District Five – A Revitalized San Antonio/Fruitvale Community
By Ignacio De La Fuente
Oakland City Council President, Councilmember District 5
District Five, commonly known as the San Antonio/Fruitvale,
has enjoyed economic and community revitalization since
I assumed office almost seven years ago. The District
stretches from just below the 580 freeway down to the
water, and from 19th Avenue to High Street
and in some places 54th Avenue. One of the
first things I did as District Five’s Representative was
to put a moratorium on building to allow us to assess
and rezone the area according to changing development
needs. The result is a revitalized commercial strip along
International Boulevard; new and improved open spaces;
a harmonious mix of commercial, industrial and residential
buildings; and construction of Oakland’s first Transit
Village around the Fruitvale BART station.
With 55,000 residents, District Five is the most densely populated Council
District in Oakland. This density creates several challenges,
including a shortage of open space and Oakland’s most
overcrowded schools. But the District’s vital mix of people
-- from the long-standing families of Jingletown, to artists
living in converted live-work buildings, to new immigrants
from Central America and South-east Asia, to the business
owners along the revitalized International Boulevard –
have helped transform this District into the colorful
and prosperous area it is today.
Fruitvale’s economic renaissance is most noticeable along its central commercial
corridor – International Boulevard. What was once a depressed
East 14th Street is now the thriving International
Boulevard with a storefront vacancy rate of under five
percent. The San Antonio Community Development Corporation’s
Hismen Hin-Nu complex and the Spanish-Speaking Unity Council’s
ambitious Fruitvale Transit Village represent the cutting-edge
in urban, mixed-use development. Two years ago, we even
opened Oakland’s largest grocery store – the Lucky’s/Savon
in the Fruitvale Station shopping center. Please read
more about some of these economic successes in the articles
that follow.
Although District Five is the most densely populated, it has the lowest percentage
of open space per-capita of any other Council District.
However, several new and improved parks are currently
under development thanks to partnerships with the City
of Oakland, Port of Oakland, Spanish Speaking Unity Council,
Trust for Public Land, the Oakland-University Metropolitan
Forum and the Coastal Conservancy. Next summer we’ll break
ground on a new park at Union Point, along the Estuary
waterfront. The park will not only create much needed
open space for local residents, but will also enhance
the waterfront for the entire region.
Sanborn Park on Fruitvale Avenue -- the District’s oldest park -- recently
enjoyed a community-driven rehabilitation. When I first
came into office, Sanborn was obsolete and underutilized.
But key community organizations convened the park’s neighbors
to develop plans for reconfiguring and improving the park
and its facilities. On June 5, 1999, we broke ground for
Sanborn’s new landscaping component. Even the small Pocket
Park on 35th Avenue and International Boulevard
will be getting a much-needed facelift. It will soon contain
a beautiful new mural, an artistically tiled bench and
a mission bell donated by the Montclaire Women’s Club
to commemorate the site’s being on the original Camino
Real – California’s first major road built by Spanish
Missionaries.
The Peralta Hacienda Park on Coolidge Avenue contains the home of Antonio Peralta
and two earlier adobes from 1820 and 1840. The Peralta
family once owned all the land that now makes up Oakland,
San Leandro, Alameda, Piedmont, Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville.
The Friends of Peralta Hacienda are working on more archaeological
excavations to uncover and restore the site’s remarkable
past.
A unique economic feature, the Fruitvale District is the informal hiring spot
for Oakland’s Day Laborers. After three years of attempting
to organize a formal Day Laborer Program, Volunteers of
America has agreed to create a Day Laborer Center late
this summer. Initially, the Center will be on the Montgomery
Wards Building loading dock to relieve the growing congregation
of workers at the busy corner of Fruitvale and Foothill.
The Program will not only provide an appropriate location
for meeting potential employers, but will also offer information
and referrals to local social services agencies.
The Fruitvale is also known throughout the area for its tasty Mexican cuisine
– including it unusual mobile Taco Trucks. To insure better
health standards and regulate this fast-growing industry,
the City of Oakland is creating a permit process for mobile
food vendors to operate legally on private properties.
Many of Fruitvale’s most successful restaurant owners
actually started out as small mobile food vendors.
Finally, the Fruitvale community is taking a leading role in improving its public
schools with help from Oakland Community Organizations (OCO).
Already home to Oakland’s first Charter School, Oakland
Charter Academy (formerly Jingletown Charter School), the
community is planning a new Charter School at Jefferson
Year Round School. Mayor Jerry Brown recently recognized
its organizer, OCO’s Lillian Lopez, by appointing her to
his Commission on Education. The community is also fighting
to have a newly constructed school at the site of the abandoned
Montgomery Wards building. Although this project is complicated
by historic preservation concerns and the site’s potential
for popular live-work housing, I am firmly committed to
seeing this new school built. District Five’s schools are
already so overcrowded that they run on a rotating year-round
schedule, simply because there are not enough classrooms
to hold all the students at once. Not only does the District
need a new school to alleviate the current overcrowding,
but also we certainly cannot afford to add 400 new housing
units to Oakland’s most densely populated area.
I hope you come visit District Five, the San Antonio/Fruitvale District soon.
If you have any questions about District Five or any of
my projects, please feel free to call my office at (510)
238-7005.
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