Speaking Up for the Community Through Neighborhood Stories!

On a recent afternoon, newspaper members pored over a near final mock-up of the newest edition of the San Pablo Ave Community News. “Can we change the headline here?” “Oh, I like how this article turned out!”

Thanks to support from NeighborWorks America and the Akonadi Foundation, a core group of community members who live or have deep connections along San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland and Emeryville have been working with creative partners on the newspaper since 2022. These locals form the cadre of writers, photographers, and graphic designers responsible for devising and creating the editorial focus, stories, images, and layout of the newspaper. 2000 free, physical copies are distributed by resident team members and neighborhood institutions. Each edition is also posted online and includes translations of key articles in Chinese and Spanish.

Created during the pandemic to build neighborhood cohesion through storytelling and as part of a strategy to advance racial equity through centering local voices in advocacy efforts, the newspaper creates new social and advocacy connections and a space for celebration, joy, and learning.

Said Annette Miller, the paper’s Outreach Manager: “We wanted the paper to be community led; for the residents to lead the articles and the vision of how the newspaper should go. This is an opportunity for individual folks and community leaders to have an option and an opinion about what’s moving forward in our community.”

Grounded in deep connection to the neighborhood, many team members have worked in community organizing for years. The newspaper team tells stories from the perspective of being neighbors and advocates, a perspective that is historically underrepresented in media, particularly in coverage of low-income communities and communities of color. Team members cover stories that align with community priorities such as housing security and environmental justice.

Past issues have provided a forum for changes community members want to see, such as bringing back a local branch of the public library to the neighborhood, drawing attention to the No Coal Campaign in Oakland, and soliciting resident involvement and input in the overhaul of the San Pablo Avenue thoroughfare, which is set to focus less on automobile use, and more on lanes for public buses, bikes, and personal transport devices like e-scooters. Newspaper writers pose questions about issues that affect the community, like “Who dropped the ball to allow Greyhound to up and move to [a bus stop sign] outside of West Oakland BART station? The only means for low-income folks to get from state to state. There is no station. No one to talk to.”

The newspaper showcases the many talents of community members, including poetry, interviews, recipes, and stories documenting neighborhood and local cultural history, such as the history of Elizabeth and Isaac Flood, one of the first African American families to settle in Oakland and opened the first private school for Black children.

Reflecting what the residents have identified as relevant and important, the paper also plays a key role in highlighting the work of neighborhood-serving small businesses, such as the local locksmith Golden Gate Locksmith with 78 years of serving West Oakland and Emeryville, and community-based organizations, like St. Mary’s Center, which serves seniors with transitional housing and supports.

Community-researched resources include how neighbors can access food and meal provisions, showers and laundry assistance, and how to apply for affordable housing. The paper also affords residents the ability to develop relationships with, and voice needs to, elected officials. For example, a recent issue features Tyra Rhodes’ interview with Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife, who noted that the San Pablo Ave Community News “is a testament to community, to resiliency, to relationships…”

The San Pablo Ave Community News is distributed at neighborhood institutions such as St. Mary’s Center and Third Eye Soul Kitchen. The next issue is expected to be released in August 2024.