A local group has secured a massive investment to completely transform East Oakland.
Rise East and the 40x40 Council, a group of nonprofits looking to invest and build up an area of deep East Oakland, announced Thursday that it has raised $100 million to do so – an effort that's been years in the making.
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WATCH HERE"We are building a place where folks can rest and can have ease and can have joy and can have health and resilience," Black Cultural Zone CEO CJ Johnson said.
Some of the funds are already at work. The $100 million will be distributed over five years, funding hundreds of projects, including buying residential and commercial properties to preserve what's already there, and then adding retail, grocery stores, affordable housing, wellness centers and more, all while creating jobs.
"People have to stay, they have to have jobs, they have to have businesses, and it needs to all revolve because we have a trade deficit in Oakland," Johnson said. "We spend more of our money outside of this city."
The goal is to address and recover from what leaders describe as decades of disinvestment in the area from Seminary Avenue to the San Leandro border and MacArthur to the Bay.
"We know and believe in our heart of hearts that if we are able to reverse the cycle of divestment, the cycle of oppression, the cycle of economic exploitation, and all of the very systemic oppression that our folks have been up against for generations, that we will rise," East Oakland Youth Development Center CEO Selena Wilson said.
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New Mayor Barbara Lee is committed to helping the plan succeed.
"You are showing that community and collaborative efforts work and that we can bring big and new investments to Oakland," she said.
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