SHADETREE / OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - UNITED STATES

My OWN Home & community

Shadetree—a collection of homemade homes made from an old industrial complex in the Oakland Estuary—is the kind of place that gets called magical a lot. Like a lot. Just south of Jack London Square, this community of 30+ tradesfolk and artists is nestled within a tiny eclectic forest of its own making—a large, varied cluster of trees, many of them fruiting, all planted decades ago by its original founder, Robert A Schultz.

In the fall of 2016, Shadetree was threatened by a massive, impending development project underway next door—the current owners were looking to sell but were willing to give us residents the first shot at buying the property. If we didn’t, it would in all likelyhood be purchased and razed to make room for Oakland’s largest condominium development project since World War II.

It was nearly impossible. It defied all odds. It took eleven months and was the craziest most complicated thing I’ve ever been a part of—but thanks to the ingenuity, diligence and perseverance of our residents and the support of our community, we formed a nonprofit, SHADE (Shadetree Historical Artisan Development Engine) and raised $2.8M dollars in loans from 21 individual lenders and one institution and purchased our home while preserving a key component to Oakland’s waterfront cultural heritage. This campaign was conceived and shepherded by our friend and neighbor, Donna Smithey, a housing rights advocate and activist. Following this success, Smithey founded the Cultural Impact Fund, which promises to help other creative spaces do what we did—secure and preserve the land that they live on.

As a core member of the team that led that campaign, I write and maintain our continuing story via our website and serve as PR liaison—drafting letters, engaging with city officials and press, and facilitated Shadetree’s participation in the Oakland/Saint-Denis sister city initiative, sponsored by the French Embassy in San Francisco. Oakland/Saint-Denis fosters a cultural exchange of solution models regarding the arts and urban development between Oakland and the Parisian suburb of St Denis. Our preservation efforts also earned us a stewardship award from the Oakland Heritage Alliance and press from KQED and NPR.

“Shadetree is now an important model for other communities of artists trying to find the wherewithal to buy their building in Oakland.”

–Kelley Kahn / City of Oakland policy director for art spaces

shadetreeartisans.org

The Short Story

For more than forty years, Shadetree has been a unique cultural landmark in Oakland—a place where people can live affordably and work where they live in a culturally rich, communal environment. From artists to carpenters, costume designers to social workers, activists and musicians, this property has grown and evolved over generations thanks to this community’s spirit of collective ingenuity and perseverance.

This was originally an industrial complex, housing businesses over the years that dealt primarily with the Port of Oakland, receiving and processing shipped goods. After falling into disuse, it was purchased in 1979 by Robert A Schultz-- an artist, sailor, painter, sculptor, and artisan mechanic with a penchant for restoring vintage automobiles to their former glory, including the first car to drive across the Golden Gate bridge, which Schultz discovered in a local junkyard.

A pillar of the Oakland community with a gift for storytelling and a DIY spirit, Schultz also worked for the city of Oakland, the Oakland Museum of California, and helped build Children’s Fairyland and the Oakland Zoo. With Schultz serving as Shadetree’s property manager and cultural ambassador, an eclectic community naturally formed over decades, with a diverse range of backgrounds, professions and skills which gave birth to the carefully crafted live/work structures found there today.