The Current Reality of Fruitvale District
Police Officer Greg Bellusa has worked with the Oakland Police Department for 10 years and has answered every type of call. However during the first of week of December a typical burglary call saddened him more so than others.
“It was a sad call to answer,” states Bellusa. He described a family arriving to their home on 40th Street one evening to discover that all their Christmas presents, children’s toys, rent money, a camera and a paycheck had been stolen. “These burglars left the family broke and right before Christmas.”
Fruitvale is a neighborhood in Oakland that is plagued with crimes and Bellusa admits that this specific incident hit too close to the holidays.
In the last 90 days within a one quarter mile radius of the intersections of International Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue, 110 crimes have occurred according to the Oakland Police Department’s community crime mapping web site. The crimes range from aggravated assault, alcohol, burglary, narcotics, robbery, theft, vandalism, vehicle theft and prostitution. Within a one mile radius of International Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue, two murders have occurred within the last 90 days.
According to Bellusa the biggest criminal problem in Fruitvale are robberies but despite a gun or knife used in most incidents victims are rarely injured.
Bellusa credits the change in the amount of police officers that are out during a shift, now the city has created shifts that are concurrent and shifts that overlap. “We’ve done a really good job addressing the issue of crime … things are safer,” says Bellusa. Since new shifts and more police officers have been added to each beat calls have gone down. Bellusa covers the night shift and before January of this year, when the changes occurred, he would respond to 20 calls each night and now he responds to seven or eight.
Despite Bellusa’s claims that crime is going down there are others in Fruitvale that would disagree with Bellusa and say that things are not better. Aaron Del Angel owns a flower shop and boutique on the 3800 block of International Boulevard and believes that the crime in Fruitvale runs rampant because the police are targeting the wrong people.
Del Angel is an immigrant and says he has been a victim of discrimination by the Oakland Police Department. Del Angel complains that too many Latin people are stopped too often by police check points when in most cases the driver has not caused any offense to merit being stopped.
Del Angel says “It’s dirty and corrupt how the police conduct business.” He refers to the money that the city makes by ticketing unlicensed immigrants and impounding their vehicles. Del Angel believes that this instills fear for the Latin people living and shopping in Fruitvale. Del Angel says this hurts all merchants because Latin clients don’t want to come to Fruitvale for fear of the police.
Last year during one of the festivals held on International Boulevard, Del Angel obtained a license to sell flowers on the street in front of his shop. During the day an officer from the city came and demanded that Del Angel show her his Identification. “I will show you my sellers permit, but I am not obligated to show you my Identification,” he responded. Del Angel believed that she was trying to catch him as an illegal and he had given her no cause to believe that. The officer threatened to arrest Del Angel if he did not produce his Identification and after much arguing he showed his identification for fear of being arrested.
Del Angel believes that the real criminals are not the average immigrants that live and work in Fruitvale and he believes that police should concentrate their efforts to deter real criminals.
As a business man on a busy block, Del Angel observes most of what happens in the area and believes most of the crimes are committed by African American youth. He states that the police rarely stop them because they want to avoid confrontation.
On the same block as Del Angel’s shop is the restaurant Huarache Azteca. The owner, Eva Saavedra, and her brother, Adrian Saavedra, have suffered more than just material and monetary loss; their brother, Guillermo, was murdered in Fruitvale.
The night of Saturday November 10, 2007, Guillermo arrived at Fruitvale BART station after working in San Francisco. He walked a block up to the corner of Fruitvale Avenue and International Boulevard; he was running late to his Alcoholics Anonymous meeting a few blocks away. As he crossed the street he was bludgeoned in the head and left for dead. No one has been charged with his murder.
Adrian Saavedra sits in the empty dining room of his sister’s restaurant that lies four blocks south of the corner where his 36 year old brother was murdered. Saavedra clasps his hands and calmly sighs as recounts the struggle he and his sister have gone through in dealing with the Oakland Police Department.
