Let me start by saying I was born and raised in Oakland and so was my mom. I am second generation Oakland grown and I came from a poor family and lived in lower-class neighborhoods surrounded by section 8 apartment complexes patrolled by the Oakland Housing Authority.
I love what’s happening to my city. It may be the best Oakland’s ever been. But then again I’ve only been around since 1979.
We’ve recently made all sorts of “top list” and places to visit and so on. I’ll touch more on that later.
UPDATE: 2023 Edition
That was all stated back around 2008 when Oakland was making positive movements. Something happened between 2008 and now and it has gone far downhill.
Pro Gentrification
I actually can’t stand the word and the way people use it.
Nowadays when you hear the word gentrification it is often thought of as “white people moving in and pushing out other races of low income”.
The actual definition is as follows:
Definition of GENTRIFICATION: The process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.
So as you see, by definition it is a neighborhood getting better, prettier, offering more options, more places to work, more companies moving in, better housing, and so on(all terrible things).
Oakland Has Rent Control
People are not being “pushed out” of Oakland. I have rent control and while everyone moving into my neighborhood is paying $400 to $800 more than me right now it did not push me out. My proxy Orinda-based landlord abuses these increases too and I have had to appeal via the rent adjustment board.
People are not being evicted or forced to move(without reason, there are a few cases but it is not the standard).
Update: While I did have rent control, the new landlord wanted me out so he could fill the unit at triple the price. I chose to move out of Oakland even though I had rent control. It was a blessing in disguise, leaving Oakland after 34 years was the best thing I ever did and I did leave right on time. Oakland died after 2014.
The rent board laws in Oakland protect you really well from false evictions. My gentrifying proxy Orinda’s landlord has been trying to get me out since he bought the foreclosing building 3 years ago. I’ve been in this unit for over 10 years. He could have never made me leave. I made the choice.
(Update, I moved out of Oakland, screw that guy, more later. keep reading)
Original Oaklanders Sold Their Houses
How can rent go up to begin with? Selling and selling and selling.
The first wave of people actually left willingly and sold their houses making the current situation possible. People were selling their own homes that they’d had forever. Some of them even passed down through deceased parents. Now that the value has increased greatly they are choosing to move to other less expensive safer locations with better school districts but that’s their own personal smart choice. If this is the reason they are leaving in numbers then so be it. They choose to do so themselves and the home has probably been bought and fixed up(usually just painted) adding to the neighborhood. So keep that in mind as we move on. Oaklanders raised the price by selling. Many to corporations, and asset management firms that just resell and resell over and over. Some to “flippers” who just put a couple of grand into the house and then resold for an extra hundred grand. Oakland allows this so it is the city that failed to protect its residents. Some sold to greedy landlords that keep the units empty and use them for AirBnB because the City of Oakland allows them. Remember, the City of Oakland does not care about you if they allow this.
Anyways, what about the people who did not sell their house and decided to stay in the now upcoming neighborhood?
They are getting more options, more places to shop, eat at, work at, drink at, etc.
I will also say my neighborhood is untouched, has no new options, is still ghetto, and even has more crime now. I have not “benefited” from close to home improvements but my landlord is still ripping new tenants off because he has to because he bought it from an Oaklander selling to make money. The only reason the rent went up is because of hand changing for profit. Nothing more.
Price Of Food Going Up?
Oakland is wrecked. Nothing is really affordable to eat out anymore. Even at the time of writing this what used to be my favorite burrito truck, the burritos went from $3.50 to $5.50 and that was a pretty big deal. But now, they are $15 for a lower-quality version of the burrito. Oakland is out of hand.
The once overpriced at $17 2Fat2Skate burger is now $21 dollars
What once was $13 Mac n Cheese is now $16. So as you can see they all scaled prices differently but raised them nonetheless.
Why is that?
Is it because instead of Oakland fixing the rent crisis they raised the minimum wage? That did not make life more affordable, that made everything more expensive. A worse solution.
The thing is they know this. It is an attack on you the people disguised as “helping you out”.
As for the overpriced food in Oakland, all you can do is boycott them. Refuse to pay those prices and they will bring them down or go out of business. And so many restaurants have gone out of business due to their greed. Thy of course blame other things and now blame COvid which really means the City of Oakland for forcing them to lock their doors.
At this point though, any business that had a vaccine mandate must be boycotted at all costs. Oakland does not need these employers.
Back to overpriced Oakland food. A lot of food downtown doesn’t even care about Oakland at all. The stores pop up Monday through Friday during work hours, serve the 925’ers who BART in and work in or around downtown Oakland, then they close and go home after work and they do not return on weekends. How could you support them?
Whole Foods is too expensive!
Yeah it is!!!! But no one is forcing you to go to the new expensive Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. But if you do go, you may find some cheaper healthy alternatives on some items.
But before those guys moved in, where did you go? You really have always only had 2 options, Safeway and Lucky’s. So thank those new guys for moving in.
Sitting here trying to think about it I would say there are zero grocery stores in West Oakland. Maybe it needs a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s? And Whole Foods was an abandoned car lot so it didn’t hurt anyone by setting up shop there.
Some say it increased the rents of the area but those people are idiots. Whole Foods does not have a rent increasing committee in cahoots with your landlord. The truth is your greedy landlord, who has no boss, increased your rent because they want to travel the world more on your dime.
Safeway isn’t leaving……
You always have the limited Safeway and Lucky’s around Oakland whether or not Whole Foods and TJ’s pop up.
If the price of food at Safeway goes up it’s not because the neighborhood got better or “gentrified”, it’s because the cost of living goes up in general. And now Bidenomics and inflation. That Safeway has the same prices here in Oakland as anywhere else in the Bay.
And get this, now you can order organic groceries from Amazon/Whole Foods.
I personally have started trying to eat healthier and am thankful for Whole Foods even though it is costing me a lot more. But without it, I would be stuck with no options.
Crime Rates?
What I don’t get is that a city undergoing such a major improvement would usually show a decrease in crime however Oakland’s crime rate is on the rise! Oakland also just made the robbery capital of America 2 years running. The more unsuspecting newcomers to Oakland walking around with their iPhones out, the more targets for the existing criminals to prey on. Crime has gone way up and mostly robberies. So one could say gentrification is helping the “economy” for some? Joking, this has to stop and our city has to get it together and get rid of this network of activity. We need to get the Oakland Police Helicopter flying again(after my article Mayor Jean Quan DID get it flying again!).
The Oakland Police Department has said the increase in robberies is due to the decrease in drug sales. But several months ago they said that with all the large drug busts and dealers off of the streets, the crime rates would go down. So it backfired?
This kind of makes sense, you don’t allow the usual suspects to sell weed(or other drugs) on the corner and they turn to other means to get money. But did OPD even decrease drug sales or did the booming Oakland Weed Economy decrease drug sales? Buy weed from a shady thug on the corner, or go to a nice weed superstore? I think it’s obvious OPD had nothing to do with that.
Local economy and investment in the long run?
One possible outcome is the new local booming economy will provide a lot of tax revenue for the city and local committees and organizations will push for more public safety.
So in the long run crime rates could go down if the City of Oakland plays its cards right.
Lack of police = more private security.
There are already neighborhoods plagued with high crime and robberies that are crowdsourcing and hiring their own private security patrols. Some neighborhoods have reported a sharp decrease in criminal activities since they hired private security.
