COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

are rediscovering urban areas, striking a balance between revitalizing a community and
keeping it affordable has proved difficult. Some residents working to clean up Oak Park
worry that the influx of professionals will drive up housing prices to the point where they
are unaffordable for the working-class. In November of 2005, a representative of the
Housing and Development Agency in Sacramento stated that “neighborhood activism has
increased in Oak Park, which has yielded improvements, such as a growing number of
new homeowners in the neighborhood.” In response, the neighborhood City
Councilwoman who helped start the Neighborhood Association in 2003 stated that “at the
rate we are going, we are going to price poor people out of this city.” She is again quoted
in a March 2006 publication of the Sacramento Bee (Vellinga) as reaffirming those
doubts and saying, “I still want the neighborhood to be diverse, but parts of Oak Park are
no doubt losing their diversity.”
Liquor Stores and Eminent Domain
Eminent domain is defined as the power of a nation or sovereign state to take or
authorize the taking of private property for public use without the owner’s
consent. The power of eminent domain is based upon a political right founded on
the common necessity of appropriating the property of individual members of the
community for the benefit of the whole community. [Weedon and Reece
1983:127]
Liquor stores in Oak Park have become sites of contestation for middle-class and
lower-income residents, community activists, and politicians. They have often been sites
of crime and violence, which has led many residents to urge the city government to close
down the liquor stores. Many of these stores are situated along residential streets in the
neighborhood and have been part of the Oak Park habitat for many years. Areas around
the liquor stores are often crowded with people hanging out. Foot traffic occurs at all
68