With a goal of getting community input to help generate the West Oakland Specific Plan - a strategic plan that will define parameters of development in the neighborhood for years to come - the city of Oakland recently held Community Workshop 2 of 8 at the West Oakland Senior Center.

This new plan is in addition to at least 10 other West Oakland community assessments and strategic plans drawn up since the 1990s. 

The meeting - held Nov. 3 - was well attended by local homeowners, small business owners and local activists. However, there were some groups noticeably absent - especially older teens who have been raised in Oakland and young adults who have recently migrated to the area as renters. 

Queen Thurston is an older African-American woman and long time neighborhood resident. She has participated in city meetings for decades.

"I think it's very important that we come to the meetings so we can make a change," Thurston said. "I've been discouraged for many years because I've been to these meetings over and over. But if we don't fight, the young people won't have the things they need." 

City officials spent the first half of the meeting going over the process that will create the Strategic Plan. Meetings such as this Open House will be held approximately every six to eight weeks. At each meeting, city staff and outside consultants will present information gathered from the previous meeting. They also will ask for community participation around key themes such as project goals and community vision, community assets and constraints, alternative revitalization scenarios and review of the draft plan. 

Community members are encouraged to participate by making notes on maps and giving feedback in small breakout discussions. All conversations are documented and then collected information is presented back to the community for review and revision. 

Elois Thornton, a planner with the city, set up the goals for this meeting: "Here are the areas where we would like to see various types of uses. We need your help to determine what those will be." Several speakers referred to "Opportunity Sites" in the neighborhood - both properties which have been abandoned and those that could be repurposed from industrial to other less impactful purposes. 

Community feedback from all of the meetings will be merged with other key stakeholders perspectives to relay a mutually agreed-upon vision and development strategy. The meeting did not provide a clear description of how so many divergent voices will be prioritized or merged. 

In addition to neighborhood businesses and residents, stakeholders/participants in the Specific Plan process include the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, Oakland Community and Economic Development, private investors and developers, public agencies (like BART and Caltrans), the West Oakland Project Area Committee "Committee of the Whole" and subcommittees, local nonprofits and advocates (like East Bay Bicycle Coalition), a Specific Plan Technical Advisory Committee, Project Team and Steering Committee with members appointed by District 3 Councilwoman Nancy Nadel. 

Architect Art Clark is the project manager for JRDV Architects - a multinational company with Oakland offices. This is the same company that designed the Fox Block, an anchor to Uptown's redevelopment. Clark presented two mock ups of what the finalized Specific Plan could look like. JRDV has created 3D models of the entire neighborhood so that residents' ideas can be translated into photo realistic graphics. He showed an example of a high intensity development idea that included images of a proposed streetcar that would run from West Oakland BART to MacArthur BART up the center of Mandela Parkway. 

One community member, Ron Muhammad, expressed concern that while developers have been talking about bringing a light rail train to West Oakland for years, it's not an idea that came from the community.

"How do we make sure this is a sincere community effort?" he said, his main concern being that funds could be used in other ways to benefit residents. "Can we upgrade McClymond's High School and Defremery Park? We utilize these places then they get neglected by the city then it becomes blight." 

After the presentations, breakout groups took a look at summary statements from the previous meeting and also discussed specific goals for three sub-areas, which will be included in the plan - the San Pablo Corridor, Mandela Boulevard and Seventh Street. 

Surrounded by sheets with phrases like "We like and value the sense of community" and "We need and want recognition of artists," community participants repeated a need to develop the area with an eye on both sustainability and sensitivity for the neighborhood's history. 

"I'm third generation in this community and I'm a property owner," resident Alternier Cook said. "I live here. My family has been here since the 1906 earthquake. We've owned/still own businesses and property. We don't want any more churches, residential treatment programs or nonprofits because they don't generate taxes." 

In many parts of the room, people talked about ways to bring jobs to West Oakland - How could Emeryville's development success be replicated in a a way that assured sustainable employment for locals? How could neighborhood schools and students participate in that process? 

Omar Nobles, a second generation resident, summed up the evening with a strong, hopeful tone.

"There is a resurgence - the reawakening of the black family and spirit. Old programs and paradigms are being reviewed." Our goal is to "Infiltrate and participate in all aspects of positive development in West Oakland." 

Notes and other information from all workshops can be found here. The next Community Workshop is planned for January 2012.