Ghost Town, Oakland, California

Ghost Town (sometimes spelled Ghosttown) is the informal name of the Foster Hoover Historic District neighborhood in West Oakland, Oakland, California. The community is known for its violence and blight . Some people believe the name originates from a drug king pin who referred to the area as a ghost town due to the shortage of other drug dealers whose absence was attributed to the king pin's dominance over the area. Others believe it derives from the two former casket companies located side by side on Filbert Street between 30th and 32nd Streets, while others claim that the presence of ghostly white people in an historically black neighborhood gave it its name. Ghost Town stretches from 27th Street to 35th Street in the area immediately southwest of the MacArthur Maze. Others see the neighborhood bounded by Adeline on the West and San Pablo on the East. Ghost Town Farms, one of the more successful expressions of urban agriculture activity in Oakland is located in the heart of the district at 2727 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, between 27th and 28th Streets. The area is also one of Oakland's many open-air art galleries, with exceptional muralist work continually on exhibition, particularly along Martin Luther King Jr. Way. This neighborhood has an active citizen crime patrol, including one group of seniors who walk the neighborhood weekly to get physical exercise and report blight.Jerry Brown, governor of California and former Mayor of Oakland stated: "Instead of an omnibus crime bill, you have to deal with shootings in Ghost Town in West Oakland and sideshows in East Oakland." Brown made attempts to turn around the blighted West Oakland neighborhood after 60 Minutes featured it in a television profile. Housing prices have increased. So has drug dealing, especially since nearby parks were closed by the City of Oakland. Prostitution, in 2015, has been on the decline for at least a decade.

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