EBALDC BRINGS THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER AT MACARTHUR PARK APARTMENTS

Taking Down Fences, Putting in Gardens, Building Community 

 EBALDC came in and really turned it around. You are bringing the community and people together. It’s awesome and shows we can still learn.
Tonya McKinnis, Resident  

In order to preserve affordable housing for moderate–income residents, EBALDC purchased MacArthur Park Apartments in Oakland’s Eastmont neighborhood as part of its Housing Acquisition Fund (HAF) created in 2015 with the support of Kaiser Permanente, Enterprise Community Partners, and the San Francisco Foundation. By design, the acquisition of existing multifamily properties through HAF helps to address the housing crisis in Oakland and preserve housing for moderate-income families by stabilizing rents for residents who live there. At MacArthur Park, a mix of 84 people — including families, seniors, and singles — reside in 53 different-sized units.  

MacArthur Park Apartments had no recreation or community gathering areas when 
EBALDC purchased the property. Photo: Ivy Chen 

However, unlike new EBALDC developments that are designed with shared spaces such as community rooms or gardens, acquired HAF buildings often have little common space for resident engagement, let alone recreation. MacArthur Park Apartments’ four buildings are located right up against busy MacArthur Boulevard and separated by paved parking lots. The neighborhood lacks public parks and places to gather nearby; and youth also have little opportunity for employment or career building.   

“At the time of the purchase, there wasn’t a blade of grass nor a single tree on the entire property,” said Annie Ledbury. “Services were pretty much non-existent when EBALDC took over as landlord, so one of our main objectives was to build residents’ trust in us and each other.” The Senior Manager of the Creative Community Development (CCD) team at EBALDC, Annie Ledbury, is a licensed architect who emboldens residents to envision their dream neighborhood and make it a reality. CCD uses the power of art, culture & creativity to collectively catalyze social, physical, and economic transformations in neighborhoods. MacArthur Park was in need of creative solutions to build a space where residents could gather and start to form social connections, a key component of EBALDC’s Healthy Neighborhoods Approach to community development.   

First installation was small planting boxes for growing vegetables followed by a large, raised gardening bed. Photo: Ivy Chen 

Teens hovering over planter boxes — Students take part in planting a large raised gardening bed.
Photo: Ivy Chen 

Using the Creative Community Development lens, EBALDC reached out to partners at nearby Castlemont High School and Civic Design Studio in the midst of the COVID pandemic lockdown. Castlemont provided a team of student interns from the school’s Sustainable Urban Design Academy (SUDA) and Civic Design Studio coordinated the design/build of painted planter boxes. The budget was tight, but with support from the Kresge Foundation and NeighborWorks America, EBALDC and partners began the transformation of MacArthur Park’s Community Space. SUDA’s Marvin Boomer, Pathway Coach, and Lead Teacher, Lillian Jacobson, were able to engage over 140 11th– and 10th-grade students in the project. They surveyed residents to develop plans for the space, built 3-D models, created websites, and built the first set of cheerfully painted planter boxes. Four students continued to participate in resident-engaged design and build of the project for the next year and a half as CastleWorks Design and Gardening interns — Jennifer Sosa-Fuentes, Zahira Zamora, Paula Lujan, and Natividad (Zero) Borbolla-Hernandez. Also collaborating on the project were EBALDC’s Youth Empowerment Leadership Program and Laney College’s Carpentry Program.  

Key team members responsible for developing the outdoor community space.
(Left to right) Jennifer Sosa-Fuentes, CastleWorks student intern; Lillian Jacobson, Lead Teacher at Castlemont HS Sustainable Urban Design Academy, Zahira Zamora, CastleWorks student intern; Annie Ledbury, Senior Manager of the Creative Community Development team at EBALDC; and Carlos Chacon, EBALDC Resident Services Coordinator at MacArthur Park Apartments. Photo: Ivy Chen 

On a warm September Saturday afternoon, Resident Services Coordinator, Carlos Chacon was hosting a celebratory backyard BBQ — complete with karaoke. “One of the aspects of my job is to provide a community space where the residents can come out of the concrete jungle,” he said. “When starting, we put flyers up announcing the project and it took shape when we got back the results of the resident surveys the student teams carried out. Residents said they wanted an herb garden, a real vegetable garden, a BBQ, a picnic table, and a shady area. First, we had to take down a barbed wire and razor wire fence, and then they got what they asked for. The main installation was in May 2022, and now we have kids playing back here.”  

Proud resident: Isaiah (10), shows off a squash grown in the community vegetable garden. Photo: Ivy Chen 

Proud resident: Cynthia Garcia, Head Gardener at MacArthur Park Apartments. Photo: Ivy Chen 

In a neighborhood where fresh produce is not always readily available, the residents are harvesting herbs and vegetables from raised gardening beds and an 800-square-foot in-ground irrigated farm plot — cilantro, jalapeños, oregano, collards, and sweet potatoes. Redwood benches and a picnic table have been installed, and a smoker BBQ is available for residents’ use. Depending on future funds, plans are in place for a mini children’s playground and an expanded area for community celebrations – like potlucks or holiday parties. In order to make this next phase of MacArthur Park’s Community Space a reality, an investment of $50,000 is required. As part of EBALDC’s place-based Healthy Neighborhoods Approach, the overall goal is to expand the Creative Community Development model to the rest of EBALDC’s HAF properties. The collaboration between EBALDC’s Creative Community Development, Youth Programs, and Resident & Community services, as well as residents, and partners would require an investment of $150,000 – including a capital budget to pay for materials.  

Says Annie Ledbury about EBALDC’s Healthy Neighborhood Approach, “Beyond the tangible impact that the garden has made to create peaceful space in residents’ lives, the co-creation process is even more important. These projects build residents’ sense of agency and capacity to partner with creatives to collectively create culturally-resonant places, which are essential components of a healthy neighborhood.”  

I love you guys. I love plants. They are life to me. I don’t have much but I have energy and love so we can have something nice.
It’s for all of us so we can eat.
Cynthia Garcia, Resident and Head Gardener