Sleepy-eyed but highly motivated youths from Team Oakland (a summer program for youths contracted by the City throught the Youth Employment Program) turned up at 8am on Saturday, August 14, to report for duty at the Bancroft Median Workday sponsored by OPC in partnership with Oakland Public Works.  Throughout the morning over 100 volunteers came to lend a hand to help restore a few blocks of this broad thoroughfare which runs through the Eastmont and Elmhurst neighborhoods of Oakland.

In the early part of the 20^th century the Bancroft Median was a byway for a trolley line in the East Bay Electric Lines system, which connected Oakland to neighboring cities. When the trolley line was removed a median was installed, and in recent years the median was redeveloped and re-landscaped. Unfortunately, the 30 blocks of landscaped median have suffered since the severe cutbacks in maintenance staffing in the Public Works Agency.  This cleanup project identified the blocks between 77^th and 84^th Avenues as a good place to start a cleanup.

Among  the  scores of stalwart and generous volunteers from all districts were  groups of eager workers:  the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation from Chinatown, Councilmember Jean Quan’s  volunteers, Team Oakland, church groups and young probationers all pitched in to collect litter, pull weeds, trim back ivy and spread chips in seven blocks of the median. Also spied among the workers was District 7 Councilmember Larry Reid, hard at work spreading chips in the 82^nd-84^th Avenue block.

OPC thanks all the volunteers for a job well-done.  It’s only a beginning, however. Oakland needs volunteers who can commit to an ongoing relationship with a park or median and invites those who are interested to sign up to be a park/median steward. Just click here to find out how.