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BETTER NEIGHBORHOODS
SAME NEIGHBORS
TOGETHER WE CAN
Build Better Neighborhoods, for the Same Neighbors in East Oakland California
The Better Neighborhoods Same Neighbors initiative envisions an East Oakland with healthy surroundings, safe and accessible transportation and thriving arts and culture that builds community wealth and ensures housing is a human right for existing East Oakland residents.
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Our guiding principles are: (1) Provide economic opportunities through the creation of high-quality jobs and training programs with career pathways for existing residents. (2) Avoid economic displacement of low-income disadvantaged community residents and businesses so that they may benefit from these investments in the long run. (3) Implement strategies that reduce emissions and increase climate resiliency of vulnerable populations and proposed infrastructure in the BNSN Project Area. (4) Report greenhouse gas emissions reductions, co-benefits and outcomes to the California Air Resources Board (CARB). (5) Use this investment to leverage private and public funding to sustain community revitalization and equitable development.
What We Do
Community Led transformation for a robust, climate resilient, equitable, economically flourishing East Oakland
Equitable Housing and Neighborhood Development
Affordable Housing with a 55-units and a ground floor medical clinic.
Active Transportation
Bike Share Program trains youth on bike safety and maintenance
Urban Greening & Green Infrastructure
Community Greening will plant 2,000 trees to improve air quality.
Health
Aquaponics Farm and Food Hub provides access to organic healthy foods.
Wellbeing
San Leandro Creek Urban Greenway provides connectivity to Shoreline
WE SERVE
EAST OAKLAND CALIFORNIA
Our projects are rooted in Deep East Oakland, with every part of the plan shifting power dynamics which give residents and neighborhoods the ability to design, build, and implement infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gasses, prevents displacement, improves public health, build economic empowerment, and promotes long term sustainability through community involvement.
The number of socially and economically vulnerable residents in the BNSN project Area heightens the importance of developing resilient infrastructure and investments that give all communities the opportunity to thrive. The project area is 4.96 square miles with 41,566 residents in six Neighborhoods. The project ranks in the 90th percentile in pollution burden and socioeconomic vulnerability per CalEnviroScreen 3.0.
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The current ethnic breakdown of the six neighborhoods is 28% African American and 59% Latino, with significant shifts occurring in the last 10 years resulting in a higher percentage of Latinos and a lower percentage of African American residents.
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Launched by the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative, Better Neighborhoods Same Neighbors represents a City-Community Partnership launched by EONI and put into action with BNSN. Challenging the typical top-down approach to community development, the "Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighborhoods" initiative builds on decades of activism in East Oakland, and EONI, a partnership between the City of Oakland and twelve community-based organization focused on equity-based planning for "Deep" East Oakland.
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In 2017, the EONI partners approached the City of Oakland and asked to partner on a Strategic Growth Council Transformative Climate Community Planning Grant. The TCC Planning Grant resulted in the Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighborhoods (BNSN) community plan that was the framework that prioritized projects to address key issues for the project area.
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In July 2020, the California Strategic Growth Council's Transformative Climate Communities Program awarded the City of Oakland "Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighborhoods" An East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative with a $28.2 grant to implement five projects over a four-year timeframe.
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The project elements are consistent with adopted City of Oakland plans and policies.
2018-2020 Economic Development Strategy
2018-2020 Economic Development Strategy
2018-2020 Economic Development Strategy
2018-2020 Economic Development Strategy
2018-2020 Economic Development Strategy
2018-2020 Economic Development Strategy
2018-2020 Economic Development Strategy
2018-2020 Economic Development Strategy
OUR FOCUS
TCC
The Project Area is 4.96 square miles in East Oakland with approximately 41,566 residents in six neighborhoods, include the Oakland International Airport, Oakland Coliseum, Coliseum BART station, the MLK Shoreline Park, the San Leandro Creek, the Capitol Corridor Amtrak and multiple public facilities (libraries, recreation centers and schools)
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