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34th Avenue Opportunities & Engagement
34th Avenue Opportunities & Engagement
There are many ways for the schools and residents along 34th Avenue to contribute to a pollinator corridor. With school and residential interest, input, and participation, any of these opportunities could become a reality. Some examples include planting and maintaining pollinator habitat at unplanted patches of land on the schools' lots and in residential front yards. Participants could also help design and paint a street mural with a pollinator theme, to raise awareness of the importance of the neighborhood's pollinators. All of these efforts are meant to bring the Peralta Hacienda neighborhood (the park, schools, and residents) together to protect and promote pollinator abundance and diversity, while making 34th Avenue greener and more walkable.
School Engagement
School Engagement
Drawing from NDVI map, satellite imagery, and site visits, the best opportunities for pollinator plantings are along the corner plots of Galindo St and 34th Avenue. These plots are property of Patten Academy and Life Academy, respectively. Both schools also have small gardens on their school grounds. These plots and gardens provide opportunities to engage school children and youth in helping plant or maintain pollinator-friendly plantings in the neighborhood. In this way, both institutions could be instrumental in getting students involved in the collaborative development and maintenance of a pollinator corridor.
Patten Academy
Patten Academy
A Private, K-12 Christian School in Oakland's Fruitvale District, is located between Orchard and Galindo Streets on 34th Avenue. 18% of school's lot is greenspace, the majority of which is lawn and trees.
Opportunities with Patten Academy:
An optional community service elective for high schoolers could focus on pollinator ecology and habitat development.
The school's community garden could expand pollinator-friendly plants and food sources.
The hillside along 34th Avenue could be planted to support pollinators.
Life Academy
Life Academy
Life Academy of Health and Bioscience is a public high school in Oakland, CA and is located on 34th Avenue. The school was established in 2001, and offers middle school to high school education. Life Academy is the biggest institution along the PHHP/34th Avenue, with only 7.5% of its total site being greenspace. A large part of that greenspace is a fenced-in wooded area that is adjacent to 34th Avenue.
Opportunities with Life Academy:
The school's focus on biological sciences within the academic curriculum could translate into extracurricular engagement with pollinator science and protection.
The school's community garden could expand pollinator-friendly plants and food sources.
The vacant patch at the corner of Galindo Street and 34th Avenue could serve as a site for pollinator habitat.
Source: Life Academy Oakland, Facebook Page 2022.
The intersection of Galindo St and 34th Ave has two vacant patches of softscape that serve as ideal sites for school run pollinator habitats.
Residential Engagement
Residential Engagement
Residents of 34th Avenue could play a major role in supporting the creation of a pollinator corridor, and thus their attitudes and interests lie at the center of any future project. Residents know their neighborhood better than anyone else, including what works and what needs attention. Through community collaboration, a successful pollinator protection project can come to fruition if residents are interested.
Residential front yards are a potential opportunity to offer pollinators food and nesting places. With active community outreach efforts, seedling demonstrations and giveaways, and sample pollinator gardens in the park and/or on the Avenue, residents may wish to create their own pollinator habitats - however small, even a potted flowering plant works! In their ways, they could contribute to the pollinator corridor on their Avenue. Since most residents rent rather than own their own homes, small and/or portable gardens may make the most sense.
Ideas for residential collaboration:
Community workshops and "listening" sessions that capture the neighborhood's attitudes about bees, birds, butterflies and other pollinators.
Community surveys to see where residents see opportunity locations, and what types of support they might need to expand habitat.
A seed library for residents and garden starter kits and information, available from a local partner such as PHHP.
Street Murals
Street Murals
34th Avenue has the potential to become a pollinator corridor leading up to PHHP. A street mural representing the importance of pollinators, local ecology, and the historical significance of the community could spark neighborhood interest in creating a pollinator corridor - and be a chance for neighbors, especially children and youth, to express their creativity.
Community Painted Street murals can be painted on low volume residential streets throughout Oakland. Even though Oakland’s Slow Streets program ended, 34th Avenue will continue to be a low volume street due to the fact that it dead ends at PHHP - therefore only serving the residents of the street, those accessing the back entrances to the schools, park goers, and pedestrians walking through. Therefore, 34th Avenue serves as a great opportunity for a street mural that contributes to "place keeping" of the community.
To the right are past examples of Street Murals created through Oakland's Paint the Town Program.
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