In East Oakland, where the gray of concrete disproportionately outweighs spots of green, community groups work every day to change that ratio. Most weekdays, you can spot a group of young adults hauling dirt and trimming overgrown trees along the 23rd Avenue corridor in East Oakland. Participants in the Youth Employment Partnership’s Oakland Forward program are there to help beautify, green, and engage with the neighborhood. Recently, they’ve been focusing on a trash-strewn empty lot between 22nd and 23rd streets that’s owned by a community land trust.
“Everyone understands that there is a particular need in East Oakland and deep East Oakland for more trees,” said Alejandro Quintero, who graduated from the Youth Employment Partnership’s Oakland Forward program last year. Quintero is now a tree care specialist for the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, a non-profit that supports the city of Oakland’s Parks, Recreation, and Youth Development department.
East Oakland has historically lacked the amount of “tree canopy” that other parts of the city enjoy. The U.S. Forest Service defines urban tree canopy as the amount of tree leaves, stems, and branches that cover an area when viewed from above. Trees are widely understood to make neighborhoods more beautiful, but they also provide measurable health benefits, including better air quality, lower temperatures, and increased community engagement.
According to the city of Oakland’s Interactive Tree Canopy Map, which helps visualize the need for trees across Oakland, the neighborhoods in which the YEP program works have less tree canopy than the city average of 19%. Around 23rd Avenue, only 7 to 12% of the land area is shaded by trees.
Last fall, the city of Oakland released a draft of its Urban Forest Plan, which proposed several options to better maintain—and equitably plant—trees throughout the city. East Oakland was identified as one of the key areas in Oakland needing more urban tree coverage. YEP, a non-profit organization focused on helping young Oaklanders develop their careers, is one of the groups trying to help achieve this goal.
In 2022, the city of Oakland received $5.9 million in funding from the state to help young people find jobs and pursue careers in climate resilience and public safety. The city handed out parts of that funding to local nonprofits, including YEP and several city departments. YEP received $500,000 of the funding for 2022-2023 and an additional $250,000 for 2023-2024.
The Oakland Forward program at YEP is designed to provide work opportunities for young adults between 18 to 24 who face barriers to employment. It prepares and trains them to work in community service and environmentally-focused areas, including community cleaning, tree planting and maintenance, and landscaping. They also take classes in general career development skills.
The group, currently consisting of four participants led by YEP’s Oakland Forward Project Coordinator, Dan Schmitz, often collaborates with local nurseries and other city and community groups, like the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation and Planting Justice, a non-profit focused on providing food justice education, jobs for formerly incarcerated individuals, and urban nurseries in Bay Area communities.
Along with planting trees in East Oakland, Oakland Forward participants spend a lot of time cleaning up trash. Illegal dumping has plagued much of Oakland for years, and East Oakland sees more than its fair share. The group works on several project sites along 23rd Avenue. At one, Schmitz said, “We filled [a flatbed truck] three times with bags of garbage, and we’re not even through.”
Quintero, the recent Oakland Forward program graduate, had always been interested in horticulture and came to YEP with a history of working in the marijuana-growing industry. He’s currently working to earn a credential as a certified arborist from the International Society of Arboriculture, one of the field’s highest seals of approval.
“I don’t need an excuse to plant trees anywhere; I’m already really invested in that part of the work,” said Quintero. “But seeing the people appreciate it makes it more fulfilling.”
Quintero, who moved to Oakland four years ago from Southern California, said that when he met Schmitz last year, it felt as if they were “kindred spirits.” Schmitz moved to East Oakland in 1989 and lived with a group of refugees from Cambodia. He started his community-focused work by teaching the young refugees English.
“When working with the kids and organizing, one of the things that became really clear was that they didn’t like their area because it was ugly,” said Schmitz. “My grandma was a gardener, so I was like, ‘Oh, we can plant stuff.’”
He also became a pastor of a local church. Over the years, he dedicated more time to his role in the church, connecting with others in East Oakland who were invested in community organizing. When YEP secured funding to launch its Oakland Forward program, the organization recruited Schmitz. He said East Oakland’s San Antonio area has become a focus because of how few trees it has.
The empty lot on 23rd Avenue that YEP workers are cleaning up sits between two residential buildings. The group hopes to replace a junk heap with trees, planter boxes, native plants, and more, making it a place where neighbors can grow and pick produce or simply relax. Schmitz is prioritizing plants and techniques that require minimal maintenance, like drought tolerant and native plants that can survive without much ongoing care. He is also primarily planting trees that can provide tangible benefits for residents, such as fruit trees.
Ray Hoang, one of the employees of YEP’s Oakland Forward program who grew up in East Oakland, says that providing something useful for the community makes his work more meaningful. “I feel like I’ve never really helped this much in a community,” he said.
Hoang said that while he doesn’t see himself staying in landscaping long-term, he enjoys the work and the feedback he’s gotten from community members. He recalls working on a community garden over the summer, building planter boxes and filling them with edible plants.
“Some people were really interested in what we were growing,” said Hoang. “We were actually growing food there, like tomatoes, onions, peppers, and cabbages, and they were interested in planting their own food there too.”
Wanting neighbors to be involved
While making an area greener has clear benefits, researchers have identified some potential downsides. “Green gentrification” is the idea that adding more greenery to a space could lead to higher property values and displacement of lower-income residents.
A study published in Nature in 2022, suggests that out of the 28 cities studied in North America and Europe, 17 displayed a “strong positive and relevant relationship for at least one decade between greening in the 1990s–2000s and gentrification that occurred between 2000–2016.” According to the study, “greening and greening alone” was the main factor that contributed to the gentrification. However, in some cities, including San Francisco, greening didn’t seem to play as much of a direct role in gentrification.
Quintero said that he and his team at Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation have been having conversations about ethical approaches to their work. “I think it’s important to do this work, but it comes with a lot of qualifiers,” said Quintero.
Schmitz said that he is wary of “whitewashing” the areas his team is working in for the sole sake of beautification. He wants to create a space that is both beautiful and functional to the folks who will utilize it. However, Schmitz notes that not all neighbors in the areas where Oakland Forward does its work have the ability or desire to maintain the gardens and other green spaces the program creates. He plans to plant low-maintenance trees and plants while also planning on engaging more people in the neighborhoods through canvassing, outreach, and discussion
“I want neighbors to be involved,” said Schmitz. “We’re really trying to be intentional about doing it in a way that will require as little maintenance as possible.”