For some insane reason they have been labeled as racist gentrifiers and ridiculed for this. If the City of Oakland can not provide safety then who will? Why are we mad at people for trying to improve our city for everyone?
Is it only the criminals who are mad? Calling out “whitey” and telling us to go home? What if we’re from here? I have been seeing this spray-painted around my neighborhood and Lake Merritt. Part of me thinks some white anarchist that moved here 3 years ago is doing it.
Are there actually hard-working “minority families” who don’t mind run-down houses, blight and crime in the neighborhood?
How come no one is mad at a bank or taco truck for hiring a security guard? It’s normal to protect yourself and if Oakland can’t and the residents will, then that is awesome.
Keep in mind no one is mad Nasty Pelosi and other hate spreaders have private security and walls.
Better schools?
People are upset that some residents have pitched in a measly $20 a month for private security patrols to ensure they won’t be robbed and they ask why can’t they do that for schools.
Maybe they don’t have kids? The real question is why can’t YOU do that for schools? Take action, do something, stop blaming everyone else. You let Oakland get this way and now you combat newcomers with innovative ideas trying to make it better. Don’t be dead weight.
With the neighborhoods getting better and the theory of more community involvement comes the possibility for better public schools, more volunteers, parents getting involved and overall improvement for the Oakland Unified School District. This is much needed. But existing deadbeat residents must get involved too instead of resisting new residents’ attempts to better Oakland neighborhoods.
This is my class photo from Fruitvale Elementary, 1986. I am the white guy.
I’m curious as to what a class photo would look like now. If you have a class photo from Fruitvale in recent years please post it in the comments or email it to me.
Foreclosures!
Everyone is crying and blaming the evil banks for foreclosing their homes.
Currently, in Oakland, there are thousands of vacant homes(most of them in West Oakland) that have been foreclosed.
Why? Well, because people who did not have the money to begin with borrowed money and bought things they could not afford.
Honestly, I have no pity for them as they chose to put themselves in the situation. You and I had the option, but did we buy something we knew we couldn’t?
Oh but the banks were misleading and lied to them!
They STILL went and tried to buy something they couldn’t so it was their own decision to buy the home. The banks did not make them buy a home.
I would like to see statistics as to who the people are that bought these homes and foreclosed in Oakland because I still feel that was mostly outsiders and transplants. Not forcing any long time residents out. The likely real story is that long-time residents willfully sold their homes at super-inflated prices to the fools who are now foreclosed.
When I moved into my last building 10 years ago all was well, rent was only $735. That guy foreclosed and the new evil Orinda guy bought the place. But the foreclosed landlord bought the building from an original Oakland resident who was smart enough to sell when the market was inflated. See? That is the true case example and not the made up Oaklander’s being pushed out.
Oaklander’s are smart, they left like I did. By choice.
Residents were selling their homes and moving out before the crash. That is what made these homes available to buy and foreclose on in the first place.
A foreclosed home actually brings the value of the surrounding property down and increases crime in Oakland.
There are thousands of these abandoned houses collecting graffiti, decaying, becoming overgrown, and inhabited by people conducting illegal activity.
I guess my problem is these homes have been VACANT the entire time! These vacant homes could be rented out at the current market value and that would flood the market driving the cost of rent down.
The city of Richmond is actually trying to use eminent domain and seize the homes back from the banks. I think this is a great idea.
Then maybe they could be sold at market value and again bring the cost back down.
Like I was saying, I do have a problem with the cost of rent but this is a corporate America greed thing and not anyone’s fault for moving here. In fact, people are moving here from San Francisco because the system(not the people) has ruined prices there forcing others to move to run down Oakland neighborhoods that they can afford. If a byproduct of that is fixing the neighborhood up to a livable standard then please, by all means, do.
Where is Oakland “Gentrifying”?
This excerpt is from Wikipedia on the subject and actually nails the current neighborhoods being gentrified and makes sense as to why East Oakland has been left alone.
From a market standpoint, there are two main requirements that are met by the U.S. cities that undergo substantial effects of gentrification. These are an excess supply of deteriorated housing in central areas, as well as a considerable growth in the availability of professional jobs located in central business districts. These conditions have been met in the U.S. largely as a result of suburbanization and other postindustrial phenomena.
Most of what is happening is near Downtown, Lake Merritt, Temescal, Uptown, and West Oakland.
It seems that East Oakland is remaining mostly untouched at this point and could really use some help.
The larger part of Oakland(East Oakland) remains how it has always been. All of the new establishments are in centralized areas with access to all.
If you ask me East Oakland could use a LOT of help but it may be a while before outsiders start moving into that mess and fixing it up. I predict Fruitvale first because the neighborhood has been undergoing improvements and it’s near BART.
But here is a good example, all new retail, and streets being repaved and parking lots and so on for the existing residents. Yet it’s still a bleak economic crime-ridden black hole.
According to a presentation by EPA’s Charles Lee, a longtime leader in environmental justice, the neighborhood’s ethnicity mix is 52 percent Latino; 23 percent Pacific Islanders; 16 percent African American; 7 percent white; and 3 percent Native American and others.
How did Oakland get ghetto?
Oakland actually used to be full of beautiful Victorian mansions, predominantly white and middle to upper-class. What changed was during World War II Kaiser(yes the insurance company) built several shipyards around the Bay Area including Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco. They set up shop here mass producing “Liberty Ships” for the war. African Americans were actually allowed to work in these shipyards and moved out here in the masses to escape racism in the South. They were paid more here than they could get anywhere else but still faced racism and lumped themselves together in communities like West Oakland. Chinese had a similar situation, created China Town and thrived. WHat was the difference?
Anyways, masses of blacks gathering sparked “white flight” and all of the wealthier middle to upper-class white people moved out leaving behind a beautiful victorian laced neighborhood that was destroyed and run down by the new residents over the years leaving behind the ghetto West Oakland we now know.
Some people will argue that “red lines” forced the African Americans to live in these areas and would not allow them to move out to the nicer areas like Piedmont and the hills, but that still does not change the fact that the people living in the community there trashed it and set the pace for the future. There is no one to blame other than the actual people left behind living there.
Sure, after the war was over the shipyard ghetto had a higher unemployment rate but that is still no excuse to ruin a beautiful neighborhood. When I am unemployed I do not go out trashing my city. I take that time to work on this site and show love for my city.
The only people to blame for the ugly beat up housing now are the current or in some cases old owners. They made Oakland ugly, no one but them.
I can understand though, if I owned a house I wouldn’t feel like painting it, keeping the front yard clean, taking care of the sidewalk out front, etc. But that’s why I don’t own a house! Stop ruining the city and blaming others. It is YOUR house, fix it up, clean up your neighborhood or sell the house and move to Tracy. But if YOU sell it to a rich guy from Orinda then you know whoever moves in will be paying a lot more. You did this. You “gentrified” by moving out of your ugly unmaintained house for profit.
The dirty neighborhoods of West Oakland.
Building recycling
What’s happening in West Oakland and Jack London is kind of awesome. Old abandoned warehouses are being renovated and turned into bars, restaurants, art galleries, warehouse shared work living spaces, and lofts. Building reuse in vacant areas is never a bad thing.
A lot of these become artist communities full of innovation and design.
Victorians that were destroyed and run down are being renovated and brought back to life and sold to residents that will take care of them and keep the neighborhood looking good.
Slowly but surely, blight is being removed.
Gentrification, The Real Problem?
