Petition To Bring Oakland's 16th Street Station Back to Life
City Ventures
Background
Do you want the Bay Area's most magnificent train station restored? Join Oakland Heritage Alliance in petitioning developer City Ventures to restore this abandoned train station in West Oakland.
City Ventures has purchased the Station and surrounding land in order to build 90 homes. Its plans do not include rehabilitation of the damaged and deteriorating Station and would impair the overall visibility of the Station from the street.
Constructed in Beaux-Arts style, the 1912 station not only features tracks for long distance trains, but also elevated tracks for local electric trains, an early example of intermodal design. Significantly, the Station served as the western headquarters of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black union in the United States, spurring the civil rights movement and Black middle class.
The building is threatened with neglect, damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and long vacant. Oakland Heritage Alliance is working to persuade City Ventures to invoke less-invasive site planning and sensitive restoration and reuse of the Station.
Below is our petition to City Ventures asking for its support of this effort.
Your signature on this petition would undoubtedly encourage City Ventures to bring the Station back to life. Please show your support and sign.
Learn more: https://www.oaklandheritage.org/16th-street-station.
UPDATES
- WE TOURED THE STATION: Oakland Heritage Alliance met the developer on site to discuss their plans and to document the condition of the building.
Station Interior. March 26, 2024.
- CITY VENTURES HIRED CONSULTANTS: City Ventures hired OE Consulting to spearhead a reuse plan for the station. They are currently in a listening phase and we will be meeting with them regularly to understand their current status and to make sure the community vision is heard and acted upon.
Oakland Heritage Alliance and OE Consulting discussing the station. March 26, 2024.
- PRESS COVERAGE OF YOUR EFFORTS: Due to your support, SFGate, Oaklandside, East Bay Yesterday, and KTVU have all covered this effort! This sort of coverage will help take us to the next level.
Liam O'Donoghue, SFGate, April 16, 2024
- HELP US GET MORE SIGNATURES: One thousand two hundred signatures has helped confirm to the developer and elected officials that the community wants to save the Station. More signatures are sure to advance our intentions.
PETITION
Station Interior. Image Credit: California State Railroad Museum. |
The current plan is to build around the Station, but not to restore it. West Oakland deserves to have its Station brought back to life. |
The current proposal plans to obstruct the view of the Baggage Wing from Wood Street. The Baggage Wing is as important in all respects as the rest of the Station, due to its association with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. |
The current plan is to construct new buildings in front of and around the Main Hall and Baggage Wing. |
Kansas City's Union Station, designed by the same architect as Oakland's Station, was put on the Register in 1972 and has been the centerpiece of the city. Listing on the Register will unlock tax credits to rehabilitate Oakland's Station. |
Children waiting behind the Station to catch a Southern Pacific train. Image Credit: Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society (SPH&TS) |
To:
City Ventures
From:
[Your Name]
I support the open petition to City Ventures regarding the 16th Street Station at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/bring-the-16th-street-station-back-to-life