Walking Waterhoods: Sausal Creek — Fruitvale

The story of the vibrant, multi-cultural area Fruitvale has grown into began in the 1960s when freeway construction drove away the European communities and some displaced in West Oakland resettled here. For over 70 years, Fruitvale has been a place of civil rights history, community activism, collective care, and transformation for people of color. Well over a dozen different organizations serving different races, ethnicities, and historically disadvantaged groups are located in just these few blocks — perhaps a higher concentration than any other area in Oakland. Though you will see very little of the creek on this tour, it is the reason humans have inhabited this area for millennia.