Now with that, all said the real true one problem is the people who do NOT live in Oakland. The people like my evil landlord who live in Orinda, buying up foreclosed homes here, slapping a paint job on, and raising the rent by $400 to $800. This is truly the one only single problem. THEY decide the rent and THEY decide who they rent to. THEY are the ones discriminating and the ones charging way too much and trying as hard as they can to evict tenants like me. Born in Oakland.
They will never live in Oakland and they are only proxy gentrifiers. They have to be stopped, rules have to be instated. My proxy landlord makes $130,000 a year on others sweat and tears so he and his wife can travel all the time on my dime. Landlords should have to work for their money and not prey on a busted system while ruining a city.
The City of Oakland is HIGHLY to blame as well. Maybe even mostly to blame. Look around, do you see any new housing going up? I mean we need like big apartment complexes. Sky rises. In my life span I have seen very very little development in Oakland as far as new buildings and structures. You can’t move forward 3 decades into the population booming technology-driven future without building massive housing complexes to accommodate the influx of population. Oakland and San Francisco failed to do this and we’re paying dearly now.
All this failure while allowing hundreds of thousands of illegals to flood the city. This takes residential space, and raises your rent.
Update:
I don’t know if Jean Quan was reading my blog or what, but she suddenly confirmed my statements of the real problem(proxy landlords) and says she will be building 10,000 new homes in Oakland. That’s a start, but we need like 50k to even start to catch up.
City staffers are also keenly aware of Oakland’s need for more affordable housing. Margaretta Lin, director of strategic initiatives, noted that city property owners lost about 14,000 homes due to foreclosure during the housing crisis. As the Express has reported, large-scale investors purchased a substantial number of those homes and then turned them into rental properties, and are now charging rents that many longtime city residents cannot afford. “The escalation of rent prices has been extraordinary,” Lin said.
It’s like they came here and rethought the whole thing. And that’s interesting to know that only 14k people foreclosed. Proving that Oakland residents are largely safe and selling their homes on their own free will and moving out to furthermore affordable suburbs with less crime. Let’s see if these cities get ghetto over the next 10 years.
Google Buses and BART
Of course, now you have transplant hipsters in San Francisco protesting Google Buses saying that they are causing gentrification. This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard from a bunch of gentrifiers. The buses are saving the environment by transporting magnitudes of people to work in carpools. They argue that Google caused people to move to SF from Ohio for better jobs taking up the housing from poor people. No, Frisco forgot to build new houses and the future happened.
So then why are people not protesting BART? West Oakland BART is the reason West Oakland has become a hot spot for renters who used to live in San Francisco and still work there. Same with McArthur BART and downtown. Next will surely be Fruitvale.
I guess you should be praising BART and again blaming the city for not allowing for residential expansion and building planning.
Also don’t forget the proxy landowners from wealthy cities that buy the housing up and rent it out for way more than it’s worth.
Do not blame the tenant that works a good job for being able to afford that place. The resident or as you like to call them “gentrifier” is still getting ripped off by the proxy landlord.
This is the Google Bus Stop at 21-Hayes between 6:15 and 9:15am.
Amazingly efficient and very needed right? Can you imagine if all those people drove their individual Prius’s to work? The Google buses run like 5 times more frequently than the unused San Francisco Muni bus. Seriously, watch that and then try to tell me you are against the Google bus.
you should have seen how wack the 1R bus stop on East 14th and 8th Ave was every morning. I wish it was chill like this.
Solutions?
Maybe instead of protesting your neighborhood getting better, you should fight for laws on out of city landlords? That would be the best option in my opinion.
Fight for laws for out of city employees too.
Fight for laws against owning more than one house at a time in the city.
Every morning I have to ride BART to San Francisco for work because I can’t find a job in my own city. But as I am going down into the 12th Street BART station it is all people from Orinda, Walnut Creek, San Francisco, and so on getting off the train and working in downtown Oakland. Which, you know they are allowed to do but if the City of Oakland made employers hire say 70% local that would change everything. For the economy, environment, future, and beyond.
Rent It Out!
Sorry, I had to. (How ironic that a few years after this article I moved to Portland, the better city)
Keep Gentrifying
It’s not Oakland’s job to stay ghetto, business less, poor, and ugly so that a few people who aren’t doing anything for themselves can live here.
Instead of crying that people are chipping in to provide security because they’re tired of being robbed, maybe you should start a campaign and chip in for what you want. Schools? After school programs? Whatever you think will fix it, do it yourselves. Take action like the new residents are.
I am pro gentrification, whatever that means, and want my city to improve, expand and get better.
I am anti landlord and rent gouging and know that’s the real problem.
I am very upset at the housing situation but again, that is the city of Oakland’s fault and the proxy landlords like mine. Not the new residents.
Update: Moving out of Oakland was the best thing I ever did. I can’t believe I spent my whole life there. I guess I just didn’t know any better.
Subscribe for my upcoming article on the matter.
Conclusion?
If you are dead weight, don’t do anything for yourself or your city, don’t have a job or try to get one, live a life of crime, hate new residents, cry about positive change, and are an overall part of the problem in Oakland, I would like to see you “pushed out” ASAP.
You belong in Antioch, Tracy, Modesto, or wherever people are being pushed to. Oakland has places to go, and people to see.
You do not need to be so close to San Francisco, downtown Oakland, major transportation, real jobs, new food and entertainment establishments, and so on.
Don’t make some random persons opinion your facts!
Now about these top list that spread like wildfire. That shows the strong love of Oakland from all the newcomers.
The most recent one was kind of BS and just a great advertising ploy to rise living costs.
This no one site dubbed Oakland the most exciting city in America, but if you look deeper they really just picked the hottest housing markets and linked to all of their houses on the market to pull in a nice commission. Brilliant.
They are not an authority and have likely never been here or to any of those cities. But because it was an advertisement, they paid all the local news affiliates to post it and then because people are sheep, it manipulated their strong Oakland pride, so they posted an advertisement without being paid all over Facebook. Such a great marketing campaign.
What gets me is how people act as if something on the internet makes it so. I love my city but won’t call it the most exciting city in America because I read it on a commission-based site.
Update: That same site puts out a new top or best list about Oakland every few months. And many other cities with housing rental price problems. You guys keep falling for it and reposting it and they keep earning commissions on home sales.
Another list dubbed Oakland the 10th most walkable city in the nation. REALLY?
They based it on the stretch of 14th from Broadway to Lake Merritt. Not even the actual Lake Merritt, just the stretch before.
Which I walk almost every day.
That sidewalk is so uneven you may break your ankle, it has bus stop benches in the middle of the path with streams of urine flowing from behind them, people get robbed there all of the time, and there are no real places you would want to stop, nowhere to sit, relax, hang out and cell phone reception is spotty at times.
Riding your bike down that street is sketchy too because you’re so close to the cars and there is no bike lane.
Another BS list that was posted all over the internet by zombies who value the opinion of some random person writing an article.
NY Times(aka one guy who wrote an article) said that Oakland is the number 5 vacation must-visit spot in the world? THAT is a joke. I could think of a thousand better places to vacation.
So people posted this all over as “NY Times”. But there are many schmucks who “blog” aka “write articles” for the NY Times. One idiot’s opinion. You made it a “fact”.
The way I see it the guy came here for a few weeks, gathered some info, and was paid by a few local restaurants for a spot in the NY Times. We all know Oakland is NOT in the top 5 must-visit cities in the world.
