Author: Cecily Burt, STAFF WRITER
Date: April 13, 2004
Publication: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
THERE'S a building boom in West Oakland, and
nowhere is the construction more visible than
in Dogtown, an eclectic neighborhood of single-family
homes, trash-strewn vacant lots and old industries
near the Emeryville border.
At least 10 and likely more residential
projects are nearing completion, under
construction or in the planning stages
-- all squeezed into what was once the
Watts Tract, a triangle outlined by Mandela
Parkway, Peralta Street, Interstate 580
and 28th Street.
The short streets in between - Louise,
Helen, Hannah and Ettie - were named after
Watt's daughters.
This is not a neighborhood for the easily
rattled. Would-be residents are plunking
down $3000, to $400,000 for a loft next
door to a freeway and businesses where
big wheels rumble in and out all day.
New dogtown residents will have to empbrace
- or at least endure - life in an area
of town with its share of blight and societal
problems. Many vacant parcels have been
snapped up by contractors and cleared.
But interspersed with many lovely Victorians
are plenty of eyesores such as appliances,
mattresses, old tires and other trash dumped
on sidewalks or crumbling, boarded-up buildings.
That has not deterred buyers or contractors.
Kathy Kuhner, a bubbly white-haired transplant
from Orinda, is the unofficial ambassador
of Dogtown, and its biggest booster.
She left the tranquility of the suburbs
for West Oakland in 1998, after reading
a newspaper article that listed ZIP codes
in the Bay Area with the lowest-priced
houses.
Dogtown, it turns out, was at the bottom
of the heap. Intrigued, Kuhner drove around,
liked what she saw and decided to buy some
property. She settled on a vacant lot on
Helen Street. She rented a Victorian flat
across the street while she designed and
build two new homes, one in front of the
other. She moved into the rear house. Lot
by lot and block by block, her efforts
have transformed the look of the neighborhood
as she and daughter Nadja Kuhner buy more
property and finish more residential projects.
They have five under construction and more
planned under their company name, Dogtown
Development. Kathy Kuhner says the area's
industrial past is part of its charm. Ever
the optimist, she even uses the view of
traffic speeding on the freeway nearby
as a selling point....
Nadja Kuhner said gentrification is inevitable
and she admits renters will suffer as new,
often first-time buyers spend $350,000
to buy a new or refurbished hime and move
in. But she also pointed out that so far,
they have not torn down a single home.
If anything, they are increasing the housing
supply, albeit of the market-rate variety....
"We have not displaced a single housing
unit," she said, "We've built
on vacant land, or taken one unit and created
more units. We've renovated seven Victorians.
Although Nadja Kuhner grew up around Berkeley,
she was alarmed when her mother told her
she was moving to West Oakland. She has
since also come to embrace the neighborhood.
"We moved here. It was unusual, but
if we won't live here ourselves, why would
we ask anyone else to live here?" Katy
Kuhner saind: "Now my daughter, my
son, my friends have moved jere."
Kathy and Nadja are increasing their Dogtown
empire by snapping up vacant lots and dilapadated
homes. When the owner of the rundown Victorian
next door to their property on Helen Street
died, they put an offer on the property.
They own other properties on the street
and plan to build two new single-family
homes.
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