West Oakland's Tree Fight: Mandela Station Project

0:00It's April 22nd. This is California News Today, AI-powered stories from your city. West Oakland residents are fired up over plans to chop down dozens of healthy trees for the Mandela Station Project at the BART Station. This big development will add 760 housing units, including 240 affordable ones, plus 350,000 square, feet of office and retail space. Earlier this week, red tags hit the trees on April 3rd, right during an Earth Day event on 7th Street, catching folks off guard. Neighbors say they got no heads up on the removals tied to this project approved back in 2020. People like resident Raka Mirapapavic are rallying volunteers, calling the numbers on those tags to save the trees. They argue the design could work around them better, and they're also mad about losing nearly 400 parking spots, which hits commuters hard in. This heat-vonorable neighborhood. Members, led by Alan Dooms, pushback saying the project tackles homelessness, and comes from over 50 community meetings.

1:02They promise a net gain in trees once it's all done. Councilmember Carol Fife is calling for another public meeting to hash this out, but those trees could vanish in the next six weeks, with major. Construction kicking off early summer. Keep an eye on how this unfolds for the community's green space.