At 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989, as millions of baseball fans were watching the pregame broadcast of the third game of the World Series at San Francisco's Candlestick Park (now Monster Park) a powerful earthquake struck the Bay Area. Television screens across the nation went momentarily blank as the earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale, rocked Candlestick Park. Sixty-seven people died and 3,000 were injured in the third most lethal earthquake in U.S. history.
Of all the scenes of destruction in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake, the lasting image was the collapse of the Cypress Freeway in West Oakland. Forty-two people died when concrete pillars supporting the upper section of the double-deck freeway buckled and the entire structure collapsed, destroying a 1¼-mile section of Interstate 880.
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Cypress Freeway beyond repair.
The Cypress Freeway was built in the 1950s to connect the sprawling tractlands of southern Alameda County to downtown San Francisco and Oakland's industrial waterfront. Its path through the predominantly African-American community of West Oakland split the community in half and uprooted 600 families and dozens of businesses. A roughly four-square-mile area was cut off from downtown and more affluent sections of West Oakland to the east, sandwiched against metalworking shops, railyards, and the Port of Oakland. Over the years, neighborhood businesses withered from isolation, while residents were forced to endure the fumes and noise from the thousands of cars passing overhead.
Certainly no resident of West Oakland welcomed the tragedy that took place on October 17, 1989. However, the collapse of the Cypress Freeway created the potential for a dialogue over how and where the freeway would be reconstructed, an opportunity that had not been available to West Oaklanders 35 years before when the structure was originally built. Although the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) originally proposed to rebuild the freeway in its existing location, a coalition of West Oakland community representatives quickly formed in opposition to this plan. For nearly two years following the earthquake, Caltrans worked with a wide range of stakeholders to select a new alignment for the freeway that meets the needs of both the traveling public and the community of West Oakland. In addition, construction is scheduled to begin in March 2001 on a $13 million project to turn the former freeway into a forested, landscaped boulevard that will reunite West Oakland.
The reconstruction of the Cypress Freeway was an enormously expensive and complex undertaking and, like most projects of this magnitude, it was not without controversy. Disputes over the new freeway alignment and the discovery of toxic waste during construction boiled over into several legal battles. In the final analysis, however, the Cypress Freeway Replacement Project sends a strong message about the potential for a transportation agency to work together with citizens to accomplish an enormous task while helping to revitalize a community.
The Region and the Community
West Oakland is a community of 18,317 residents located in a rectangular area south of Interstate 580 and west of Interstate 980. A large portion of this area is industrial, including the Port of Oakland, a Union Pacific intermodal freight facility, warehousing and distribution facilities, and light and heavy manufacturing. The vast majority of West Oakland residents are African Americans, making up 77.3 percent of the population according to the 1990 U.S. Census. Other groups include whites (11 percent), Hispanics (5.7 percent), Asians (3.5 percent), and Native Americans (.3 percent).
West Oakland is one of the oldest neighborhoods of Oakland and home of the Transcontinental Railway terminus, which opened in 1869. Early residents were Portuguese, Irish, and Italian immigrants. Many African Americans moved to the area from the southern and eastern United States during the period of western railroad expansion. A second wave of African-American immigrants came during World War II, attracted by the wartime boom in the shipbuilding industry. West Oakland became a solid middle-class African-American community, featuring well-preserved Victorian homes and attractive shopping, cultural, and entertainment districts.
This prosperity proved to be short lived, however. Following World War II, government shipbuilding decreased, idling thousands of workers. In addition, increased mechanization of Port of Oakland operations raised labor productivity and created few new longshoring jobs. Finally, industrial firms located near the Port increasingly relocated to southern Alameda County, where taxes were lower and land for sprawling one-story factories was cheaper.
With these changes, West Oakland became an increasingly distressed community. By 1989 more than 35 percent of West Oakland residents lived below the poverty level, according to data from the 1990 U.S. Census. Unemployment was 21.5 percent and nearly double that amount for African-American males. The median household income was $13,123 compared to the citywide median income of $27,095. Few residents were homeowners, with roughly 85 percent of the 8,735 housing units in West Oakland occupied by renters.
Community-based efforts to address these challenges have been underway for several decades. West Oakland has a strong tradition of community activism which dates back to the 1960s. Some twenty community groups are active in the area working on a variety of issues including housing, jobs, economic development, and environmental improvement. A top priority of neighborhood leaders is to have a voice in the planning of projects that have significant impacts on the community. The economic revitalization of West Oakland is high on the agendas of many of the area's community groups.
Potential anchors for economic renewal do exist. West Oakland has several major employers, including a U.S. Postal Services facility that employs over 4,000 workers and the Port of Oakland. The Port, however, has been a mixed blessing for West
Oakland. Although Port-related activity accounts for almost 9,000 maritime industry jobs in the Bay Area, only 12 percent of those jobs are held by Oakland residents. In addition, truck traffic generated by the Port and ancillary facilities produces noxious emissions, wear-and-tear on city streets, and traffic congestion and parking problems. West Oakland residents have long argued that they have suffered the negative environmental and traffic impacts of the Port without receiving a significant share of the economic benefits.
Air pollution generated by the Port and ancillary activities, by major freeways, by truck traffic, and by neighborhood industrial facilities has become a growing source of concern for West Oakland residents. Studies by the Children's Hospital of Oakland and the California Department of Health Services indicate that West Oakland residents suffer higher than expected rates of hospitalization for asthma and certain forms of cancer (Children's Hospital of Oakland 1994, California Department of Health Services 1993). Such concerns played a role in solidifying the community's opposition to rebuilding the Cypress Freeway in its existing location.
What Happened
For decades after the Cypress Freeway was completed in 1957, it served as a magnet for community frustration among West Oakland residents. Residents argued they were given no opportunities to participate in the planning and design process and many blamed the freeway for Oakland's decline that began during the 1960s. According to one former West Oakland resident, "Cypress opened the door. It really split the city physically. It was the beginning of the end. It ruined the integrity of the whole area."
When the Cypress Freeway collapsed in October 1989, West Oakland residents were determined to prevent the mistakes of the past from being repeated. Within forty-eight hours of the Loma Prieta earthquake, a group of prominent West Oakland leaders and community activists formed the Citizens Emergency Relief Team (CERT). CERT was established to provide a voice for the community of West Oakland in the reconstruction of the Cypress Freeway and other rebuilding efforts following the earthquake. It was more than just another neighborhood organization. Its membership including a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) director, a former Port of Oakland CEO, and an Alameda County supervisor and former mayor of Berkeley was exceptionally resourceful and well-positioned to influence policy.
After the earthquake, Caltrans initially proposed to rebuild the Cypress in its existing location. This plan, however, was adamantly opposed by the City of Oakland, Alameda County officials, CERT, and the vast majority of the West Oakland community. In January 1990, over 200 Oakland residents and politicians packed the gymnasium of a West Oakland elementary school for a meeting with Caltrans at which the agency's proposal was heavily criticized.
Meanwhile, members of CERT, together with city and county officials, had begun efforts to identify an alternative route for the Cypress. This alignment would run west of the previous Cypress structure closer to the Port of Oakland, following Southern Pacific railroad tracks for a portion of the way. The new route would still impact a small residential area. However, the majority of West Oakland would be reunited under this plan.
