LIFE ON THE STREETS
OAKLAND, CA

For many days would walk the streets,
and photograph the realities I was seeing
and finding desolation of the people
from the streets.

B Y   S T A N L E Y   G R E E N E

"Hit Man" on International Avenue.
Tyeshia Anderson, 29, is a self-employed hair stylist, recovering crack addict, and prostitute. She was formerly homeless, living on the streets in stolen cars under bridges. "She just lived to do drugs. Heroin and crack were her favorites." She now tries to talk girls out of the life, and to get her boyfriend off drugs as well. She has two children, Shalimar, 3, and Orlando, 5.
Shalimar, 3 years old, whose mother is Tyeshia Anderson.
T-shirts for sale on International Avenue, with Oakland Raiders and Obama theme.
Talking to a social worker, Ms. Millie. “Life is hard as you make it. The only thing in life I am afraid of is God, because he made me and is the only one who can take me out." Donald's mother had been abused and was alcoholic; his father was a drug addict and beat him. Donald is a born again Christian.
Street Preacher: “There is a thin line between heaven and the street."
Troy, 42. "I’m used to living and lived to use." Formerly homeless, he stole vans to sleep in for the night, then abandoned them. He started using speed at 12 and at 16 started shooting up, and was arrested for stabbing his girlfriend after smoking crack. =While in prison for three years, he kicked drugs, and when he was paroled and placed in a halfway house, he took a Seven Step Program, enrolled in Merritt College to learn drug and alcohol counseling, and also took anger management classes. Now he is studying for his B.A. When he drives around and sees places where he used to crash, he is amazed that he got off the streets alive. His motto is "Zero tolerance."
"Rolling twenties" A young junkie prostitute standing on the corner of an abandoned housing complex. Most of these homes have been foreclosed by the banks.
God bless Jesus, American flags. East Oakland.
The Deacon, 59, and TCinque Sampson, 57, former street enforcers for drug dealers in Oakland. The Deacon was never busted and became a barber, as a part-time profession between killings. TCinque Sampson did 22 years in prison and is now a filmmaker. Being an enforcer was a violent occupation, very few survived.
Ghost Town: West Oakland. Dana Marie, 50, lost her home when it was foreclosed and she was forced to become homeless and live on the streets. She became addicted to crack and alcohol, and met Clifford, 60, a former glazer who lost his job ten years ago and became a street person and crack addict. They finally got married and continue to live on the streets together.
West Oakland: “Stay away from runned down neighborhoods. Crime in West Oakland is very high and it happens a lot during daytime as well as night.”
Ghost Town: West Oakland. “Dasinner", 54, is a former Black Panther and grandmother. Married four times, she lost one husband who died from an overdose of heroin. She lives in an abandoned building, and has been on and off the streets since she was a child; ran away from home in 1969 because she was abused. She used to hang out at the nightclub "The Happening“ on 7th Street. Later she married and was a battered wife, got addicted to heroin, kicked it and became a mother. She stayed straight until her husband overdosed six years ago. Then she started using drugs again from depression and loneliness, and broke with her family. "I’m no homeless person, I just live on the streets for the friendships. I start my day with a little bit of Irish Rose at the bar called the ‘Breakfast Club,’ just to take the edge off of everything.”
Seven Step Program: “Let no one rob me of my dream, light brings out the light, darkness brings out the dark.” Frank Holland, 62, career criminal, former gangster, pimp, and started doing drugs at age of 8. Now a born again Christian, he wants to start a painting business when he makes parole in four months.
“You stay on the streets so long you get dirty. When you play in the dirt, you will get dirty." Terrance, 39, and Rayette, 43. A would-be robber shot Terrance four times; he had no medical insurance and was in rehabilitation for 21 months. When he came out he had no job, no money, and was addicted to painkillers. He became a mule for drug dealers and went to prison. When he was released in 2010, he was addicted to heroin, and forced to live on the street as a scavenger where he met his girlfriend Rayette. She had a nervous breakdown after the death of parents, spent three years in jail for drugs, got out and became a taxi dispatcher, attended Vista community college and also worked as a hotel receptionist, but kept chipping at drugs and fell into depression. After four more years in prison, she went to John Muir Hospital, but her condition became worse and she left the hospital delusional, stranded, and lost. Living on the street again, she became addicted to crack.
Angela, 29. Quit high school at 16 and became a prostitute and drug dealer; the corner she worked was 79th and MacArthur. At 18 she relocated to L.A. and got busted by undercover cops for prostitution. She was in jail for two weeks, moved back to Oakland, and worked the streets for two more years, after which she made enough money to move to Arizona with her mother for a change of scenery. She met her future husband, who she turned on to crack. He promptly got addicted and she left him because she caught him sucking a dog's penis. She was pregnant and miscarried, became depressed and a heavy user of heroin. She got pregnant again, but her boyfriend was a sadist; he would tie her up to trees and beat her when she tried to get away. Sometimes he left her tied up for days, until some brave soul would release her. He was a major player on the street and a cold-blooded killer; after her last beating she lost her second baby. He went to prison for a long jolt and she returned to the streets, but only offers oral sex. She earns $3-400 a night, and since 2011 has been trying to kick her crack habit. "But what I am really addicted to is the control, when I can control a man with my sex, it really gets me off, also I like the money. But if I stay out on the streets too long, I could get cut up or sick. So far I have never been sick, I make the tricks wear condoms. But nothing is safe, that is why I only do blowjobs. I do not give my pussy up for just anyone either, especially on the streets. I have a stable habit; I smoke crack for the buzz.”
All in the game, smoking crack: Street dealer selling crack to a user on his bike. "The mayor is overseeing the selling.” (The “mayor” is Ronnie, a drug dealer and former nightclub owner.) Many areas of East Oakland have been plagued by high crime, violence and drug activity.
One Stop Liquor, International Avenue, East Oakland: “Just don't walk in dark places at night, especially at liquor stores!”
"Juicy Princess," a 17-year old "street chick" on International Avenue.
Jamal, 13, and his mother Tricia are homeless and living in their car with their dog. They get meals from the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul’s food program.
Ronnie "The Mayor" is a 64-year old former drug dealer and was the owner of the nightclub “Name of the Game.” He bought it with drug money when he was 23 years old at 14th and Broadway; today it is a car wash. Back in the 60s it was the in-spot. High rollers, pimps, drug lords, gang bangers, musicians, and the Black Panthers’ Huey Newton held court there. Later, Ronnie ran into money problems, ran afoul of the law because he did not have a liquor license, started to traffic in narcotics, was busted for dealing, and sent to prison. When he got out many years later, he had lost everything, including his nightclub, which had fallen onto hard times. He just fell apart, started smoking crack cocaine, and now lives 24/7 on the street. Overseeing street law and street justice, he is the “mayor” of his corner, his patch.
"Chain saw bloody birth." Orlando, 5-years old, plays at the wall. East and West Oakland gangs fight to claim turf and mark their territories with graffiti.

