Shenanigans on the Boulevard
On the Shoulders of Giants

by Dennis Evanosky

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton

As I watched the Laurel streetscape unfold and the wonderful arches rise to define the district, I often asked myself where all this would be without the members of the MacArthur Coalition and the Laurel Community Action Project (L-CAP), the giants on whose shoulders those arches rest?

Yet at the July 10 celebration, no one even mentioned the MacArthur Coalition, even though one of its presidents, Jeanette Benson, attended the ribbon cutting. Nor did the Oakland Tribune article mention either organization.

In the Tribune article, Councilmember Jean Quan and Oakland's Public Works Department stood front and center, and deservedly so.

This streetscape appeared because grassroots activism helped to reshape what the banners in the district are calling the "Heart of Oakland."

When I arrived here in 1987, the Laurel was sick from many kinds of blight.

The city just couldn't get involved. The community and Councilmember Dick Spees got involved, however, and forced the city and the property owners to tackle the Laurel's ailments.

Spees, the Coalition, and L-CAP laid the foundation for the arches and the revamped shopping district. The arches and the streetscape rest firmly on their shoulders.

In fall 1987, Spees and his assistant Jayne Becker organized the various neighborhoods along MacArthur Boulevard, Metro writer, and former advertising manager, Suzanne Tipton remembered in a 2004 look at the MacArthur Coalition. They named this project "MacArthur Returns." The group first took on the name the Coalition of Central MacArthur Associations, then the group chose the MacArthur Coalition as its name.

Spees and Becker involved the Dimond Improvement Association, the Fruitvale District Council, the Laurel Merchants Association, the Redwood Heights Improvement Association, the Shiloh Christian Fellowship, and community members who lived on Maple Avenue, on and near High Street, and in the Laurel.

"Thus began a wonderful neighborhood organization," Tipton remembers. "With an assortment of residents, neighborhood groups, merchants and city council representation, people began to reverse the downward trend of urban decay and apathy on MacArthur Boulevard and in the Laurel and Dimond areas."

We cannot forget Miriam Hurley, who stepped in as the Coalition's first leader. "We had a vision of what we knew was possible. We knew our Oakland could be a cleaner, safer, and more beautiful place, and we began by having that come true in our own central MacArthur neighborhoods. We realized that if anything were ever to change, we had to do it ourselves," Hurley said later in a letter to the Metro.

Together with city officials, the Coalition developed a survey to document the problems of this area: graffiti, litter, blighted properties and motels, landscape maintenance, poor appearance of businesses, drug dealing, prostitution, lack of Home Alert groups, and traffic.

So while we admire the arches that welcome the world to the "Heart of Oakland," let's not forget those who kept that heart beating before the arrival of the streetscape. Let's also admit that this heart beats just a little too irregularly and needs more tender loving care from thecity, our elected officials, and our growing community.

For example, the freshly painted Albertsons with its newly paved parking lot is a direct result of a neighborhood group taking the initiative and teaming up with Senator Don Perata, Jean Quan, Albertsons, TOMRA the company that owns the recycling center and the newly formed Laurel Village organization, forcing Albertsons to shape up.

There is still much to be done.

Can anyone disagree, for example, that the handsome new arches are just a bit incongruous with the weedy, littered properties at each end of the Laurel?

If I might return to Isaac Newton once again, I would like to close with his first law: An object at rest tends to stay at rest, while an object in motion tends to stay in motion. The arches and the streetscape show that not only is the Laurel in motion, but that it is going in the right direction as well.

Let's keep it going.