Lower Bottoms, Oakland, California

The Lower Bottoms (also known as The Bottoms [cite news
url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/21/CMG93N6V7B1.DTL
title=Against Gentrification: Marcel Diallo sees a black cultural district where Oakland's the Bottoms neighborhood now stands
publisher=San Francisco Chronicle
date=January 21 2007] ) is the informal name of a neighborhood of West Oakland in Oakland, California. The neighborhood boundaries are Mandela Parkway to the east, 7th Street to the south, West Grand Avenue to the north, and the former Oakland Army Base to the west. It includes the "central station development" of the former 16th Street Station, which served as a film location for the 2005 film "Rent"Fact|date=February 2008 and Vallejo rapper E-40's "Tell Me When to Go" video.Fact|date=February 2008. It is also the hometown of playground basketball legend Demetrius "Hook" Mitchell.

History

The neighborhood has suffered from high rates of crime [cite news
url=http://www.berkeleydaily.org/article1.cfm?archiveDate=04-07-06&storyID=23846
publisher=Berkeley Daily Planet
date=April 7 2006
title=Oakland Fails to Deal with Violence Problems] and poverty since the decline of Oakland's industrial economy in the late 20th century. The neighborhood earned its nickname after the construction of the Cypress Freeway in the 1950s that split the West Oakland neighborhood in two and isolated Oakland Point from the remainder of West Oakland. Three major housing projects, the Acorn Projects, Cypress Village, and the Campbell Village Court dot the neighborhood.

Gentrification

The Bottoms is undergoing gentrification [ [http://web.mac.com/marceldiallo/iWeb/Black%20New%20World/village%20bottoms.html Village Bottoms Cultural District] ] just as the neighboring "Dogtown" area of West Oakland. Once the most devalued neighborhood in Oakland, the Lower Bottoms now has some newly rehabbed Victorian homes that have recently sold for $700,000. It is now a slightly more sought after area to live in because of its location as a historic center of the Bay Area and its proximity to San Francisco.Fact|date=September 2007

Cultural character

An effective community organization in the Lower Bottoms is the Village Bottoms Cultural District, primarily responsible for project incubation. To date there have been a number of radio stories, interviews and articles written about the effort and visionary of Marcel Diallo, who is often referred to as "The Mayor of West Oakland". Diallo has been very active in city's efforts to promote the cultural integrity of the Lower Bottoms. [ [http://clerkwebsvr1.oaklandnet.com/attachments/14679.pdf City of Oakland October, 2006 public hearing transcripts] ] The Village Bottoms Cultural District is a grassroots effort to retain the Black population of West Oakland, in spite of the gentrification that is rapidly changing the landscape of the Bottoms; techniques used by the Village Bottoms Cultural Group include the development of Black-owned cultural institutions such as The Black New World Social Aid & Pleasure Club, Black Dot Cafe, Cornelia Bell's Black Bottom Gallery, Nganga Diallo's House of Common Sense and Soul Foods Cooperative.

Several community organizations are based in Lower Bottoms, including, Prescott-Joseph Center, UNIA, Alliance for West Oakland Development, Prescott-Oakland Point Neighborhood Association, The Lower Bottom Players theater troupe, City Slicker Farms and Mo Better Foods.Fact|date=October 2007

Political representation

The entire neighborhood lies within the boundaries of Oakland's Downtown-West Oakland District 3 City Council seat represented by West Oakland resident Nancy Nadel, who was recently re-elected to her fourth term on Oakland's City Council.

ee also

*Oakland Point, Oakland, California

References