killed in 1989 by a drug dealer in West Oakland. The east end of theTransbay Tube is located in West Oakland.
From 1966-1968, the Flatlands Newspaper documented life in West Oakland, Black activism, and the broader civil rights movement.[7]
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to the presentIn the1989 Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, theCypress Freeway collapsed. 42 people were killed despite rescue efforts by West Oakland residents. West Oakland residents successfully resisted efforts to rebuild the freeway in the same location.[8] With the freeway now removed, West Oakland started to undergogentrification. Cypress Street was renamed Mandela Parkway, a recently finished wide thoroughfare with a pedestrian path and greenway in its median, including a park commemorating the 1989 earthquake. It is lined with condominiums and new and established businesses. Several of the surrounding warehouses now serve as artist studios. Most notably, the former facilities for American Steel are now Big Art Studios, a unique facility for large-scale artists. Several pieces of work by the constituent art groups within can be found on display outside the complex. Mandela Gateway, a mixed retail and residential development at the south end of Mandela Parkway, surrounds the West Oakland BART station. The old Victorian houses are being refurbished, and new condominium, townhouse, and live-work loft residences have sprung up. The growth ofEmeryville on West Oakland's border, West Oakland's proximity to San Francisco via theSan Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge andBART, and the slightly more affordable rental and home prices have attracted many new residents.
Emeryville was built on the Ohlone Shellmound,[9] this is a sacred burial place of the Muwekma Ohlone people.
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 thePort of Oakland and a prominent US Post Office distribution center.[10] Air pollution generated from traffic and truck idling is tied to earlyasthma 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.[10] 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.’’[10] 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.
West Oakland consists of the following neighborhoods:
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