It was a late Saturday afternoon, October 24, when 60 or more Rockridge residents gathered together carrying signs, blowing whistles, and talking with passers-by in a noisy demonstration at the busy intersection of College and Claremont Avenues.
Why? To call attention to and protest the proposal to build an oversized luxury senior living building just up Claremont at the former Blood Bank site, near that very intersection.
The written and chanted messages were repeated, and clear: “YES on building affordable housing in our neighborhood!” But NO to building luxury housing—designated as “senior housing” to evade building height and size limits.
This was no angry, self-interested “NIMBY” movement—but a friendly “Welcome reasonably sized, affordable housing!” party. The messages of the demonstrators were reinforced by a constant din of honking cars whose drivers were cheering on the demonstrators as they drove by.
Former Oakland City Council representative and longtime neighborhood resident Jane Brunner joined the demonstration—which provoked several participants to bemoan the absence of current City Council representative Zac Unger and State Assembly member Buffy Wicks, a resident of the neighborhood. “We need advocacy from our elected representatives, not silence and subversion,” commented one resident.
