From "The art of war" to "being peace": Mindfulness and community lawyering in a neoliberal age

California Law Review

Volumn 95, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 2073-2132

  Harris, Angela ^a   Lin, Margaretta ^b   Selbin, Jeff ^a,c  

^a Boalt Hall

^b East Bay Community Law Center

^c East Bay Community Law Center

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 39449110667     PISSN: 00081221     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (220)

1. JAMES CORLESS, OAKLAND HERITAGE ALLIANCE, BANKING ON OUR FUTURE BY BUILDING ON OUR PAST 16 (2006), http://www. oaklandheritage.org/OHA25.pdf.
2. Id.
3. Robert O. Self, California's Industrial Garden: Oakland and the East Bay in the Age of Deindustrialization, in BEYOND THE RUINS: THE MEANINGS OF DEINDUSTRIALIZATION 159, 162 (Jefferson Cowie & Joseph Heathcott eds., 2003).
4. Id.
5. For a description of West Oakland at the height of its prosperity in the 1940s, see ROBERT O. SELF, AMERICAN BABYLON: RACE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR POSTWAR OAKLAND 157-59 (2003).
6. See, e.g., Ryan Tate, Oakland Crime Spreads: Businesses Grapple with Lawlessness out on the Sidewalk, S.F. BUS. TIMES, Feb. 10, 2006, available at 2006 WLNR 5066827.
7. For the history of the formal planning process of the Wood Street Development Project, see Oakland Wood Street Development Project, http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/CEDA/revised/plarmmgzoning/ MajorProjectsSection/woodstreet.html (last visited July 3, 2007). For a description of the project from the developer's perspective, see Holliday Development, Central Station, http://www.hollidaydevelopment.com/d/CS.html (last visited July 3, 2007).
8. For the history of development in West Oakland, see infra Part I.
9. We use the term "community lawyer," rather than "public interest lawyer," to describe lawyers who work primarily within the "law and organizing" paradigm and who view their work as reflecting the needs and interests of a particular commumty rather than only the abstract "public interest." For a description of the "law and organizing" paradigm, see Scott L. Cummings & Ingrid V. Eagly, A Critical Reflection on Law and Organizing, 48 UCLA L. REV. 443 (2001). Elsewhere in this Symposium, Sheila Foster and Brian Glick describe a lawyering model similar to "law and organizing" and name it "integrative lawyering."
10. See Sheila R. Foster and Brian Glick, Integrative Lawyering: Navigating the Political Economy of Urban Redevelopment, 95 CALIF. L. REV. 1999, 2004-05 (2007). Many scholars who write about legal ethics use the more general term "cause lawyering."
11. For recent discussions of the ethical issues involved in "cause lawyering," see Norman W. Spaulding, Reinterpreting Professional Identity, 74 U. COLO. L. REV. 1 (2003) (exploring the professional misconduct risks associated with and attributable to lawyers' increased identification with clients).
12. See also CAUSE LAWYERING: POLITICAL COMMITMENTS AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES (Austin Sarat & Stuart Scheingold eds., 1998);
13. CAUSE LAWYERS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (Austin Sarat & Stuart A. Scheingold eds., 2006).
14. For a classic take, see William H. Simon, The Ideology of Advocacy: Procedural Justice and Professional Ethics, 1978 WIS. L. REV. 29,
15. and William H. Simon, The Dark Secret of Progressive Lawyering: A Comment on Poverty Law Scholarship in the Post-Modem, Post-Reagan Era, 48 U. MIAMI L. REV. 1099 (1994).
16. Cummings & Eagly, supra note 9.
17. For various perspectives on these questions, see Daniel S. Shah, Lawyering for Empowerment: Community Development and Social Change, 6 CLINICAL L. REV. 217, 249-51 (1999) (arguing that lawyers can and should move urban community development programs toward the goal of empowering represented groups, not just improving material circumstances);
18. Ann Southworth, Representing Agents of Community Economic Development: A Comment on Recent Trends, 8 J. SMALL & EMERGING BUS. L. 261, 270-71 (2004) (lawyers should serve clients' wishes, not simply seek "empowerment," but organizing and connecting local struggles to larger movements for structural reform is a legitimate part of lawyers' work);
19. Anthony Alfieri, The Antinomies of Poverty Law and a Theory of Dialogic Empowerment, 16 N.Y.U. REV. L. & SOC. CHANGE 659, 665 (1987-88) ("Empowering the poor should be the political object of poverty law.").
20. See, e.g., GERALD P. LÓPEZ, REBELLIOUS LAWYERING: ONE CHICANO'S VISION OF PROGRESSIVE LAW PRACTICE (1992) (arguing that the "regnant" model of lawyering disempowers clients);
21. Lucie E. White, Pro Bono or Partnership? Rethinking Lawyers' Public Service Obligations for a New Millennium, 50 J. LEGAL EDUC. 134, 144-45 (2000) (traditional "pro bono model" of public interest practice is paternalistic and serves the lawyer's ego needs more than the client's needs);
22. see also Anthony V. Alfieri, Disabled Clients, Disabling Lawyers, 43 HASTINGS L.J. 769 (1992);
23. Anthony V. Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice: Learning Lessons of Client Narrative, 100 YALE L.J. 2107 (1991);
24. Barbara Bezdek, Silence in the Court: Participation and Subordination of Poor Tenants' Voices in Legal Process, 20 HOFSTRA L. REV. 533 (1992);
25. Christopher P. Gilkerson, Poverty Law Narratives: The Critical Practice and Theory of Receiving and Translating Client Stories, 43 HASTINGS L.J. 861 (1992);
26. Paul R. Tremblay, Rebellious Lawyering, Regnant Lawyering, and Street-Level Bureaucracy, 43 HASTINGS L.J. 947 (1992);
27. Lucie E. White, Mobilization on the Margins of the Lawsuit: Making Space for Clients to Speak, 16 N.Y.U. REV. L. & SOC. CHANGE 535 (1987-88).
28. For more on the East Bay Community Law Center, see http://www.ebclc.org.
29. JON KABAT-ZINN, COMING TO OUR SENSES: HEALING OURSELVES AND THE WORLD THROUGH MINDFULNESS 5-6 (2005).
30. See, e.g., John Monterisi, Mindful Lawyering: Awake at Work, CRBBA NEWSL. (Capital Region Bankr. Bar Ass'n, Albany, N.Y.) (2005), available at http://www.deilylawfirm.com/admin/ktmlpro/includes/ site/layouts/42/uploads/files/docs/MiNDFUL_LAWYERING.pdf;
31. Leonard L. Riskin, The Contemplative Lawyer: On the Potential Contributions of Mindfulness Meditation to Law Students, Lawyers, and their Clients, 7 HARV. NEGOT. L. REV. I (2002);
32. William S. Blatt, What's Special About Meditation? Contemplative Practice for American Lawyers, 7 HARV. NEGOT. L. REV. 125 (2002). In addition to a growing literature, there are a number of organizations that connect lawyers with meditation and other mindfulness practices. For example, Charles Halpern and the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society recently hosted a meeting to address questions related to contemplative awareness in the law. See Doug Codiga & Heidi Norton, Report on Law and Contemplative Awareness: An Exploratory Gathering, http://www.contemplativemind. org/programs/law/02explore.html (last visited July 4, 2007). The Law Program at the Center for Contemplative Mind, according to its website, "explores ways of helping lawyers, judges, law professors and students reconnect with their deepest values and intentions, through meditation, yoga, and other contemplative and spiritual practices." Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, About the Law Program, http://www.contemplativemind.org/programs/law/about.html (last visited July 4, 2007). The Initiative on Mindfulness in Law and Dispute Resolution at the University of Missouri-ColumbiaSchool of Law, the Contemplative Lawyering Program at CUNY Law School, the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative, and the University of California, Hastings College of Law Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution have all incorporated mindfulness practices into their training work. For descriptions of these programs, see Renaissance Lawyer Society, Contemplative Practices in Law, http://www. renaissancelawyer.org/NewApproaches/contemplativepractices.htm (last visited July 4, 2007).
