“HOUSING IS VIOLENCE PREVENTION, GENTRIFICATION IS VIOLENT” IS THE RALLYING CRY OF 9th ANNUAL “510 DAY” AT LAKE MERRITT
Intergenerational Community Members Celebrate Oakland’s History, Culture and Social Justice Work & Demand Deeply Affordable Housing to End Homelessness and Crime
Friday May 10, 2024 Noon – 10:00 PM: Turn Up Against Gentrification @ Lake
Merritt, Oakland
Noon – 7PM 510Day Marketplace around Lake Merritt
2-4PM DJ at “We Still Here” Stage
3:30PM Youth Rally location TBA
4:30PM Youth March Begins: Head Towards “We Still Here” Stage at the Lake Merritt Pillars
4-5PM Unhoused Justice Open Mic & DJ Sound Systems: see map for locations
5-8PM We Still Here Stage & other sound stages and live graffiti art: see map for locations
8-10 PM Days Like This Dance Party At the Pillars
Oakland, California – On Friday, May 10th, 2024, Oakland residents will come out to celebrate the 9th annual “#510Day” at Lake Merritt – a grassroots community event dedicated to the celebration of Oakland’s rich history and diverse cultures in the face of the housing affordability crisis and the pressures of gentrification that are pushing long-term residents out of the area.
Lake Merritt is a public park with a long history of BBQs, cruising, large festive gatherings and family parties. But over the past several years, newcomers to Oakland who have rode in on the waves of gentrification have been increasingly responding to the culture here in hostile, dangerous and potentially deadly ways.
For the past decade, we have seen an increase of aggression and the weaponization of calling the cops against our presence at the lake. Due to the racism that gentrification brought into Oakland, hanging out, drumming, jogging, and BBQing have now become political acts.
As the Bay Area housing crisis and the pressures of gentrification continue to pile up on our communities with increased homelessness, displacement, and crimes of poverty it is very clear that affordable housing for our working class and poor communities is violence prevention.
“People mad about the crime, violence and homelessness but not looking at the root causes,” said Mika Galviz-Venegas, an organizer with Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ). “ If we actually had affordable, decent, adequate housing for our people, crime and violence would significantly drop. Our folks are in survival mode, if they had their basic needs of housing,
employment and health met, they could get out of survival mode, heal and thrive.”
Instead of deeply affordable housing to end homelessness the city continues to invest in shelter beds, tuff sheds and housing “affordable” to the middle class and wealthy. Instead of investing in job training and employment; supporting street vendors with grants and business literacy education; and more recreational activities for our youth, the city priorities working with the Alameda County Sheriff, police from other cities, more surveillance cameras, and criminalizing vendors.
“Gentrification itself is violent,” said Joyous De Asis Miralle, a young woman born and raised in Oakland who helps run her family’s business The Lumpia Ladies and is a community activist with CURYJ and The Village In Oakland. “We have watched as our friends & family members forcibly leave or become unhoused. We have seen our neighborhoods become unrecognizable. We have seen our neighborhood schools close down. We have seen a rise in the criminalization of Black & Brown people, increasingly making us feel unwelcome in the city in which we grew up. The pressures of gentrification have caused mental health issues and economic crises that have led some of our folks to turn to acts of desperation.”
Fighting for the right to exist in Oakland has to go beyond taking up space in public places. The 510Day organizing committee created the We Still Here Platform and petition in 2018. This 10 point program (a tribute to the Black Panther Party’s 10 Point Program) is an affirmative agenda based on the long neglected needs and basic human rights of Oakland’s long-term residents, especially residents of color. The We Still Here Platform is informed by current, ongoing organizing efforts happening on the ground and in the trenches folks can plug into.
“This year’s event will be the biggest one to date. We will have more performance areas and more community organizations to plug our communities into the social justice work that happens every day in Oakland,” said Jazmine Frye, Organizing Director with Young Women’s Freedom Center. “We aren’t just turning up for a good time. We are turning up for justice, equity and inclusion.”
510Day 2024 Organizing Committee is: Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, Young Women’s Freedom Center, The Village in Oakland, The Lumpia Ladies, B.L.A.C.K., Beats, Rhymes & Life, The Artists Retreat, The Black Market Lounge, Days Like This, DJ Black, Jordan Warren
Hashtags: #510Day #WeStillHere #OaklandAgainstGentrification