Knee Deep Times: Community Resiliency in Chinatown
By Nicole Wong. Nicole is a freelance writer and climate resilience advocate based in Oakland, CA.
Intro to a September 2022 article in Knee Deep Times:
Faced with a health crisis, most people will go somewhere familiar for help, a place they feel welcome. As the central valve in the heart of Oakland Chinatown, Lincoln Recreation Center and Park is that crucial home base where locals can get their needs met on any given day of the year and during emergencies.
“[The Center’s] a safe haven that is playful and joyful and where memories are made for the community,” says Tiffany Eng, co-founder of Friends of Lincoln Square Park, a volunteer organization dedicated to renovating the aging recreation center.
Recently, with new health crises related to extreme heat, wildfire smoke, power outages, and pandemic stresses, local activists and officials are thinking about the center as a place to comprehensively prepare the most vulnerable communities (including youth, seniors, limited English speaking immigrants, and low-income residents), for the worst impacts of climate change.