We Serve
We serve East Oakland California!
Our projects are rooted in Deep East Oakland, with every part of the plan shifting power dynamics which give residents and neighborhoods the ability to design, build, and implement infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gasses, prevents displacement, improves public health, builds economic empowerment, and promotes long term sustainability through community involvement.
The number of socially and economically vulnerable residents in the BNSN project Area heightens the importance of developing resilient infrastructure and investments that give all communities the opportunity to thrive. The Project area is 4.96 square miles with 41,566 residents in six Neighborhoods. The project ranks in the 90th percentile in pollution burden and socioeconomic vulnerability per CalEnviroScreen 3.0.
The current ethnic breakdown of the six neighborhoods is 28% African American and 59% Latino, with significant shifts occurring in the last 10 years resulting in a higher percentage of Latinos and a lower percentage of African American residents.
Launched by the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative, Better Neighborhoods Same Neighbors represents a City-Community Partnership launched by EONI and put into action with BNSN. Challenging the typical top-down approach to community development, the “Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors” Initiative builds on decades of activism in East Oakland, and EONI, a partnership between the City of Oakland and twelve community-based organizations focused on equity-based planning for “Deep” East Oakland.
In 2017 the EONI partners approached the City of Oakland and asked to partner on a Strategic Growth Council Transformative Climate Community Planning Grant. The TCC Planning Grant resulted in the Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors (BNSN) community plan that was the framework that prioritized projects to address key issues for the project area.
In July 2020, the California Strategic Growth Council’s Transformative Climate Communities Program awarded the City of Oakland “Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors” An East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative with a $28.2 grant to implement five projects over a four-year timeframe.
The project elements are consistent with adopted City of Oakland plans and policies:
Our Focus
TCC
The Project Area is 4.96 square miles in East Oakland with approximately 41,566 residents in six neighborhoods, include the Oakland International Airport, Oakland Coliseum, Coliseum BART station, the MLK Shoreline Park, the San Leandro Creek, the Capitol Corridor Amtrak and multiple public facilities (libraries, recreation centers and schools).
Project Details
Workforce Development
The City of Oakland Workforce Development Board, in partnership with the Black Cultural Zone CDC, West Oakland Job Resource Center, Cypress Mandela and Merritt College, will provide a range of services designed to help local residents access jobs and training leading to high-paying, in-demand jobs and establish more than 100 jobs in the Project Area.
Anti-Displacement
East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative will lead the displacement avoidance work by connecting East Oakland residents with programs to halt displacement, build community wealth, and produce Additional Dwelling Units
95th and International Housing Health and Connectivity
The project, led by Related Companies of California and Acts Community Development, will create 55 units of 100% affordable housing (20% to 50% of Average Median Income (AMI) with 25% of the units designated for homeless populations) on 95th Avenue and International Boulevard. The ground floor will include a community health clinic.
Community Engagement
San Leandro Creek Urban Greenway
Community Greening
The Community Greening Project will bring together multiple community groups, organizations and local jurisdictions to plant 2,000 trees in the Project Area through a combination of street trees and trees on privately owned properties. Some of the trees will be locally sourced from the Planting Justice nursery, with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation partnering with community organizations to provide training and paid internships for tree planting.
Planting Justice Aquaponics Farm and Food Hub
Planting Justice will acquire a historic three-acre nursery and support neighborhood residents in building out the largest/most productive urban aquaponics farm in the U.S. The site will produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of organic produce and edible nursery starts each year, create 27 living-wage jobs, house a food hub in Oakland’s most segregated neighborhood, and serve youth education, health/wellness, community development, and business incubation programming.
Higher Ground & Scraper Bike Team Bike Share and Youth Development
The Scraper Bike Team will partner with Higher Ground to teach bike safety and bike repair afterschool enrichment classes, and offer long-term bike lending to youth. The Oakland Public Library will also design and construct an expanded bike repair and programming space known as “The Shed” located at Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch Library. The City of Oakland’s Department of Transportation will collaborate with Scraper Bike Team and Higher Ground to implement and grow the East Oakland Mobility Action Plan.