All I’m saying is don’t make someone else’s opinion your fact. Think for yourself.
And stop acting like you’re so against gentrification when you yourself moved here recently or 10 years ago. YOU are the force that you dislike. You should be taking it out on the proxy landlords deciding the rent prices.
Let’s go Oakland!
Keep getting better!
UPDATE!
I Moved To Portland for 4 years until it got wrecked by the same crowd that wrecked Oakland and am now in Vegas which is actively getting wrecked by Californians fleeing their own kind.
I got so sick of my lame Orinda landlords crazy stunts, crime rising, food being too expensive, public transportation sucking, people being mad at me for being white, the new Oakland residents being so damn weird and cliche, lack of jobs, lack of food options, etc that I bailed on my home city.
I always thought Oakland was so awesome, maybe because I did not know any better? But after one random trip to Portland, I moved right away. Best choice I ever made.
As for the show Portlandia? Oakland is 10x more that show than Portland is. I really think all of those people moved to Oakland.
Subscribe for an update and a full-length article as to why I left my city and love my new city way more. But whatever you do, STAY there. Do not follow me to Portland.
But really, I will be launching PortlandMofo soon and you can still follow me on Instagram. Because I am saving my photos for the new site it is not as active but will be again soon.
I also still have new articles coming for OaklandMofo. I have lived there my entire life and could write about plenty even from Portland so please do subscribe.
Featured Reader Comment On Gentrification
This comment by Just Collins, who grew up in Oakland as well, was worth more than just falling into the line so I decided to feature it for you all to read.
“It’s a wrap for old school, kill or be killed ‘Cokeland’. It’s 2015, all the crack baby criminals have either grown up, been killed or sentenced. I am a 25 year old black man, been in Oakland my whole life. I’ve PERSONALLY seen my neighborhood of North Oakland (40th to Alcatraz ave, Telegraph Ave to San Pablo) go from about 70% black to 5% black from the late 1990’s till now. Aside from factual information provided in this article, what really happens/happened in these black neighborhoods and households is this-
Crack era America (1980’s till early 2000’s in Oakland) really severely damaged black America and the black family structure itself. This is obvious to some degree but really unfathomable unless you grew up in these homes and neighborhoods yourself. What it left was a division of three generations of African Americans-
The grandparents: those who moved to Oakland mostly from the South who had some sort of career or income and bought homes in North, East and West Oakland.
The addicted: African Americans born in the 1950’s thru early 1970’s who were hardest hit and affected by the crack epidemic, I.e- my parents and most of my existing family. A lot of Blacks who are now or were addicted were once on a road of employment and affluence, however, the devastation and addiction of the 1980’s would be too much for some to bare. A real life example of this would be in 1986 when one of my aunts was murdered in Oakland by a serial rapist, and the 1992 murder of my father which caused further devastation, despair and addiction in my family.
The children: African American kids born in the 1980’s and 90’s in crack era Oakland to addicted parents. Growing up in a neighborhood or household full of violence can severely hinder ones sense of self respect, self esteem, responsibility, etc. You are forced to grow up at an early age and some are not ready to shoulder the responsibility. I have seen people repeat the cycle and some walk a more righteous path, and I’m not sure who is to blame.
When a lot of the ‘grandparents’ in this trifecta began to die off or sale property bc they didn’t wanna die in Cokeland or deal with there crackhead kids having kids anymore (circa about 1995-05 heaviest period, still continuing today as Oakland becomes whiter by the month) it left the conundrum of foreclosure and a housing surplus being left to an irresponsible family of dwindling crackheads fighting with the lesser group of responsible ones, with displaced children in the mist of it all, being raised in a crackhouse. Once granny dies and the crackheads can’t pay the bills, here comes that good ole eviction/foreclosure. Now you’ve got a three bedroom Victorian rotting away, 10 min Bart ride from SF albeit.
Fast forward to Oakland 2015, and hell, it’s a brighter day after all. What were left with is rent inflation, Whole Foods, Lake Merritt is finally clean, Golden State Warriors have the best record in the western conference, etc. I’d say the robberies are probably closely related to the proficiency of cannabis clubs over the past ten years (2005 til now, I graduated high school 2007, selling weed on the streets of Oakland used to be a BIG deal and an easy come up) and also no more crack to sale (and of course a convicted felon can’t return to a legal lifestyle, right??) even in the darkest corners of West Oakland (def not the whole East) crackheads are walking more blocks than ever to get that lil fix. White girls jog past the renovated Acorn and Campbell Village projects, And an honest living black guy like myself can’t afford to live in the city I was raised in (even selling a lil bud on the side won’t cut).
Time to move to an affordable, crip free area of Northern LA were I can pursuit my songwriting passions and meet a white woman to settle down with so I can rewrite the wrongs of my crack-cocaine ruined childhood! Hope this was somewhat informative to some, I would love to do some more writing from the perspective of the oppressed legally abiding black, not the section 8 dwelling complainee.”
Tatyana says
I’d love to see an article on San Francisco.
DisillusionedOaklandResident says
Random question, but would that landlord from Orinda’s name happen to start with a D? I have this sneaking suspicion that my landlord was your landlord.
OaklandMofo says
Well, I think you have the guy. He owns more than one building in Oakland, but if you’re anywhere near the Shell station on East 14th and 5th Ave and D is his first name and his last name rhymes with Jerk, it’s because he is a jerk.
DisillusionedOaklandResident says
My god, it really is him! I’m renting an apartment in one of his buildings on 14th ave by the hospital.
The guy’s a complete piece of shit. He was real friendly when we first spoke, but he quickly began showing his true colors.
The place looked nice at first but a few days after I moved in I started noticing all the problems… extremely noisy degenerate neighbors, poorly maintained windows and doors, a slippy hot water knob in the shower that requires constant tightening, etc.
When I complained to him about all the noise in the building he told me “you have no right to complain, and I don’t want to hear any more complaints from you. You’re oversensitive and don’t know what its like to live in an apartment”.
This was in response to me complaining about a group of young adults literally standing on the roof of the building screaming at the top of their lungs for like 3 hours. The funny thing is that I’ve lived in apartments my entire life (28 years) and never had these issues before.
Everything about this place is sketchy as hell. The laundry machines are filthy and barely work, the resident building manager is some sketchy-ass dude who doesn’t seem to give a shit about the building and is hardly ever there, and at least half the units in the building are occupied by noisy hood rats.
He’s charging me almost $1500/month for a studio. I found his Facebook page and the guy is constantly making posts bragging about all the expensive, exotic vacations he takes.
I know for a fact he wouldn’t tolerate spending a single night in this building. Yet, this pasty, rich fuck has the nerve to tell me that I’m oversensitive and don’t know what it’s like to live in an apartment from the comfort of his quiet fancy home in Orinda paid for with my rent money. I bet this guy has never lived in an apartment in his entire life.
My lease doesn’t expire until October and I just don’t know what to do. I want to just cut my losses and move out, but I’m worried that he’ll keep my $1700 deposit and mess up my credit.
I contacted the Oakland Tenant’s Union and they told me my only recourse would be to sue him, but I have a feeling that would be a drawn out legal battle and could end up costing me much more than just breaking my lease…
Matt says
Yeah that guy is a psycho. You should try to get out now. He threatened me with violence after I moved out. While I was living there he would get irrationally pissed about simple things, show up to my door screaming and shaking like he was loosing his mind.
