OAKLAND: TRANSIT
Electrified rail transit was another casualty of the federal government’s concerted effort to create a white, automobile-based suburbia. Whereas local transit systems had provided mobility within the city, the government had plowed its interstates through downtowns in order to provide mobility OUT of the city—and to the new racially-restricted suburbs. The freeways were the literal routes of white flight, connecting with new suburbs governed by “racial covenants” prohibiting “persons of any race other than the Caucasian race” from living there.
The existing transit systems were seen as physical impediments to the government’s heavily subsidized goal of suburbanization. With the freeways connecting to sprawling new auto-centric development and pouring cars into downtown, public transit was considered literally in the way (especially electrified transit, with its rails and overhead wires). Moreover, because trams generally served the redlined areas directly adjacent to downtowns, there was little political will to revitalize systems which were of the most use to those in "blighted" areas (aka people of color and recent immigrants).
In Oakland by the 1950s the entire electrified network had been dismantled and dieselized, replaced with less-frequent buses. Only two decades earlier an influx of internal immigrants from across the country had relied on the network for work, leisure, education, healthcare, etc. The East Bay in particular had attracted tens of thousands of African-Americans due to its numerous railroad jobs (railroads being one of the few desegregated industries and the largest employer of African-Americans at the time). During WWII when the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond desegregated even more black men and women moved to the area (Kaiser does not deserve much credit... there was a labor shortage due to the draft). The trams had provided a cheap and (relatively) accessible form of mobility to all of the Bay’s opportunities.
Removal of the trams created a glaring hole in regional mobility that was later addressed by BART. However, the trams were intensive, while BART is extensive—designed more to service the sprawling suburbs than the city itself.
Rail on the Bay Bridge was the last obstacle in the way of absolute automotive hegemony in Oakland and the Bay Area at large. Despite still maintaining relatively high ridership, the dedicated and electrified public transit right-of-way stood in CalTrans’ way. The state had a vision of a sprawling freeway network connecting to the new, racially-restricted suburbs. The bridge was the center of that network for the Bay, so the local trains needed to go. The bridge was no longer for the city, it was for the suburbs.
In 1958, the year the system was dismantled and local transit was entirely dieselized, Oakland’s African-American population was rising and white flight was in full force. West Oakland, the heart of Oakland’s black community, had been transformed from the hub of transbay access (with several Key System routes passing through) to an isolated urban island surrounded by freeways and exhaust fumes on all sides.
With the construction of BART in the 1970s West Oakland was reattached to the regional transit system. However the station as it was constructed reveals either the planners’ incompetence, or their contempt for the neighborhood. Initially called “Oakland West,” local activists had to work for a decade just to get the name corrected to “West Oakland,” the actual name of the neighborhood. What’s more, despite being in a dense, urban neighborhood the station was built as a park-and-ride. Unlike the walkable, urban stations which had been designed for SF and Berkeley, West Oakland’s was a train in a parking lot. Either way, BART was not an adequate replacement for the local systems it replaced. With miles between stops, BART was more a commuter rail for suburbanites than a useful intra-city transit service (this was by design).
While West Oakland has seen a remarkable rebound since the 70s and 80s, the city must invest in AFFORDABLE housing to prevent gentrification and further displacement, while creating some relief for the Bay’s housing crisis. The first place to start: rip out 980, drop in a new BART line, and repair the grid. End West Oakland’s physical separation from the rest of the city.