One of the most contentious debates is Raimondi Park, home to football, soccer and baseball fields, and homeless encampments. The Oakland A’s received a grant from Major League Baseball to redo Raimondi’s infield and outfield. Once the $100,000 project was completed, homeless people cut holes in the fence and overtook the field, and the youth league didn’t want to use the field due to safety concerns. The East Bay United plays some soccer games at Raimondi given its central location for the Jack London Youth Soccer League, which provides club and rec soccer for more than 7,000 youth in Oakland, Alameda and Piedmont. In the past, soccer clubs unsuccessfully offered to pay the city for renovation costs of Raimondi in exchange for access. Several community leaders said the clubs erred by not leading their pitch with equity or demonstrating how they would create more paths for all children to access soccer, not simply as a place for club soccer teams to play. Now both sides are stuck in their silos, although community leaders say opportunities do exist for everyone to work together and benefit. Oakland’s largest sports facility providers lack a formal joint-use agreement. The joint-use agreement between Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and the city to share facilities expired in 2013, so the schools and parks and recreation department are operating under the principles set in 2009. As of May 2022, both sides said they expect to soon finalize a new agreement. Because the agreement lapsed so long ago, they started from scratch on specific facility needs. Oakland leaders say the city and school district often have different priorities and can feel slighted by the other, causing delays and complexities in working together. For instance, Coliseum College Prep Academy school leaders have spent a decade trying to better access city-owned fields behind their school. The fields are largely for baseball use by the Babe Ruth League, although half of
the space was originally designed for football and soccer. The school wants to peacefully coexist with baseball and use approved Measure Y infrastructure funding to build multiuse turf fields for soccer. The Babe Ruth League says it has no problem adding turf to benefit everyone. What’s holding this up? “The city owns and operates the fields, which means they’re very protective of it, and the Babe Ruth League has a partnership with the city and primary access to it,” said Andrea Bustamante, executive director of OUSD Community Schools Student Services. “I think that will change eventually.” Roller skating finds its niche through Black culture. The name UMOJA Outdoor Roller Skating Rink comes from the word umoja, which means “unity” in Swahili. This pays tribute to the first principle of Kwanzaa to strive to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. Located at Liberation Park on a once-vacant lot near Eastmont Mall, the rink is a joint effort of David Miles Jr. and the Black Cultural Zone, an East Oakland community development organization that manages the park. The goal is to reinvigorate Black business and culture after the gentrification of Eastmont. Liberation Park hosts an outdoor market that prioritizes Black vendors, plus a movie theater. On busy days, songs by Drake, Beyonce and other Black artists boom from a sound system controlled by a live DJ. 32 Every fourth Sunday there’s outdoor play with double Dutch jump rope, chess and tennis, plus casual skating opportunities. Twenty percent of Oakland youth told us they want to try roller skating, which was a top-5 activity in five of our seven surveyed Oakland communities. More Black youth (27%) have participated in roller skating than those who are White (21%), Latino/a (14%) or Asian (10%). CEO Carolyn Johnson plans to expand skating sites in Oakland and beyond. During COVID-19, Johnson said, “Liberation Park has been critical to people’s sanity to have a place to be.”
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
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