new bike & ped improvements on 7th Street
from Union to Wood Streets
Construction is moving forward swiftly on the 7th Street Streetscape Project in West Oakland, which will include new bike lanes from Union to Wood Streets, wider sidewalks, new street lighting that may look really nice, bike racks, and a Blues Walk of Fame commemorating the heart of the West Coast blues scene from the 40's, 50's and 60's.
The 7th St Streetscape project is funded by the Air District and was born out of a community based transportation plan that started back in 2006. The Project is also part of a larger West Oakland BART Transit Village being developed to attract new housing and businesses to the area.
The project area was once home to numerous forms of transit and transportation, commerce and cultural institutions, but has suffered greatly from the negative impacts of freeways and BART since the 1950's. While it once thrived from its connections to the rail and the Port of Oakland and benefited from employment and industry, it has been physically divided by freeways and the overhead BART structures and continues to suffer today from noise and shadow from the BART structure and bad air quality from diesel truck traffic and freeway pollution.
Many are no doubt aware of the construction going on to replace the "World's Shortest Freeway" at the south end of Lake Merritt. The EBBC was a major supporter of Measure DD in 2002, which is paying for the construction of a neighborhood boulevard to replace the Eisenhower-era freeway stub. Along with new bike lanes on Lakeshore Avenue, we are seeing the results of our advocacy!
