Livable Oakland formed in the fall of 2007 after Children’s Hospital Oakland (CHO) announced plans to build a 12-story high-rise at 53rd and Dover streets in lower Temescal, a multicultural, residential neighborhood in North Oakland.

Over the years, we neighbors of CHO have tolerated hospital expansion projects that have isolated our community instead of improving it. This time, we decided to fight the tower — which would increase noise, traffic, daytime shade and nighttime light pollution — and push for a more neighborhood-friendly development.

We are not anti-growth activists but families with children whose neighborhood exemplifies what Oakland is most proud of: diversity, opportunity and camaraderie. Many of our homes sprouted shortly after the 1906 earthquake, before CHO opened its doors in 1914.

We range from retired African Americans to younger families of all ethnicities and professions. We are teachers, nurses, writers, scientists, artists, bakers, urban gardeners, lawyers, contractors, government employees and more. We ask you to join us in showing politicians and corporations that healthy neighborhoods are the glue that keeps Oakland together. We must work together to make our city livable.