Michael:

Then Michael came rolling up to us on his long, tricked out easy-rider bike. Turns out that he made this amazing bike from a combination of constructed and purchased parts. Michael had plenty of time to spare, and in order to acurately answer our question about where West Oakland is, he shared some of his life story with us. Seemed that in order to understand his perspective on where he lives, we needed to know something about where he came from.
Michael came to West Oakland with his mother and brothers from Louisiana:

“My whole family lived here in West Oakland, but everyone was scared; I had to walk my baby brother to and from school. There were lots drugs and gangs. They all moved away. I’m still here!”

Michael's southern calm shone through as he laughed about the danger of the area. He told us that he grew up on a farm with chickens and hogs. But wolves, panthers and snakes surrounded the farmland:

“But I was the brave one! When I was 7-8 years old, there was this big ol’ thunderstorm. We kids was all in the house alone. We needed water and someone had to go out to the well. So I went! I wasn’t scared of nothing. Me and my dog Trouble...”

Michael told us that West Oakland went from 7^th and Clay all the way to the West Oakland Pier.