WE SERVE

Our projects are rooted in Deep East Oakland, with every part of the plan shifting power dynamics which give residents and neighborhoods the ability to design, build, and implement infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gasses, prevents displacement, improves public health, build economic empowerment, and promotes long term sustainability through community involvement.

The number of socially and economically vulnerable residents in the BNSN project Area heightens the importance of developing resilient infrastructure and investments that give all communities the opportunity to thrive. The project area is 4.96 square miles with 41,566 residents in six Neighborhoods. The project ranks in the 90th percentile in pollution burden and socioeconomic vulnerability per CalEnviroScreen 3.0.

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The current ethnic breakdown of the six neighborhoods is 28% African American and 59% Latino, with significant shifts occurring in the last 10 years resulting in a higher percentage of Latinos and a lower percentage of African American residents.

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Launched by the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative, Better Neighborhoods Same Neighbors represents a City-Community Partnership launched by EONI and put into action with BNSN. Challenging the typical top-down approach to community development, the "Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighborhoods" initiative builds on decades of activism in East Oakland, and EONI, a partnership between the City of Oakland and twelve community-based organization focused on equity-based planning for "Deep" East Oakland.

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In 2017, the EONI partners approached the City of Oakland and asked to partner on a Strategic Growth Council Transformative Climate Community Planning Grant. The TCC Planning Grant resulted in the Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighborhoods (BNSN) community plan that was the framework that prioritized projects to address key issues for the project area.

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In July 2020, the California Strategic Growth Council's Transformative Climate Communities Program awarded the City of Oakland "Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighborhoods" An East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative with a $28.2 grant to implement five projects over a four-year timeframe.

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The project elements are consistent with adopted City of Oakland plans and policies.