Seeing Inequity through an Intersectional Lens

Socioeconomic and racial inequities are intimately linked in the City of Oakland. Mapping the median household exposes a clear divide between the hills and the flat lands. Residents in the hills tend to have higher incomes than residents living in the flat lands, which includes the Fruitvale neighborhood. To put this in perspective, median household income in Fruitvale is $48,078 compared to $73,692 in the City of Oakland and $99,406 in Alameda county.

These income disparities overlap with the concentration of white residents and residents of color throughout Oakland, where people of color tend to live in the flat lands, and white residents tend to live in the hills. As discussed in the section on socio-demographics, residents in the Fruitvale neighborhood are 91% people of color, with the majority (55%) being Hispanic or Latino.

Roughly ¼ of Fruitvale residents spend more than 45 minutes commuting to work each day. In conjunction with the high percentage of residents who rely on cars, this has both quality of life implications for residents who spend significant portions of their days driving, and ecological implications due to carbon dioxide emissions from extensive car usage.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing inequities, with essential workers facing greater exposure to the coronavirus than those who work from home. In Fruitvale, only 3% of workers work from home, compared to higher percentages in the hills. There are no hospitals facilities in the Fruitvale neighborhood, and they tend to be concentrated in the areas with a greater number of residents working from home. Furthermore, accessible park and open space is limited in Fruitvale and tends to be concentrated in the areas with greater percentages of residents working from home, such as the hills. In an attempt to remedy these disparities, the City of Oakland established its Slow Streets program, creating flexible open space for residents to walk and be safely outside. A few of these streets existed in the Fruitvale neighborhood, but the highest concentrations were in North Oakland.