In the heart of Oakland

By Jeremy Thomas

Michael Taffet’s heart may belong to Brooklyn, but he’s found a home in one of Oakland’s most historic neighborhoods.

West Oakland’s Oak Center boasts about 9,000 residents and dozens of Victorian-style homes, many of them built prior to 1900. The neighborhood is easy walking or biking distance to downtown Oakland, Middle Harbor Park, the Port of Oakland and the Bay Bridge and contains within its boundaries a wealth of cultural activities and parks.

“It’s beautiful, there’s a lot of old houses that are well-maintained. We have some nice parks in the area. We’re in the center of the Bay Area — we’re right in the middle of everything. It’s a really nice community.”

Since moving to Oakland in 2004, Taffet, a hydrogeologist at LLNL, has been a member of the Oak Center Neighborhood Association (OCNA), serving as the group’s chairperson for the past 14 years. As racially, ethnically and lifestyle diverse as the area it represents, the association dates to 1963, when it was formed to fight redevelopment efforts, protect the interests of the predominantly Black residents and successfully lobby to save many of the historic homes that had been scheduled for demolition.

Over the years, the OCNA helped prevent the I-880 (Nimitz) Freeway from continuing to bisect West Oakland after the earthquake-damaged Cypress Street Viaduct was demolished in the 1990s. The organization also led successful efforts to have Oak Center recognized as Oakland’s largest Historic Preservation District in 2003. Today, the group aims to continue to maintain a safe residential community for homeowners and renters, organize outreach events and connect residents and business owners with city and county officials.

Taffet met the group during the process of submitting a proposal to buy his house from the city, which included plans to restore it back to its historical state. Back then, all neighborhood development design reviews came through the association. These days, it’s not required, Taffet said, but developers still often present their plans to the group as a goodwill gesture.

The OCNA is much more than a homeowners’ association, Taffet explained. It provides all members of the community the chance to voice their concerns, learn about issues impacting the neighborhood, meet their neighbors and dialogue directly with local officials.

“I enjoy running meetings and giving people the opportunity to speak, trying to get a handle on what they care about and working with the city to address their issues when we can,” Taffet said. “I love people and like engaging with them. We like working on a problem and trying to get a resolution.”

The association’s monthly meetings are usually attended by the councilmember representing the district or their community liaison, providing a forum for citizens to engage with the city and agencies like the Parks, Planning and Building and Public Works departments and the East Bay Municipal Utilities District, as well as developers.

The small but mighty group supports the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project efforts to reduce air pollution from the Port of Oakland and has recently made strides with the city and Alameda County Environmental Health Department on cleanup of an abandoned gas station that had been leaking hydrocarbons and solvents into the soil. The association is advocating to have the building demolished and decontamination completed.

Like all neighborhoods, Oak Center has its issues — crime, homelessness, blight and gentrification chief among them — and at meetings, any issue that affects the quality of life in the neighborhood is up for grabs, Taffet said. Far from being a NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) group, Taffet explained, the OCNA tries its best to maintain a broad range of opinions.

“We’re more pro-development if it helps reduce homelessness,” Taffet says. “We’ve had a history of people maintaining homeowners’ rights, but I try to have an even-keel approach; I believe that we have to have a heart about the need for low-income housing.”

The group is working with the city council on impacts from the increasing number and size of homeless encampments, particularly along the Mandela Parkway that borders the neighborhood to the west. Taffet said he wants more help for the homeless through city and federal funding for tiny homes or other forms of temporary housing, as well as access to mental health services and more job training opportunities for youth. The OCNA also is getting the word out about COVID-19 vaccination opportunities.

As gentrification and housing-related issues continue to alter the makeup of the neighborhood, Taffet said the organization is dedicated to balancing preservation of Oak Center’s cultural richness and heritage with the needs of the area’s low and middle-income population.

“I would like to see that people aren’t displaced,” Taffet said. “That people can continue to live here without economic pressures or having houses sold out from under them. We want to maintain the current fiber of the neighborhood. I’d like to see it continue to get safer. I’d like to see the air continue to get better … There are a lot of issues that need to be worked out. It’s complicated, but we try to have as much compassion as possible. We want everybody to be heard.”

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