Walking Waterhoods: Sausal Creek — Fruitvale

In the 1870s, upper Fruitvale was largely orchards, cow pastures, beer gardens and muddy roads. However, Fruitvale Avenue boasted palatial estates. Eucalyptus trees lined the street and, within the estates, thirsty ornamentals like palm, ma... Read more

You may already know how Fruitvale got its name from the fruit orchards owned by entrepreneurs like Henderson Luelling and Frederick Rhoda. But why did they pick here to plant those fruit trees? Fruitvale sits atop an alluvial plain: a flat... Read more

In the late 1840s, Quaker horticulturalist Henderson Luelling traveled west on the Oregon Trail with his family: his wife and their eight children. Luelling brought a variety of over 700 fruit and nut trees with him from his nurseries in Or... Read more

In 1909, Oakland suddenly became the second-largest city in California with a population of 300,000 by annexing Brookline: 60.7 square miles east of Lake Merritt. After the annexation, Oakland needed to quickly build schools to accommodate ... Read more

Standing at the corner of Fruitvale Ave. and Bona Street, envision a scene with palm-like trees, Yuccas, and a hedge marking the boundaries of Edandale. You've just imagined the Tilman family estate from 1892-1900. The estate's 12 acres spa... Read more

During the Vietnam War, the country of Laos — sandwiched between Vietnam and Thailand — became a major battleground. Despite the U.S. military and CIA's support of the Laotian government, the United States bombed Laos with more explosiv... Read more

Check out the channel in front of you and the map attached to guess why the treatment of Sausal Creek varies from an engineered channel — or concrete riverbed — to an underground culvert through much of Lower Fruitvale. During the alter... Read more

When you turn on the tap, have you ever wondered where that water is actually coming from? Well, some of Oakland’s water used to come right here from Sausal Creek! Before Spanish colonization, the indigenous Ohlone set up villages near Sa... Read more

Sausal Creek runs culverted along the back edge of Josie de la Cruz Park, but is in an open channel upstream at 17th Street. (A culvert is a structure that allows water to pass under an obstacle, such as a road, trail, or stream. Culverts a... Read more

"The mission of Urban Promise Academy is to develop scholars, warriors, and artists." What a goal! Promise Academy is a unique small public school that prioritizes project-based, personalized and social-emotional learning. When the academy ... Read more

Josie de la Cruz Park has existed since the 1980s, but major renovations in the late 1990s helped clear out the criminal activity and promote community growth. Once a center of gangs and drug dealers, the Carmen Flores Recreation Center at ... Read more

The Unity Council, located along Fruitvale Ave., is a non-profit Social Equity Development Corporation. Latino community leaders founded The Unity Council in 1967 as they sought to increase representation and opportunities for the less fort... Read more

In the 1960s, Latino/a community members organized around their shared experiences of lack of services and widespread poverty. In 1964, they formed the Spanish Speaking Citizens' Foundation (SSCF). Their goal, similar to the Unity Council, ... Read more

In 1971, a group of UC Berkeley students alarmed by the lack of local, affordable health options formed La Clínica de la Raza (The Clinic of the People). The discrepancy between health care options for the affluent, primarily white classes... Read more

Sanborn Park, as it was known in the 1960s and 1970s, became a local gathering point for political activism against the Vietnam War draft. However, during the 1980s, the park became home to gangs and drug dealers as the influx of crack coca... Read more

The Oakland, Brooklyn and Fruitvale Railroad was a significant horse car line connecting downtown Oakland with the town of Brooklyn (lands south of Lake Merritt and the channel). Resident knew it colloquially as the "Tubbs Line," named afte... Read more

On New Years Day in 2009 at the Fruitvale BART station, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant III, a local 22-year-old Black man. The killing caused massive social unrest in the Bay Area and around the country, i... Read more

Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexico's victory against the French in 1862. It started as a small event in some of Mexico's larger cities, but soon became a tradition in the United States as the Mexican community began to flock to American cities... Read more

The vibrant celebration of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is one of the most captivating cultural events in Fruitvale. According to tradition, this holiday welcomes the spirits of the dead back home for the night, allowing them to... Read more

Located on Oakland’s East Street, the Fruitvale BART station and surrounding Fruitvale Village is an internationally famous example of a successful transit-oriented development. Because this particular BART station is such a cornerstone i... Read more

Situated by East 17th Street and Fruitvale, horticulturist John Sanborn once owned an extensive garden filled with over 100 different plant species he cultivated himself. Sanborn purchased this land in the late 1870s and passed away in 1889... Read more

In May 1910, Oaklanders looked forward to celebrating the Eagles’ Street Fair and Carnival in Fruitvale. The Fraternal Order of the Eagles — an organization dedicated to uplifting the performing arts — hosted the event, which took pla... Read more

Among the predominantly Latino/a murals in Fruitvale, here's a striking piece that stands out for its Laotian and Cambodian influences. This vibrant mural, created by Oakland-based artist Pat Kong, features a woman adorned with iconic symbo... Read more

As you walk down International Boulevard, you'll become aware of an entirely different mix of businesses than you see along other segments of Fruitvale Avenue. In many ways, this neighborhood resembles one you might find in Latin America be... Read more

Before Europeans came to the Oakland area, Sausal Creek provided water, food and habitat to a vast amount of local species. The Ohlone people not only relied on the creek’s abundant fresh water, but also for countless plant, fish and anim... Read more

What's in a name? Sausal Creek was supposedly named after the stand of water-loving willow trees it passed by just shy of its outlet into the San Leandro Bay estuary — in Spanish, a willow grove is bosque de sauces. The original willow gr... Read more

The Fruitvale BART station is located on 35th Ave, right near Fruitvale Village. As the fourth-busiest BART station in the East Bay, Fruitvale is fundamental in connecting the residents of the Sausal Creek watershed (especially those on the... Read more

"¡Sí, se puede! Yes, we can!" This rallying cry for labor rights echoed in Oakland in the 1960s as the United Farm Workers (UFW), led by Cesar Chavez, fought for fair treatment for farm workers. The UFW boycotted Safeway grocery stores be... Read more

Fruitvale’s non-profit Native American Health Center (NAHC) has been helping the Bay Area’s Indigenous and underserved populations access vital medical care at affordable costs since 1972. NAHC is one of the oldest and most well-establi... Read more

East Bay Wilds is a plant nursery specializing in species native to the East Bay. Look at the sidewalk garden for examples of native species such as manzanitas, California lilac (Ceanothus) and the Western Redbud shrub (Cercis occidentalis)... Read more

Artist Raymundo (Zalas) Nevel painted this mural on the side of La Clínica de la Raza Dental in 1977. It depicts crucial parts of the Chicano movement and ancestors like the feathered serpent deity Quetzalcoatl. Over time, the mural suffer... Read more

In May 1996, the City of Oakland renamed East 14th Street to "International Boulevard." The renaming had two main purposes: to honor the diverse origins of Oakland's residents but also to improve the street's reputation, which had become a ... Read more

In 2020, the Alameda County Public Health Department launched the "Mask On Alameda County!" campaign to encourage mask-wearing and unity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign included commissioning four murals in highly impacted neighb... Read more

Look at this colorful mosaic trash can! It’s part of a community beautification effort, started in 2010 in the Allendale Park neighborhood of East Oakland. Though it started in one neighborhood, local volunteer professional and amateur ar... Read more

There is a long, troubling history of housing challenges in Oakland, including gentrification, displacement and exclusionary housing policies like "redlining." These challenges disproportionately affect low-income Latino/a and East Asian co... Read more