The Clinton Park Plan is a collaborative effort to revitalize Clinton Park and its surrounding streetscape. Urban Ecology, the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) and the Eastlake Merchants Association (ELMA) partnered to create a new park design in 1996-1997. Urban Ecology led the outreach, planning, and redesign process for Clinton Park; EBALDC and ELMA, in turn, are spearheading a larger neighborhood revitalization drive.
The Clinton Park Plan results from an intensive community planning and design process involving residents, business owners, and young people in the revitalization of this central city park and related streetscape improvements. The process included community workshops, focus group meetings, volunteer days, and over 340 stakeholder interviews and surveys conducted in four languages.
This plan serves as both a repository of community input and analysis and as a tool for implementation of physical improvements to the park. The ultimate goal is to transform Clinton Park into a beautiful, public open space, well-utilized by the community.
Public space improvements can act as a catalyst for community development. It is our hope that this plan leads to further grant applications, demonstration projects, and continued neighborhood outreach and involvement. Through the process of developing pieces of the plan, the city and members of the community can facilitate social interaction and community development within Clinton Park.
The collaborative process has resulted in a design inspired by the people of Eastlake and their neighborhood. This plan provides the Clinton Park community a new stage upon which to display a unified identity, continue a collaborative visioning process for further revitalization, and overcome the inertia fostered by long-term decay.
Clinton Park plan – Neighborhood Park Redesign
East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation
Eastlake Merchants Association
Urban Ecology
The Eastlake neighborhood is one of Oaklands most diverse communities, and is home to recent immigrants from Southeast Asia, African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans.
In 1997, the Eastlake Merchants Association (ELMA) identified Clinton Park, a one- square mile park on International Boule- vard, as a priority for revitalization. The park suffered from poor maintenance and a perception as a place for crime and illegal activity–and so even on warm, sunny days, one could find the park nearly empty.
With input from residents, local mer- chants, community groups, and East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), Urban Ecology created a park design with social, environmental, and economic goals, and one that reflects the neighborhoods commonalities and its diversity. The project will restore the small natural oasis and return it to the people of the neighborhood.
– Enhance the environmental quality of the park and neighborhood
– Celebrate the communitys multicultural heritage and identity
– Create a setting for social interaction
– Provide childrens play facilities
– Increase safety by reducing the speed of traffic along streets bordering the park
– Use the park rehabilitation as a tool to attract and revitalize local small businesses
When rehabilitated and maintained, Clinton Park will once again be a source of neighborhood pride and a center for community activities, reflecting the ethnic groups that give Eastlake its character. Incremental public improvements are intended to act as a catalyst for community development. EBALDC and ELMA are currently undertaking the park improvements.
