Authors:

Todd Harvey, Desiree Espinoza, Jeremy Hays, Julia Friskin, B. D. Howard, Chris Huynh, Pitch Pengasawat, Eathen Guss, George Kao, Lisa Russ, Jonathan Fearn, Radhika Kunamneni, Egon Terplan, Jonathan Lau, Bao-Tran Truong

Coordinators:

Fred Blackwell

Heather McCulloch

This paper was written as a graduate course project in City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley Fall 1999

In the Bay Area, there's certainly going to be a lot more cars. There's going to be certainly a million more people. There will be more congestion getting into San Francisco, particularly when so many thousands of parking spaces are removed in the next few months. So there's all sorts of reasons why people should move to Oakland instead of fighting all the urban congestion that you're going to have here.

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown

Either you want gentrification or you want slumification.

Paraphrasing of Mayor Brown at a community meeting

Brief Background History of West Oakland

West Oakland has often been a site for new residents. The neighborhood's location on rail lines, next to the Port and downtown Oakland, and just across from San Francisco has provided many generations of workers with affordable homes in a sunny and convenient environment. Recently, these same qualities of affordability and location have begun to attract additional attention to West Oakland. Many residents and observers now believe that West Oakland is in the process of gentrifying. This report analyzes the process of gentrification in West Oakland and demonstrates that gentrification is indeed occurring, though is in its early stages.

In the first chapter, the authors explore the causes of the gentrification process in West Oakland. In the second chapter, the authors characterize what the effects of gentrification have been thus far on the community and describe the neighborhood's particular vulnerabilities to gentrification. In the third chapter, the authors discuss best practices in different communities to combat gentrification. In a final chapter, the authors identify particular recommendations to the community as it confronts the causes and effects of gentrification.

Chapter 1: Causes of Gentrification

Section I: External Causes of Gentrification
Section II, Local Factors: A) the General role of the city, 10k, Waterfront Development, and Army Base Redevelopment
Section II, Local Factors: B) City Specific Policies, Tenant Protections, Home Ownership, and Zoning
Section III: The Community as an Intervening Variable for Gentrification Forces

Key Findings
General Effects of Gentrification
Methodology
Residents' views of gentrification
Vulnerabilities
Potential Strengths

CASE 1: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
CASE 2: BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA
CASE 3: HUMBOLDT PARK, CHICAGO, IL
CASE 4: HARLEM, NEW YORK CITY, NY
CASE 5: SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY
CASE 6: TENDERLOIN DISTRICT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
CASE 7: SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
CASE 8: LOWER EAST SIDE, NEW YORK CITY, NY
Summary
Recommendations

Footnotes