Restoring Clinton Park’s community center is a labor of love for a former shopkeeper

When Chien Nguyen closed his boba shop in East Oakland in 2023, he turned his focus to another venture: revitalizing a nearby park and its community center.

Over the past eight years, Nguyen said he has watched the deterioration of Clinton Park, where he used to bring his daughter, from a once safe space into a public safety hazard. From the expansion of homeless encampments, to open crime and drug use, Nguyen said families and kids have stopped going to the park. At his Quickly store across the street, he endured several break-ins. As a business owner, he found the situation frustrating.

Nguyen closed his Quickly store last December and now is the site director of Clinton Park for Trybe, an Oakland nonprofit serving youth and families.

“I hate to close my doors, but I do feel like this was my calling,” he said. “Maybe I had to sacrifice my business to help other businesses grow.”

Oakland’s parks have become a space where some of the city’s biggest issues — homelessness, public safety, and drug use — converge. A lack of money and resources has kept the city from doing more to rein in those problems.

Mayor Sheng Thao recently called for the clearing of homeless encampments at parks so that people could regain access. On Sept. 30, the last encampment near Clinton Park was cleared in the flurry of sweeps issued by the mayor, despite there not being nearly enough shelter beds for everyone who lives on the streets.

Though there was a drop in violent crimes in 2024, according to Oakland Police Department data, public safety remains a top concern for residents. 

From Aug. 5 to Nov. 3, the top three crimes reported in the Clinton Park area were stolen vehicles, misdemeanor assaults, and weapons offenses. Homelessness and encampments also have been a persistent issue.

Since 2021, two fires have broken out at encampments at the park. One of the fires burned part of the community center and the other burned a portion of a children’s play structure that had recently been updated. The city has since removed the entire structure, leaving a large fenced-off area and no playground for children. 

Nguyen, fed up with the conditions at the park and surrounding neighborhood, decided to take matters into his own hands. 

“I wanted to get involved in the revitalization process at Clinton because it was personal for me,” he said.

Despite a missing playground, Nguyen is hopeful they can have the community center, along with some childhood development programs, up and running by the end of the year, bringing kids back into the park.

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Getting kids back

In the corner of the park near the intersection of International Boulevard and Seventh Avenue, is an unassuming cinder block building with a brightly painted welcome sign hanging above the front entrance. Three years ago, the building — now the park’s community center — was derelict, with boarded up windows and no electricity. Now it smells of fresh paint. On a recent day, several workers and volunteers in sweatshirts that read “Peace and Community” taped photo collages of the extensive renovation work they have completed in and around the park and community center, including the stripping and repainting of floors, upgrades to the electrical system and landscaping.

Years of underfunding, along with budget cuts the city implemented during the 2008 Great Recession, have contributed to the park’s neglect, according to City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, who represents District 2 where the park is located. Bas’ office had secured funds to replace the burnt play structure, but then shifted the money to cover a new roof on the community center, which was a more immediate need. 

About 10 years ago, the Oakland Unified School District, which had owned the building and leased it to the Vietnamese American Community Center of the East Bay, transferred ownership to the city. The city continued to honor the lease until about two years ago, when it brought the building under the oversight of Oakland Parks, Recreation & Youth Development, according to Bas’ office. Last spring, the City Council voted to lease the community center to Trybe, which agreed to improve it and use it to offer community services.

“Everyone deserves clean and safe parks and centers to play and gather,” Bas said in an emailed statement. “Activating parks in Oakland is a central way to keep us all safe,” 

Tjay Dembele, who grew up in the neighborhood, is hopeful of the efforts to rehabilitate the park.

“It’s been kind of like a dead park for so long,” he said. “I think this will be great for the community and families.”

Victoria Perez, who also was raised in the neighborhood, is doubtful.

“There’s less gang violence, but there’s homelessness everywhere, drugs and property crime. I’ve never seen it this bad,” Perez said. “I want to say I’m hopeful, but am I optimistic? No.”

There is no shortage of hope with Nguyen and his team. In October, after months of daily park cleanups and renovation work at the community center, they recruited nearly 40 students from Franklin Elementary’s after-school program to paint jungle animals on the lime-green walls of the large, light-filled room at the community center. Nguyen plans to offer early childhood development programs and anything that caters to childhood enrichment because his primary goal is to bring kids back to the park.

“If we get the youth, we get the families, and when we get the families then we’re locked in with the community, and that’s our approach.” he said. “At the end of the day, this is still a park and a community center, and what’s a park without kids?”

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