The First Cycle of Gentrification in West Oakland, California: 1998-2008

THE FIRST CYCLE OF GENTRIFICATION IN WEST OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: 1998-2008 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of The requirements for The degree Master of Arts In Geography By Jason Neil Zimmerman April 2009 ii THE FIRST CYCLE OF GENTRIFICATION IN WEST OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: 1998-2008 Jason Zimmerman San Francisco State University 2009 Gentrification is a complex process of urban change in which higher-income residents and commercial uses replace those of lower socioeconomic status. This thesis examines the process of gentrification between 1998 and 2008 in West Oakland, California, describing the transformations that occurred in the area and the extent to which gentrification is represented by these changes. West Oakland did gentrify, albeit in a slower and less dramatic manner than was expected. Increased land values and residential displacement, combined with an influx of wealthier residents, highlighted these shifts. However, it is a neighborhood to which wealthier residents and large developer capital came later than other nearby neighborhoods. Factors including local government development policy, community involvement in the redevelopment of the neighborhood, and city housing policies altered the course and arguably limited the extent of gentrification in West Oakland. Today West Oakland can be seen as a neighborhood that remains vulnerable to gentrification while at the same time it is a place of last resort for large flows of capital to settle and enact a process of gentrification. ii iii TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction……………………………………………………………….….........1 II. Significance of Research…………………...…………………………………..15 III. Study Area Background……………………………...…………………………18 IV. A Review of the Literature…………………………………..…………….......31 1. Uneven Development in Cities…………………………..…………..........32 2. Defining Gentrification………………………….……..………………...….35 3. Human Agency Versus Structural Arguments…………..……………….38 4. Suburbanization and the Rediscovery of the City……………..………...43 5. Three Waves of Gentrification……..………………………………………48 6. Third Wave Gentrification, Global Economy and Neoliberal Politics…..55 7. The Undiscovered Parts of the City…………………………………...….59 8. New Assessments of Gentrification…………………………………...….61 V. Research Methods…………………………………………………………........66 VI. Findings…………………………………………………………………….........73 1. Measuring Gentrification…………………………………………………...75 a. Housing and Home/Rental Price Change…………………………..….76 b. Eviction Data………………………………………………………….…..80 c. Income Data………………………………………………………….…...85 d. Ethnic Composition in West Oakland…………………………….…….88 iii iv e. Educational Attainment and Consumption Patterns……………………92 2. Factors Influencing Gentrification in West Oakland………………………..95 a. Geographic Proximity to Boom-Related Employment Centers………..95 b. Supply and Type of Housing in West Oakland…………………….……97 c. The Aftermath of the Cypress Freeway Collapse…………………....…98 d. The 10k Plan…………………………………….………………...……...104 e. The West Oakland Redevelopment Area……………………………...110 1. Community Participation in Redevelopment………………….…...110 2. Housing Policy in the WERP……………………………….…….....122 f. Community Influence in Land Use/ Gentrification……………….........128 VII. Discussion………………………………...………………………………........134 1. The First Cycle of Gentrification in West Oakland……………………......134 2. Shaping Land Use and Housing Policy for the Future……………...…....141 3. Theoretical Implications and Further Research…………………………...147 VIII. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………......153 IX. Appendices……………………………………………………………………...157 X. References……………………………………………………………………....159 iv v List of Tables Table 1. Oakland Population By Ethnicity………………………….….…………..21 Table 2a. Renter-Occupied Units by Percentage of Total Units.……....……....83 Table 2b. Renter-Occupied Units by Number of Units. .………………...……....83 Table 2c. Owner-Occupied Units by Percentage of Total Units…………...…....83 Table 2d. Owner-Occupied Units by Number of Units. …………….……...…....83 Table 3a. West Oakland Household Income ……….……………………….......87 Table 3b. West Oakland Household Income ……….……………………….......87 Table 4. Average Vehicles Per Household…………………………………….....93 Table 5. Median Household Income…………………………………………......124 Table 6. Oakland Foreclosure Rates…………………………………………….134 v vi List of Figures Figure 1. Oakland Within the Bay Area………………………………………………3 Figure 2. West Oakland, CA………………………………………………………....10 Figure 3. Urban Renewal Projects and Transportation Construction Through West Oakland………….…………………………….……………………………..….13 Figure 4. Residential Security Map of Oakland, 1956.……………..…................23 Figure 5. Zip Code Map of West Oakland and Adjacent Areas.