33. Even the ABA is showing an interest in mindfulness. See, e.g., Robert Zeglovitch, The Mindful Lawyer, GPSOLO MAG., Oct/Nov. 2006, http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/magazine/2006/oct-nov/ mindfullawyer.html.
34. For a description of the major economic development and revitalization projects currently underway in the City of Oakland, see CEDA-Planning, Major Projects, http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/CEDA/revised/planningzoning/ MajorProjectsSection/default.html (last visited July 4, 2007).
35. Id.
36. Memorandum from Jeremy Hays, Program Coordinator, Urban Strategies Council, to Oakland City Council Members (Apr. 12, 2005) (on file with author).
37. SOCIAL COMPACT, NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET DRILLDOWN: WEST OAKLAND 6 (2005), http://www.urbanstrategies.org/documents/WestOaklandBook.pdf (finding 11,139 households and 30,918 people in West Oakland in 2005 compared to 10,972 households and 29,700 people in the 2000 US Census);
38. MANUEL PASTOR, CTR. FOR JUSTICE, TOLERANCE & COMMUNITY, BASELINE CENSUS DATA FOR WEST OAKLAND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING 3 (2002), http://cjtc.ucsc.edu/docs/ cr_Analysis02_unlinked_WOakland.pdf (citing the following census statistics for West Oakland: 65.7% African American; 17.3% Latino; 7.9% Asian and Pacific Islander; 5.6% Anglo; 3.5% Other).
39. PASTOR, supra note 19, at 3. Some 63% of West Oakland's residents have no credit history compared to the national average of 23.8%. SOCIAL COMPACT, supra note 19, at 30.
40. See CHRIS RHOMBERG, NO THERE THERE: RACE, CLASS, AND POLITICAL COMMUNITY IN OAKLAND 27 (2004) ("By 1911, Oakland was the West Coast terminus for three transcontinental rail lines, and as many as sixteen hundred trains a day moved through the city.");
41. see also ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES CTR., SONOMA STATE UNIV., PUTTING THE "THERE" THERE: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGIES OF WEST OAKLAND 31 (1994), http://www.sonoma.edu/asc/ cypress/finalreport/Chapter02.pdf.; West Oakland Public Library, http://www.fopl.org/west_oakland.htm (last visited July 6, 2007).
42. RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 28-30. For more on the history of Oakland see DAVID WEBER, OAKLAND: HUB OF THE WEST (1981), RUTH HENDRICKS WILLARD, ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA CROSSROADS: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY (1988),
43. and BETH BAGWELL, OAKLAND: THE STORY OF A CITY (1982).
44. RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 28-30.
45. Id. at 28.
46. SELF, supra note 5, at 2-6, 32. As late as 1950, "nearly 90 percent of the city's black population resided in 22 percent of [Oakland's] census tracts concentrated in West and North Oakland." Id. at 51. See also RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 1-24, 96-120.
47. SELF, supra note 5, at 50. For more on the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, see LARRY TYE, RISING FROM THE RAILS: PULLMAN PORTERS AND THE MAKING OF THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS (2004);
48. BETH TOMPKINS BATES, PULLMAN PORTERS AND THE RISE OF PROTEST POLITICS IN BLACK AMERICA, 1925-1945 (2000); National Park Service, A History of Black Americans in California: Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Headquarters Site, http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views2h20. htm (last visited July 4, 2007).
49. SELF, supra note 5, at 51 (internal quotations omitted). Despite these local opportunities, many African Americans also dreamed of life beyond West Oakland. According to East Bay resident Norvel Smith, the aspiration for black people was that, "[y]ou came into West Oakland, then North Oakland, and if you really made it, with a civil service job or something, you moved into South Berkeley." Id. at 50. There also remained a large white working class in West Oakland through World War II. A serious labor struggle ensued between the segregated unions and the Key System, an important public transportation network in the East Bay, which had refused to hire African Americans. In a series of hearings before the Fair Employment Practices Commission, the Key System agreed to abide by fair employment practices in principle. In fact, though, the Key System did not hire African American operators until 1951, six years after the hearings. Id. at 83-84.
50. Id. at 27, 57.
51. Id. at 57.
52. Id. at 50; see also RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 82-84.
53. David Harvey marks the period from 1914 to 1965 as the heyday of "Fordism." This system of economic production takes its name from Henry Ford, who combined technological and labor innovations in mass production with the conviction that workers also should learn to be proper consumers. See DAVID HARVEY, THE CONDITION OF POSTMODERNITY: AN ENQUIRY INTO THE ORIGINS OF CULTURAL CHANGE 125-26 (1989).
54. See id. at 129-35 (describing the post-war balance of power between organized labor, large corporate capital, and the nation-state); see also ROBERT KUTTNER, EVERYTHING FOR SALE: THE VIRTUES AND LIMITS OF MARKETS 30 (Univ. of Chi. Press 1999).
55. See HARVEY, supra note 31, at 133. The burgeoning economy also allowed for generous social programs like the GI Bill, the Great Society, and the War on Poverty.
56. For an historical account of this process, see LIZABETH COHEN, A CONSUMERS' REPUBLIC: THE POLITICS OF MASS CONSUMPTION IN POSTWAR AMERICA 194-257 (2003) (describing how suburbanization created or exacerbated race and class stratification).
57. For an account focusing on the racial effects of suburbanization, see DOUGLAS S. MASSEY & NANCY A. DENTON, AMERICAN APARTHEID: SEGREGATION AND THE MAKING OF THE UNDERCLASS 17-57 (1993).
58. See also Chantal Thomas, Globalization and the Reproduction of Hierarchy, 33 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 1451, 1456-1472 (2000).
59. SELF, supra note 5, at 170.
60. See Self, supra note 3, at 162-66; RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 124.
61. RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 124.
62. Joseph A. Rodriguez, Rapid Transit and Community Power: West Oakland Residents Confront BART, 31 ANTIPODE 212, 216 (1999). Between 1958 and 1966, the city lost more than 9,000 manufacturing jobs. RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 146. In the same period, 100,000 white middle-class homeowners left Oakland. Id. Oakland lost 10,000 manufacturing jobs from 1961 to 1996. Self, supra note 3, at 178; RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 146-48.
63. We advisedly do not use the term "flight" here: [W]hite suburbanites did not 'flee' Oakland. They were drawn to suburban communities by the powerful economic and cultural incentives behind city building: new housing markets subsidized by the federal government; low taxes underwritten by relocating industry; and the assurance that a new home, spacious yard, and garage signaled their full assimilation into American life and its celebration of modernity and consumption. SELF, supra note 5, at 16.
64. SELF, supra note 5, at 20.
65. As Self notes, the term "blight" is often used to suggest that the economic and physical attributes of an area are the problem, rather than the underlying racial, political, or social inequities. SELF, supra note 5, at 139. For more on how reformers established a discourse of "blight" in order to enable the wholesale destruction of black and brown neighborhoods in the post-war era, see Wendell E. Pritchett, The "Public Menace" of Blight: Urban Renewal and the Private Uses of Eminent Domain, 21 YALE L. & POL'Y REV. 1, 13-17 (2003).
66. For a detailed discussion of post-war urban renewal in Oakland, including the public and private market forces that shaped it, see SELF, supra note 5, at 21-96.
67. See, e.g., Daniel P. Faigin, San Francisco Bay Area Freeway Development (Part 1The City of San Francisco), http://www.cahighways.org/maps- sf-fwy.html (last visited July 5, 2007).