Saavedra asks, “Why in some cases do the police offer a reward to solve a case? Why have they not offered a reward to solve my brother’s case?” He wonders if the police’s lack of interest in solving his brother’s murder is racially motivated.
Guillermo Saavedra left Mexico to find work and support his wife and their unborn daughter. He came to Fruitvale and died without ever meeting his daughter. For his older brother Adrian Saavedra the lack of answers is the biggest heartache he encounters when he calls the police. “My sister and I are in pain but my mother and father suffer as parents and his daughter suffers.”
Apart from the heartache of losing their brother, Adrian and Eva Saavedra, have dealt with robberies and prostitution at their restaurant. Six months ago the restaurant called the police because a young teenage girl who Saavedra believed was a prostitute would not leave the restaurant. Saavedra says that he and the staff felt bad for her because they knew she was scared to leave the restaurant but they had to call the police; they arrived within 30 minutes. However when they were robbed two years ago at night when the restaurant was closed; $200 was stolen, the windows were smashed and the register and computer were damaged adding up to a $1,000 loss. Saavedra says that the police took over fours to respond to their call.
Many other businesses have been victims of robberies along International Boulevard.
Three months ago on a Monday evening Lorenza Vazquez and two co-workers began to close the Taqueria El Farolito on the 3600 block of International Boulevard. Vazquez says that three masked robbers entered the store around 10:30 p.m. and tied up her two co-workers. One of the men stuck a gun to her head and forced her to give them the $2,500 that was in the register; they took the money and left.
Vazquez stares at the register when she recounts the story. She brushes at the air with her hand and says “Oh well, what can you do, if you don’t resist they won’t hurt you, they just want the money.”
Other merchants have not acted so resiliently in the face of danger. Dress shop owner Enriquita Soriano has been left frightened by her experience. In May of this year two African American women entered her store and asked for a dress, as Soriano walked to the back to get the dress, the two women followed and pulled a gun on her. “My brain wasn’t working, I was so scared and I didn’t know what to do.” Soriano was surprised that she was able to give the women the $300 cash she had along with her credit card and driver’s license.
What surprised Soriano was that she was robbed in the middle of the day. Soriano tried to run out in the street to get the license plate, but the women drove off too fast. Soriano has been a merchant in Fruitvale for 15 years and since this incident locks her store during the day when she is alone. “I know I’m losing business when people try the door and I take too long to answer, but I want to be safe.”
Despite other merchants doubting the Oakland Police Department, Soriano has had better a experience with them. Soriano says that the responding officer in her case, Officer Mauricio Perez, arrived in 10 minutes. Since May Perez frequently stops by the store to ask how Soriano is doing. Even though the two robbers were never caught, Soriano believes the police have done all they can. “The economy is getting worse and people are out of work, it’s understandable that more crimes are going to occur.”
In the Fruitvale Plaza, within the Fruitvale BART Station, lie several shops and restaurants. Betty An, co-owner of Ans Jewelry store, admits that security in their area is better than on International Boulevard despite being two blocks down. An’s jewelry store suffered an attempted robbery on Thursday, November 4. The store was closed and the robbers smashed in the windows. In this attempt the alarm company immediately called the police and the Fruitvale Plaza security; the robbers fled the scene without any merchandise. “It’s safer here because of the Plaza security,” says An.
As merchants complain or sympathize with the police, Council President Ignacio De La Fuente covers Fruitvale (District 5) and his office claims that crime in Fruitvale is improving.
Claudia Jimenez, Policy Analyst, for De La Fuente’s office agrees with Officer Greg Bellusa that crime has improved in Fruitvale. Jimenez credits her office for working with the community by organizing and attending neighborhood crime councils. One of the ways they work with the community is to listen to neighbor’s complaints. “If we hear about a specific tenant that is dealing drugs out of an apartment our office works with the landlord to get that tenant out so they can not bother the rest of the neighborhood.”
Jimenez admits that Latinos are targets of certain crimes such as the ice Cream and food vendors. “Those people are more vulnerable at night because they carry lots of cash and they are outdoors.” However Jimenez states that her office has worked with the Police Department in stings to catch these criminals robbing the vendors.