JohnnyP707 says
As an Oakland native, I’m confused. I don’t know what the solution is. I remember the crime, poverty, and harassment from the police that I experienced in the late 90’s. I joined the military in 2000 to get away from the many problems. I always hoped that Oakland would get better. After my military service I attempted to come back home. I knew things had not changed much but I was ok with that because I wanted to be part of the change. I wanted to use my military experience and college education to establish myself and eventually buy property or a business to contribute to Black ownership. I was shocked at how much the cost of living had increased. Unfortunately, there was no way I could afford to move back home so the closest I could get was the North Bay. I want Oakland to get better. Low crime, better jobs, affordable housing. I’m just not sure that gentrification is the best answer. Oakland could end up being another San Francisco. How is that turning out? As someone else mentioned the Mission is no longer the Mission that I remember.
Emiliano says
Damn that’s cold because I grew up in the SF mission district and gentrification has completely ruined our neighborhood with hella white hipsters moving in and pushing out families who’ve been in the mission for generations. Because those tech white people can afford to live in a flat that a Latin family can barely afford, they’re forced to move somewhere in the peninsula or elsewhere to accommodate the young white person who has no idea what the real mission was like. To them it’s just trendy and fun but in my opinion, I say F_CK THEM HIPSTERS RUINING MY NEIGHBORHOOD! GO HOME!
El Dedo says
I’m sure the Latinos were similarly received as they moved into a predominantly Polish, German and Irish Mission district back in the 1920s and 30s.
Neighborhoods change. Deal.
Brian William Doty III says
Interesting article. My family arrived in Oakland in 1853. That isn’t a typo. My great-grandfather and his brothers worked at the iron foundry that forged the lamp posts that adorn Lake Merritt. My grandmother participated in the General Strike. My uncles worked in the International Harvester factory.
I have, therefore, enough of a historical bird’s eye view to without exception that Oakland has had many such shifts. Go back far enough and you’ll find out Italians originally inhabited most of West Oakland, building several powerhouse companies (Oakland Scavenger, Colombo Bread, etc).
There was once street cars all over the city, including one that went up 73rd Ave and did a turn around at the top of the hill. Oakland was once the “Detroit of the West”, with several auto makers’ having manufacturing plants here — including Chevrolet. Where’d it all go? Why did it go? Who cried?
I’ve loved the Asian and Latino influx into the city. They are so much like the Italian, French and German immigrants who came a century earlier looking to work hard and build.
And the hipsters aren’t doing anything new, either. Telegraph Avenue was once lined with great restaurants in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s that would make your average hipster today soil himself with envy.
Is it changing? I guess. Is it bad? No more so than any of the other times it has changed.
yadda says
Stay out of Portland.. there are too many whites as it is.
Mitchell in Oakland says
“Too many whites” in Portland? That’s Portland! No one’s forcing you to live there.
Imagine somebody saying, “Stay out of Oakland; there are already too many blacks as it is.”
Or were you being satirical in the first place?
Didier says
Your obsession with simplifying this issue is absurd. “Proxy” landlords the main problem? Really? That’s all?
Good riddance, please stay in Portland.
OaklandMofo says
I’m sorry, who is it that is deciding the rent prices?
P27 says
The market place!!! Supply & demand!!!
OaklandMofo says
Cop out.
I sold weed for a decade.
Just because many people were selling 8ths for $35-$55 does not mean I had to. I can sell for $25, make less but hook people up. My choice.
It is the proxy landlords that already have money and see the next door proxy landlord is charging $1,500 for a studio, so he can too. That is just greed and “supply and demand” is BS.
Andrew says
How is it BS? It’s part of the explanation, part of how the economy functions. I wouldn’t be paying $1000/month for a room in Oakland if the supply were sufficiently large. I simply can’t find a pet-friendly room for less yet. A huge reason why rent where I’m originally from (Pittsburgh) has remained relatively steady is big supply, moderate demand. The city, until recently, has lost residents for decades. It’s not solely an issue of greed, although many landlords here certainly are taking advantage. And that’s what monopolies do too and why competition in capitalism, analogous to “supply,” is relevant.
OaklandMofo says
I do know how the “supply and demand” cop out works and know that Oakland was invaded by outsiders causing proxy landlords to inflate prices under this pretense. Profiting on ones living situation is BS and there is no legit reason to charge $1,000 over reasonable prices just because “demand”. Your “supply” has not changed as a proxy landlord. But your profits sure did rise.
If caps were put on profiting from housing, the “supply and demand” would stay the same and people could afford to live where they want. The only one who loses out are the greedy landlords who should not be making that much to begin with.
Ashurbanipal says
Good article!
Big Bill Knowland says
Dig, my family rolled up in Oakland in 1853. Whole lotta my kinfolk rest peacefully up on Mountain View.
I grew up hearing about restaurants like Dahlke’s, Nick’s Bar, Pland’s, Hanson’s … all once on Temescal. Now restaurants are popping up there once more and it’s gentrification?
Strange indeed.
Socoyo says
I am a fourth generation Oaklander. My family was one of the families to be of color here and own a house. Gentrification only benefits those who are marketable enough to be tokenized and those who are white due to privilege. Instead of a joint effort, Oakland is being taken over by force. Many people like yourself will never know about brown struggle because, as you stated … You lived in a north Oakland which was a way better/safer/privileged community due to being so close to Berkeley and adequate resources. If I were to apply for an apartment and you applied for the same… Who do you think would be chosen? And please spare me your definitions of gentrification and other anecdotes about how racism is over. Oakland being gentrified might make it a little prettier at times but, the culture is being wiped out completely. I respect your rant but, before you go being PRO gentrification, please understand that this movement was originally created through white supremacy and segregation. You my friend are supporting white supremacy when you state that gentrification is a good thing. However, you too will be forced out one day and will understand the struggle that others go through daily with survival. It’s only a matter of time when your evicted and told to move hours away.. It’s only a matter of time when it takes you almost five hours to get to and from work because, you’ve been forced out of your community. These things are reality for people displaced by gentrification. See you on the other side.
OaklandMofo says
I guess you did not read the whole article.
One, I am from East Oakland and have never lived in North Oakland.
Two, “gentrification” DID push me out of Oakland where I was born and raised. The proxy landlord from Orinda made my life hell for 3 years after taking over my building and I moved to Portland when he was attempting to evict me over and over without reason to raise the units rent by $400+ dollars.
It sure is nicer and cheaper up here in Portland!
I would never even want to move back to the ghettos of Oakland where people got hostile towards me because others moved into my city.
Don’t be mad at your new neighbors that don’t trash Oakland and who pick up after themselves.
And don’t call them “privileged” because they are white.
Be mad at the rich people that bought the building that your neighbors are renting. They are the ones who decide the rental prices and if they want to discriminate or not. Not the renters. They are just struggling to survive in the Bay Area like anyone else.
I think you mean “class privilege” because being white has nothing to do with being rich. I sure got no benefits growing up poor and white in the hood.
Cynthia Cornelius(I Love Oakland, CA fb) says
I am born and raised in Oakland and I have seen the changes which have occurred over the years. I must say that was is going on now in Oakland is great AS LONG as the natives are not displaced or excluded from the economic transformation.
yadda says
It’s white people like you moving to Portland fucking up the traffic. Your presence is raising rent and everything else….. please move back and stop telling people to move to Oregon…
OaklandMofo says
You got me twisted.
