[sudo-discuss] Tech Boom Spurs Changes in West Oakland | KQED News Fix

Tue Jul 29 11:39:26 PDT 2014

fuck off =

here's you "I have an opinion - I don't want to think about alternate POVs,
I don't want to look up any info, I want my life to be protected from
things that are confusing. I want to bully people who disagree with me."

whoever runs this list is free to ban me. I am not going to leave because
you're too insecure in your position to be nuanced or thoughtful.

On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:33 AM, Praveen Sinha <dmhomee at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm not getting into it Sonja.  Please leave and unsubscribe.  Please feel
> free to reply and back me up if you feel similarly.
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:29 AM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> be more specific - do you think there are zero black homeowners in west
>> oakland?
>> that is a fact you can look up.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 11:27 AM, Praveen Sinha <dmhomee at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Sonja,
>>>
>>> Please take your racist behavior and messages to some other space.  It's
>>> not welcome at sudoroom.
>>>
>>> Have a good day,
>>> Praveen
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 8:12 AM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> That headline is true, but the condos pictured are from the 2008 boom.
>>>> :p "recently"
>>>> Also, no mention of the black retirees and heirs thrilled about their
>>>> new wealth.
>>>> I'm looking forward to less lazy reporting.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Monday, July 28, 2014, Romy at snowyla.com <romy at snowyla.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2014/07/15/tech-boom-west-oakland
>>>>>
>>>>> Tech Boom Spurs Changes in West Oakland
>>>>> [image: Zephyr Gate, a new condo complex several blocks from the West
>>>>> Oakland BART station. (Sam Harnett/KQED)]
>>>>>
>>>>> A new condo complex several blocks from the West Oakland BART station.
>>>>> (Sam Harnett/KQED)
>>>>>
>>>>> Once, you may have gone to West Oakland to hear James Brown or Aretha
>>>>> Franklin play the clubs on Seventh Street. The street was the center of a
>>>>> neighborhood rich in African-American history. NBA legend Bill Russell
>>>>> lived in West Oakland, and the Black Panthers had an office on Peralta
>>>>> Street.
>>>>>
>>>>> But the clubs closed decades ago and Bill Russell is long gone. In
>>>>> their wake, a new wave of residents are sweeping into the neighborhood —
>>>>> many of them white, and many of them coming from San Francisco because of
>>>>> the tech boom.
>>>>>
>>>>> According to the 2010 census, Oakland has more white inhabitants than
>>>>> black residents for the first time since the 1970s. Neighborhoods have been
>>>>> changing for decades, but the expanding tech industry is speeding up the
>>>>> process.
>>>>>
>>>>> Meanwhile, sky-high rents are pushing people out of San Francisco,
>>>>> with many ending up in West Oakland, the first BART stop on the east side
>>>>> of the bay.
>>>>>
>>>>> Over the last few decades, West Oakland has seen an increase of
>>>>> abandoned factories and shuttered businesses. Danita Robinson, a member of
>>>>> the Center Street Baptist Church on Tenth Street, says for a long time
>>>>> nobody would invest in West Oakland. But she says there is now more
>>>>> development in the neighborhood.
>>>>> [image: Esther's Orbit Room]
>>>>>
>>>>> The now-defunct Esther’s Orbit Room on Seventh Street in West Oakland.
>>>>> The unassuming club played host to many greats of jazz, blues and R&B,
>>>>> including Etta James, Al Green, B.B. King and Tina Turner. (Photo:
>>>>> RadioNicole/Flickr)
>>>>>
>>>>> For instance, developers recently built a high-end condo complex in
>>>>> West Oakland called Zephyr Gate. It’s a couple of blocks long and within
>>>>> walking distance from the West Oakland BART stop.
>>>>>
>>>>> “That was so abandoned for such a long time,” Robinson says. “Now it
>>>>> is all nice over there and Mr. Google and Mr. Doctor are living there.”
>>>>>
>>>>> Referring to to an old nickname for one section of the neighborhood,
>>>>> she asks, “What could we have put back there outside of these condos that
>>>>> would have been beneficial to the West Oakland area, especially what we
>>>>> call the lower bottoms down here?”
>>>>>
