Oakland's Department of Public Works is refusing to remove trash and an encampment that is blocking the estuary channel bike path until it completes a delayed project to fence in Peralta Park (see the image below of the route of the path through the park). The blockages (seen in the lead image) force people who commute between Jack London Square and Lake Merritt by bike to navigate across dangerous, multi-lane roads, including the ramps of the Nimitz freeway.
When the fences are finished, the path will be closed off to bike commuters by gates. As seen in the lead image, the city already built some of the tall black fencing. Now it plans to enclose the entire area, including a long section of the channel cycling path.
"It looks like the proposed hours for the gated path would be 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. from May to October, and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from November to April," wrote Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz. "These hours would make the pathway mostly unavailable as a bike/walk commute corridor, which is how I used the pathway to get to/from Jack London Square until the blockages started."
The path, once used by bicyclists, joggers, and pedestrians, became fully blocked by encampments two years ago after council district lines were redrawn, moving the area from District 3 to District 2 under Councilperson Nikki Fortunato Bas.
From an email sent to Streetsblog from Bas, in response to last week's commentary on the issue:
On March 18, the Measure DD [which is supposed to fund parks] community advisory group voted unanimously to approve funds for installation of the fence as proposed to enclose the entire park, with daytime access to the public.
I understand the delay in installing the fence is supply chain issues in securing the materials, and I have reached out to city staff to get an update.
Read her full email, with links to documents about the fence here.
The additional fencing, if completed, is expected to cost $270,000. The city believes the fence will require only routine maintenance.
The picture below is of a fence under the freeway, in another location in the district, that was installed by Caltrans to prevent encampments. It is similar to the fence the city has started to install and wants to expand around Peralta Park. There is an active encampment just behind this fence. Note the missing bars.
The blockage of the estuary path is caused by a handful of unhoused people who allow their possessions—and garbage—to collect in the path. In Streetsblog's view, it's infuriating that the city refuses to clear space for cyclists under Lake Merritt Boulevard, as it did previously. But it's clear from Bas's correspondence and the documentation that the city views the path as useful only for "educational and recreational" activities and is therefore nonessential. In reality, it was a vital transportation corridor and a rare route on which cyclists once could get from A to B safely. Every time I cover this story, I get emails from Streetsblog readers who depended on the path to get around and who are furious that the city walked away from its responsibility to maintain it.
Imagine if an encampment and garbage had rendered Lake Merritt Boulevard itself impassable. Imagine if the city's solution was to leave it like that for years while it built a fence, with plans to close it to cars from before dusk until after dawn. Of course, that would never happen—the road would be cleared in a matter of hours, with zero sympathy for the unhoused.
Instead of building hostile-looking fences and making the park feel like an outdoor prison, the city should be building more shelters. In addition, the city has a moral obligation to clear the path immediately so that cyclists aren't forced to navigate dangerous, multilane, high-speed streets. That does not require removing every encampment in Peralta Park. It just means giving a little thought to the lives and safety of people who bike and walk (many of whom are themselves unhoused). And it's up to Bas to apply pressure and pull the right levers to get this done, just as her predecessors did.
It's going to require a sustained effort to keep the path clear. But the alternative is stark: eventually, a cyclist will be killed trying to cross Lake Merritt Boulevard or the freeway ramps because the channel path is unavailable.
Contact information for Councilmember Bas can be found at the bottom of her city website.
