The many Oaklands
Fruitvale district: by day a sunny, colorful neighborhood where you are more likely to hear Spanish spoken than English. But at night the beasts come out. Friday afternoon my older daughter and I were hanging out in Fruitvale, devouring tamales and empenadas at World Cup Tamale near the BART station.
Friday night a 19-year-old man was shot dead while walking with friends to a party. Even if the murder was gang-related, the district seems to suffer from a split personality. That's the way many parts of Oakland are.
I was thinking Friday how much the neighborhood had changed since I lived on High Street and 58th before the girls were born. When I returned after nearly a decade, High had become International Boulevard, perhaps a little grand but so hopeful.
I was stunned by the spark that seemed to have fueled a renaissance there, at least the strip along International between Fruitvale Avenue and 55th.
Everytime I go back I see more signs of life and pride and hope. Some folks are afraid of Oakland east of Lake Merritt and nearly anywhere in the city at night. But people live their lives - love, hate, cry, have babies, die - in those quarters of the city.
That's why the killing of Philip M. Williams Friday night cuts so sharply.
Friday night a 19-year-old man was shot dead while walking with friends to a party. Even if the murder was gang-related, the district seems to suffer from a split personality. That's the way many parts of Oakland are.
I was thinking Friday how much the neighborhood had changed since I lived on High Street and 58th before the girls were born. When I returned after nearly a decade, High had become International Boulevard, perhaps a little grand but so hopeful.
I was stunned by the spark that seemed to have fueled a renaissance there, at least the strip along International between Fruitvale Avenue and 55th.
Everytime I go back I see more signs of life and pride and hope. Some folks are afraid of Oakland east of Lake Merritt and nearly anywhere in the city at night. But people live their lives - love, hate, cry, have babies, die - in those quarters of the city.
That's why the killing of Philip M. Williams Friday night cuts so sharply.
posted by A.W. Woodall at 11:05 AM
1 Comments:
It is said every time stuff like this happens... Personally, in the parts of Oakland I've been to I'd prefer to have a piece on me every time I go out at night (but I didn't see very much of it).
I think for the most part we have the war on drugs to thank for this sort of violence. I am reasonably sure that if drugs were to be legalized the violence will quickly go down to half the level it is at now - at least in the "inner cities".
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