Like all parking lots, the one at Lake Merritt BART paved over history.
To build the station in the 1960s, the agency bulldozed 75 houses along with a church and an orphanage. Other developments in the neighborhood at the time, like Laney College, further displaced Chinese-American residents and cleaved their community.
This week, yet another development project broke ground at the site of the BART station parking lot. A 97-unit building of affordable homes for seniors is now under construction at the lot bounded by Oak, Fallon, 8th, and 9th streets. Forty-four of the units will house formerly homeless residents.