68. SELF, supra note 5, at 158-59. One journalism student made a short film that "investigate[d] the impact of freeway construction and suburban flight on a community in West Oakland, California. Focusing on her family's experiences while drawing on a wide range of historical sources, the filmmaker paint[ed] an eloquent picture of a divided community with increasing socioeconomic stratification." UC Berkeley Student Films: Media Resources Center, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/StudentFilmsVid.html (last visited July 10, 2007); Videotape: Highway of Dreams (Nandi Pointer 2000) (on file at UC Berkeley Media Resources Center).
69. SELF, supra note 5, at 150.
70. For a spatial analysis of the built environment in West Oakland, see Gergana Hadzhieva, Inverting Balkanization: West Oakland as a Site of Cultural and Technological Interchange (Jan. 6, 2003) (unpublished M.Arch. thesis, University of California, Berkeley) (on file with author).
71. RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 127-34. The creation in 1956 of the redevelopment agency in Oakland was promoted by the Oakland Citizens' Committee for Urban Renewal (OCCUR) to "serve[] the greater Oakland / East Bay region as a community building intermediary and direct service organization dedicated to public policy, non-profit capacity building, information technology, and consumer education. OCCUR has been nationally commended for its positive impact on low-income and emerging communities. OCCUR programs cover a diverse range of successful commumty engagement and service activities," and are an on-going presence in the city's redevelopment struggles. Bay Area Progressive Directory, Oakland Citizens Committee for Urban Renewal, http://bapd.org/goatal-1.html; RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 127-34.
72. SELF, supra note 5, at 140.
73. Urban renewal-and its many manifestations-divided communities like West Oakland, especially between homeowners and less-well-off renters. See Rodriguez, supra note 38, at 217; RHOMBERG, supra note 21, 137-44 (describing the creation of the Oakland Economic Development Council and other citizen bodies to speak on behalf of community members, including the complex class and race dynamics in West Oakland and citywide with respect to antipoverty efforts). Because so many "renewal" programs undermined once-thriving minority neighborhoods and displaced so many individuals and families, they became known as "Negro removal." SELF, supra note 5, at 140.
74. According to Self: Johnson ultimately lost before the U.S. Supreme Court, which found that Oakland's Redevelopment Agency was not in violation of either federal law or the Constitution, and that its plan for relocating Acorn residents - a hastily assembled proposal to help people and businesses move, primarily to East Oakland-was sound. Ruling only in the narrowest sense on the agency's relocation efforts and declining to address the larger issue of segregation in Oakland, the Court's decision freed the city to redevelop the Acorn property. SELF, supra note 5, at 147; Johnson v. Redevelopment Agency of Oakland, 317 F.2d 872 (9th Cir.), cert, denied, 375 U.S. 915 (1963).
75. See RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 131-134; SELF, supra note 5, at 147-48. Both sites are on-going redevelopment areas more than 40 years later. See also Acorn - Oakland CEDA, http://www.business2oakland.com/main/acorn.htm (last visited July 6, 2007); Oak Center Oakland CEDA, http://www.business2oakland.com/main/oakcenter. htm (last visited July 6, 2007).
76. For a brief history of the political, financial and engineering challenges during BART's development, see BART - History and Facts, History, http://www.bart.gov/about/history/history_1.asp (last visited July 6, 2007).
77. Rodriguez, supra note 38, at 214.
78. For a detailed description of the struggle against displacement and for local hiring during BART's development in West Oakland-and the role it played in the nascent Black Power movement-see id. at 212-26. Support for rerouting BART waned as money had to come from local coffers to do so. Whereas freeways were largely funded with gas taxes and federal dollars, BART was funded with bonds and local, state, and federal taxes. See BART - History and Facts, System Facts, http://www.bart.gov/about/history/systemFacts.asp (last visited July 6, 2007); Rodriguez, supra note 38, at 222 ("In short, public support was more forthcoming for the costly rerouting of freeways. Highway builders had a much more difficult time arguing that rerouting was 'too expensive' since Washington paid for 90% of the cost of freeways."); RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 121-23.
79. Rodriguez, supra note 38, at 221.
80. SELF, supra note 5, at 155; see also RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 120-23.
81. For a collection of essays and a narrative history of the Black Power movement and the role of the Black Panthers, see THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT: RETHINKING THE CIVIL RIGHTS-BLACK POWER ERA (Peniel E. Joseph ed., 2006),
82. and PENIEL E. JOSEPH, WAITING 'TIL THE MIDNIGHT HOUR: A NARRATIVE HISTORY OF BLACK POWER IN AMERICA (2006).
83. See RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 167-72. See also LIONEL WILSON, ATTORNEY, JUDGE, AND OAKLAND MAYOR 56 (1992), http://content.cdlib. org/xtf/view?docId=hb00006hx&brand==oac&doc.view==entire_text (an oral history conducted in 1985 and 1990 by Gabrielle Morris, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley).
84. See RHOMBERG, supra note 21, at 170.
85. The Oil Producing Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised prices of crude oil by fourfold in 1973 and again in 1979. ROBERT POLLIN, CONTOURS OF DESCENT: U.S. ECONOMIC FRACTURES AND THE LANDSCAPE OF GLOBAL AUSTERITY 18 (2d ed. 2005).
86. David Harvey describes the destabilization of the global post-war economy: Unemployment and inflation were both surging everywhere, ushering in a global phase of 'stagflation' that lasted throughout much of the 1970s. Fiscal crises of various states (Britain, for example, had to be bailed out by the IMF in 1975-6) resulted as tax revenues plunged and social expenditures soared. Keynesian policies were no longer working. Even before the Arab-Israeli War and the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates backed by gold reserves had fallen into disarray. The porosity of state boundaries with respect to capital flows put stress on the system of fixed exchange rates. US dollars had flooded the world and escaped US controls by being deposited in European banks. Fixed exchange rates were therefore abandoned in 1971. Gold could no longer function as the metallic base of international money; exchange rates were allowed to float, and attempts to control the float were soon abandoned. The embedded liberalism that had delivered high rates of growth to at least the advanced capitalist countries after 1945 was clearly exhausted and was no longer working. Some alternative was called for if the crisis was to be overcome. DAVID HARVEY, A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEOLIBERALISM 12 (2005).
87. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan used this term to describe the 1970s stagflation in the United States. Roger Lowenstein, The Inequality Conundrum, N.Y. TIMES MAG., June 10, 2007, at 11.
88. SELF, supra note 5, at 2, 4.
89. See Thomas, supra note 34, at 1480.
90. See WILLIAM GREIDER, ONE WORLD, READY OR NOT 231-32 (1997) ("The aggregate force of global financial markets has expanded enormously during the last generation, as major governments removed national controls on finance capital.").
91. HARVEY, supra note 61, at 2. Harvey describes the preference for market orderings over government action under neoliberalism: The role of the state is to create and preserve an institutional framework appropriate to such practices. The state has to guarantee, for example, the quality and integrity of money. It must also set up those military, defence, police, and legal structures and functions required to secure private property rights and to guarantee, by force if need be, the proper functioning of markets. Furthermore, if markets do not exist (in areas such as land, water, education, health care, social security, or environmental pollution) then they must be created, by state action if necessary. But beyond these tasks the state should not venture. State interventions in markets (once created) must be kept to a bare minimum because, according to the theory, the state cannot possibly possess enough information to second-guess market signals (prices) and because powerful interest groups will inevitably distort and bias state interventions (particularly in democracies) for their own benefit. Id.
92. See POLLIN, supra note 60, at 29-30 (describing how President Clinton, a Democrat, nevertheless conformed to the neoliberal agenda, for example, in his abolition of Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the federal entitlement to welfare benefits for low-income families).
