Oakland, Oakland!

Letter to the Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/2025 Dear SFC Editor, In the ongoing and welcome discussion triggered by Mitchell Schwarzer's 3/29 Open Forum comments about Oakland's San Antonio neighborhood, I report as a 10-year resident right in the heart of it (on what old-timers still call East 14th Street, now International Blvd.) Where I live, there used to be a stream of sex workers strolling and drug dealers out in the open. Both have diminished greatly as their turf shrinks, due largely to a remarkable and ongoing construction boom of handsome new multi-story housing and radical property improvements for purposes including a church and a school. Private and public investment is pouring in. We are blessed with amenities and infrastructure including freeway ramps (Fruitvale, 23rd Ave., 16th Ave. from 880) and the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) #1 that runs every 10 minutes between San Leandro and Oakland's city center. Mr. Schwarzer's proposed new BART station halfway between Fruitvale and Lake Merritt would add a welcome boost. It would support the increasing activity and accessibility of our neighborhood as its prosperity grows. Kudos to him for reminding us. In today's paper, we see Gerald Cautben -- also of Oakland -- pooh-poohing the new BART station idea. First, he says, we must remove the sex work, dumping, and unhoused living on the streets. No one disagrees with these objectives, but Mr. Cautben has the sequence backwards. With prosperity and population density, demand and opportunity for those undesirable activities diminishes. Let's keep that momentum rolling! Dan Keller, Oakland's San Antonio neighborhood PS -- I have attended Mr. Schwarzer's presentations on the topic of Oakland's proud history, and have enjoyed his excellent 2021 book, "Hella Town". Thank you, Mr. Schwarzer! -- Dan Keller RN MS