I ride my bike(no traffic), do not commute(retired life son), rent a room from my friend who owns her house and would have never even given you the option to begin with(so I ain’t raising your rent).
Now let’s be real. Locals own cars and drive them causing traffic and locals own the houses and decide the rent which is why it goes up.
As for me, all I do is chill, drop money at local bars and restaurants and tip those who have to work. Remove all us half ballers mobbing around funding your low paying jobs and you got nothing. But you still have high rent and traffic because that’s just the way of the road, Rick. Stop living in the past, you won’t survive.
Andrew Cornelius says
I currently live in Oakland but lived in Portland previously. Heh people up there often sure hate Californians and it’s for the same reason many in CA dislike incoming “gentrifiers.” It’s kinda ridiculous. Maybe everyone besides Native Americans should leave North America. I mean, let’s get consistent here.
While I love Oakland, I may have to leave the Bay post-degree from Laney. I am paying $1000/month for a room. Yes, just a freakin’ room in an old Victorian in West Oakland!
This place can make or break someone. Regardless, buying a house is definitely not in the cards unless one is uber rich. (and no, not an Uber driver hehe)
While I don’t agree Portland is necessarily “better”–the dreariness of the pacific northwest isn’t to my liking–it is cheaper/more livable.
P27 says
>>>the culture is being wiped out completely.<< You really think Oakland has always been a mixed community? After the 1908 earthquake in SF those people moved to the East Bay, Oakland!!! They were White! Oakland's crime has dropped and gentrification I'm confident has a large part to do with that!
Hannah Mendoza says
Although the East Oakland main streets might not be Gentrified and renewed. There are still many valuable homes here whether in the foot hills or just East Oakland Hills in general. So the behavior of some of the people in communities is a mess. They are a mess but East Oakland land and property value is not cheap.
Tay says
They’re starting to move towards East Oakland as well. Especially the dubs up to high street almost.
OaklandMofo says
The Dubs should be renamed really.
Murder Dubs was Oakland’s first gentrified hood in my life time.
And it was actually the mass population of Asians that moved in, bought houses with cash and started to make the neighborhoods nicer simply by not littering, killing each other or selling drugs.
I kicked it with mostly Asians in my teens and they were all “crips” but I feel gangs then were more about crews, kicking it, having each others backs, and not starting shit in your own hood.
The Dirty Thirties(where I grew up) are surely next to take on an influx of working class people looking to find a home to buy in Oakland. However the 30’s were never cleaned up like the Dubs were. The 30’s is much more Hispanic and African American and it seems from the 30’s on into the Deep East, the theme is trash your hood and who-ride the block, fuck cops.
Delorme says
For those who are forced out of communities because those with excessive disposable income cannot compete with those absence of disposable income through no fault of their own, it is hard to imagine that the definition provided by the author of this article is legitimate.
Wikipedia defines gentrification as a shift in an urban community towards wealthier residents and or businesses and increasing property values.
Gentrification can be a toxin or a balm. It the difference depends greatly on the whether the change is fast moving and invasive or natural and humane.
In an era absent of gentry “high born, noble and the well bred” I think any reference to the process of displacing people because one covets what they have and have the means to do so, smack of plutocracy (the power of wealth) replacing democracy (the power of ordinary people).
OaklandMofo says
I see your definition was Google result number one, mine was number two, from the Dictionary.
Gentrification can mean a lot of things to different people so I just went with the long standing champ, the Merriam Webster Dictionary. I just can’t bring myself to trust that there Wikipedia. What is an urban community anyway? I guess that’s another topic but let’s just say I didn’t make the definition up. It’s legitimate.
Change has been very slow moving here in Oakland. Most of the new is less than 10 years old but Oakland was an economic black-hole shadowed by San Francisco for a long time.
I still don’t think people are being displaced by force or in numbers. I can’t find any evidence of that in Oakland.
I’m not sure if you read the article or just stopped at the definition.
skylark says
All I know being a single father on Section 8 raising a 10 yr old without family support in East Oakland is extremely tough. My landlord after 4 years renting yearly decides to do month to month lease. Not even finishing my first month he wants to sell and harass me for 120 days to sell the house. Like any normal person I am not gonna wait till the house is sold and be kicked out. So I asked to move(port)out of Oakland. I did not expect to move out to a housing crisis. No landlord wants to except Section 8. All the homes are only available for people making 3 times the rent. Being on Section 8 your only allowed the rent cost price to be on the program. Anymore money in your pocket and your kicked out the program. Oakland compared to Frisco or San Mateo county is cheap. $3,000 to $6,000 is the price for a 2 bedroom house or apartment. All of this gentrification is not good for all the long time residents of the Bay Area. All the greedy landlords and realtors have destroyed the housing market. Everybody who is getting evicted(working poor) is taking all the homes available for Section 8 voucher holders here in Oakland.
natalia says
I enjoyed your post! Good job!
I can relate to it in so many ways, and I believe a lot of people with varies backgrounds can too. However, it seems like I got luckier with a proxy landlord (he never acted like an asshole and is actually a nice and helpful guy). My building is very next to the projects on Eddy, Turk, Golden Gate street passed Vanness towards the ocean in San Francisco. I am not necessarily annoyed, but definitely bothered by the fact that after the sun goes down I can’t go to the left but can only go to the right of the main entrance. The projects are on the way to go left. And then further to the left towards the bay there’s Tenderloin.
I was always wondering how did the neighborhoods like Tenderloin and other unsafe projects occurred, and why they can never get cleaned out by the city, by cleaned out I mean removed. What’s you knowledge and opinion on that?
OaklandMofo says
Honestly I do not understand how a single block can make such a huge difference either. There are invisible “ghetto erosion lines” it seems. I think it has to do with property owners but mostly the tenants. As for the city cleaning them up, it really is the property owners job as far as I know. And if the city spends the time and money to remove graffiti and such, then the residents put it back the same day, it’s their fault and the city should not waste another penny. It should be up to those who live there to respect their hood.
In Oakland we had a massive sort of famous ghetto project where many rapers like Too $hort, Seagram(RIP) and Yukmouth came out of. The 69 Village. It was torn down and redeveloped into a nice looking place. The tenants are already ruining it. Just read this review on Yelp.
abel says
The way I look at it (and the way most people look at it where I was raised) a block doesn’t belong just to the people that live there, it belongs to the whole city, and we should all expect to be able to walk around the city wherever we are, specially centric areas.
So once some residents keep fucking up the block, the city should indeed spend more pennies, and send police to the neighborhood, see exactly which residents are fucking up the block, and take action to stop it from happening again. And this is way more of a priority than beautification projects and all that.
Furthermore, it’s owed to the residents who just happen to be poor, live in rent rent-controlled apartments in those blocks, and have to raise their children as if they lived in Sierra-Leone while paying first world taxes every time they buy something.
Lee says
Are you kidding? Call OPD? If they show up! We called about a guy scribbling on a building with letters 5 ft. tall, they lied and said they were there but didn’t see anyone but I was at the location still watching him in action they never showed up. There are a lot of new people in Oakland who have no love for Oakland. The folk running Oakland only care about certain areas, just look around.