93. See LISA DUGGAN, THE TWILIGHT OF EQUALITY?: NEOLIBERALISM, CULTURAL POLITICS, AND THE ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY 9 (2003) (discussing how public debate in the 1970s and 1980s pushed the perceived "center" of American politics rightward).
94. See Thomas, supra note 34, at 1484-86.
95. See id. at 1490-94.
96. The "War on Poverty" was waged in part through the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Pub. L. No. 88-452 § 2, 78 Stat. 508 (repealed 1981). The Act created the Office of Economic Opportunity, which included, among other initiatives, the civil legal aid program that would become the Legal Services Corporation in 1974. Legal Services Corporation Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2996-2996/ (2000). The conservative and libertarian critique of the War on Poverty was set forth in a series of influential books, including GEORGE GILDER, WEALTH AND POVERTY (1981) (contending that poverty is the result of personal irresponsibility which government programs reward and encourage),
97. CHARLES MURRAY, LOSING GROUND: AMERICAN SOCIAL POLICY, 19501980 (1984) (contending that federal anti-poverty programs produce a series of undesirable social and economic choices among those living in poverty),
98. and LAWRENCE M. MEAD, BEYOND ENTITLEMENT: THE SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP (1986) (criticizing government programs for perpetuating poverty by being overly permissive with respect to work in return for benefits).
99. See, e.g., HERBERT J. GANS, THE WAR AGAINST THE POOR: THE UNDERCLASS AND ANTIPOVERTY POLICY (1995) (arguing that the War on Poverty failed for lack of resources, and that the backlash of the 1980s and 1990s-including stigmatizing rhetoric and labels-is a much greater barrier to ending poverty than government intervention).
100. W. REG'L ADVOCACY PROJECT, WITHOUT HOUSING: DECADES OF FEDERAL HOUSING CUTBACKS, MASSIVE HOMELESSNESS, AND POLICY FAILURES 11 (2006), http://www.wraphome.org/ wh_press_kit/Without_Housing_20061114.pdf.
101. See Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-193, 110 Stat. 2105 (codified in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C). For more on the discourse and ideology of welfare reform, see Kathleen A. Kost & Frank W. Munger, Fooling All of the People Some of the Time: 1990's Welfare Reform and the Exploitation of American Values, 4 VA. J. SOC. POL'Y & L. 3 (1996),
102. and Sylvia A. Law, Ending Welfare as We Know It, 49 STAN. L. REV. 471 (1997).
103. See also SHAWN FREMSTAD, CTR. ON BUDGET & POLICY PRIORITIES, RECENT WELFARE REFORM RESEARCH FINDINGS: IMPLICATIONS FOR TANF REAUTHORIZATION AND STATE TANF POLICIES (2004), http://www.cbpp.org/1-30- 04wel.pdf (providing longitudinal data on the impact of welfare reform on low-income families).
104. In May 2007, President Bush signed into law the first increase since 1997, raising the minimum wage from $5.15/hour to $5.85 effective July 24, 2007 (with subsequent increases to $6.55 and $7.25 on the same date in 2008 and 2009). Jeffrey Meitrodt, Hourly Wages Going up to $7.50, CHI. TRIB., July 1, 2007, at C1.
105. Michael J. New, Proposition 13 and State Budget Limitations: Past Successes and Future Options 1 (Cato Inst., Briefing Paper No. 83, 2003) (noting that California's Proposition 13 "launched a wave of tax limitation efforts in other states and created momentum for the large federal tax cuts passed in 1981").
106. Even as the federal government continues to disinvest from social programs, a recent trend has emerged of state governments stepping into the breach. Christopher Cooper, Budget Boom: States Set Big Spending Plans as Washington Preaches Austerity, WALL ST. J., Feb. 24, 2007, at Al. The implications of this early counter-trend to neoliberal policies do not seem to be well understood.
107. Audrey G. McFarlane, The New Inner City: Class Transformation, Concentrated Affluence and the Obligations of the Police Power, 8 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 1, 5-6 (2006).
108. For more on this initiative, including an updated list of housing projects as of November 2006, see Oakland CEDA - 10K Housing Initiative, http://www.business2oakland.con/main/10kdowntownhousingimtiative.htm (last visited July 6, 2007).
109. For a report card on Brown's eight years in office, see Feature Report, Grading Jerry, E. BAY EXPRESS, Jan. 3, 2007, at 7, available at http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-01-03/news/grading-jerry.
110. Chris Thompson, Jerry Brown Was Right: He Was a Poor Manager but a Great Salesman, E. BAY EXPRESS, Jan. 3, 2007, available at http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-01-03/news/jerry-brown-was-right/ (click on "The Changing Face of Oakland" chart). From 1999 to 2005, the city's African American population declined 18.6% or more than 26,000 individuals. During the same period, median household income rose 10.2%, households earning more than $100,000 rose 26.2%, median home values rose 163%, and unemployment was up 33%, from 5.1% to 6.8%. Id.
111. Leslie Fulbright, S.F. Moves to Stem African American Exodus: Critics Say Effort to Reverse Longtime Trend May Be Too Late, S.F. CHRON., Apr. 9, 2007, at A1.
112. Recent reports commissioned by the Oakland Unified School District found that "the declining enrollments are a result of a change in Oakland's demographic makeup. This change is part of a process of 'gentrification,' in which middle-class or affluent people migrate into an area, displacing earlier, usually poorer, residents." Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research, Demographic Update for Facilities Planning 1 (May 25, 2005) (on file with author). One reportfound that very few children lived in the new market rate condos: "Of the nearly 1,700 market rate units, only three students attend OUSD [schools]." Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research, Impact of New Housing Developments on OUSD Enrollment and Facilities 2 (Sept. 5, 2006) (on file with author).
113. See West Oakland - Oakland CEDA, http://www.business2oakland.com/ main/westoakland.htm (last visited July 12, 2007) (detailing general redevelopment plan in West Oakland). In 1999, the U.S. Army closed the 425-acre Oakland Army Base in West Oakland. In 2000, the City of Oakland adopted a redevelopment plan for that area. See Oakland Army Base - Oakland CEDA, http://www.business2oakland.com/main/oaklandarmybase.htm (last visited July 12, 2007).
114. See Rodriguez, supra note 38, at 226: The California Department of Transportation proposed rebuilding the structure in its original location down the middle of Cypress Street in West Oakland. Environmentalists joined West Oaklanders in blocking the reconstruction of the freeway along its original route. Their combined efforts succeeded in forcing the state to reroute the reconstructed freeway through Oakland's port.
115. See BRIDGE Housing - Mandela Gateway, http://www.bridgehousing.com/Default.aspx?DN=185,32,7,1,Documents (last visited July 12, 2007) (describing the Mandela Gateway development).
116. See AWOD - Future Developments, http://web.archive.org/web/ 20060829210451/www.awod.org/futuredevelopments.htm (last visited July 12, 2007) (describing the Mandela Transit Village development); see also Marsha Ginsburg, Transition, S.F. CHRON., May 9, 2004, at G1 (describing both developments).
117. See, e.g., Dana Perrigan, Central Station Finally on Track in West Oakland: Often-Neglected Area's Residents Hope That Housing Plan Thrives, S.F. CHRON., NOV. 12, 2006, at K8;
118. Anne Stuhldreher, Against Gentrification: Marcel Diallo Sees a Black Cultural District Where Oakland's the Bottoms Neighborhood Now Stands, S.F. CHRON., Jan. 21, 2007, at CM13; abc7news.com, Transcript of Report: West Oakland Area to Undergo Renaissance (Dec. 2, 2004), http://abclocal.go.com/ kgo/story?section=News&id=2460403 (last visited July 6, 2007).
