The project team is excited to share that they developed and published a community engagement report, which is now available on the 7th Street Connection Project webpage. The report provides details about the project team’s approach to community engagement and the types of community engagement activities held in Fall and Winter 2023. It also summarizes feedback from community members and describes how the project team incorporated feedback into the 35% designs.
A few takeaways that emerged from all engagement activities during that time period were:
- 7th Street needs safety improvements for pedestrians crossing the street. Many think that crosswalks are too long and dangerous. The intersections with the highest number of noted concerns is Filbert Street and the I-980 underpass.
- Better lighting is needed along 7th Street.
- There’s concerns about speeding and other unsafe driving behaviors on 7th Street.
- More trees and landscaping are desired along 7th Street.
Throughout the first phase of community engagement, project staff continually discussed input that they received through community engagement, and the draft 35% designs evolved to reflect this input. The project team also collected data on traffic counts and parking, which are summarized in a traffic study and parking analysis. These two documents are being finalized and will be posted to the webpage soon.
Project staff heard from community members that they are concerned about poor air quality in West Oakland. To reduce exposure to poor air quality, project staff propose to add landscaping along the 7th Street project corridor, plant up to 221 new trees, and replace 30 dead or declining trees. This information, in addition to data on black carbon particles in the air in West Oakland, is detailed in an exhibit that the project team prepared.
In the next few months, project staff will continue to meet with community members. Staff will focus on meeting with community members that they were not able to reach in the first phase of engagement in hopes of providing project information and answering any questions about the project. Additionally, staff will also seek community feedback on bus shelter designs, types of trees to be planted along the corridor, landscaping, furnishings such as trash cans, and wayfinding. More information about upcoming engagement activities will be shared in future newsletters. Please sign up for the email list here.
