Swan's Market Cohousing: revitalizing a neighborhood
Friends would ask members of this downtown Oakland, California, community "are you sure you want to live there? Is it safe?" Nobody was living in the Old Oakland historic district, a redevelopment area where Victorian office buildings were lovingly preserved but a historic market had been abandoned for a quarter century, restaurants closed at night when workers went home, cars were broken into, and the streets were empty. Five years later, the only question is, "how long is the waiting list?" The area, which the cohousing group helped redevelop, preserving the historic market and creating retail, restaurant, office, museum, and affordable rentals, now includes some dinner-only restaurants and nightclubs, along with lots of new retail and residential development, and units selling for more than $500 a square foot.