119. See Memorandum from Jeremy Hays to Oakland City Council Members, supra note 18.
120. Scott L. Cummings, Community Economic Development as Progressive Politics: Toward a Grassroots Movement for Economic Justice, 54 STAN. L. REV. 399, 402 (2001).
121. William H. Simon, Solving Problems vs. Claiming Rights: The Pragmatist Challenge to Legal Liberalism, 46 WM. & MARY L. REV. 127 (2004);
122. see also WILLIAM H. SIMON, THE COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT (2001).
123. Cummings, supra note 97, at 459-64.
124. See generally Jon C. Dubin, Clinical Design for Social Justice Imperatives, 51 SMU L. REV. 1461 (1998) (providing a history of clinical legal education, including its social justice aspirations).
125. See generally HOWARD ZINN, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES (1980).
126. ALAN W. HOUSEMAN & LINDA E. PERLE, CTR. FOR LAW & SOC. POLICY, SECURING EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL: A BRIEF HISTORY OF CIVIL LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN THE UNITED STATES 29-37 (2007), http://www.clasp.org/publications/legal_aid_history_2007.pdf.
127. The high water mark of national funding of legal services was in 1981, the closest most programs ever came to achieving the "minimum access" goal of 1 lawyer for every 5,000 low-income clients. Id. at 24. After cuts of 25% in 1982, and 30% in 1996-with stagnant funding in between and thereafter-the federal commitment to legal services in inflation-adjusted dollars now represents approximately one-half of the plateau of a quarter-century ago. ACCESS TO JUSTICE WORKING GROUP, STATE BAR OF CAL., AND JUSTICE FOR ALL: FULFILLING THE PROMISE OF ACCESS TO CIVIL JUSTICE IN CALIFORNIA (1996). In addition to being starved of operating resources, legal services programs have chafed under draconian restrictions for more than a decade.
128. See David S. Udell, Implications of the Legal Services Struggle for Other Government Grants for Lawyering for the Poor, 25 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 895 (1998).
129. Boalt Celebrates New Poverty Law Center: Law Students Raised the Money Themselves, THE RECORDER, Sept. 29, 1988, at 8 (Legal Aid Society of Alameda County attorneys down from 54 to 13 and forced to close Berkeley office);
130. Law Students Launch Community Legal Center, E. BAY EXPRESS, Sept. 9, 1988, at 3 (LASAC attorneys down from 54 to 13 and services in Berkeley reduced to 1 lawyer from Oakland 4 hours/week).
131. See W. REG'L ADVOCACY PROJECT, supra note 80, at 11.
132. Stephen Wexler, in his classic critique, challenges "[t]wo major touchstones of traditional legal practice-the solving of legal problems and the one-to-one relationship between attorney and client." Wexler suggests four alternate ways that lawyers for the poor can help their clients: "(1) informing individuals and groups about their rights, (2) writing [educational] manuals and other materials, (3) training lay advocates, and (4) educating groups for confrontation." Stephen Wexler, Practicing Law for Poor People, 79 YALE L.J. 1049, 1053, 1056 (1970).
133. See, e.g., LÓPEZ, supra note 12, at 13-17 (describing and critiquing the practices of a public interest litigation firm).
134. This process has only accelerated during the last quarter-century. As Scott Cummings and Ingrid Eagly put it, "By the early 1990s, legal scholars had rejected the law as a vehicle for social transformation, challenged the privileged position of lawyers in social change strategies,and actively encouraged lawyers to work with other commumty members to seek local, nonlegal solutions to poverty." Cummings & Eagly, supra note 9, at 460.
135. The classic critique is Gary Bellow, Turning Solutions Into Problems: The Legal Aid Experience, 34 NLADA BRIEFCASE 106 (1977), available at http://www.garybellow.org/garywords/solutions.html (critiquing the routinized practice prevalent in many legal aid offices leading to low client autonomy, narrow definition of client needs, and poor outcomes).
136. See William P. Quigley, Reflections of Community Organizers: Lawyering for Empowerment of Community Organizations, 21 OHIO N.U. L. REV. 455 (1995) (discussing the unique values of "[e]mpowerment lawyering with organizations of the poor and powerless", its focus on representing groups instead of individuals, and how empowerment lawyering "differs from corporate lawyering or criminal defense lawyering in purpose, substance and style");
137. see also Joel F. Handler, Community Care for the Frail Elderly: A Theory of Empowerment, 50 OHIO ST. L.J. 541 (1989) (discussing "why the legal rights perspective will not protect the frail elderly" and arguing for a different approach based on the theory of empowerment and empirical models for home care projects benefiting the poor elderly population).
138. In response to a largely silent epidemic sweeping through the low-income community, in 1990 EBCLC expanded its initial focus on legal issues related to shelter (housing) and income (welfare) to include a health practice for people living with HIV. See Jeffrey Selbin & Mark Del Monte, A Waiting Room of Their Own: The Family Care Network as a Model for Providing Gender-Specific Legal Services to Women with HIV, 5 DUKE J. GENDER L. & POL'Y 103 (1998) (discussing the history of EBCLCs HIV/AIDS law practice).
139. The most prominent example in the early years was the Homeless Action Center (HAC), which was initially housed at EBCLC until it received sufficient seed funding to operate as an independent entity. HAC is now a vital service provider to low-income and homeless residents of Alameda County. See Homeless Action Center Services, http://homelessactioncenter.org/about (last visited July 12, 2007).
140. See, e.g., Susan D. Bennett, On Long-Haul Lawyering, 25 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 771 (1998) (describing the imperative for an imbedded lawyering practice-morally, geographically, and longitudinally-in low-income commumties);
141. Gary Bellow, Steady Work: A Practitioner's Reflections on Political Lawyering, 31 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 297 (1996) (offering the author's contributions to the debate on the "elusive" subject of "political lawyering" and his attempt "to clarify the subject of the conference, this Symposium, and our work by reflecting on a few examples from my own experience of politics through law.");
142. see also Julie A. Su, Making the Invbible Visible: The Garment Industry's Dirty Laundry, 1 J. GENDER RACE & JUST. 405 (1998) (arguing that lawyers should work with subordinated clients, not for them).
143. See Marie Felde, A $2 Million HUD Grant for Campus-Oakland Ventures, The Berkeleyan (Sept. 27, 1995), http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1995/0927/grant.html (last visited August 2, 2007).
144. See People's Community Partnership Federal Credit Union, http://www.pcpfcu.org (last visited July 5, 2007).
145. http://www.workingeastbay.org (last visited July 5, 2007).
146. The Port of Oakland-which modernized and expanded during the 1960s to become Oakland's leading industry-was "one of West Oakland's few success stories, an enormous industry that, unlike much of the rest of the city, took advantage of, rather than lost ground to, the waves of economic restructuring sweeping through the East Bay in these decades." SELF, supra note 5, at 154. By the late 1960s, the Port of Oakland was the "second largest port in the world in container tonnage . . . and second only to New York in its container terminal acreage." Port of Oakland - The Port & You, http://www.portofoakland.com/portnyou/history.asp (last visited July 5, 2007).
147. For more on BACSIC and its role in negotiating the Port's Project Labor Agreement, see Jason Parkin, Note, Constructing Meaningful Access to Work: Lessons from the Port of Oakland Project Labor Agreement, 35 COLUM. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 375 (2004).
148. In addition to the credit union and BACSIC, EBCLC also spent several years providing technical assistance to more than 100 local non-profits on a broad range of legal issues. Enhancing the capacity of community-based organizations is a vital role in low-income neighborhoods, which often lack the resources and infrastructure to sustain and benefit from such institutions.
