Courtesy of Oakbook

Site of new West Oakland Teen Center

Stop the presses and the website postings. There’s good news for West Oakland. That’s right. West Oakland and good news in the same sentence. Three times.

This week the city was notified two West Oakland projects will receive major funding under the state’s Proposition 84. The long-awaited West Oakland Teen Center will receive a grant of $5 million and City Slicker Farms was awarded $4 million for its expansive community garden project. That’s $9 million coming into the area to support youth services and community agriculture.

"It's been a long road, starting with assemblies at McClymond's High. We've been in the youth planning process for a while," said City Councilmber Nancy Nadel (West Oakland.)  Her office applied for the teen center grant; Prop. 84 funds parks and spaces that serve youth. "I'm thrilled that the young people who put so much time and energy into the prcess can see we're making progress.

Sean Sullivan, a West Oakland resident and member of the West Oakland Community Development Block Grant committee, called the level of funding unprecedented. “West Oakland has such scarcity. The opportunity for both a positive teen center as well as something that on a large scale addresses food insecurity issues, health issues, it’s rare you see anything that brings community benefits like that and at one time,” Sullivan said.

The West Oakland Teen Center, in the planning stages since 2003, will be the area’s first center designed specifically for teens. Saving her office's discretionary funds, Nadel was able to purchase the old Olivet Institutional Missionary Baptist Church at Brockhurst and Market in 2005. In the planning sessions, young people made it clear they wanted job training, computer skills and  job opportunities as well as recreation. But with shrinking resources, the plans started to look more like a dream. 

City Slicker Farms, responding to the lack of grocery stores and fresh fruits and vegetables in West Oakland, started growing and distributing fresh produce and promoting community gardening  in 2001. Its program has grown to include seven community market farms and 100 backyard farms. It applied for the Prop. 84 funds to expand even further.

The grants bring both dreams closer to reality. And there’s more. Next week a new locally owned market featuring fresh and affordable produce is due to open at 23rd Street and San Pablo Avenue. Produce Pro, owned by Ed Hemmat, is scheduled to have a soft opening Monday, November 15. The store not only plans to offer fresh produce, but is interested in hiring workers from the community. Flyers advertising the opening will be distributed throughout the area this weekend.

Community farms, a teen center, a grocery store. Next thing you know, there’ll be a Starbucks in Dogtown.