La Frontera Parklet
Year: 2020
Team: Workshop 9 (with much-needed guidance and support from Semar Prom and help from old and new friends!)
Murals: Cristian Muñoz & Pancho Pescador
When the Bay Area, along with the rest of the country, was shaken by the acts of police brutality in late May of 2020, many local businesses chose to shutter their storefronts with plywood in anticipation of social unrest. Some of the plywood became canvases for artwork, the rest was left bare. After the wave of protests subsided, and business owners started to take down the plywood, a friend suggested that we salvage the material before it goes to waste and later decide what to do with it. Along with a few friends we were able to collect an impressive stash of wood from Oakland and Berkeley neighborhoods. And so Workshop 9 was born.
Through partnerships with Oakland Indie Alliance, Bay Area Redwood, and local artists we built this parklet pro-bono using only reclaimed materials. This project is a part of City of Oakland Flex Streets initiative, which encourages creative use of sidewalks and streets to help impacted businesses recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The parklet sits adjacent to La Frontera restaurant and, hopefully, will serve both its patrons as well as the broader Fruitvale community.
