OAKLAND — Anderson Gin can recall the Chinatown of yesteryear, where his father ran a gas station and an auto repair shop.

In his youth, he pumped gas for motorists at his father’s Arco station on Harrison Street during the gas crisis of the 1970s.

Now age 50, and the gas station gone from the changing neighborhood, Gin and a group of others are offering today’s youth another outlet.

It’s called Dragon School, and if you walk the neighborhood it’s hard to miss. There’s no brick and mortar, with classrooms in an ivory tower. But stroll down Jackson or Webster streets and you’ll see storefronts covered in gold and black dragon murals painted by youth, with guidance from established graffiti artists and graphic designers.

In all, some 84 dragon heads can be found on about a dozen murals within Chinatown, near the project’s goal of painting 99 dragons. One of the first went up on Anderson’s graphic design space on Harrison, his dad’s former auto repair shop.

“It’s nice seeing effort to beautify Chinatown,” Gin said this week. “The people who visit Chinatown seem to really like the project.”

Oakland’s Chinatown may be smaller in terms of tourism and stature than San Francisco’s Chinatown along Grant Avenue, but the Dragon School supporters hope the art at once pays homage to the tight-knit Chinatown here and increases foot traffic in the walkable neighborhood.

Dragon School began as the grass-roots idea of Luqman “Doctor Dragon” Lin, an artist and UC Berkeley graduate who painted one of the first dragon murals on a wall at the Lincoln Square Park in the heart of Chinatown. Lin, who is in medical school out of state, began recruiting youths from the park’s basketball court and students at nearby Oakland Charter High School.

With Lin back at school the program, which began in August, spread to include 15 dedicated students led by Gin, an artist who goes by Fuming Guerilla and Christopher Mackessy, a former Lincoln Elementary School teacher in Chinatown now teaching at an Alameda charter school. With help from its students, the school’s artists created stencils of dragon heads and bodies that students use to fill in the murals, yet many of the dragons have unique qualities.

In recent years, graffiti artists have found a home in Chinatown, where many storefronts close earlier than other commercial districts in Oakland. And while artists fight for space, Dragon School leaders say they do not want to wage a war with other graffiti artists.

In Dragon School, the artists ask permission from business owners before they put up a mural. They have a practice of not covering over pieces, although sometimes their dragons are defaced by others.

General Mbaye, a freshman at Oakland Charter High School, was one of the first students who joined Dragon School after a friend met Lin at the basketball courts in Chinatown.

“It was August and it was hot some days but afterward you get to look at the work you did,” the 15-year-old said. “I’m proud. It took time and it was definitely hard work but we got it done.

“We get a lot of practice because people keep tagging over it. But it’s not something to be mad about.”

Fuming Guerilla, who runs Fuming Guerilla Productions and has produced some of Oakland’s best known graffiti projects, has helped raise awareness about the project within the graffiti community and brought in artists to help.

“The whole idea is making Chinatown more interesting” than it already is, he said. “Chinatown is a great place to walk around and explore. It’s a super walkable area, and pretty safe.”

As downtown Oakland, West Oakland and East Oakland have seen surges in sanctioned graffiti art, Dragon School leaders want to put Chinatown on the map, with visions of street art tours of the area south of Broadway between Interstate 880, Laney College and 12th Street. The murals mostly consist of dragons, a sign of good luck and wisdom in Chinese culture. Recent paintings, however, include more colorful creatures from the Chinese Zodiac, including a rooster at 10th and Jackson streets.

Gin said the project plans to finish its goal of 99 dragon heads next year, a number Gin said is significant to the community. There are also plans for pop-culture themed pieces, including characters from the movie “Kung Fu Panda.”

Carl Chan, past president and current member of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council in Oakland, said the Dragon School is part of a long-term plan to clean up graffiti in Chinatown. He said most people like the dragons.

“Beside seeing graffiti, now they are seeing dragons,” he said. “We are seeing increasing traffic coming to Chinatown and seeing the dragon, which is very positive.”

The artwork is catching the eye of pedestrians and graffiti artists. One 27-year-old graffiti artist, who goes by the moniker “Elms,” said he has respect for the work and would not cover it up.

“As far as the dragons go, that’s symbolic to culture, that’s not just today or tomorrow,” he said this week. “If I can be an outsider and think this is meaningful, it’s gotta have more meaning for (residents).”

David DeBolt covers breaking news. Contact him in Oakland at 510-208-6453. Follow him at Twitter.com/daviddebolt.