As many merchants have suffered robberies, prostitution, assaults and even murder the causes are still unknown. The police believe the crime levels to be falling because of the City of Oakland’s efforts to add more police, but many merchants feel that crime has not improved. The merchants differ in opinion; the bad economy, police discrimination or just being in a bad neighborhood. The reality is that Fruitvale suffers crime and its citizens live it every day.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Dia De Los Muertos Fruitvale Festival
Here is a link to a multimedia story that a fellow student, Rachel Monzon, and I created about the Dia De Los Muertos Festival in Fruitvale on October 26.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Dia de Los Muertos Community Art
A small group of 15 men, women and children gather around white folding tables facing Daniel Camacho who sits at the head of the table; the group stare at the small baseball-sized object Camacho holds in his left hand. Camacho takes a pastry bag filled with blue icing and squeezes little eyes onto a white sugar skull. The skull is what the group stares at and
Camacho, a local Fruitvale artist, teaches a workshop on how to make and decorate sugar skulls for the upcoming celebration of Dia de los Muertos.
The Unity Council of Oakland, a social services organization, sponsors the annual Dia de los Muertos festival and this year they have arranged workshops open to the public to promote involvement within the community to help create art for the festival. Hector Rangel runs Libros, Artes y Cultura, a non-profit organization inside the Oakland Workers Center building on International Boulevard; Rangel has offered his space to host the workshops. Rangel offers his space because he thinks that Dia de los Muertos is a celebration that Latinos in this country should not forget. Rangel wants others from outside of the Latino community to learn about the celebration that honors the dead to partake in the ritual and make it a part of their own culture.
The workshops began in August and ended last Thursday evening. Every Thursday there have been different themes like how to make flores de papel picado (paper mâché flowers,) clay bowls and sugar skulls. The crafts taught are typical crafts used in making altars that support offerings or memories of loved ones that have passed away.
As the sound of rushing cars from International Boulevard echo through the hallways of the building,the group within chatters amongst themselves and discuss how each one will personalize their sugar skulls.
Frank Cortez, 10, tries to draw a diagram of his sugar skull. A frown grows over Frank’s mouth; in frustration he crumples the page and hides it under his chair. Frank sulks in his chair and a tear wells up in the corner of his eye. His mother Teresa Cortez sees his frustration and invites him to come help decorate her sugar skull. The rest of the group ignore Frank’s tantrum but Camacho watches the boy try to muscle his way in on his mother’s project. “No causas berrinche aqui; tranquilo,” (don’t cause problems here; calm down.) Frank’s mother gives him a reprimanding look and nods her head in agreement with Camacho.
Lead Artist Coordinator for the Dia de los Muertos workshops, Peter Perez, surveys the room in contentment. “It’s wonderful to see people from the community come and share in this experience together.” Perez currently lives in Petaluma and has coordinated Dia de los Muertos festivals there in previous years. Perez says, “The mostly white-based community take a little more coaxing to jump into the art,” here the community doesn’t even know each other but become close, “perhaps it’s because of the Latin culture.”
As the group smile and laugh at the bright colors and stray lines on their skulls some of the artists reflect on the seriousness of their work. Ernesto Cortez, Frank’s uncle, knows exactly for whom his skull is dedicated to. Cortez squeezes the word “abuelito” (grandpa) on the forehead of his skull. Margarito was Cortez’s grandpa.
Teresa and Ernesto Cortez are siblings and along with Teresa’s son Frank are the only members of their family here in the United States, the rest of their family is back in Pueblo Mexico. Teresa Cortez has been to all the workshops since they began in August. Cortez was excited to join the classes because she wants to instill a sense of tradition in her son; she’s afraid he will forget his culture.
The Cortez family have participated in the workshops, will have their own altar during the festival in Fruitvale and will do a traditional celebration in their home beginning October 26 through November 1, the actual day Dia de los Muertos is celebrated.
