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Blighted corner turned into blooming garden in Oakland
The Temescal neighborhood in Oakland is touting a new garden after months of fundraising and dozens of volunteers took matters into their own hands to beautify their community.
OAKLAND, Calif. - The Temescal neighborhood in Oakland is touting a new garden after months of fundraising and dozens of volunteers took matters into their own hands to beautify their community.
They saw a blank canvas at the corner of 54th Street and Shattuck Avenue and spent the better part of a year turning it into a pollinator garden.
A group of 40 neighbors spent the weekend planting seedlings for rosemary, lavender, even strawberries.
Another successful transformation
It’s not the first of its kind. New gardens and community spaces are springing up around Oakland and being built by neighbors.
The backstory:
It’s part of a grassroots movement by nonprofit Sidewalk Trees and Gardens, founded by Rob Selna in 2014.
It works when neighbors come together to identify property worth revamping, how to gather services, funds, and materials, and Selna helps deal with permitting and logistics.
Vincent Kitirattragarn, who lives near the site, got on board in May to help with fundraising efforts.
"Before we would avoid this corner, right? We’d just say, ‘let’s go around this,' but now we can walk through it," said Kitirattragarn.
Blighted corner turns into blooming garden
The corner of 54th and Shattuck was once a vacant lot where cars were parked, graffiti marked the walls, and trash was dumped, but they’ve spruced it up with fresh plants and a walking path.
The garden now sits under the shade of the redwoods that were already there, providing the perfect opportunity for new growth.
"It feels really satisfying to have accomplished this and to have accomplished it in a relatively short period of time," said Selna.
It’s the third successful community space created by Selna. He also helped organize garden spaces at Dover and 43rd and Raimondi Park.
"You're bringing energy to the space and you're doing things in it whereas, otherwise, there's just dead space, and you know in California, space is at a premium," said Selna.
The neighborhood began fundraising back in July, under the leadership of Kitirattragarn, and was able to collect more than $22,000 through GoFundMe.
Community comes together to see it to completion
After that, it all came together with the help of dozens of neighbors and businesses donating their services and supplies, from design architects, to the donated logs from USCF, to the landscapers at Oscito Landscaping.
"It really is the entire neighborhood and community coming out together to make this happen," Kitirattragarn said.
"Any kind of natural space is beautiful to be able to use and not have to pay," said Eli Eisenthorne, a neighbor.
He said the neighborhood will be responsible for weeding, trash pickup, and watering.
The organization is hoping to inspire other communities to reclaim other neglected streets in Oakland when they see this completed project.
"It generates ideas. People see things like this, and they go, ‘Oh, there's one of these lots down the street from me,’" he said. "We've gotten a number of calls from people who say, ‘hey, there’s this lot in my neighborhood that's been sitting here this way for years and years. Do you guys have ideas?’"
What you can do:
The neighborhood organizers say they’ll continue to collect funds for maintenance.
For more information about how you can get involved in a project like this in your neighborhood, you can visit the nonprofit's website.
In the meantime, the Temescal community plans to gather for a grand opening of the garden for Earth Day.
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