Shelter In Place
Enjoy the video below with drone footage taken of the empty streets of Oakland, CA in "COVID Oakland":
The video footage captures scenes in Oakland from:
- Downtown (Near Oakstop, 19th st. BART)
- West Oakland (Refa One mural, BART)
- Uptown (Near Kingston 11)
- Jack London (Near empty Amtrak tracks)
- Deep East Oakland (Sign @ Elmhurst Middle School, intersection near 98th & Bancroft)
- Lake Merritt (The Cathedral of Christ the Light, park near 580, near Timothy B and Natty Rebel mural of Nipsey Hussle)
COVID Oakland
The coronavirus caused the Oakland Bay Area (see how I did that?) to go into lockdown mode on March 17th at 12:01am. Honestly at first not many Oakland'ers took the shelter-in-place order seriously; this could be because there has been a dark cloud of conspiracy clouding this already tense situation. But after a cruise ship with lots of confirmed infected and potentially infected coronians was allowed disembark in Oakland folks started changing their tune. And when the US reached that #1 spot for cases of Coronavirus people really started to take it serious.
I gotta say, I'm hella proud of my Bay folks for sheltering in place (semi) responsibly. This will allow us to flatten the curve AKA start to slow the number of new cases of this deadly pandemic. I'm sure we've all seen the footage of the Spring Break'ers in Florida enjoying their time getting drunk on the beach. Let's not be them. I mean of course we had a sideshow or 2, but, it's Oakland...
Hopefully this will all be over soon and we'll be back in the friendly skies, off to Ghana, then off to Cuba, then other places. Until then, stay healthy y'all!
- Video Directed By: Kumi Rauf
- Music By: Jennah Bell - "Baby Be Mine" (@JennahBellMusic)
Need photography/videography/drone work? Contact us and tell us about your project.
About The Author
escapeartist
I love traversing this beautiful earth as a Black person and sharing what I find with people. Building community is very important to me and one of the necessary pillars for us to progress. Thank you for reading my work, please share it with friends if you enjoyed it, or if even if you hated it.
I’ve never seen the streets that empty even on Sundays. I use to walk through downtown on way to work every day. That’s pretty much like the streets where I live now in Holyoke, MA every day because I go on a walk every day.
This video is a great message to the people of Oakland and shows that they are doing the right thing.
Hella good footage bro! I’m from the dirty south and I’ve never seen a metropolitan area so dead….
Thanks for sharing !!!!!
1906!
Be advised: you may not want to watch this if you are given to pangs of unexpected anxiety. Things may not be the same for a long time. I did not find resolute peacefulness here. It gave me a hollow emptiness from which I emerged gasping for air.
Thank you I cry for the world❤️
Im very sad to see beautiful places like Oakland now empty. It means everyone trying to stay home and stay healthy. Thanks for sharing this video.
Love this. Great music by Ms. Bell. I also played it without the music and it speaks loudly with the silence. OMG, it must be a generational thing, but I thought that was Huey Newton on the mural at 1:12. Wouldnt have thought of Nipsey Hustle…especially with the couple with the food as the Black Panther Party had a food program. That’s art. It evokes different thibgs in different people. So since that is Nipsey Hussle, I’ll put it in another generational way, He “put me in the mind” of Huey Newton.
The irony of the visual was the “liquors” sign above it. Many Black lives have been destroyed by addiction to alcohol et al.
At 0:38 the man on the ground was a strong visual evoking much emotion. A human being alone on hard concrete in an empty City. Something to ponder at 5:30 a.m. What to do…will share via Twitter to Mayor Schaff…a reminder to keep extending her compassionate heart.
If you can call me..anytime today 3/30, even now 5:43, please do…415 525 0410. Jackie Wright, Journalist, Public Relations, Filmmaker
Hey Jackie. Thanks so much for your thoughtful synopsis of our video. Indeed the mural at 1:10s is a Black panther mural by Refa One. I’ll follow up with you momentarily.
I’m Oakland born and raised, but I had to leave the bay for Colorado Springs, CO because the rent is too high. I wish people out here wouldn’t act like it’s business as usual. Great video shots, definitely is a creepy view of the town!
Man, some of these locations evoked some seriously fun memories of Festival At The Lake going way back to my youth. Been living in Portland, OR for 17 years and try to get back to the Town every year and see what few friends I have left there. All family have long ago moved away. I came down last Summer to do some filming for a longtime friend and the homeless encampments along E.12th blew me away because I had come down to the same stretch 2 years earlier. Left me with a weird feeling as I flew back to Portland. Love your old interview on Ghetto Sun Podcast. Been following Rog ever since he was just blogging. Looking forward to joining your group on a Central or South America trip.