149. Public records revealed that the Pacific Renaissance developers received $30 million in public funds (in part to provide affordable housing for the Chinatown commumty); overcharged the tenants more than $2 million over ten years; and borrowed $7 million from the City of Oakland that was forgiven without repayment. Further discovery revealed evidence that the developers set up over fifty different corporate affiliate entities to move funds around, and that they also allegedly engaged in apparently fraudulent self-dealing transactions that led directly to the evictions of tenants and the potential loss of affordable housing. See John M. Glionna, Chinatown Evictions Roil Oakland, L.A. TIMES, June 24, 2003, at 7, available at 2003 WLNR 15153554.
150. See also Jahna Berry, Tenant Tempest: Evictions from a Condo Complex in Oakland's Chinatown Have Triggered a Wave of Lawsuits, THE RECORDER, Oct. 17, 2003, at 1.
151. See Foster & Glick, supra note 9, at Part III.B ("The City as a Weakier) Player").
152. See Cummings, supra note 97, at 447 (criticizing market-driven CED policies as ineffective at poverty reduction).
153. See WILLIAM GREIDER, WHO WILL TELL THE PEOPLE: THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (1992) (describing the effectiveness with which large corporate interests such as General Electric have been able to influence national policymaking).
154. Sue Kwon, CBS Channel 5, Transcript of Report: Development to Bring $300,000 Homes to Oakland, (Oct. 12, 2006), http://cbs5.com/business/ local_story_285214313.html (last visited July 12, 2007). See also Oakland Cmty. & Econ. Dev. Agency, Wood Street Project Draft Environmental Impact Report S-6 (Sept. 20, 2004), available at http://www.oaklandnet.con/ government/ceda/revised/planningzoning/MajorProjectsSection/ WoodStreetDraftEIRSept2004/Sections/Surnmary%20Text.pdf.
155. Adam Feuerstein, Lofty Ambitions in Emeryville, S.F. BUS. TIMES, Feb. 21, 1997, available at htxp://www.bizjournals.com/ sanfrancisco/stories/1997/02/24/story1.html. Holliday created the vision for the land's reuse and recruited partners, including: BUILD West, the recently formed for-profit arm of Bridge Housing, a long-time affordable housing development nonprofit; and Andy Getz, the head of a family owned development corporation, former chair of the City of Emeryville Planning Commission that ushered in the large-scale live/work housing and commercial development that makes up most of Emeryville.
156. See supra Part I.A.
157. See McFarlane, supra note 85 and accompanying text. The New Urbanism reflects a growing desire among young professionals and empty-nesters to live in urban cores, finding previously industrial or "gritty" neighborhoods exciting and vibrant, and reversing the previous trend of suburbanization. While one of the motivations behind New Urbanism is laudatory environmental principles, it also has contributed to the negative impacts of gentrification by failing to take the impacts of market force displacement into account and ignoring the need to integrate existing community residents,. See James Jennings, Race, Politics, and Community Development in U.S. Cities: Urban Planning, Community Participation, and the Roxbury Master Plan in Boston, 594 ANNALS 12 (2004);
158. see also James A. Kushner, Smart Growth, New Urbanism and Diversity: Progressive Planning Movements in America and Their Impact on Poor and Minority Ethnic Populations, 21 UCLA J. ENVTL. L. & POL'Y 45 (2002/03).
159. SELF, supra note 5, at 46-60.
160. Audrey McFarlane explains the dual strategy of economic development and consumption: Economic development is a major project of central cities whose quest is to attract capital through incentives to locate offices, headquarters, and to a lesser extent, plants within the inner city. The other approach has been a consumption strategy: tailor land use and development to meet the consumption tastes of people with money to spend by building entertainment venues, convention centers, festival marketplaces, ethnic and historical festivals, sports stadiums, hotels, restaurants, shopping, and bars (both coffee and alcohol). McFarlane, supra note 85, at 16.
161. Just Cause Oakland is a grassroots organizing group founded in 2000 to campaign for Oakland's just cause eviction ordinance. JUST CAUSE OAKLAND:for the people, http://www.justcauseoakland.org/ (last visited July 12, 2007). Just Cause's mission is "to create ajust and diverse city and region by organizing Oakland residents to advocate for housing and jobs as human rights, and to mobilize for policies that produce social and economic justice in lowincome communities of color." Id.
162. The Coalition included: A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Coalition for West Oakland Revitalization, Just Cause Oakland, Building & Construction Trades Council of Alameda County, Bay Area Construction Sector Intervention Coalition, East Bay Commumty Law Center, Alameda County Central Labor Council, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, SEIU Local 790, Urban Habitat, St. Mary's Center, Urban Strategies Council, East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy, Pacific Institute, East Bay Housing Organizations, Parent Leadership Engagement Academy, and Asian Pacific Environmental Network.
163. For example, the need to study the health and environmental impacts of locating a large-scale housing project less than 100 feet from the freeway, in direct contravention of state guidelines, resulted in planning officials reacting with scorn and dismissiveness. WOOD STREET PROJECT FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT 3-23 to 3-25 (Feb. 7, 2005), available at http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/ceda/revised/planningzoning/ MajorProjectsSection/WoodStreetFinalEIRFeb2005/PDF/3%20Master%20Response0203. pdf. As part of formulating the legal and policy arguments for the Coalition, EBCLC analyzed the explicit and hidden quantifiable public costs associated with the Wood Street project. Given its location in a designated redevelopment area-and without the provision of any affordable housing-the project would create a public obligation to provide 225 to 450 units of affordable housing with a public price tag of over $22 million. We argued that the City should require the developers to provide the affordable housing mandated by state redevelopment law within the Wood Street project itself rather than in another location because it would be half as expensive and prevent the creation of segregated housing.
164. In the end, the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati served as pro bono cocounsel. The partner on the case was a former labor lawyer and community organizer, and both understood and tolerated messy, process-oriented coalition politics and multiple agendas. An EBCLC board member who was a former transactional partner in a large law firm was also later involved as part of the legal team. EBCLCs team of advisors also included legal interns from Boalt Hall (U.C. Berkeley) School of Law, attorneys and policy specialists from the California Affordable Housing Law Project, Urban Strategies Council, Community Economics, East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy, and other groups.
165. See Wood Street affordable housing requirements contained in Exhibit A: Wood Street Conditions of Approval 100A, CITY OF OAKLAND AGENDA REPORT ON WOOD STREET DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, (June 7, 2005), http://clerkwebsvrl.oaklandnet.com/attachments/10992.pdf.
166. As a result of the Coalition's advocacy, the Planning Commissioners directed the Planning Director to include a study of the project's socio-economic impact as part of the Environmental Impact Report-an important advancement. While the study did not include many of the elements that the Coalition asked for, it did conclude that the Wood Street project would exacerbate existing gentrification in West Oakland, creating a set of "Winners and Losers" with low-income residents among the "Loser" category. Through this official study, the decisionmakers could no longer close their eyes to the suffering that the redevelopment would create, vindicating the testimony of many residents as well as furthering the Coalition's ability to get affordable housing included as part of the Project. Mundie & Associates, The Proposed Wood Street Project: Policy and Planning Framework, WOOD STREET PROJECT FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT, supra note 132, at S-4.
167. Id.
168. Id.
169. See Cecily Burt, Plan for Station Stirs W. Oakland, OAKLAND TRIB., Oct. 22, 2004, available at 2004 WLNR 17137752;
170. Cecily Burt, Mixed Views on Housing at Train Depot, OAKLAND TRIB., July 26, 2004, available at 2004 WLNR 17197228; Perrigan, supra note 95.
171. Simon, supra note 98, at 212. See also WILLIAM H. SIMON, THE COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT: LAW, BUSINESS, AND THE NEW SOCIAL POLICY (2001);
172. but see David J. Barron, The Community Economic Development Movement: A Metropolitan Perspective, 56 STAN. L. REV. 701 (2003) (reviewing Simon's book and critiquing the CED movement for its narrow focus on neighborhood and place to the exclusion of broader, regional approaches-"metropolitan reform" work-to economic development opportunities).
