Broadway Grand is a development under construction at the corner of Broadway and Grand Avenue on the northside of downtown Oakland.
As the video will show, it's a large mixed-use retail and apartment development which because of its size and placement will alter that part of downtown Oakland forever. Broadway Grand sits in what was considered -- and by some still is thought to be -- a sketchy area with drug dealers, robbers, and the homeless.
But what's being constructed in these areas -- housing -- has served to bring the "hounds to the hunters" and contributed to an increasing crime rate. I'm pro-development, but I think with the number of apartments and condos going up around downtown Oakland, it's time we asked the question -- yet again -- of what kind of Oakland we want to have.
In 1991, we had an Oakland community participation forum called Oakland Sharing The Vision. "OSV" as it was called drew 500 Oaklanders and out of that meeting came a large set of objectives the City was to follow. Now, 15 years later, I argue that those goals and objectives should be revisted. Broadway Grand is a good backdrop for that conversation.
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