Thousands of vacant lots – storefronts, larger commercial space, residential spaces, buildings you can’t even tell what they once were – are just sitting there across Oakland. But if forty residents who have the ear of Mayor Barbara Lee get a say, things might change.
The residents were chosen at random to participate in a three-month long process in which they get together to formulate their own solutions to the problem.
On Saturday, they were guided by a question that followed them around their meeting at Juntos Fruitvale Cultural Arts Center, room to room: “How do we transform vacant lots and commercial retail spaces to be sites of flourishing and resilience?”
Participants drew on expert advice from panel guests and broke out in smaller groups to refine their ideas…