East Oakland, Oakland, California

By 1910, Oakland had the largest African American population in the East Bay because it tripled in the previous decade as a result of fires and earthquakes in the surrounding areas.[3] Despite the new influx of African Americans, the East Oakland hills were known as “the Bible Belt” because of the white, Protestant community that occupied those houses.[3] This area supported the Ku Klux Klan which shows that even in the East Bay there was racial tension and segregation. In the 1920s, East Oakland was restricted from ethnic minorities unless they worked as servants for whites. Those who did not work as servants were hit by the Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s which caused employment to drop by 41 percent in three years.[4]

In the 19th century, the Oakland-San Leandro Road was a county road connecting Oakland with San Leandro. Along this road, small settlements developed such as Melrose, Elmhurst and Fitchburg. All these were annexed by the city of Oakland after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.[5] After annexation, the Oakland-San Leandro Road was renamed East 14th Street which lasted for most of the 20th century, until it was renamed International Blvd. Both Foothill Boulevard and MacArthur Boulevard, which run through the heart of East Oakland, were a part of the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, from 1913 until 1927.[6]

In the spring of 1943, there was an increase of immigrants to the Bay Area as a result of World War II; this time is called “the Second Gold Rush”.[7] After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government invested large sums of money on defense which created new jobs and opportunities on the coast and in the bay specifically. Because this was shortly after the great depression, many people were unemployed and looking for work, which was in abundance in the Oakland shipyard.[7] Rather than an influx of whites, the new rush caused a surge of racial minorities which caused a restructuring of the demographics in the area.[7] With the increase of workers, a housing crisis soon followed. In the city, there was push back from the Apartment House Owners Association and the Real Estate Board to build more housing so there were only five hundred public housing units built which also resulted in the destruction of other temporary housing units which displaced a large number of immigrants who had been living in them.[7] Immigrants were forced to live in overcrowded quarters and even started sleeping on the streets because the housing that was being built was reserved for whites so minorities were pushed out of the city and forced to relocate to the outskirts of East Oakland.[4] With the redistribution of living, this area, known as Brooklyn (until it was also annexed by the city in 1909) became the backbone of Oakland's African American community and caused an exodus of more prosperous whites to suburbs south and east of the city, such as San Leandro, Hayward and Walnut Creek.

In the 1950s and 1960s, many areas of East Oakland still remained predominantly white. After the war, MacArthur Blvd., which was the main route from San Francisco, was replaced by the MacArthur Freeway (580) which displaced many more African Americans living in the city and forced them to relocate to surrounding areas such as East Oakland where the African American population was now the predominant community.[4]

In 1969 the Economic Development Administration (EDA) declared that they would no longer fund large businesses or facilities but rather focus on creating jobs for the unemployed and poor, which in Oakland meant the ethnic minorities. A few years later, in 1978, California passes Proposition 13 which prevented African Americans from expanding their public zone with the property taxes, which caused the value of the area to significantly decline as the whites moved out.[8] The mayor at the time, Lionel Wilson, who was the first African American mayor, elected the year prior in 1977, combatted the regulation on property taxes by using many public resources to create investment in downtown Oakland which increased the cost of living in the city and pushed more poor and marginalized populations to surrounding areas such as East Oakland. This is one example of gentrification that has occurred in the city and makes the cost of living higher in the city so the original residents are forced to relocate to the poor, underserved surrounding areas.[9]

With the new availability of jobs created by the EDA, between 1990 and 2000 more Latino and Asian (primarily Cambodian, Lao, and Chinese) immigrants moved to Oakland and specifically Central East Oakland because of how cheap the cost of living was compared to the city.[4] A census on overcrowding showed an increase from 17 to 27 percent because of the new people who moved there. The majority of the new immigrants were Chicano/Latino who had a growth between 150 and 400 percent in that decade. That same time saw a decline in the African American population between 17 and 31 percent.[4]

Elmhurst was originally a separate town, it was annexed by Oakland in 1909, and today is considered part of East Oakland. Although it was historically a white working-class neighborhood, it became predominantly African American after World War II, and today, Latinos now form about half of Elmhurst's population. Elmhurst was the site of one of the large carbarns for the Key System's streetcars, the Elmhurst Carhouse. Chevrolet opened an auto assembly plant in Elmhurst in 1915, which shut down in the 1960s.

Located near the Oakland International Airport. The main streets are 98th Avenue and Edes Avenue. The Brookfield District is located from 85th Avenue to 98th Avenue. Brookfield Village stops at the Union Pacific (formerly Southern Pacific) train tracks after Railroad Avenue. Brookfield Village was built during the early 1900s. It later had a home-building boom during World War II in response to the influx of workers needed for the war industries, on land which had been zoned for industrial uses. In the 1990s, the neighborhood held an annual summer get-together called the Never Worry Picnic as a contrast to a crime rate that is 191% higher than the national average.[14]

• Dimond District
• Laurel
• Peralta Hacienda
• Jingle Town

• Crocker Highlands
• Glenview
• Grass Valley
• Lakeshore
• Lincoln Highlands
• Tuxedo
• Redwood Heights
• Crestmont

