Melina and Emmanuel Leon

“The Dubbs”

Siblings Melina and Emmanuel Leon were raised in the “Dubbs,” a neighborhood that
has begun to get gentrified. When the Leons tried to buy a home, they were
discouraged to learn that they were not able to afford a place in the neighborhood they
grew up in. “We bought the house at the right time, so we don’t have to leave Oakland,”
Melina said. “But seeing and hearing how others can’t afford to live here anymore, it’s
disheartening. What is going on with the city I love?”

The changes on the streets and the people they encounter every day is a vivid reminder
of how much Oakland is changing. “It’s a love-hate relationship,” Emmanuel said. “You
see the changes, you can’t cruise down E-1-4 no more. You see the improvements,
especially in the Dubbs, but you see how the liquor store I used to go to is not there no
more, the food spot I used to eat at is gone.” For the Leons, the rapid wave of
gentrification — and how transplants see Oakland as a “trendy” place to live — signifies
a lack of respect from newcomers toward longtime residents. “People are trying to use
our slang and pretend they are from here,” Melina said. They say newcomers are
“Columbusing” Oakland — appropriating the city without any regard for the people who


were here building community long before Oakland was the “it” place to move to. ”
“Respect us if you want to be respected,” Emmanuel said.

The Leons also say local government has done little to avoid displacement and provide
resources to longtime residents who are of color. “They [local government] are
welcoming gentrification because it is making them money,” Melina said. “It’s getting
them elected into office. When are you going to look at the people who have been here
forever and start doing more for them?”

 Philip Stevenson Lang

“Lakeshore and MacArthur”

Philip Stevenson Lang calls himself “a fortunate motherf*****”: His family purchased real estate
in the ’70s, allowing him to remain in the neighborhood where he grew up. “My family was able
to buy back when Oakland was an abandoned city,” he said. “It was when the white population
was decreasing and the Black population was increasing. There wasn’t a demand to buy here.”
Lang’s family has been residing in Oakland since the ’40s.

“On a personal level, it is very disheartening to know that I came from an abandoned city, and
now seeing all the resources that are being pumped on to the city right now,” Lang said.
“There’s a lot of cool, hip stuff, but it wasn’t for you.”


 He views the opening of new businesses and infrastructure improvements as not for him and
those he grew up with but rather for the influx of wealthy people who now call Oakland home.
“You didn’t put a bike lane for my safety,” he said.

In his neighborhood, which he acknowledged has always had lots of homeowners, he sees a
distinction in the type of cars people drive. “I was used to seeing Toyotas, Subarus, and now
you are starting to see Porsches, Maseratis,” he said. “You can see that the value of a dollar of
those moving in is different than those who raised their kids and sent them to public schools.
The jobs people used to have to get into the neighborhood wouldn’t cut it now.”

He also sees a difference in how newcomers interact with the community. “It’s interesting to see
how communal Oakland is, and how non-communal the new residents have been seeming to
be,” Lang said. “Is that co-existing if you’re part of the community, and you don’t act like the
other exists?”

 Mike Davie
“Laurel/Dimond”

For Mike Davie, a hard-core A’s fan, gentrification manifests in the way local bars and
restaurants prefer to show Giants games on their screens versus an A’s game. The appeal, of
course, is that the Giants have always been perceived as the better, more lucrative team, with
the top-of-the-line waterfront stadium. “It’s almost like, ‘Hey, I know you came from San
Francisco, but here in the East Bay we have always watched the A’s on the screen,'” Davie said.

“I hold on to the bits and pieces of the Oakland I grew up with,” he said. Davie is fortunate to live
in a rent-controlled apartment in Adams Point, and he is aware of the importance of staying up-
to-date with local politics, and how local officials are dealing with the homelessness crisis and
the displacement of longtime residents.

Davie thinks that local government could be doing more to prevent displacement. “We need to
allow for more density, provided that [new construction] has more affordable housing,” he said.

His message for newcomers? “Welcome to Oakland, however, please respect the people and
culture that have existed for many [generations] before you moved here.”


 Peter Delgado
“Montclair”

As a kid, Peter Delgado attended Oakland public schools until he went to Bishop O’Dowd High
School. Now, Delgado works as a principal at a local public school and lives in North Oakland. “I
now live in Ice City,” he said. Delgado sees no other choice but to remain rooted in the Town. He
and his wife, who is a teacher, were able to buy a home 9 years ago. “If I was 10 years younger
right now, I wouldn’t have been able to do so,” he said.

Delgado sees the demographics changing not only in his neighborhood but also at the school
where he works. “Cleveland Elementary is [the neighborhood] where many Cantonese-speaking
families were first able to buy,” he said. “That generation is now older and selling their houses,
which in turn are getting bought by people outside their immediate families.”

Delgado said it’s crucial for those who work at public schools to emphasize inclusiveness as
schools also get gentrified, and to make sure that disadvantaged immigrant families who are
longtime residents get enough resources to navigate the school system.

In his North Oakland neighborhood, he has also seen the changes in the demographics
compared to when he first moved in: “I was the only white guy in the neighborhood,” Delgado
recalled. He wants to see local government do more as the displacement of longtime residents
continues. “Locals are losing their ability to stay in the community,” he said. “It seems like
[gentrification] just happened so fast.”


 Xiomara Blanco
“West Oakland”

Xiomara Blanco’s story begins with her parents, who met in San Francisco’s Mission District,
and his dad buying a house in West Oakland. The house is no longer in the family, and Blanco
has seen it change hands many times throughout the years. Blanco doesn’t see all newcomers
as inherently bad. “We are all kind of transplants in a way,” she said. Instead, she’s more
concerned with how residents are engaging with the community. “What are you bringing to the
community? How are you uplifting the youth? If you are not, then, what are you doing here [in
Oakland]?”

In 2009, Blanco landed a job in San Francisco, which allowed her to move into a rent-controlled
unit in SOMA. Now, she has lived equal parts in the East Bay and San Francisco, leading to an
inner conflict — or “niche identity questions,” as she called it. “Am I now an East Bay poser?”

Blanco wants local politicians to make sure that local residents get jobs whenever a tech
company moves to Oakland. “It’s about ensuring that the local residents can get a job,” she
said. “It’s really a no-brainer.”


 Aquis Bryant
“Downtown”

Like Blanco, Aquis Bryant doesn’t resent newcomers. For his family, the American Dream meant
getting out of Oakland to the suburbs, and he spent a great deal of time in Vallejo only to come
back to Oakland to live in the hills. Bryant described himself as a hustler in his younger years,
and spent some time locked up. It was this time away that shaped his views on what he wanted
to do when he got out. Since buying his first home in Sacramento, Bryant has bought and
flipped countless properties in Oakland and San Francisco. “People like to complain about
gentrification, but at the end of the day, if you’re not Native American, you’re a gentrifier,” Bryant
said.

As a landlord, Bryant sees his rentals as a business: “I will rent to whoever is going to be able to
pay the rent,” he said. He also believes that city officials are doing more for tenants than
homeowners and landlords. landlords are at a disadvantage in not being able to raise rents to
market-rate in a reasonable amount of time.