Required reading

I realize that reading about the uncomfortable history of the United States, California, and of Alameda is not that en vogue these days but the California Reparations Task Force has released an EXTENSIVE report on the subject of how Black people were treated by the government. It’s a great read but, for Alameda, the part about housing is particularly instructive in light of the snapshots from the 1960s and our work on the Housing Element which is forcing Alameda to truly examine housing through the framework of affirmatively furthering fair housing. To affirmatively further fair housing requires us to reconcile our history and how we have put into place (whether well intentioned or not) laws that have contributed to the systemic oppression of non white people, particularly Black people.

I know that even in the face of a well researched, well sourced report like this there will be people who will hand wave away the information contained even though it echos the research that had been revealed over and over again because folks find it hard to believe that their family, or even they themselves, contributed to outcomes that proved to be discriminatory. Reconciling that information is difficult but without that reconciliation there is no way to move forward and start making amends for the past.

So, with that, a few things pulled from the report which are pertinent to Alameda:

Even though Alameda’s neighborhoods before 1973 where historically mixed with multifamily units and single family homes, 1973 saw Measure A passed which — even though people framed it as “saving Victorians or now it’s about maintaining neighborhood character — had been used for decades previously by cities across the nation to keep Black families out of certain neighborhoods.

And this may sound familiar given the 1963 articles:

Then there is this bit about racially restrictive covenants which the Fernside neighborhood famously had contained within their CCRs for a fair number of years. Even though it has presently been removed the impact of such a covenant still exists today with that area in Alameda being one of the least diverse of all in Alameda:

And more: