Did you know the City of Oakland established the Black Arts Movement Business District
January 19, 2016?
And two years later you don't know about the BAMBD? Ask your City Councilperson for the area, Lynette McElhaney? Ask why our banners don't fly along the BAMBD, the 14th Street corridor from the lower bottom to Lake Merritt, and four blocks north and south?
Ask why no budget has been allocated for the BAMBD. Isn't this similar to Juneteenth and post slavery? They said we were free, yes, we learned one year later in Texas, but weren't given the trappings of freedom such as forty acres and a mule. The Black Arts Movement Business District is part of the City of Oakland's Downtown Plan for the next 25 to 50 years, but there is no equity in business development, housing, jobs, cultural and art space and other amenities.
At the present rate of development and gentrification in the BAMBD, we can only look forward to being museum objects, similar to the Black cultural district in Austin, Texas, i.e., the district has few Black people due to development and gentrification.
On behalf of the North American African community, the BAMBD CDC or community development corporation has been established as an independent entity from the City of Oakland. If the last two years are an index of Oakland's snail paced bureaucratic process, we clearly don't wish to be caught at the whim of ephemeral regimes. The BAMBD must stand on solid ground for the present and future.
Marvin X co-founder
Black Arts Movement and BAMBD
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