February 11, 2012

FLAT LINERS: LIFE ON OAKLAND STREETS

Photographs by Stanley Greene

For about two weeks, I walked the streets of Oakland, California, and photographed the realities of those streets and the drama on them, finding desolation and the sense of separateness. There is street corner justice and pride in this mostly African American community. There is also the sub-culture of the Princes, Kings and Queens of the city, and unfortunately, in some places it has the look of a modern day ghost town where the atmosphere is that of a great American tragedy played out in bits and parts.

“Corner boys and girls’ all in the game as “The Mayor” oversees a street corner transaction in the Flatlands.

“Corner boys and girls’ all in the game as “The Mayor” oversees a street corner transaction in the Flatlands.

Places of commerce, on International Boulevard for example, seem more geared for street hustlers and women of the night than stores where local residents can shop. There are people like Jackie Castain trying to clean up the streets: She has been a community activist for over thirty years, working for better housing, striving to tear down slums and eyesores that dot the landscape of East Oakland where she lives with her son, a hair stylist. She is also fighting against toxic waste dumping in the Elmhurst district, and her latest mission is to close all the drug houses and abandoned homes being used by the homeless, prostitutes, and junkies. Most of these homes were foreclosed by the banks.

And the overall feeling is, as a former gang member told me, “…growing up in East Oakland, the ‘hood’ to some, places like Brookfield you just do not travel unless you are packing steel so the gang bangers stick to their own hoods, and when you go to someone else’s hood, you do not disrespect them, ‘cause if you a’int from there, then there is a good chance you will not make it out alive.

You really have to be careful at night, because you will see a lot of homeless junkies living rough, and beggars. There are young people looking just for trouble. In East Oakland’s ‘The Flatlands,’ the area within Park Blvd., Bancroft Ave., and E. 98th Ave, this part of town is infested with crime and chaos: gang fights, shootings, sideshows and many homicides.

A Vietnam veteran, convicted drug dealer and now filmmaker TCinque Sampson spent 22 years behind bars and states “I was a drug dealer. I was a predator. I was a product of an environment from which I sprung. Prison has made me a better person to struggle on, and help those in struggle like myself.”

There’s always crime on International Blvd. Do not wander around past 11 pm unless you want to put yourself in harm’s way. There’s too many bad places to name so here’s the most notorious: from E. 20th to E. 27th they call it Murder Dubz, from High Street to Seminary Ave., and from E. 73rd Ave. to E. 98th, especially from E. 90th to E. 98th Ave., you see many gangs and witness plenty of violence. It’s not a place for tourists; the smart thing will be to stay away. West Oakland, stay away from the run-down neighborhoods. Crime in West Oakland is very high and it happens during the daytime as well as night.

Don’t walk in dark places at night, especially going out to liquor stores! Some Oakland neighborhoods turn into killing zones, where East and West Oakland gangs fight to hold on to their turf. Nobody gets out of the Killing Zone alive, anyway. When I stopped being a criminal, it was because I was sick of the games being played on the streets. When you quit, you walk away from all of it, because the game is unforgiving.”

I emerged with an eerie, haunting image of Oakland, flat-liners looking for a way back to life. There is a thin line between heaven and the street.

© Stanley Greene / Facing Change: Documenting America

Leica Logo With support from Leica Camera

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
Fire and emergency services helping “A clip and run” of a little girl who was crossing the street at Foothill Avenue and  Coolidge…Flat liners.

Pin It on Pinterest