…………….......71 Figure 6. Active and Major Development Projects………………………………..100 Figure 7. West Oakland Opportunity Sites for RFQ February 2008…………...103 Figure 8. 10K Plan Oakland Housing Developments……………………………105 Figure 9. Redevelopment Boundaries in West Oakland………………………...111 Figure 10. Eminent Domain in the West Oakland Redevelopment Area………117 Figure 11. Oakland Redevelopment Areas……………………………………....119 Figure 12. West Oakland Household Median Income Percentage Change 1990-2000 By Census Block Group………………………………………………..136 vi vii List of Appendices Appendix 1. Interview Subjects……………………………………………………..157 Appendix 2. Interview Questions…………………………………………………...157 vii 1 I. Introduction This is an upcoming area. Beautiful victorians, artists everywhere, lofts all at reasonable prices for the bay area. Where else can you get a 5000 sq foot lot with a 2000 square foot victorian at or under $600k? All 7-10 minutes from San Francisco. Bart is just around the corner and there is an almost private onramp that puts you directly to the fast track lane. - (craigslist.org 2007) Gentrification is a complex process of change in the urban environment that is often accompanied by polarizing debates about the revitalization of urban neighborhoods. Researchers describe gentrification essentially as a process by which higher-income households and more affluent commercial users displace those of lower economic standing. Neighborhoods that were for decades areas of disinvestment become sites that are recognized by private developers, local governments, and homebuyers as sites for new profitable investment. These changes create further transformations in the character and culture of these neighborhoods (Kennedy and Leonard 2001a, Hackworth 2002.) Gentrification transforms both the built landscape and the demographic composition of neighborhoods. It is not simply a succession of different groups in urban space, but a reflection of social struggles around the right to inhabit space. These spatial transformations often follow similar trajectories, but different places undergo these phenomena in unique ways that are conditioned by local political, economic, cultural, and physical characteristics. 1 2 West Oakland is a low-income neighborhood within Oakland, California (see Figure 1) whose distinctive experience with gentrification is the result of community members, developers, local media, and political figures articulating and trying to implement their different visions of the neighborhood. These struggles determine the functions of urban space, and who will have access to that space. They contribute to the production of a landscape that is highly varied in its residential and commercial makeup and physical characteristics. Global flows of capital fuel gentrification in cities throughout the world, as cycles of economic expansion and contraction correspond with cycles of speculation into and disinvestment from urban real estate markets. At the local scale, city governments, community groups, and regional economic patterns condition the specific uneven manner in which these global flows of capital are metabolized. Gentrification is the expression of these local forces and the land use policies they help to enact. It reveals the class-based social struggles that take place in cities and ultimately influence the function and form of neighborhoods. Uneven development simultaneously creates spaces of investment and disinvestment, and at different geographic scales. Within the Bay Area there are richer and poorer cities, and these are comprised of richer or poorer neighborhoods. At the neighborhood scale as well, West Oakland is plagued by poverty and unemployment in some places, while an adjacent block may be the site of newly built upscale lofts. Gentrification is not a seamless process. 2 3 Figure 1. Oakland Within the Bay Area Source: maps.google.com. Instead, it grows in flurries of economic activity within the context of local constraints and catalysts. These bursts of development that transform the physical and social landscapes are finite in that they conform to economic cycles of expansion and decline that may follow larger regional or national trends, but adhere to local conditions as well. 3 4 West Oakland’s experience with gentrification, although one of shortened duration and intensity relative to other Bay Area neighborhoods, corresponded to the cycle of economic boom and bust between 1998 and 2008. This cycle comprised two speculative bursts and collapses, beginning with the internet, or dot-com, bubble beginning in the late 1990s and continuing with the real estate bubble that came to an end in 2008. These periods of economic prosperity and decline often fuel phases of gentrification in urban neighborhoods, and during this period West Oakland underwent its first cycle of gentrification, as parts of

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