Crowdfunded Real Estate Projects Bring In Community Investors
West Oakland’s 7th Street was historically home to a bustling Black business corridor known as the “Harlem of the West.” During the day, it served customers looking for grocery stores, pharmacies, ice cream parlors, and lunch spots. At night it had a legendary blues music scene that flourished from the 1930s through the 1960s. One of that scene’s anchors was Esther’s Orbit Room, hosting the likes of T-Bone Walker, Ike and Tina Turner, Etta James, and many other well-known acts in its heyday.
In the second half of the 20th century, however, the thriving district suffered waves of economic decline, displacement and fragmentation, with the disappearance of wartime jobs and the construction of new freeways and BART tracks cutting right through the neighborhood, leaving a string of vacant or underused properties.