>>>>> Kenna Stormwell-Gougis lives in a Victorian across from the Center
>>>>> Street Baptist Church. She bought the house a decade ago.
>>>>>
>>>>> “I was the only white person on this block 10 years ago,” she says,
>>>>> “and now, I would say the block is 40 percent white.” She says lots of new
>>>>> people are riding by on bikes and popping in and out of old Victorian
>>>>> houses.
>>>>>
>>>>> Danita Robinson doesn’t think of the newcomers as West Oaklanders.
>>>>>
>>>>> “I call them San Franciscans,” she says. “Why else would you be moving
>>>>> to this area and not another area of Oakland? Because it’s three blocks
>>>>> from the BART station.”
>>>>> Dawn Phillips is the program co-director at Causa Justa::Just Cause.
>>>>> His organization published a report that shows some market-rate rents in
>>>>> West Oakland to be higher than in Rockridge and the Oakland Hills — two of
>>>>> the most affluent areas in the city.
>>>>>
>>>>> “When we looked at that data it blew us away,” Phillips says. “We did
>>>>> not know that.”
>>>>>
>>>>> Rent is rising throughout Oakland. The real estate company Trulia says
>>>>> rents increased 10.8 percent in May from the year before. That is the third
>>>>> highest rent hike in the country behind San Diego and San Francisco. The
>>>>> median price for a two-bedroom is now $2,450 a month.
>>>>>
>>>>> “This is a regional pressure that is being created,” Phillips says.
>>>>> “It is rippling out from San Francisco.” Soon he says, it will hit
>>>>> neighborhoods farther out in the Bay Area.
>>>>>
>>>>> In gathering data for their report, Causa Justa::Just Cause found an
>>>>> increase in the eviction and displacement of Africans-Americans from
>>>>> Oakland. Phillips says the current demographic change is just the final
>>>>> stage after decades of disinvestment in the area: “We understand
>>>>> gentrification to be pretty long-term, long-evolving historic process that
>>>>> is actually very systematic in nature.”
>>>>> [image: 10th and Wood]
>>>>>
>>>>> 10th and Wood, a new sandwich shop near the Zephyr Gate condo complex.
>>>>> (Photo: Sam Harnett/KQED)
>>>>>
>>>>> Ron Lindsey can tell you first-hand how the long-term process played
>>>>> out in West Oakland, where he grew up. His father and uncle worked at the
>>>>> Navy shipyard. He saw that get shut down and the factory jobs shipped
>>>>> overseas. Then the businesses on Seventh Street started closing. He can
>>>>> still point out where they all were — a clothing store, a shoe shine
>>>>> parlor, barber shops, candy shops and night clubs. “All of these were black
>>>>> businesses,” Lindsey says.
>>>>>
>>>>> After companies outsourced the neighborhood’s factory jobs, the tax
>>>>> base eroded and social services were cut. Unemployment and violence spiked.
>>>>> Lindsey watched as highways and train lines carved up the neighborhood. The
>>>>> elevated BART rails got built right over Seventh Street. Now where there
>>>>> was once music, there is the screech of trains, drowning out everything
>>>>> below. People left. Eventually, so did Lindsey.
>>>>>
>>>>> Phillips says gentrification is this whole progression, from job loss
>>>>> to neighborhood decay to redevelopment.
>>>>>
>>>>> Danita Robinson says even though things are changing, there is no way
>>>>> for her to move up.
>>>>>
>>>>> “I don’t want to be low-rent,” Robinson says. “I don’t want to be
>>>>> low-income. I would like to move up. I can’t afford that condo. It looks
>>>>> nice. I want to be in that condo. But you killed all my jobs, so how am I
>>>>> gonna get in that condo?”
>>>>>
>>>>> Robinson cleans houses for a living, and her husband works two jobs.
>>>>> The couple is expecting a baby, so she hopes they can find better
>>>>> employment soon.
>>>>>
>>>>> *Note: The caption for the top photo in this post has been updated.
>>>>> The original caption identified the condo displayed as part of  Zephyr
>>>>> Gate, which KQED has not been able to confirm.*
>>>>>
>>>>> *Explore*: Oakland <http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/tag/oakland/>, Priced
>>>>> Out <http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/tag/priced-out/>, West Oakland
>>>>> <http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/tag/west-oakland/>
>>>>>
>>>>> *Category*: Housing
>>>>> <http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/category/housing-2/>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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