After almost 15 years in the making, a troubled intersection in East Oakland has been turned into a 4,300-square-foot community plaza.

Walnut Plaza — which sits on a portion of Walnut Street near the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Seminary Avenue — was welcomed by neighbors, who see it as a big step toward improving the community. The project coincides with construction of a Walgreens and other new developments along Foothill.

The paved plaza, unveiled last week, features palm trees, benches, game tables, stringed lights and buffers to shield it from traffic.

Dwayne MacArthur, who owns and operates a tour bus company in the building that borders the plaza to the south, said the plaza and the new developments bring a “different element” into the area, and hopes it will help his business.

For more Bay Area housing affordability, home sales and other real estate news

follow us on Flipboard.

“Before when I told people where my address was, people didn’t want to come down here and book a trip; they refused,” MacArthur said. “Now since they’ve torn down all the seedy clubs down here, they are rebuilding the neighborhood with the Walgreens and whatever else goes there, and this (plaza) is an added feature. When (City Councilwoman) Desley Brooks started this park, it gave us the ability to clear out all of the seedy characters who hung out over here.”

Since the plaza has been built, MacArthur sees people using it that he had never seen there before.

“I smile every time I look out of the window now,” MacArthur said.

The development was started as a “streetscape” project — a group of street upgrading projects in Oakland — in 2003. Brooks led the charge to turn the underused space into a community gathering place. It was paid for by grants.

What do you think about this? Join the conversation on the Oakland Tribune Facebook page.

“We wanted to have a community space where people can come and do all kinds of things … and create a sense of community,” Brooks said in an interview. “We’re not just building a space, we’re building community.”

Brooks said she hopes local artists will put up kiosks and sell their art in the plaza. She said she’s been delighted to see Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District bus drivers sitting down to eat lunch there.

“It’s a nice place to just escape,” Brooks said. “We’re not sitting in the sun, not sitting in a place that’s not comfortable. It’s really peaceful right here in the midst of our neighborhood, and that’s what we deserve.”

In a speech to a ribbon cutting crowd, Brooks said she has heard people saying the plaza was being built for newcomers. Though the project was intended to appeal to potential developers, Brooks said neighborhood residents were the ones she most wanted the space to benefit.

“I started it for the people who have been here and weathered all of the storms through the neighborhood,” Brooks said.

Kermit Dearman, a minister at the nearby Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church, said the street “almost looked like a scary place to go” before the plaza was built.

“This has brightened it,” Dearman said. “If you want to have something peaceful, you have to build things that are peaceful.”

Get top headlines in your inbox every afternoon.

Sign up for the free PM Report newsletter.

The plaza could be the first of several improvements to that part of town, said Good Hope Pastor Joe Smith.

“The plaza, along with that Walgreens, it makes it a lot safer here in East Oakland,” Smith said. “I think it’s a highlight of this neighborhood. I think this is just the beginning.”