Temp: 61.0F
More info

Best Of | Letters to the Editor | Sitemap | Snapshots | Custom Publishing | Subscribe | Alameda Magazine

 Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

Being There - East Meets West

A Journey to the Ends of Oakland with WE Riders

by Matt Dibble

The Riders have chosen Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall as the geo-political center of the city, and therefore, all their forays to the hinterlands begin from this point. On this particular day, the duo is parked at the plaza to collect data from people on the street. The lunchtime crowd of suits mostly scurries by, and several give wide berth at the approach of the clipboard-wielding Riders. But a few curious types pick up the map outline of Oakland and get to work indicating where they think East and West Oakland are. "It depends if you want the named East Oakland, or where East Oakland really should be," says one man. "You're welcome to go either way with it," says Sue reassuringly.

The tandem bike is a big draw and a conversation starter. An engagement gift from Bruce to Sue, the bike also serves as a metaphor for their collaborative work together. For this project it has been repainted to resemble city vehicles, a shade we'll call Oakland Municipal Green. Sue and Bruce are also dressed in matching green bike jerseys and helmets with WE Riders logos. Bruce, an engineer, used recycled parts to build the bike's trailer, which unfolds into a kiosk with a map, the East/West question in huge letters and shelves to display the responses.

Results start to come in. "East Oakland is east of Fruitvale Avenue," states a man in a baseball cap. "Past the Dirty 30's to the Shady 80's," opines another. One person's written response to, "Where is West Oakland?": "In your mind."

Soon a group of backpack-clad ninth graders is swarming around the bike and the map. Drea Beale, their enterprising teacher at nearby Lighthouse Community Charter School, senses a teachable moment and facilitates a lively discussion about what previous respondents have written. "This person said that technically East Oakland should really be called South Oakland, and that East Oakland is really the hills. Think we should rename the hills East Oakland?" she asks. 

Jason Patton has spotted the commotion from his office window above the plaza and comes down. By chance, Patton was the project manager for the Walk Oakland map that WE Riders uses in its display and is as qualified as anyone to give us the city's take on the East/West question. We wonder: Do official city maps indicate the areas? "If I remember right, East and West are represented as bubbles with fuzzy edges-to reflect the ambiguity," says Patton.

One week later, the Riders have returned to the City Center and are preparing to explore the Western territories. Bruce unfolds a map dotted with color-coded boundary lines compiled from the responses they've collected. Most people have located West Oakland in roughly the same place, but East Oakland is literally all over the map, so it will have to wait until more data is collected. The couple saddles up and heads west on 12th Street. According to the borders drawn up by the citizenry, we are soon in West Oakland, and the Riders dismount at Lafayette Park to try and meet some Westerners. It is high noon, and the park is nearly empty save for a few men wrapped in sleeping bags. Bruce whips out the GPS to take a reading while Sue stencils the WE Riders brand in chalk on the sidewalk. Before long, a rider approaches from the West. He resembles Chuck Berry in a hair net and mirror shades and rides a custom-built purple bike. Michael, a West Oakland resident for 20 years, originally hails from Louisiana. "I was raised on a farm," he says. "Chickens running around the yard like Little House on the Prairie. Me and my dog Trouble went fishin' on the farm. All the snakes he didn't kill, I killed." According to Michael, all the land between Clay Street and the Oakland Piers are part of the West.

The Riders continue on to the West Oakland BART station, the landmark most often sited as true west. The station is empty, and the few townsfolk who pass by mostly ignore the aliens in green as they deploy their polling booth. Today anyway, it is all quiet on the western front.

Results of the WE Riders project will be exhibited from Sept. 9 to Oct. 8 at ProArts Gallery, 550 Second St., (510) 763-4361. For more information, visit www.weridersoakland.blogspot.com.