173. See OAKLAND CITY STAFF REPORT ON REVISIONS TO CONDOMINIUM CONVERSION LAWS 10 (Nov. 14, 2006), http://clerkwebsvrl.oaklandnet.com/ attachments/14912.pdf (noting, "The 2000 Census showed 88,301 renters households in Oakland with an average median income of $29,278"; "The income required to purchase a $375,000 unit is approximately $75,000/year"; and "Only 8 to 13 percent of current renters would fall into this category.").
174. The Coalition had weighed the possibility of filing a lawsuit under the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires land use agencies to study certain impacts from the project and mitigate impacts that were found to be significant. For more information, see MICHAEL H. REMY ET AL., GUIDE TO THE CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT (CEQA): 1999 (10th ed. 1999). Because of the threat of a lawsuit-including EBCLCs central role in a potential suit and the high cost of delay to the project-the developers contacted members of EBCLCs board of directors and its funders to complain about the Law Center's involvement in the case.
175. See CITY OF OAKLAND, AGENDA REPORT ON WOOD STREET DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (June 7, 2005), available at http://clerkwebsvrl.oaklandnet.com/ attachments/10992.pdf. The Coalition was able to achieve the following community benefits from the Wood Street project: Affordable Housing. The developers had not planned any affordable housing in the Project. But because of the Coalition's organizing work and in light of the City's own report that the Project would exacerbate gentrification and displace low-income residents, the Coalition convinced the City of Oakland to require a minimum of 15% affordable housing in the Project, including both rental and homeownership. The rental units are to be affordable, setting aside half of the area for residents making median income, or up to $40,000 a year. However, the Coalition could not convince the City to force the developers to pay for any of the affordable housing or to set a ceiling for the level of City subsidy required for the affordable units. The City now applies this 15% on-site affordable housing development standard to all major development projects. Through this intense, drawn-out, and laborious public process, some City Council members came to realize that the time was right to reintroduce an inclusive housing policy. If the City had already had one in place, the community battle, which included public hearings that lasted past midnight, would not have been necessary. See id. (Exhibit E: Wood Street Condition of Approval 100A). The Historic Baggage Wing. The developers sought to demolish the Train Station's baggage wing to make way for live/work lofts. In addition to denigrating the history of African American porters, the demolition of the baggage wing would have jeopardized the property's landmark status and its eligibility for federal renovation funds. Fortunately, the Coalition was able to get the City to withhold final approval of the demolition. Instead, the developers were required to create a business plan for the reuse of the baggage wing through a process that included community involvement and further City Council approval. However, the City refused to prohibit demolition outright, deferring instead to the developers' financial viability arguments, but this time with greater community involvement and scrutiny. See id. (Exhibit D: Wood Street Condition ofApproval 56B). Prevailing Wage and Local Hiring. The developers originally refused to guarantee the hiring of local residents or to guarantee a project labor agreement, while the Coalition sought local hiring and prevailing wage requirements on the entire project. In the end, the City required the developers to enter into a project labor agreement for only the portions of the project receiving public funds-the historic Train Station and the affordable housing component. Unfortunately-and despite efforts from the Building Trades Council and community groups to push for legally binding requirements-the City required the developers to utilize only "good faith" in hiring local residents. See id. (Exhibit C: Wood Street Condition of Approval 7B).
176. Mayor Dellums had deep ties to West Oakland in general and the Wood Street Station in particular. He grew up in West Oakland near the train station, his father was a longshoreman, and his uncle C.L. Dellums was one of the organizers of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, later serving as its President. RONALD V. DELLUMS & H. LEE HALTERMAN, LYING DOWN WITH THE LIONS: A PUBLIC LIFE FROM THE STREETS OF OAKLAND TO THE HALLS OF POWER 9-14 (2000).
177. For example, at a business forum shortly after his inauguration in 2007, Mayor Dellums was asked whether he was "anti-development." He reportedly responded: It's not whether I'm for or against development. The better and more intelligent question is what values shall frame our development? . . . Who's at the table to shape development, and who ultimately benefits from development? Why would you think I'm not for development when I want good schools, ending poverty, jobs for young people, giving people on the corners selling drugs new options?
178. Christopher Heredia & Cecilia Vega, Mayors' Tales of 2 Cities: Newsom and Dellums Look to the Future, S.F. CHRON., Jan. 18, 2007, at B1.
179. Kelly Rayburn, Disputed Port Board Selection Put on Hold, OAKLAND TRIB., July 19, 2007, http://www.insidebayarea.com/ ci_6411333?source=most_emailed.
180. Fred Eppsteiner, Introduction to THICH NHAT HANH, INTERBEING: FOURTEEN GUIDELINES FOR ENGAGED BUDDHISM viii (3d ed. 1997).
181. HANH, supra note 146, at 44; also available at http://www.iamhome.org/14trainings.htm (describing the "Eleventh Mindfulness Training: Right Livelihood").
182. ZHUGE LIANG & Liu Ji, MASTERING THE ART OF WAR (Thomas Cleary trans. & ed., 1st ed. 1989).
183. Examples of tactics used include storming school board hearings and making personal attacks against individual officials. While I did not engage in personalized attacks myself, feeling that they were ineffective, my understanding of this issue was not informed enough to be persuasive to others in the Coalition. In my public statements, however, I would use what the other side saw as inflammatory characterizations of school district officials as recalcitrant and uncaring violators of children's civil rights.
184. In response to outbreaks of racial violence on school campuses in Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond, California, a group of community leaders, including myself, co-founded a multiracial youth violence prevention and educational justice organization called Youth Together. I served as the founding director of Youth Together for seven years. See Youth Together, http://www.youthtogether.net (last visited July 12, 2007).
185. For example, the East Oakland Youth Uprising Center that provides comprehensive youth violence prevention and community health services and programs was created through the work and vision of Youth Together youth and staff. See Suzy Abu-nie & Keith Henry, Castlemont Students Plan Youth Center, OAKLAND TRIB., NOV. 19, 2000, at L2;
186. see also Welcome to Youth Uprising, http://youthuprising.org (last visited July 12, 2007).
187. I read and meditated on sections from Thich Nhat Hanh's books. See, e.g., THICH NHAT HANH, ANGER: WISDOM FOR COOLING THE FLAMES (2001);
188. THICH NHAT HANH, CREATING TRUE PEACE: ENDING VIOLENCE IN YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR COMMUNITY, AND THE WORLD (2003).
189. LeVar Burton, Audiobook of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (Clayborne Carson ed., Hachette Audio 1998).
190. HANH, supra note 146, at 47 (describing the "Twelfth Mindfulness Training: Reverence for Life").
191. Id. at 39 (describing the "Eighth Mindfulness Training: Community and Communication").
192. Cummins & Eagly note: The postmodern critique of lawyers imposing their own views on their clients is equally applicable in the law and organizing context: Just as poverty lawyers must be careful not to use their technical sophistication and legal knowledge to disempower clients, they must also guard against reifying the concept of organizing and using it to advance a social change agenda that does not reflect the needs and desires of client communities. Cummings & Eagly, supra note 9, at 497.
193. In reflecting upon the Coalition's view of EBCLC, one could point to the postcampaign celebration with Coalition partners, community allies, and Mayor Dellums. The celebration planners wanted initially to honor only a few groups for their work on the campaign, including EBCLC While we were able to convince the planners that it made the most sense to honor everyone involved for their effort equally, EBCLC was highlighted in the celebration. One of the Coalition partners, a labor leader, referred to me as the "spit and glue" of the Coalition while not the most laudatory of terms, it does sum up a general view of the role we played. This is not to say that our connection with Just Cause is trouble-free - it is an ongoing process of growing a relationship. The point is, however, that the issue of attorney-client relationship in a coalition context is not black and white one.