Tay says
For one OPD is not going to show up because some on is doing graffiti, they have other more important things to worry about. Look at the list. They only respond quickly to certain things…smh
Khathu says
This rant is very interesting but really sad. The issue with gentrification based on the definition you used is that it often displaces poor residents. It does displace poorer resident. You stated it yourself that if you lost your place you must likely would be able to afford the current market value rent in Oakland. Also everyone does not benefit from the economic boom and revitalization equally or at all. For a variety of reasons. Increases in property value also results in increases in property taxes. Depending on the amount of tax increase could actually force someone out of their home. In addition, as property taxes increase so does rents, food and other services. This can also lead to pushing out poorer residents.
There is this notion that long time residents do not want accessible to quality grocery stores, public schools, decent housing, safe community, etc or that they have not been fighting to obtain these things which is downright absurd. All people want access to these things regardless of their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, etc. Now all individuals might not know how to effectively organize to obtain these things.
It is people who are creating this situation not just the proxy landlords. If people are not willing to pay these high rents then the landlord could not charge them.
Keep in mind that developers and investor are mostly to invest in community and neighborhoods that have a demographic with a disposable income.
OaklandMofo says
Well, the problem is still proxy landlords.
Not the people looking to move in and can afford to pay the rents if they have the money. They are getting robbed too by the Orinda landowners.
Jean Quan herself suddenly announces this problem and a plan to build 10k more houses.
Also it was said that only 14k lost homes in foreclosures, further proving my points.
I updated that section with new data from the City of Oakland.
Gentrifier says
Glad that you pointed out a direct systemic problem (landlords) and an underlying systemic cause, the poor supply of housing. Not just in Oakland, but in the Bay Area.
Imagine being young, moving to a place where you know very few people (if any) for a job, and then trying to build a life being unable to save money. I mention this in that, for any responsible adult, this is a concern. Oddly, the dead weight described here would have no idea what I am talking about. Imagine a city where people took care of things.
John says
Agreed that it is largely not the fault of people moving here, but the description of how Oakland became “ghetto” is laughable. Since you’re from here, try knowing your history. http://www.amazon.com/American-Babylon-Struggle-Politics-Twentieth-Century/dp/0691124868
OaklandMofo says
Sorry I do know there are many factors that can be blamed on the Government for the residents actions and living styles but that was not the point of the article.
Just a brief history of how Oakland used to be versus what it turned into over the last 70 years after Kaiser and World War II.
John says
But that history has everything to do with why West Oakland became disinvested and why people think gentrification is the only way to solve it. There was a prosperous black working class in West Oakland prior to the war of porters working on the railroads and port workers. WWII brought a huge influx of workers from the south but the rules were already laid down for where black southerners could move to. So West Oakland began to overcrowd and get run down from lack of funds available for maintenance (not people trashing their nice Victorians). Then between BART, the Cypress and the Grove-Shafter 10,000 homes were destroyed from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, but even though the racist guidelines were modified by law, in practice the people displaced had few options as to where to relocate, and little buying power without much access to credit. Meanwhile, whites did not so much escape Oakland as relocate to new industrial cities like San Leandro, Milpitas, Union City, etc. With the exception of Milpitas, black Oaklanders with some money couldn’t move there, and a lot of these cities had strict zoning codes that prevented the building of multifamily housing (Robert Self, American Babylon).
So by the time black Oaklanders won control over city government, they had few resources to govern with and very high unemployment throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Even the port’s charter prevents its revenues from entering the general fund, so the city doesn’t see any of that. In this context, the only thing the city can do is encourage gentrification to increase the property tax base, largely at the expense of affordability. And the places where the most money can be made by “proxy landlords” like yours and house flippers are the places that had been black middle class areas with nice housing stock that had deteriorated because of lack of access to credit and low, often fixed incomes.
Then in the 2000s when predatory lenders, not mortgage lenders working through the Community Reinvestment Act as right-wingers will tell you https://communitycapital.unc.edu/research/debunking-the-cra-myth-again/ , went after West Oakland and Longfellow, it was often to extend home equity lines of credit to people who owned their homes outright https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/publications/working-papers/2010/december/mortgage-market-social-networks-consumer-decision/ . Hence the foreclosures after house prices fell–if you look at a map of the foreclosures, they are clustered in Longfellow, around West Oakland BART, and throughout East Oakland https://community-wealth.org/content/who-owns-your-neighborhood-role-investors-post-foreclosure-oakland . The former two areas will flip to middle-class homeowners, the latter will be absentee landlords since gentrification has yet to touch deep East Oakland.
This is the real context. You can offer examples of people not “living right” and say that bringing in wealthier people will fix that, but it doesn’t fix income disparity, which is increasing. That’s what drives gentrification, not the other way around.
OaklandMofo says
Thanks for the valuable information regarding foreclosures and targeting.
P-K4 says
I’m a black man who actually agrees with a lot of what you said, but you need to realize the impact of redlining and restrictive covenants. When I bought my (uber expensive) house here in Crocker Highlands, I was handed a document from the 40s detailing how only Caucasians were allowed to buy the property. African Americans were cordoned off and forced to live in hoods well into the 60’s. Those opportunities for wealth building amongst the black middle classes meant that their children were much more likely to slip into working/lower class-dom. The ability to separate from lower classes and go live amongst people in your actual socioeconomic class is huge, and folks were kept in place. Makes for a dysfunctional community.
Walter says
You need to know that restrictive covenants were outlawed by the Vinson Court from 1948 on. My black friends parents were able to buy houses in ANY Oakland or Berkeley neighborhood, as long as they had the money. The realtors did try to keep white areas white, but in general it was money that talked. If a black family wanted to move to the hills there were no real restrictions.
ed c says
I like what you have to say. I too also like the gentrification that is taking place in West Oakland. Majority of the new people I meet are either new to the area or are from San Francisco, as myself. I am aware people get pushed away from desirable areas. I was one of them. I could not afford a $900k house, all cash so I had to go where I could afford. It’s no ones fault except for mine. I don’t feel pity for myself. Can I get another or a different field so I can afford it? Of course. The person that said “well you are not a mother of 3” or “you are not poor so you don’t understand” is making excuses.Stop making excuses. No one is telling people to have 3 kids and not be able to afford them. I had my first child at the age of 35, because I couldn’t afford them at an early age. People making too many excuses. It really has something to do with parenting. You had a good parent that taught you right from wrong. You understand that some people have it easier than others but you can have the same things. No one is stopping you except yourself. I am from Mexico, became a citizen of this beautiful country, got a job, attended a University in San Francisco with hard work and loans, repaying my loans of $500 a month, got married, had a daughter and bought my home. I am not rich. No one gave me a dime. In other peoples eyes I am a minority and overcame hardship BUT I don’t see it that way. White, Black, Asian, Latin, same thing. One does not have more power over others in my eyes and I think that’s what really made me successful. Sorry about the rant, you just inspired me. Good luck and keep expressing your opinion. Btw…. this is not a term paper so excuse any typos/grammatical errors. Peace out #WestOakland
OaklandMofo says
Very well said.
And I honestly do think the difference between myself and the peers I grew up around was parents with values and morals. And of course my drive to strive and struggle to survive. The right way.
Mimi says
This is a good article. I must point out that Oakland was a place of mutual tolerance and respect for other cultures as far back as it’s history reaches. When Kaiser brought in the workers, they also UNFORTUNATELY brought ignorant whites from the south too who did not like the fact that African Americans were treated equally here and that they ended up living together in the same neighborhoods. The African Americans found it easier to fight racism in Oakland than they had in the south and they fought back against this. I feel it’s an important fact that gets swept under the rug repeatedly. I am glad that Oakland welcomes all people, we need to remember this and embrace it. We are far from perfection, but we are still better off than most other cities. Lets keep moving forward together and show the rest of the country how beautiful life can be.
