The Faces of Fruitvale
Proof that diversity does not equal discord
The Faces of Fruitvale Project in Oakland provided a vehicle for a fractured, crime-ridden community to improve neighborhood life. Located in the heart of Oakland, Fruitvale has both the highest percentage of children and the lowest percentage of open space of any neighborhood in Oakland. Yet in the heart of Fruitvale sit six acres of open space through which flows Peralta Creek. In the heart of those six acres sits a beautiful Victorian house, the Peralta Hacienda.
Two years ago, the open space was dominated by gang members, drug pushers and sex offenders who often preyed on children from neighboring Calvin Simmons Middle School. The Victorian house stood vacant and vandalized, its broken windows and defaced front an all-too-public symbol of a community in crisis. When Project Director Holly Alonzo sought to create a usable open space for the community in this environment, she knew that simply renovating the Peralta House would not be enough.
Alonzo understood that the residents of Fruitvale -- a uniquely diverse community that consists of 36 percent Latinos/as, 32 percent African-Americans, 20 percent Asian-Americans, 9 percent European-Americans, and 2 percent Native Americans -- would need to come together to reclaim this area as their own. So, with assistance from the Council, she developed the Faces of Fruitvale Project, an unprecedented effort to engage residents in interviewing each other to collect and share their stories. Through the gathering and sharing of stories, the project was able to build bridges among longtime residents and newcomers, as well as among cultural and social service agencies. Stories also became the neutral field around which people and organizations that do not usually work together could rally.
The park and the Victorian house became the center of the project. And, eventually every wall in every room of the beautifully renovated house displayed stories from neighbors throughout Fruitvale. The house became a place of pride instead of an ugly symbol of a fractured community. Since the launch of the project, the neighborhood crime rate has dropped, the house has become a community center, and the accompanying garden, tended by the Lao Family Center, has become a symbol of community renewal.
One participant said, "Ever since the children started knowing that this was a place of neighborhood stories, it seems like automatically they start coming back and saying 'This is an important place.' And they know it. Because they didn't know about it, they thought it was an abandoned house so they could just break the windows."