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The
Oakmore staircases bisect the streets in an Oakland hillside neighborhood
and encourage pedestrian traffic. They are a piece of delightful
infrastructure, similar to those in older European and American cities. When Walter H. Leimert created the
‘Oakmore Highlands’ development in the 1920's, he included four sets of
public stairs in the neighborhood along with a spur of the local Key
System commuter railway. He envisioned an urban lifestyle without cars that
is now experiencing a renaissance in the San Francisco Bay area and
beyond.
In
2004 Kurt Lavenson offered his pro bono services with other
dedicated volunteers on the board of The Oakmore Homes Association, to
facilitate a public-private partnership with the Oakland Public Works
Agency, which led to rehabilitation of the staircases. The project
was completed in July of 2004 and went on to win a Partners in
Preservation Award from the Oakland Heritage Alliance later that year.
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