194. Just Cause Oakland is a plaintiff in the Pacific Renaissance litigation, which was underway during the Wood Street campaign. See supra Part II.D.
195. HANH, supra note 146, at 41 (describing the "Ninth Mindfulness Training: Truthful and Loving Speech").
196. One strategy we used to accomplish this was the Environmental Impact Report required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as part of the approvals process for development projects. CEQA enables community residents to comment on the impact of the project as part of the official record. CEQA also enables jurisdictions to study the socio-economic impact of a project. See Sheila R. Foster, The City as an Ecological Space: Social Capital and Urban Land Use, 82 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 527 (2006). We worked with community residents and groups in helping them put together their CEQA comment letters, letting them know that they were the experts regarding community experiences. We provided them with the legal framework that would enable or require the planning commission and City staff to address community concerns about the negative impact of the project.
197. Lawyers are trained to understand the interests of the groups in power. We are taught in law school to speak, think, and analyze in ways that are linear, and come to value so-called principles of "objectivity." Critical legal scholars have written about this issue. See, e.g., Duncan Kennedy, Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy, 32 J. LEGAL EDUC. 591, 596 (1982) (noting "schools teach skills through class discussions of cases in which it is asserted that law emerges from a rigorous analytical procedure called 'legal reasoning,' which is unintelligible to the layman but somehow both explains and validates the great majority of the rules in force in our system").
198. HANH, supra note 146, at 33 (describing the "Sixth Mindfulness Training: Dealing with Anger").
199. HANH, supra note 146, at 27-28 (describing the "Third Mindfulness Training: Freedom of Thought").
200. THICH NHAT HANH, BEING PEACE 81-82 (1987) ("Because without being peace, we cannot do anything for peace. If we cannot smile, we cannot help other people smile. If we are not peaceful, then we cannot contribute to the peace movement.") We also wrote "love letters" as part of preparing for trial in the Pacific Renaissance housing case, where the sons of the tenant plaintiffs wrote "love letters" to the developer defendant as a settlement tactic. The writers of these letters found the process to be profoundly cathartic and healing. Through the process of writing mindfully and strategically to the developer, they found the ability to forgive him for the wrongs he committed against their families. But because these letters were written in the context of litigation, they were never sent to the developer for fear that they could be used against our clients at trial.
201. RALPH KEYES, THE QUOTE VERIFIER: WHO SAID WHAT, WHERE, AND WHEN 75 (2006).
202. HANH, supra note 146, at 43 (describing the "Tenth Mindfulness Training: Protecting the Sangha").
203. See Tremblay, supra note 12, at 970 (discussing the "rescue preference" in neighborhood legal services offices);
204. but see Gerald J. Postema, Moral Responsibility in Professional Ethics, 55 N.Y.U. L. REV. 63 (1980) (describing the moral and practical dangers of lawyer distancing).
205. Julies Su explains: I avoid referring to the workers as "clients." To me, it impersonalizes the workers and places them in a dependent relationship. As "clients," the relationship is defined by my education and skills as their "lawyer"; instead, by referring to them as "workers," their experiences define our work together. I talk with them not just in terms of legal rights, but in terms of basic human dignity. For many people, when language is framed as "law," I have seen an immediate shift in their willingness to engage in the dialogue; many people think the discussion is suddenly taking place in a language they do not and cannot understand. What workers do understand is a language of human dignity. Su, supra note 113, at 412-13.
206. Some classic articles exploring the potential divisions between lawyer and client created by various forms of privilege and subordination, especially race and poverty, include Lucie E. White, Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G., 38 BUFF. L. REV. 1 (1990);
207. Austin Sarat, ". . . The Law Is All Over": Power, Resistance, and the Legal Consciousness of the Welfare Poor, 2 YALE J.L. & HUMAN. 343 (1990);
208. John O. Calmore, A Call to Context: The Professional Challenges of Cause Lawyering at the Intersection of Race, Space, and Poverty, 67 FORDHAM L. REV. 1927 (1999);
209. and Anthony V. Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice: Learning Lessons of Client Narrative, 100 YALE L.J. 2107 (1991).
210. See also works cited supra note 12.
211. See, e.g., LÓPEZ, supra note 12 (discussing "rebellious lawyering," which encourages lawyers to recognize and work with, rather than against, the knowledge base and power of traditionally subordinated communities);
212. see also Gerald P. López, The Work We Know So Little About, 42 STAN. L. REV. 1 (1989) (providing examples of this local knowledge).
213. See M.K. GANDHI, NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE (SATYAGRAHA) 3 (Dover Publications 2001) (1961) ("Satyagraha is literally holding on to Truth and it means, therefore, Truth-force. Truth is soul or spirit. It is, therefore, known as soul-force. It excludes the use of violence because man is not capable of knowing the absolute truth and, therefore, not competent to punish.").
214. Schell writes: I suggest that the power that is based on support might be called cooperative power and that the power based on force might be called coercive power. Power is cooperative when it springs from action in concert of people who willingly agree with one another and is coercive when it springs from the threat or use of force. Both kinds of power are real. Both make things happen. Both are present, though in radically different proportions, in all political situations. Yet the two are antithetical. To the extent that the one exists, the other is ruled out. To the degree that a people is forced, it is not free. And so when cooperative power declines, coercive power often steps in to fill the vacuum, and vice versa. Society's need for power of one kind or another is so great that in the absence of popular government people will often accept dictatorship, creating a sort of desperate "consent" that is quite different from the "liberal obedience" (in Burke's phase) that is the bedrock of a system of cooperative power. Likewise, when coercive power weakens, cooperative power may suddenly appear, as it did in the latter days of the Soviet empire. JONATHAN SCHELL, THE UNCONQUERABLE WORLD: POWER, NONVIOLENCE, AND THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE 227 (2003).
215. Id. at 351. As Schell elaborates: At the street level, this would mean choosing satyagraha over violent insurrection-the sit-down or general strike or "social work" over the suicide bombing or the attack on the local broadcasting station. At the level of the state it would mean choosing democracy over authoritarianism or totalitarianism (although some, such as Jefferson, Arendt, and Gandhi, have hoped for the invention of a political system that would provide more participation for citizens than representative democracy does); at the level of international affairs, it would mean choosing negotiation, treaties, and other agreements and institutions over war and, in general, choosing a cooperative, multilateral international system over an imperial one; at the level of biological survival, it would mean choosing nuclear disarmament over the balance of nuclear terror and proliferation. There is no reason to restrict the idea of cooperative power to individuals acting together. We can, to paraphrase Burke, just as well say, "freedom, when nations act in concert, is power." The choice at each level is never merely the rejection of violence; it is always at the same time the embrace of its cooperative equivalent. Such a program of action, though lacking the explicit, technical coherence of a blueprint, would possess the inherent moral and practical coherence of any set of actions taken on the basis of common principles.
216. Id.
217. For an effort to identify various institutions and practices that incorporate democratic practices into economic ones (with an eye toward reconstructing democratic socialism), see ARCHON FUNG & ERIK OLIN WRIGHT, DEEPENING DEMOCRACY: INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS IN EMPOWERED PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE (2003).
218. See also Erik Olin Wright's Home Page, http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/ ~wright/ (last visited July 12, 2007) (previewing Wright's manuscript in progress: Envisioning Real Utopias).
219. HANH, supra note 146, at 49 (describing the "Thirteenth Mindfulness Training: Generosity").
220. Id. at 37 (describing the "Seventh Mindfulness Training: Dwelling Happily in the Present Moment").