Jingletown is a pocket

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

s community in Oakland, California, adjacent to the

Oakland Estuary The Oakland Estuary is the strait in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, separating the cities of Oakland and Alameda and the Alameda Island from the East Bay mainland. On its western end, it connects to San Francisco Bay proper, while it ...

, and about two miles southeast of

Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. It is historically significant as the United States' first official wildlife refuge, designate ...

. It is bounded by the Coast Guard Island Bridge and

Fruitvale Bridge The Fruitvale Bridge and the Fruitvale Avenue Bridge (the latter officially the Miller-Sweeney Bridge at Fruitvale Avenue) are parallel bridges that cross the Oakland Estuary, linking the cities of Oakland, California, Oakland and Alameda, Calif ...

s, which connect Oakland to the City of Alameda. It is part of the area called Fruitvale (formerly, Brays and Fruit Vale) in

East Oakland East Oakland is a geographical region of Oakland, California, United States, that stretches between Lake Merritt in the northwest and San Leandro in the southeast. As the southeastern portion of the city, East Oakland takes up the largest portio ...

. Many working artists live in converted lofts that are common in the area.

History

Originally it was part of an area called San Antonio, Oakland, California. The settlement that became San Antonio began in 1851 when James Buskirk Larue bought land from Peralta, west of San Antonio Creek. The site was west of Clinton. Larue built a store and

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

, and a community grew up around them. The

San Francisco and Oakland Railroad The San Francisco and Oakland Railroad (SF&O) was built in 1862 to provide ferry-train service from a San Francisco ferry terminal connecting with railroad service through Oakland to San Antonio. In 1868 Central Pacific Railroad decided that Oaklan ...

built a station at San Antonio. When the Central Pacific Railroad took over the line in 1870, the name changed to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. When the Southern Pacific Railroad took over the line in 1883, the name changed to East Oakland. Clinton and San Antonio joined in 1856 to form a new town called Brooklyn, named after a ship that brought

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

settlers to California in 1846. Brooklyn joined with nearby Lynn to incorporate in 1870 under the name Brooklyn. In 1872, Brooklyn voters approved their city's annexation by Oakland. The name Fruitvale (originally Fruit Vale) comes from the fruit orchards (largely apricot and cherry) that dominated the area in the late 19th century. After the 1906 earthquake, the onslaught of refugees from San Francisco caused a population boom, and the unincorporated neighborhood was annexed into the City of Oakland by 1909. Jingletown's name originates from a habit of nearby mill workers, largely males of Azorean

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

background, who would jingle the coins from a week's work in their pockets as they walked to display their prosperity. In the late 1950s and 1960s many of the Portuguese families began moving out of Jingletown—and Chicano and Latino families, many displaced from

West Oakland West Oakland is a neighborhood situated in the northwestern corner of Oakland, California, United States, situated west of Downtown Oakland, south of Emeryville, and north of Alameda. The neighborhood is located along the waterfront at the P ...

by urban renewal, began moving to Jingletown. Jingletown was deeply involved in the

Chicano Movement The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, especially of Pachucos in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Black ...

of the late 1960s and early 1970s. A

Chicano Moratorium The Chicano Moratorium, formally known as the National Chicano Moratorium Committee Against The Vietnam War, was a movement of Chicano anti-war activists that built a broad-based coalition of Mexican-American groups to organize opposition to the Vi ...

protest against the

Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

on July 26, 1970 was organized in Jingletown by Chicano radicals.

Jingletown since 1974

In 1974, Jingletown faced the dangers of

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

, and the community was almost destroyed. Jingletown was rezoned from industrial to residential in response to fears that the community would be displaced by a proposed Del Monte cannery expansion.

Chicano Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...

, Black and

activists organized to stop the demolition of Jingletown, and advocated for the rezoning. As the '70s ended, Jingletown was going through tough times. The neighborhood became notorious for gangs and drug dealing, which increased in the 1980s and 90s with the

crack epidemic The crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in a number of social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in Amer ...

and gang era. Today, Latinos still make up half of Jingletown's population but are in danger of displacement by gentrification. In 1998, the neighborhood began a massive redevelopment, becoming home to an award-winning affordable housing project that has helped to revitalize the community. Jingletown is one of the fastest growing arts districts in the

San Francisco Bay area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. An organization called the Jingletown Arts & Business Community (JABC) is the main representative of the art community.

References

{{authority control American artist groups and collectives Neighborhoods in Oakland, California Populated coastal places in California Portuguese-American culture in California

History

Jingletown since 1974

See also

References