Neighborhoods in San Francisco - Oceanview

Oceanview

The Oceanview neighborhood is located in southern San Francisco, south of the Ingleside neighborhood and the Ocean Avenue campus of City College. It is bordered by Interstate 280 to the south and east, Lakeview Avenue to the north and Orizaba Avenue to the west. Oceanview Playground and Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center is located in the middle of the neighborhood, between Plymouth, Capitol, Lobos and Montana. Ocean View Branch Library is located at 345 Randolph St. Ocean View is served by MUNI Routes M and 54. Oceanview, also referred to as Lakeview by the natives of the community, has a rich history.

Particularly noteworthy is its African American community that migrated there in the 1960s from the Western Addition and Bayview neighborhoods. Until the mid 1990s African Americans accounted for over 50% of its residents, many of which were forced out due to rising cost of living in San Francisco. Approximately 45,000 people live in the OMI(Oceanview-Merced-Ingleside), and, as of the 2000 United States Census, 45% of the population identifies itself as Asian-American, 25% as African-American, 14% as Latino and 13% as white. The demographic character of the OMI neighborhoods began to change after World War II. Many African-Americans, who had migrated to the Bay Area for work during the war, secured goodpaying jobs and settled permanently in new homes in Ingleside, Merced Heights and Ocean View when the war ended. In 1950, African-Americans made up 5% of the population in the Ingleside, Merced Heights and Ocean View census tracts, and by 1970 the percentage had increased to 62%.

Fueled by vacant land in Merced Heights and Ocean View, the post-war housing boom, the desire to own their own home, and the already significant presence of African-Americans in the neighborhoods, the black population exploded from 1950 to 1960. By 1960, African-Americans made up 40% of Merced Heights, 32% of Ingleside and 59% of Ocean View. While some whites moved out, generally to suburban tracts heavily marketed to them, the number of blacks living in OMI increased twelvefold (from 602 in 1950 to 7,273 in 1960), while the citywide black population less than doubled (43,000 in 1950 to 74,000 in 1960).

There is anecdotal evidence that African-Americans moved to the OMI after being displaced by the first phase of urban renewal in the Western Addition (the A-1 Project) in the late 1950s. Relocation records, while incomplete, show that the vast majority of displaced residents of the Western Addition found nearby accommodations. Of the 3,700 households of all races (family and single households) living in the project area in 1957, about 2,010 moved without relocation assistance and to unknown whereabouts. Of the remaining 1,602, 67% moved to other parts of the Western Addition and only 2.6%, or 34 households, moved to the West of Twin Peaks area.

By 1970, the OMI had matured into a middle-class district of single family, owner occupied homes. Seventy-six percent of the land area in the Ingleside, Ocean View, and Merced Heights neighborhoods was residential (100% was residential in Ingleside Terraces), compared with 39% citywide. The housing stock was overwhelming single family (95% vs. 68% citywide) and owner occupied (72% vs. 31% citywide), while the population was mostly African-American (63% compared with 13% citywide). In recent years, the OMI has witnessed an influx of Asian-American and other ethnic groups, making it one of San Francisco's most diverse neighborhoods. The OMI is more Hispanic, Black, and Asian than San Francisco as a whole.