Black Liberation

Black Spaces Matter. The Black Liberation Walking Tour (BLWT) is a community-led cultural asset map celebrating Hoover-Foster’s multi-generational Black history and culture. It asserts resident voices and documents sites of cultural and historical significance in the neighborhood. It celebrates belonging through the 100+ year narrative ribbon leading from the early West Coast civil rights movement through the second wave of the …

Black History

Welcome to a Black History Tour of Oakland. This tour is an expanded version of the city of Oakland’s New Era, New Politics tour, and was first given in 2017 by the city walking tour program and Oakland Urban Paths as a celebration of Black History Month. Of course, Black history isn’t confined to a …

10,000 Steps #2

This is part 2 of 2. See part 1 for more information. The estimated distance and time are for this part only. The 10,000 Steps project explored Oakland’s city squares, past and present. It culminated in a permanent meandering neighborhood narrative, ‘Walking the Invisible City’. This looped walk, marked with permanent conversational sidewalk stepping stones, reveals the city …

10,000 Steps #1

The 10,000 Steps project explored Oakland’s city squares, past and present. It culminated in a permanent meandering neighborhood narrative, ‘Walking the Invisible City’. This looped walk, marked with permanent conversational sidewalk stepping stones, reveals the city within the city: hidden local lore, architectural and cultural history, and points of urban transformation all centered around these historic …

Old Oakland

Welcome to a walking tour of the Old Oakland neighborhood. Although this is not the oldest part of Oakland, it does have many of the oldest buildings still standing in Oakland. The town of Oakland was incorporated in 1852, and started mostly with buildings near the waterfront. It became a city in 1854, and rapidly …