• Arcadia Park[15]
• Arroyo Viejo
• Blandon/Glenly/Fontaine
• Brookfield Village
• Canyon Oaks
• Castlemont
• Castlewood/Flintridge
• Coliseum[16]
• Columbia Gardens[17]
• Cox
• Durant Square
• Eastmont, Oakland, California, the location of Eastmont Town Center, the last surviving indoor shopping mall in Oakland. Now made into a center for the elderly as well as doctor's offices. And grocery stores and CVS.
• Eastmont Hills
• Fairfax District, a distinct business district centered on the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. The Fairfax Theatre building keynotes the district. Each East Oakland business district historically had its own movie theatre.
• Fitchburg
• Foothill Square
• Frick
• The Gate
• Greenridge Drive
• Havenscourt
• Hegenberger
• Highland
• Iveywood
• Las Palmas
• Malcolm Heights
• Maxwell Park
• Melrose
• Mills Gardens
• Millsmont
• Monte Vista Villas
• Lockwood Gardens[18]
• North Stonehurst
• Oak Knoll
• Ridgemont
• San Antonio, which includes smaller neighborhoods such as The Twomps[19] and Jingletown.
• Seminary. This neighborhood includes Mills College.
• Seneca Toler
• Sequoyah
• Sequoyah Heights, part of the larger Oak Knoll neighborhood[20]
• Sobrante Park
• South Stonehurst
• Toler Heights
• Woodland

Life expectancies were calculated using survival curves. The vertical height of each bar depicts the 95% confidence interval. The difference between expected age at death in the top and bottom income percentiles is 10.1 years (95% CI, 9.9–10.3 years) for women and 14.6 years (95% CI, 14.4–14.8 years) for men. To control for differences in life expectancies across racial and ethnic groups, race and ethnicity adjustments were calculated using data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Survey and estimates were re-weighted so that each income percentile bin has the same fraction of black, Hispanic, and Asian adults.

East Oakland experiences a lower life expectancy, relative to nearby neighborhoods like Alameda County, approximating 72 years. Amongst the heavily populated races present within Oakland, Hispanics lead in life expectancy, averaging 82 years. African Americans and Whites typically average 67–68 years within Oakland, while Asians live nearly 78 years. Conversely, there is a high all-cause mortality rate amongst the East Oakland community, leading in cancer, stroke, heart disease, and homicide death rates.[21] It is found that communities and families of lower socioeconomic status typically experience higher mortality rates and lower survival rates compared to those from higher socioeconomic status.[22]

East Oakland displays a significantly higher rate of common health conditions, with residents cumulatively experiencing 32% obesity, compared to 21% amongst all of California. Nearly 32% of adults in the community is at fair or poor health, relative to Alameda County's 15% and California's 16%. Similar patterns are also prevalent in children ages 0–17, with approximately 48% of children diagnosed with obesity, compared to 29% within the state of California. 13% of children in East Oakland also experience fair or poor health, a rate much higher than that of California (7%) or Alameda County (5%).[23] Amongst older adults, due to increases in disabilities (accounting for 42% of disabilities), there is a greater onset of chronic diseases, accounting for 64% of deaths primarily in cancer, heart diseases, Alzheimer's, stroke, and respiratory diseases.[24] As an effort to improve these existing conditions, East Oakland has become one of 14 different site across the state of California to participate in a 10-year comprehensive community initiative dedicated to improving and supporting a healthy community through active collaborations among youths, residents, and community partners within three Action Teams: Health Happens in Schools, Health Happens in Neighborhoods and Health Happens through Culture, Arts, Storytelling & Healing.[25]

Adults in East Oakland are more likely to visit emergency rooms than go to doctor's visits within the past year than many other counties in the Bay Area and in the entire state of California. In 2012, 35% of the community did not meet with their doctor, resulting in approximately 30% of residents taking advantage of the emergency room, relative to 13% in Alameda County and 18% in all of California. Amongst all ER visits, Blacks and Hispanics had the most frequent visits in 2011, with four times more visits compared to whites and Asian/Pacific Islanders. Furthermore, even when having healthcare coverage, Blacks continue to be the highest users of the emergency department, with 15% enrolled in governmental programs whilst consisting of 43% of frequent ER users.[26] Amongst elderly adults, rising numbers in disabilities have resulted in increased hospital emergency visits. Heart disease, leading in chronic diseases amongst elders, accounts for over 19,500 hospitalizations each year.[27] However, racial, linguistic, cultural, and cost barriers continue to influence level of access amongst the population.[28]

East Oakland ranks amongst the lowest communities to provide healthcare coverage to adults and children. 52% of adults and 40% of children remain insured by private insurance companies, compared to 61% and 57% coverage throughout the state of California. East Oakland residents are one of the higher users of governmental health programs like Medi-Cal and Medicare, covering 27% of adults and 58% of children in the population, almost 30% higher than that of California.[29] In the elderly population, 98% of older adults within the entire Alameda County have health insurance.[30] However, due to rising costs in medical care in recent decades, the California Health Interview Survey observed that 48.5% of adults age 60+ let go of their insurance coverage.[31]

Amongst Hispanics, nearly 74% were enrolled in government health insurance, such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. Median income amongst enrolled Hispanic families is $16,800, whereas non-enrolled Hispanics receive a median annual income of $19,200. The average family household enrolled in health insurance amongst Hispanics is approximately 4-6 people.[32]