Bay Area Gentrification Displacing Communities of Color

By Kiley Russell – Bay City News Foundation

Alma Blackwell was born and raised in West Oakland but after years of intense gentrification followed by waves of displacement, she barely recognizes her old neighborhood.

“There’s almost no one left,” Blackwell said of her former neighbors and friends, many of whom were forced out by skyrocketing rents.

“We see rent increases but folks’ wages aren’t increasing, and we see folks having to work two or three jobs to make ends meet,” said Blackwell, who three years ago moved to Oakland’s Allendale neighborhood.

While the superficial signs of Bay Area gentrification are seemingly everywhere, a look beyond the inconvenient piles of e-scooters littering sidewalks and the proliferation of high-end coffee shops reveals the real consequences of gentrification and displacement that are blowing apart low-income neighborhoods of color (Read more).