gentrification

close to the national average, but quite a bit lower than the Bay Area’s average of $56,300. 68Poverty levels in Oakland also are higher than in surrounding cities. Nevertheless, San Francisco’sFinancial District is less than 15 minutes away from BART’s downtown Oakland stations, andneighboring Emeryville is an important center for web commerce and biotechnology businesses. Infact, commercial vacancy rates declined from 12 percent in 1998 to three percent in early 2000 whilerents have doubled during the same period. 69Brown’s commitment to bring 10,000 new residents into downtown Oakland by 2003, dubbed“the10K-03 Plan,” has been a lightning rod in the East Bay. While most politicians and votersstrongly support his effort to bring residents and nightlife to Oakland’s largely empty downtown,some critics attack the effort’s lack of community participation, and lack of affordable housing units.They fear city-sponsored gentrification, the exodus of tenants from affordable if poor-quality, housingdowntown, and the changing face of the city. Brown counters that 32 percent of downtown Oakland’shousing now carries a government subsidy; more low-income housing will only exacerbate thearea’s distress. The Mayor’s recent response to a critic of his efforts was, “What do you want:gentrification, or ‘slumification’?” 70 In the give and take since the project’s announcement, Brownnow has committed to an affordable housing component, and the city approved the market-rate saleof several city properties to developers who plan to build 2,000 units of housing.A growing arts community has expressed concerns about the gentrification of downtown andWest Oakland. Mayor Brown has also directed funds to support the arts, which he sees as ananchor for downtown’s revitalization, but many artists fear they will lose their convenient andinexpensive studio space downtown once the 10K-03 effort kicks in and gentrification builds steam.The period for obtaining inexpensive space in the industrial and mixed-use areas of West Oaklandmay also be coming to an end.West Oakland will face gentrification pressures of uncertain magnitude, related to but distinctfrom those in the downtown area. Since West Oakland is not the focus of a unifying city-drivendevelopment push (e.g. “10K-03”) the changes will likely be more the result of disaggregated privatemarket forces and the responses of community-based coalitions. Formerly the “Harlem of the WestCoast,” West Oakland’s 7 th Street sits near freeways heading north to Berkeley, south to San Jose,and west to San Francisco. It has a BART station one stop from the Financial District’sEmbarcadero station, and sits adjacent to a key fiber-optic data-transmission interchange. Eightypercent of the area’s residential units are rentals, and half of its extensive single-family housinginventory is owner-occupied, according to Fred Blackwell, coordinator of the San FranciscoFoundation’s community empowerment projects in the area. Rents have increased by 15 percent ineach of the past two years, and 11 percent of West Oakland’s lots are vacant. 71 Latinos and Asian-American families are moving into this traditionally African American community. Splits have68 Harvey, Todd, et. al., Gentrification and West Oakland: Causes, Effects and Best Practices, submitted to theDepartment of City and Regional Planning, University of California at Berkeley, Fall, 1999, p. 35.69 Scholz, David, “What a Difference a Bridge Makes,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 2000, p. C1.70 Harvey, et. al., p. 2.71 Harvey, et. al., p. 36.47