Rejuvenating West Oakland’s 7th Street as a Black arts, business, & cultural district.
Will you be our neighbor? Build the future of 7th Street with us.
Will you be our neighbor? Build the future of 7th Street with us.
INTRODUCTION
Bay Area LISC, in partnership with East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC), is embarking on an emerging Economic Inclusion Strategy on the historic business corridor 7th Street in West Oakland, CA—This is a multi-year effort that supports an integrated, place-based approach to advancing a collective economic revitalization in which everyone is considered, and the community is prioritized. We call this approach community-led master planning.
The vision for the 7th Street Economic Inclusion Action Planning process is to create a thriving Black business, arts, and cultural district that draws on and sustains 7th Street’s rich legacy of Black community solidarity, cultural activism, and political resistance.
This will be done by supporting the sustained activation of underutilized commercial space, providing technical assistance to Black and People of Color businesses, and reviving the community character of the 7th Street corridor.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
In the early 1900s, Black migrants escaping the South arrived in West Oakland to build safe lives and find work. Overtime, they built a hub for black communities on the West Coast that rivaled Harlem and was known as the Harlem of the West.
However, between the 1950s and the 1960s, West Oakland’s population decreased by twenty percent. Large infrastructure projects displaced the neighborhood's population to facilitate the movement of goods and people through the San Francisco Bay.
In a pattern repeated with chilling precision across the country, injudicious development and policy decisions decimated the neighborhood, mainly urban renewal and federal programs that dismantled the neighborhood and its thriving black community.
7th Street still sits as a powerful symbol of Black culture and belonging in Oakland. Many natives still have hope for its revival, and this process and action planning is a step toward returning control and ownership as well as reviving this vital neighborhood hub.
Our Team
Our work toward creating an Economic Inclusion Action Plan would not have been possible without the historic efforts of community advocates on and around 7th Street, and more recently, the residents, local government partners, small businesses, private partners, and community organizations who generously offered their time and expertise to its development. Their contributions have allowed for this plan to honor and uplift work done before us, and continue to be reflective of the 7th Street community and its needs, hopes, and dreams.
Implementation Team
7th West
Alliance for Community Development
City of Oakland
East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Viscera Studio
Phase 1 Partners
Alliance for Community Development
City of Oakland
East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
En2action
GreenInfo
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Studio O
Viscera Studio
