Report from West Oakland Rally Against the "Central Station" redevelopment master plan

100 West Oaklanders came out this afternoon to the old train station at 16th and Wood Streets, where developer Rick Holliday is planning a 1,500-unit condo development dubbed "Central Station." Although West Oakland has long been a relatively impoverished, working class neighborhood, not one unit of low-income housing has been planned for the new development flanking the train tracks and 880 freeway; condominiums will start at $300,000 and one-bedroom apartments will rent for $1,200.

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Rick Holliday is infamous for kick-starting loft development in San Francisco, where public pressure and resistance to upper-income housing development eventually forced him to move his projects to the east bay. Two other developers are now involved in the project, Andy Getz of HFH, Inc., and BUILD West Oakland, a for-profit spinoff of Bridge Housing run by Carol Galante.

The grandparents of many residents of the community originally arrived in Oakland at the 16th and Wood station, and many were employed as Pullman Porters at the Porters' west coast headquarters. Thanks to years of union organizing and struggle, many train workers were able to buy homes in West Oakland and support their families.

Residents of the community now stand united in calls to preserve the train station as a community-controlled museum for the Pullman Porters, and to earmark at least 30% of the new development as affordable low-income housing.

The City of Oakland has been in discussions about funding to fix up the train station for use by the new development, possibly as a "toy train museum" or commercial space. The city will also be paying to restore infrastructure in the neighborhood, which will benefit the developers. Community activists say the developers can afford to meet their demands. Rick Holliday bought the property from the railroad at a bargain price and has already sold off parts of it at a handsome profit. Holliday is relying on the City to condemn and demolish the old victorian homes on Wood Street that stand in his path; many of these homes are even how being fixed up by their owners, in hopes of getting top dollar from the city as the redevelopment plan moves forward (local residents doing the fixup work earn $40-$60/day).

Local resident Monsa Nitoto came out to today's rally to call for West Oaklanders to organize and kick Rick Holliday out just as citizens in San Francisco did. Joanna Fitzpatrick says its time for her neighborhood to get together and "get the housing we need for our people." Baldwin Ladd, of Just Cause, says West Oakland needs housing for working class people, some of whom subsist on as little as $9,000 a year, not housing for people who can afford San Francisco condos.

Chen, representing Asian & Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership (APAL), says his group is working to keep the community together after seeing too many friends and family get evicted. Bill Hutchins, also of Just Cause, described the development as yet another subtle plan to get poor people and black people out of Oakland. Old timers and the young generation alike see the development site -- surrounded by fences and guarded by a private security force -- as a racist invasion of the land, the train station and the history that is theirs.

Melissa, from Just Cause, invited residents of the community to "bum rush" next week's Town Hall Meeting, where she says developers will once again be lying to the people about their so-called "affordable" housing. That meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 28, at the West Oakland Senior Center, 1724 Adeline Street.

Many residents have lived in the neighborhood for decades, watching as the freeway went up and, years later, came back down. Elderly residents, including retired Porters spoke out today about the rich history of the neighborhood and the challenges they weathered as they supported and raised their families. In the words of one proud West Oaklander, "I can't afford a $350,000 home. This is my home."