Our work · 1790 10th Street, Oakland
Finding out what a junkyard left in the soil, then cleaning it with plants and mushrooms, on the block where this organization was born.
Thanks to an Equitable Community Revitalization Grant from the Department of Toxic Substances Control, Neighborship began a site investigation and bioremediation pilot in 2024 at 1790 10th Street, a parcel that was Jenkins Junkyard from the 1960s to the 1990s.
It sits next door to a site we plan to develop as a Neighborship community, and to where our organization was born in a low-budget housing experiment that ran from 2015 to 2022.
As part of studying the toxins and health risks left on site, we're running an experiment that uses low-tech gardening to pull contamination out of the soil with plants and mushrooms. Everything we learn gets published here, so the next neighborhood group doesn't have to start from scratch.
We post sampling results, what grew, and what didn't. No spin, including when the news is boring.
Everything we learn becomes a how-to other West Oakland gardeners can use on their own lots.
Neighbors get a say in what this parcel becomes. Come to a work day or a design session.