As the clock nears 8:30 p.m. Rangel begins to wipe the powdered sugar off the table, stack up the chairs and usher the people out of the room. Teresa Cortez asks Rangel “Y para la proxima semana?” (“And for next week?”) Rangel looks at her and says there are no more classes; now everyone has to take what they have learned so far and create their own altars. Cortez looks at Rangel in disappointment and says she likes having a place to go to create art every Thursday. Rangel tells her not to worry because Libros, Artes y Cultura is always promoting art and dance workshops throughout the year.
The Cortez’s are the last to leave the building, they turn and face Rangel to shake his hand and thank him for holding the classes.
First Blog
What I knew about the Fruitvale district in Oakland was not much, but what I have known is what has been shown in the news; burglaries, street racing, and shootings. I have never ventured past the Fruitvale BART station, and the Fruitvale station, like most other BART stations in the Bay Area, is not situated in the safest neighborhood. My instinct in the past has been to drive through Fruitvale, not to stop, and certainly not to get out of my car to walk the neighborhood.
Looking on-line I found an informative website about the Fruitvale district; http://www.unitycouncil.org/. The Unity Council is a non-profit organization located at the Fruitvale Village Plaza adjacent to the BART station. The site is useful because it has links to social service programs, community organizations and events, as well as the history of the Fruitvale district along with a description of the district’s boundaries.
Using the boundaries of the neighborhood that the Unity Council described I began my first trip to get to know Fruitvale. According the Unity Council, Fruitvale is two and a half square miles. To the west it is bound by 14th Avenue, the Oakland estuary to the south, High Street to the east, and Interstate 580 to the north.
I started my trip by getting off at the Fruitvale Avenue exit off Interstate 880. On the left hand side of Fruitvale there is a new shopping complex; Starbucks, Lucky, etc. Around the shopping center the area was just composed of businesses. Aside from the shopping center and the BART station the streets and the businesses looked rundown and worn out. As I kept driving past the train tracks and the BART station I could not help but notice the numerous amounts of Mexican restaurants (taquerias,) at least one on every corner.
At Productos Mexicanos, a small corner market, a block up from International Boulevard, I got out to people watch. The aroma of barbecue chicken blew up the street with a cool wind from the parking lot of Productos Mexicanos. People stood in line under a big sign “Pollo Asado,” (Grilled Chicken) and waited for the griller to wrap up their whole chickens in tin foil to take them home.
Within 10 minutes groups of young latin men walked or bicycled by, going to where, I don’t know, conversing in spanish. The air rang with sounds of mariachi, ranchera and reggaeton music blasting from passing cars. Yes this neighborhood is latin – signs in Spanish, building names in Spanish and everyone on the street speaking Spanish. Social service buildings like La Clinica de Jovenes (The Teen Clinic,) is an example of the latin influence on the makeup of the Fruitvale neighborhood.
As I ventured further up the street to hit the I580 boundary of the Fruitvale district, more homes popped up and the neighborhood itself was cleaner in appearance; more suburban as opposed to urban.
I drove down 14th Avenue on the western side of the district’s boundaries, mostly residential. On the corner of 18th Avenue and Foothill Boulevard is San Antonio Park. A nice park with tennis and basketball courts with an astro turff soccer field. On the North corner of the park is a neighborhood run vegetable garden that gives the park personality.
Driving back to the BART station on International Boulevard, the little stores grow more numerous and the houses grow fewer. Traffic crossing Fruitvale Avenue stops and Mexican flags wave up and down the street. Yes it’s the Sunday before Mexican Independence day and people are out in droves.
In the parking lot of the BART station there is a mechanical bull and wrestling ring with authentic Mexican luchadores (wrestlers.) There are two stages one band playing Banda music and one playing Mariachi. There are dozens of paleteros (ice cream men) cris-crossing in between the crowds of people. The men and women are dressed in cowboy boots and hats as they wave their Mexican flags to the music.
Fruitvale is a different world; the food, the music and the language are all foreign; it’s a neighborhood rich with culture and pride.
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