Join EBALDC, Sticky Rice, and Oakland Bloom at the Flow & Flourish: Reimagining Chinatown Streets block party on Saturday, November 16 from 3-7pm at 9th and Webster Streets.
Plan Goals
The Plan will work with community members and local non-profits to identify a set of key corridors with multimodal upgrades through outreach to complete the conceptual designs necessary to advance the project. The conceptual designs created by this plan will be advanced for future construction grant funding opportunities and coordinated with future developments or regional projects that will position Chinatown to safely accommodate new residents and visitors.
This plan aims to shift the course for Oakland's Chinatown by creating a path for implementation of community-developed and approved projects. This project will address creating safer streets for disadvantaged communities in 4 phases:
- Phase 1 - Examine past planning recommendations and identify a set of key corridors for development.
- Phase 2 - Agree on final project description for multimodal upgrades on key corridors and connection points - Current
- Phase 3 - Perform conceptual designs for capital improvements on key corridors
- Phase 4 - Designs ready for grant development
Key Corridors
Through extensive community engagement and outreach, the following corridors were chosen to be the focus of the plan:
- 8th and 9th Street Couplet
- Webster and Harrison Street Couplet
- 7th Street
- 10th Street
Three of these streets were already slated for improvements via the following projects:
- 7th Street: Oakland Alameda Access Project
- 8th Street: 8th Street Streetscape Improvement Project
- 10th Street: 10th Street Improvement Project
The remaining streets will receive conceptual designs via the plan:
- 9th Street (core project area: Broadway to Fallon; full project: MLK Jr Way to Fallon)
- Webster Street (core project area: 6th to 10th Streets, full project: 6th to 14th)
- Harrison Street (core project area: 6th to 10th Streets; full project: 6th to 14th)
Major improvements will be concentrated in the core project areas, with other improvements spreading further to enhance connectivity. Examples of core area design elements that will be explored include widened sidewalks, angled parking, intersection bulb-outs, pedestrian-scale lighting, and pedestrian scrambles.
Engagement
The East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) is working to engage residents and stakeholders for the Chinatown Complete Streets Plan. EBALDC is a non-profit community development organization with over 48 years of experience in building healthy, vibrant and safe neighborhoods in Oakland and East Bay. they address the specific needs of individual neighborhoods by connecting the essential elements of health and wellbeing through their Healthy Neighborhoods Approach. For this plan, EBALDC has developed an engagement plan honoring past planning processes to minimize engagement fatigue in Chinatown.
- Flow and Flourish: Reimagining Chinatown Streets
- Block Party on November 16, 2024 on 9th and 10th Streets between Webster and Harrison Streets.
- Formation of a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)
- See the slide presentations for each TAC meeting in the Documents section below
- See the slide presentations for each TAC meeting in the Documents section below
- Neighbor Group Discussions
- Oakland Chinatown Coalition May 17, 2023
- Chinatown Chamber of Commerce/ OCIC May 9 & 16, 2023
- Family Bridges Senior Affordable Housing Meeting TBD
- Lincoln Summer Nights May 11, 2023
- Lincoln Summer Nights July 14, 2023
- Survey (closed 8/31/2023)
- 230 people filled out a survey to give feedback on which corridors should be prioritized, as well as what the greatest challenges on those corridors were. This data, along with other outreach data, was used to choose the final corridors and to guide the design consultant's work on the chosen corridors.
- Sitewalk Workshop (June 24, 2023)
- On June 24th, 2023, EBALDC and OakDOT led a sitewalk of the potential project corridors (7th St, 8th/9th, Webster/Harrison, and 10th St).
- Forty (40) residents attended. Most spoke Cantonese and lived in Chinatown. These residents provided firsthand input on the transportation challenges and needs on these Chinatown streets.
- “Pre-Enactment” Event: A Temporary Complete Streets Installation
- Early 2024
Chinatown Context
Chinatown is a central neighborhood in Downtown Oakland bordered by Broadway, 14th St, Fallon St, and Interstate 880. It is a vibrant, bustling neighborhood that is a centerpiece of Oakland’s cultural identity. Unfortunately, Chinatown is also home to the highest concentration of pedestrian and bicycle collisions in the city.
- 137 pedestrian collisions
- 71 bicycle collisions in the five years from 2015 to 2019, with collisions trending upwards
- 30% of streets are on Oakland’s High Injury Network – the 6% of Oakland streets that see 63% of severe and fatal crashes. This is a central equity issue for Oakland, as Asian Americans in the City are 3.5 times more likely to be killed while walking than Whites.
Chinatown is also one of the most transit-dependent neighborhoods in Oakland. Compared to Oaklanders citywide, residents in the project area are almost twice as likely to take transit versus driving alone. 7% of residents also identify biking as their primary mode compared to a citywide 5%. Of the two census tracts that contain Chinatown, 1388 of 3612 households (38%) do not have access to a vehicle, compared to a citywide average of 16%.
Chinatown is a dense area with a high concentration of retail and commercial activity. One-way road patterns create wide, fast streets that are imposing for those walking or biking. Double parking and loading in the street are the norm, which creates issues with pedestrian visibility and conflicts with people biking. This results in a very dangerous pedestrian environment that is in need for improvements immediately.
What is a "Complete Street"?
Complete Streets are streets designed and operated to enable safe use and support mobility for all users. Those include people of all ages, abilities, regardless of whether they are traveling as drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, or transit riders. Complete Streets are designed to accommodate all methods of transportation to allow people to easily travel even if they are unable to drive a car.
This form of transit equity would bring much more safety and less stress to business patrons by improving access to local institutions and businesses through alternate modes of transportation.
Updated: October 16, 2023
Updated: August 31, 2023
Updated: June 16, 2023
Posted: February 1, 2023
