Investors and Black Lives Matter collide in Oak Park at Guild Theater event

Inside Oak Park’s Guild Theater this past Saturday, 200 investors, house-flippers, landlords and more gathered for a summit on restoring old neighborhoods. At the same time just outside, dozens of residents protested the event and what they believe it really stood for: gentrification.

Tanya Faison, founder of Sacramento’s Black Lives Matter chapter, said the current gentrification of Oak Park isn’t about revitalizing a decayed neighborhood: It’s just another way to systematically remove those who have lived in the area for decades.

“Nobody cared about Oak Park until people started investing in it,” Faison told SN&R. “And now that more people are moving into the neighborhood, everybody is trying to put all this money into it to make it better.

“But it’s pushing people of color out.”

And it’s not just the buying and flipping of homes that’s changing the once poverty-stricken Oak Park, but also the emergence of new businesses. From mixed-use developments and a brewery near the Broadway Triangle to the newest addition to the area, Capitol Floats, it’s clear that north Oak Park is in the middle of a resurgence.

But Faison, also an Oak Park resident, questions whom the resurgence is benefiting. “We’re kind of at a stage where gentrification is already happening, so it’s not like we can stop it. But I really think that it’s important going forward that all of the community is involved.”

Al Williamson, producer of this past weekend’s Summit at the Guild event, was adamant that it was not about gentrification of Oak Park. Instead, Williamson said he wanted to put together a business event to show that Oak Park has more to offer than just arts and theater.

He acknowledged the protesters’ legitimate concerns over the event’s theme of “neighborhood revitalization,” but Williamson also said that rebuilding any area is just part of a growing economy.

“It’s like being upset because the leaves are falling,” Williamson explained. “It’s part of a natural cycle.”