It's a hole!!!

The entire square block bounded by Jefferson and Martin Luther King, between 11th and 12th streets is a massive hole in the ground. Last year, a van was involved in one of the many traffic accidents at 12th and MLK, and wound up in the hole, so the city insisted on some strategic barricades… they are very pretty. The hole is surrounded by pristine white plywood walls, a veritable art gallery ready to go on the edge of downtown. I’ve only ever seen it tagged once or twice and the tagging never lasts more than two to three days. Evidently, the property management firm in charge of the hole is very proud of it and wants to maintain a clean image.

The signs on opposite corners proclaim “a bold new addition to city center, 23 stories of class-A office space”. Wow. So bold, another glass box, to be filled with… ummmmm, tech industry professional consulting re-investment security trading shadow ip biobending grievance filing trusts? Looks like the money ran out, or the drive, or both. When I moved to the neighborhood in 2008, workers were hard at work readying the hole and then the work stopped and the plywood went up. Every winter the hole fills with a broad and shallow lake. This winter a mating pair of mallards have taken up residence on the lake and love it so much, they have yet to move an inch.

So cute!

I am intrigued by the hole. I love its glaring failure of capital. Even more, I wanted to know what was there before the hole. I went down to the Oakland history room at the library, started thumbing the Dewey system and I began to learn some more about Oakland, re-development, prostitution, syphilis, high school, and a city’s often misguided search for an identity… and a rescue, from its blighted image.

Back around 1895, Oakland had a high school problem; it’s little school at 12th and Market had caught fire twice and the student population was growing quickly. Under the direction of Principal Mc Chesney, a new school was built on the square plot of land now occupied by the hole.

Old Oakland High School (courtesy Oakland Public Library history room)

Unfortunately, the school was built right next to the city’s red light, or “segregated district”. This area supposedly ended at 7th and Washington streets, but there is no doubt that it spilled over into the surrounding neighborhood. Seeing as the school was built before anybody thought about recreational areas for the students, the kids found their way from their de facto yard of Chabot Park (Lafayette Square, or Old Man’s Park… future post!) into the “cafes” and pool halls of the district. This was cause for concern regarding the “moral stamina” of the students and I am sure there were worries about “The Red Plague”, venereal disease, infecting the randier members of the student body.

Oakland Enquirer, 1913. (Oakland history room)

By 1913, the problem had gotten serious enough to merit attention from the newspapers. The Oakland Enquirer ran a headline, “Removal of School Urged”. The story went on to tell of “Evil Surroundings” and “Startling Conditions” reported by the Public Welfare Commission. Their report tells of a “careful investigation of 143 lodging houses and hotels resulting in the securing of the following facts:

“Moral places, seven; doubtful places, eight; places where immorality is countenanced and no questions asked, 110; places where immoral tenants are preferred, 17; places given up wholly to immorality, one.”

There is no doubt that Oakland’s rep as a rough place was established by 1913. By 1928, the old school was replaced by the “The Pink Palace” or better yet, “The Pink Prison”. The old school building remained in use as a technical school until its demise in 1940, whereupon it was razed and a parking lot put in. The parking lot remained as other buildings in the area sank into disrepair, were razed and more parking lots went in. Check out some photos from the late 1940’s and 50’s and you can see that the neighborhood was always a bit rough and searching for itself.

North side of 12th street showing empty storefronts, circa 1948. (Oakland history room)

By the middle 2000’s, after decades of neglect, things changed for city center and DTO. The Federal buildings went up, 555 City Center went up, and in 2007, the planning commission voted unanimously to go forward with 601 City Center. Work began in spring of 2008 and then the bottom fell out of all that phony money blowing around our country. Now, we have a really nice hole and a city still divided over its own identity, and divided over how to grow and prosper. I came across some pro-development blogs that love the idea of tall glass office boxes saving the city. One in particular––and a fine blog, I might add––“A Better Oakland.com” advocates for taller buildings more than once and even wishes that 601 city center be bigger. I am not so sure I agree. Then again, I am a babe in the woods here and still learning about the city I now call home.

Western DTO overview, mid 1960's. Hole is parking lot, middle left. (Oakland history room)

There is one thing I am not sold on: exactly how is more office space going to improve Oakland? What sots of companies are going to fill these offices? Is there a line of entrepreneurs with wads of venture capital knocking on the doors of city hall screaming for office space? Does Oakland really want to position itself as a hub of big business on the west coast? For the real estate developers the answer is yes, even if the line of entrepreneurs is a phantom one at the moment.

What I do see in this town is a lot of smaller entrepreneurial enterprises; I see struggling artists, I see recent immigrants trying their hand at small business, I see resourceful young people farming our vacant lots (and some receiving punishment from the city for doing so), I see families finding a relatively affordable place to live near the hub of business across the bay where many of us work… both blue and white collar. I see opportunity; I just happen to see it on a smaller economic scale. I also see a great place to live in a racially and economically diverse small city. What I don’t see is a need for another 23-story shadowcaster.

The dream, but not mine.

I thank the librarians of the Oakland history room; Dorothy Lazard, Gene Langmuir, and Martha Bergmann for their enthusiastic help.

I also want to thank the thousands of people across the country, who stood today in solidarity against the corporate greed machine and to honor the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the anniversary of his assassination. Bravo to our longshoremen and women who shut down the port today! Viva bravery! Viva ILWU 6!

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all photos k. thomson unless otherwise noted