Before urban planning buzzwords became trendy, Black communities in Oakland were already building vibrant, connected, and transit-oriented neighborhoods out of necessity. These communities—West Oakland’s 7th Street corridor and East Oakland’s industrial hubs—flourished despite systemic barriers, embodying what we now call SMART—Sustainable, Mixed, Affordable, Resilient, Transit-Oriented—growth principles long before they were formally recognized. Though discriminatory policies starved them of investment, residents created self-sufficient ecosystems that provide crucial lessons for equitable climate adaptation today.
How Redlining Shaped Oakland’s Landscape
During World War II, Black migration to Oakland surged as workers flocked to shipyards and factories, establishing new communities amid systemic challenges. Yet, racist policies like restrictive covenants (legal provisions prohibiting the sale of homes to non-white people) and redlining confined Black residents to neighborhoods such as West Oakland and East Oakland, severely limiting their housing options and ability to build generational wealth.1 The 1930s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), created to stabilize real estate during the Great Depression, graded these areas as ‘D’ (redlined), labeling them ‘hazardous’ due to Black residency—a designation that denied Black residents loans and cemented disinvestment.2
These historical policies weren’t just paperwork—they physically reshaped Oakland’s landscape in ways that continue to influence which communities face the greatest climate impacts today. Oakland Sustainability Manager Daniel Hamilton describes this as “a story of two different Oaklands.” He elaborates, “it’s a tree canopy coverage of 50% or more in the hillside areas and only 4% in the flatland, low-lying areas of Oakland. That kind of disparity is exactly the type of inequity that Oaklanders have faced for generations.”3
The same policies that denied Black residents home loans also meant these residents lived primarily in areas with high pollution exposure. Today, formerly redlined zones in Oakland experience elevated asthma rates due to proximity to freeways and industrial zones, while sea level rise disproportionately threatens East Oakland neighborhoods relegated to low-lying land.
This disparity isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s about health and safety. During heat waves, historically redlined neighborhoods can run more than 12°F hotter than areas once marked as “desirable.”4 When temperatures soar, this difference—the result of fewer trees, more pavement, and decades of disinvestment—intensifies heat-related illnesses in communities already burdened by pollution.
Community as Response to Exclusion
Faced with these systemic barriers, Black Oaklanders did far more than simply endure. Rather than accepting isolation, residents built vibrant communities. Take West Oakland’s 7th Street, once dubbed the “Harlem of the West.”5 Bordered by the Key System streetcar line (1903-1958), the corridor became a thriving hub of Black commerce and culture:
- Mixed-use vibrancy: Jazz clubs like Esther’s Orbit Room sat alongside pharmacies, barbershops, and Black-owned banks. This density of activity created what we would now call a “15-minute neighborhood,” where residents could access nearly everything they needed within a short walk.
- Transit-oriented living: The Key System’s streetcars connected residents to jobs, schools, and cultural hubs, reducing car dependency out of necessity rather than environmental concerns.
- Social infrastructure: Churches, mutual aid societies, and the historic African American Longshoreman’s Hall anchored community life, fostering networks of support and resilience.
This wasn’t urban planning in the modern sense—Oakland’s Black communities adapted through necessity. Restrictive covenants barred Black residents from most neighborhoods, concentrating community life near transit hubs. The result? A neighborhood that inadvertently embodied what planners now call “complete neighborhood” standards, with corner stores, clinics, and theaters all within a five-block radius.
East Oakland, like its western counterpart, emerged as a testament to Black resilience amid systemic challenges. Originally the separate town of Elmhurst before being annexed by Oakland in 1909, East Oakland transformed dramatically during World War II. The area became home to a growing Black middle class by the 1950s, drawn by industrial jobs and homeownership opportunities that were rare for Black families elsewhere.6 7
The community developed its own interconnected support systems: churches, social clubs, and community centers preserved cultural traditions and provided mutual aid. Industrial employers like the Chevrolet assembly plant offered economic stability, while small businesses along what is now International Boulevard created corridors of walkable, transit-accessible neighborhoods. Planned developments like Brookfield Village, designed initially for defense workers, included not just housing but shopping centers, schools, and parks.8
The Erosion of Community Fabric
Decades of community-built infrastructure were systematically dismantled under urban renewal and freeway expansion projects, fragmenting the very walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods that Black Oaklanders had created. The construction of I-880 and I-980 not only displaced families but also concentrated air pollution in the remaining Black neighborhoods, creating lasting health consequences. The Key System’s dismantling in favor of car infrastructure erased a critical transit network, worsening mobility gaps that persist today.9 As East and West Oakland remain underserved by BART and AC Transit, residents continue to face barriers to accessing jobs and essential services.