John says
Please explain how the racial redlining of Oakland west of Telegraph/Grove MLK in the 1937 maps dictating Federal Housing Administration lending guidelines means African-Americans were treated equally.
Kenny says
You know your stuff. People don’t know that Oakland once used to be more white. Well said.
will says
You are correct. My old rich white co worker told me that she lived in San Francisco and West Oakland was the location of their summer houses, they’d catch the ferry boats over the bay for the summer. Many had servants who lived in the back houses, hence all of the Victorians with 2 houses on the lot.
Owen says
Ask yourself this, who benefits from gentrification?
Who doesn’t?
Oakland Mofo says
All residents in an area benefit from new services.
This can all happen without proxy landlords like mine who buy the housing and skyrocket the rent prices.
marc says
I enjoyed your rant. Actually was well-reasoned. Took me a while to find your site again because I recalled somewhere there was a tally of 2013 murders and felt we had a nice drought lately and so was looking for it. Google must not like you or I search poorly. The irony of “gentrification” is that what people are complaining about is the removal of the reason the area is cheap to live, that is being run-down and crime-ridden. So the people against it are really saying they want the place run-down so lower income people can afford to live there, which may actually be the case for some people. But I think society doesn’t want that. Still, it is kind of sad that the only way to be able to afford to live in some cities is if the area is dangerous, but space is limited so this is a fact of economics.
OaklandMofo says
I think it could all happen without the rent increases.
The only person who decides that is usually one who does not live in the city.
Like my landlord.
He is already charging insane amounts for my area which is not nice and is still run down. No gentrification on International Blvd yet.
For the murder rate article it’s still updated all the time.
https://oaklandmofo.com/blog/oakland-homicide-count-is-rising
Brynn Kennedy says
Interesting argument, but what your analysis lacks is the systemic and systematic slashing of social service programs that provide opportunities for folks to improve their lives and communities for the better. Like you said, you love Oakland, you are second generation, you grew up in and around 'the hood,' but at the end of the day you are still a "tall-ass white dude" who will never no what it's like to be a single mother of three struggling everyday, just like I will never know what it's like to be an undocumented immigrant or indentured servant. No hate, just saying. :-)
Sometimes folks forget how much worse it could be….
Values rising says
One gentrifier has written elsewhere, “We were looking to live in our homes & improve the area…”
That’s a problem when an area is rundown and those living there want to keep it that way. To some extent, “rundown” is a function of poverty — i.e., lack of resources and a concurrent divergence of priorities and personal styles.
Moreover, what’s this business about people being pushed off their “ancestral land”? — a perverse twist on “There goes the neighborhood”?
What’s often ignored in many of these discussions is that gentrified neighborhoods in Oakland often remain ethnically, culturally, and racially diverse — if they don’t, indeed, become more so. What ends up lacking is income diversity alone. Those who get pushed out in Oakland are often poor blacks, who wrap themselves in the mantle of diversity, even as they resent the incursion of upwardly-striving Asians and Latinos (and occasionally, pioneering whites).
By the way, if one shops wisely, it’s possible to eat better, and more cheaply, by buying groceries even at Whole Foods, compared with the overpriced offerings at the ghetto mart!
How can anyone miss the multiple layers of irony (and Orwellian doublethink) implicit in a static, formulaic class analysis that purports to dictate “social justice” according to an aging laundry list of recognized “oppressions” and exclusionary group entitlements?
Meanwhile, how does someone get to be a single mother of three? No hating’; just saying’. ;-)
Guest says
I enjoyed this article. I’d simply like to point out that Trader Joe’s is relatively inexpensive compared to Whole Foods. They are mentioned together but they aren’t the same. We shop at Trader Joe’s cause there are low cost options for quality goods. We avoid Whole Foods except for limited items.
I get a kick out of the ancestral lands bit. Unless you are a Native American, then this isn’t really your ancestral land.
You know California was once part of Mexico. So this can be the ancestral land for some Latinos. Maybe it is better to accept each other than try to claim some great right over another group.
Values rising says
Trader Joe’s is great for cheese and some specialty items; Whole Foods is actually quite cheap (better than TJs), particularly for other dairy and juices, if you buy the “365” house brand. My problem with TJ’s is that most of what they sell is highly processed industrial product, prepared for the microwave — masquerading as health food. What else would you expect from a chain headquartered in a suburb of LA?
As for “ancestral lands,” I was born a New York Jew. It took me until I was in my 60s to recognize that (like all humans) I’m indigenous to life. If not, where else? I love Oakland; it’s my home!
OaklandMofo says
Yeah most Trader Joe’s stuff doesn’t even have oven cooking instructions on the package and I don’t own a microwave.
If you really look into it, it’s all terrible for you.
Over processed, sodium doused, saturated fat ridden corn syrup based junk.
Almost all of it.
Microwave only.
It really was a huge marketing ploy to seem like a healthier option but it’s just junk.
I refuse to shop there.
East Oakland got a new massive Food Co that I am going to go check out. I wonder if the options are healthy and affordable.
will says
Actually the food at Grocery Outlet is cheaper and the same food. Also California was invaded by the Spanish/Mexican army. I was taught that there were several American Indian tribes in California before the Spanish and Juniper Serra and others arrived to convert/enslave the Indians in Mexico. The local tribes of California before it was named, were killed almost down to the last man by the whites. Read the true story of Ieshi. Also most Mexicans are descendants of Spanish and Mexican Indians and South American tribes, which is why many sir names are Spanish from Spain. Rodriguez, Ruiz etc. Educate and learn from the past. This is ALL GODS land and we visit it for just a little while, but some lie, steal and kill over it.
Lee says
Mexico was created after the invasion of Spain. North America has its own tribes throughout the continent. ( Sioux, Crow, Mohegan, Cheyenne etc) And yes you are right, Californias native Indian tribes was killed by the white man down to the last man Ieshi. Scientists believe these tribes of North America had been here for thousands of years. Read your history, we can all live here without being predatory and greedy.
Walter says
You need a brush up a bit. You are thinking of Ishi, supposedly the last of his particular tribe though the truth is uncertain.
I am descended from a Pomo woman who married my great-great-grandfather. They had three children between 1858 and 1862 – personally I know about 100 of her descendants. Her tribe originated in Clear Lake, where they still live. There are California Indians living throughout the state, more than 50 recognized tribes.
Although many Indians were killed by white men, the vast majority (upwards of 90%) fell to diseases (smallpox, measles, diphtheria, etc.) that actually traveled faster than the arrival of white settlers. Some of those diseases came with native travelers to North America during the 16th century before any white settlements were founded. The die-off was most severe in Mexico, and it extended throughout South America. Early white settlers did not understand these disease vectors, and they could not control them; in the early days charges of genocide do not apply.
By the 18-19th century, it was a mixed bag. By then germ theory had advanced and there were isolated instances of purposeful infection of Indian tribes with smallpox, however there were also attempts to immunize tribes and save lives.
Injustices abounded; that much is clear. It all could have been done much better, but in general such invasions of one people by another are not peaceful even when racial differences do not pertain – read the history of early Britain, for example. Charles C. Mann‘s books, “1491” and “1493,” are excellent on this subject.