COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

area of single-family homes. But during the 1930s, the area began to decline, as
homeowners who were affected by the Depression and the World War were unable to
maintain their homes (SHRA 2005:1). Many of these individuals left Oak Park for
inexpensive new suburbs outside the central city, and with the flight of middle-class
homeowners to new suburbs, the economic and social condition of the neighborhood
declined. The neighborhood became rampant with widespread deteriorating housing and
commercial property, empty lots and abandoned buildings, refuse, and abandoned
vehicles. In 1973, the City of Sacramento responded by establishing the Oak Park
Redevelopment Project Area. Since then, the Oak Park Redevelopment Project Area has
slowly pushed to revitalize the area with various redevelopment programs. Over the past
five years, Oak Park redevelopment projects and programs have totaled more than $20
million (SHRA 2005). Other redevelopment and affordable housing projects and
programs are being proposed over the next four years and are estimated to cost
approximately $35 million (SHRA 2005).
Oak Park is also now home to a number of political powers emerging in the form
of churches, business associations, political groups, civic groups, and a Neighborhood
Association. When I moved there in 2005, many of the revitalization projects planned by
the city for the neighborhood were already in progress. In fact, the anticipated
development of some projects, such as the construction of the 4th Avenue Lofts, the
acquisition of key properties by the city, and related historic preservation projects are
what initially drew me to conduct research in Oak Park. The local Neighborhood
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