ESPM 50AC · UC Berkeley
New parks and green upgrades get framed as obvious wins. In parts of Oakland that were starved for investment for decades, those same projects also show up next to rising rents, house flipping, and moving costs that fall on renters first. I built this site to connect that pattern to history (who got dumped on, who got credit) and to the policy fights happening now.
I am not trying to say trees are bad. Heat and flooding are real, and working-class neighborhoods often get both the pollution and the heat. The question is what happens around a project after the ribbon gets cut: who can stay, who gets harassed out, and who gets to speak in planning meetings when the city wants a “green” headline.
The pages below move from big-picture neighborhood history, to specific park projects after 2000, to rent pressure and data limits, to organizing that pushes for green space and stability. The argument stacks most clearly if neighborhood histories come before the case studies.
The argument is about place, not abstractions. These photographs situate the flatlands, downtown, the estuary, and the regional bridges that move people and money through the East Bay.
Histories
Redlining maps, freeways, and uneven park access in the flatlands. I use this section to set up why “green” investment lands in places that were cheap because they were harmed, not because planners suddenly got generous.
Read neighborhood histories →Case studies
Lake Merritt, the Fruitvale corridor, and Joaquin Miller Park as three different stories about money, access, and who the park is imagined for. I pull language from city plans where I can and mark where the record is thin.
Explore park projects →Evidence
Median rent, investor buyers, evictions: what the numbers can and cannot prove about a park opening down the block. I spend time on methods because easy charts lie when the sample is small.
See rent & displacement →Power
Tenant protections, land trusts, and campaigns that treat housing and the environment as one fight. Wins are partial a lot of the time, which matters for how I write about them.
Read resistance stories →Learn more
Books, articles, Oakland data portals, and local groups verified before linking. Broken URLs are common; the Internet Archive often keeps a snapshot.
Open resource list →