Further compounding these issues was the construction of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While intended to improve regional connectivity, the decision to run BART tracks above ground through West Oakland’s 7th Street corridor—rather than undergrounding them as in wealthier areas like Berkeley and San Francisco—further displaced the community and physically divided the neighborhood.10 This decision, driven by cost considerations, prioritized suburban commuters at the expense of West Oakland residents, solidifying historical patterns of inequitable infrastructure development.11
In the face of these challenges, Oakland’s Black communities didn’t passively accept the destruction of their neighborhoods. From the 1946 general strike that helped launch the post-war labor movement to the emergence of influential civil rights organizations like the Black Panther Party and Oakland Community Organizations in the 1960s, residents organized to defend their communities and demand equal access to jobs, housing, employment, transportation, and services.12
When bulldozers began clearing a path for I-980 in the 1960s, residents sued the city to demand the replacement of the 503 homes slated for demolition, successfully halting the project for much of the 1970s.13
Today’s Community-Led Climate Resilience
Today, Oakland is building on this historical legacy of community resilience to address climate challenges. The City of Oakland’s 7th Street Connection Project is putting $14.1 million in Active Transportation Program funds towards reconnecting West Oakland and Downtown while honoring the street’s Black cultural heritage through sustainable infrastructure improvements.
The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project combines data-driven advocacy with neighborhood expertise to tackle environmental injustices, while East Oakland initiatives like the East Oakland Collective and Planting Justice rebuild connected communities through urban agriculture and mobility projects. As part of the Oakland Alameda Adaptation Committee, Greenbelt Alliance, in partnership with the Hood Planning Group, is ensuring that climate adaptation efforts prioritize historically disinvested Black and Brown neighborhoods along Oakland’s shoreline, which are at high risk of sea level rise.
This community-centered approach is now informing discussions about potentially removing I-980—the freeway that severed West Oakland from downtown—with an emphasis on prioritizing those historically harmed by infrastructure decisions.14 These efforts share a common thread with Black Oakland’s historical resilience: they integrate physical infrastructure with strong social networks. The same neighborhoods that once demonstrated how density, walkability, and community connections could overcome systemic barriers now offer critical lessons for climate adaptation.
Looking Forward: A Blueprint For Resilience
What if the answer to climate resilience has been in our history all along? Oakland’s Black neighborhoods demonstrated that resilience emerges from both physical design and social connection—walkable streets matter, as do the relationships formed along them.
The patterns Black Oaklanders created decades ago—dense, walkable neighborhoods with strong social networks—show us that true sustainability is both physical and social. As climate challenges intensify, the question isn’t whether we can build resilient cities but who will benefit from them. The communities that pioneered resilience must not be excluded from its rewards. By prioritizing environmental justice, anti-displacement policies, and investment in historically disinvested areas, we can ensure that Oakland’s future growth honors the resilience of its past.
Cover: Group photograph of patrons seated around bar at Slim Jenkins Bar and Restaurant, circa 1950s, Harold Jenkins Photograph collection, MS 11, (African American Museum and Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library).
- The Changing Face of Oakland 1945-1990. The Planning History of Oakland, CA. https://oaklandplanninghistory.weebly.com/the-changing-face-of-oakland.html
- Susaneck, Adam Paul. “Segregation by Design.” TU Delft Centre for the Just City, 2024. https://www.segregationbydesign.com/
- Colorado, Melissa. Urban Heat Island Effect: What It Is and What We Can Do to Fix It. NBC Bay Area (2021), https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/climate-in-crisis/urban-heat-island-effect-what-it-is-and-what-we-can-do-to-fix-it/2477807/
- Grades of Heat: The thermal legacy of HOLCs. https://heat.brown.columbia.edu/
- Hix, L. ‘Harlem of the West’: Oakland’s once-bustling jazz and blues scene along Seventh Street. Local News Matters, (2020). https://localnewsmatters.org/2020/05/06/harlem-of-the-west-oaklands-once-bustling-jazz-and-blues-scene-along-seventh-street/
- Elmhurst Branch: Changing with the Neighborhood. Friends of the Oakland Public Library (2009). https://web.archive.org/web/20090505132849/http://www.fopl.org/elmhurst.html
- Johnson, Marilynn S (1994). The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- ‘Elmhurst,’ LocalWiki. https://localwiki.org/oakland/Elmhurst
- Soliman, Jennifer. The Rise and Fall of Seventh Street in Oakland. FoundSF: the San Francisco digital history archive (2015). https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Seventh_Street_in_Oakland
- Dahlstrom-Eckman, Azul. When BART Was Built, People — and Houses — Had to Go. KQED (2024). https://www.kqed.org/news/11986396/when-bart-was-built-people-and-houses-had-to-go
- Allio, Andrew. BART (Dis)Connects the San Francisco Bay Area. The Metropole: The Official Blog of the Urban History Association, (2024). https://themetropole.blog/2024/09/12/bart-disconnects-the-san-francisco-bay-area/#:~:text=Though%20planning%20documents%20mention%20centering,the%20era%20of%20urban%20renewal.&text=BART's%20plans%20especially%20impacted%20West,around%20to%20reap%20these%20benefits
- Oakland's History of Resistance to Racism. City of Oakland. https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/oaklands-history-of-resistance-to-racism
- I-980. Connect Oakland A vision to reconnect neighborhoods and connect cities. http://www.connectoakland.org/history/i-980/
- Fermoso, Jose. "Could tearing up an Oakland freeway undo decades of racial injustice?" The Oaklandside (2024). https://oaklandside.org/2024/04/10/remove-oakland-freeway-i-980-racial-injustice-gentrification-community/
