return to Suburban Permaculature main page

images from fruitvale TOD in Oakland Ca. Vistited with a tour group from the 2008 Eco Cities World Summit

This is an image of the transit village [TOD]. note red overlay indicators as they correspond to several of the fotos.

Elevated BART tracks run above the parking and elongated bus station. The purple is pedestrian with a nice fountain, shops below, residential above. The site is a former parking lot like the one on the right, which is on deck for conversion to more TOD. The development includes a preschool and above grade playground, senior center, clinic, branch of the oakland library, administration of the site offices, bicycle shop/day storage, small business incubator. Very nice. The surrounding area is working class, mostly Hispanic. There was a veggie market the day we visited. The block away downtown Fruitvale is also vibrant.

To note, the busy 4 lane street to the north of the TOD narrows down to 2 lanes to slow traffic. Pictures below will include an entry archway at that constriction.

View from the second story back towards BART and the veggie market and fountain.

Pedestrian walk between the TOD and BART to the right. Note the bike station.

Tour continues. Imagine, a library where there was a parking lot.

Inside the preschool/day care.

This is a second floor playground for the preschool. Residential units behind. Note balconies. Four windows are on a south facing wall.

Parking lot across the street destined as TOD.

Street constriction slows four lane traffic for pedestrians. Note entrance arch. The fountain and BART are to the left. Orange building is the business incubator.

The business incubator.

Looking back thru the entry archway towards the TOD plaza and BART further in the distance. The commercial spaces are all occupied. Residential units are all occupied. We were told there are many festivals in the pedestrian area. Note decoration flags. The intention was to make the street Hispanic with mosaics- see archway columns and surface inlay. Looks very nice. And it takes a lot of effort to keep the place looking good.

Looking back towards the arch and downtown Fruitvale. It was a very nice tour. This was all a parking lot.