Sobrante Park, Oakland, California

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Sobrante Park is located in East Oakland CA, separated from the rest of the city by railroad tracks and and industrial neighborhoods.[1] It was built shortly after World War II, and was one of the first suburban-style working-class black neighborhoods in the city of Oakland.[1]

In the 1980s the neighborhood became a center of crack cocaine dealing.[1] A large gang from the neighborhood gave itself the nickname, "11-5" (or "11-500") which refers to the section of California State's legal code for drug crimes.[1] A memorial to 32 men and six women members of the gang who have been killed since then (as of 2002) was painted on the basketball court in Carney Park, a local park named after a young man from the neighborhood who died in the Vietnam war.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Jim Herron Zamorada. "Oakland fences off Tyrone Carney Park, home of brazen drug gang; Election day shooting was the last straw", San Francisco Chronicle, November 9, 2002.