LeahH

The center of this very narrow residential street is the municipal boundary line between Oakland and San Leandro for a distance of nine residential blocks. Unfortunately, historically both cities have turned their backs on each other and in large part, on the residents who live on this street as well. Durant Avenue is being used as a residential collector street and sees 5000+ car trips per day. In addition, commercial truck drivers and out of service ACT transit busses often use this street as part of their truck route. Traffic restrictions on neighboring streets in both cities create more confusion than clarity.

All this and more means that this has been a very dangerous street for over 50 years. It is very difficult to back out of residential driveways and homeowners often get honked at by rude thru traffic drivers when they do. Car owners are timid about parking their vehicles at the curb because of the risk and high occurrence of being hit. You will see many cars parked with 2-4 wheels on the sidewalk, but most choose not to park on the street in order to protect their property. You'll see bent poles, downed fences, and stumps where street trees used to be before a car or truck crashed into them.

Some fed up and optimistic neighbors and professionals have banded together within the last year to call attention to the problems on this street. This group calls itself the Durant Street Task Force. The steering committee for this group has organized several events with the goal of raising awareness and building community. We need traffic calming, coordinated municipal transit, street greening, and great shared public space for people on both sides of the block. We need a quiet residential neighborhood that is not split in two by an endless stream of cars going someplace else. We can do this!