Oakland is getting a makeover. But will it doom small...

Oakland’s makeover is on a rapid pace.

On the corner of Harrison and 19th streets in downtown, construction noise emanates from a rising mixed-use development.

Part of the sidewalk is walled off by a graffiti-covered plywood fence topped with barbed wire. Trucks dropping off equipment idle in the street, often turning that section of 19th Street into a one-lane road. Drivers honk their horns, adding to the cacophony of drills, jackhammers and hydraulic cranes.

Small businesses in Oakland, like the stores on this stretch of 19th Street, are getting used to the noise. They might also be getting used to the idea of not having a place in the city after the makeover is complete.

Last week, as I chatted with Fernando Carpenter and Tracy Parker, the owners of VAMP, a record and clothing store, I noticed more men in yellow construction vests than prospective customers.

“Some days it’s more extreme than others,” Parker said of the construction noise.

The development, which will have retail space and condos when it’s complete, is being built around the store on what was a parking lot. Six years ago, Parker and Carpenter opened VAMP (it stands for Vintage Art and Music for the People) when not many small businesses wanted to be downtown.

“When we moved here, there was no one here,” Carpenter said. “It was empty for a long time.”

Now that there are developers and deep-pocketed companies snapping up space in downtown, Carpenter and Parker are unsure how long they’ll be able to stay. VAMP’s rent has almost doubled in the past year. They know the rent might become too expensive to afford.

VAMP is a store for people who like items found at flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores and antique shops. Laid out in a 650-square-foot space, VAMP is best known for selling vinyl records and vintage clothes.

“The shop is really a catalyst for me to be able to connect to the community,” Parker said. “Oakland is a very musical city, historically.”

Parker, 43, grew up in Southern California and moved to Oakland in 2008. Carpenter, 48, was born in San Francisco and raised in San Mateo. He’s lived in Oakland for two decades.

When I moved to Oakland four years ago, I was told to visit VAMP if I wanted to plug into the local music scene. Carpenter booked the first live jazz show I saw in Oakland. Around the time he opened VAMP, Carpenter started the Oakland Freedom Jazz Society, a concert series that features performers playing a variety of music from free jazz to experimental. Carpenter and Parker also like spinning soul records live, which they do the first Thursday of the month at the Legionnaire Saloon on Telegraph Avenue.

As we talked, a man stopped at the rack of clothes the owners had put out on the sidewalk.

“Excuse, how much is that shirt right there?” the man said, holding up a T-shirt with a print of the quirky TV painter Bob Ross on the front. “My niece loves him. She even started painting and stuff.”

It was $10. I bought a never-worn chambray shirt for $22.

A year ago, VAMP paid $1,200 a month in rent. The rent increased to $1,400 a month in March, and the lease is month to month. In September, VAMP received 30-day notice that rent was being raised an additional $700 to $2,100. Attempts to reach the property manager Friday were unsuccessful.

Gary Albert Jr. owns Wireless Options, the cell phone repair store next door to VAMP. When the Oakland native opened the store in 2013, rent was $800 a month. Now he pays $1,650.

“This is my bread and butter right here,” said Albert, who also has stores in Vallejo and Albany. “This one pays for all of my stores.”

He’s had to lay off employees to keep the doors open.

“It’s just sad that we’re pretty much just getting established,” said Albert, who used to run his business from a folding table in front of CVS on Webster Street. “Everybody knows that we’re here.”

Some in the artist community know what’s at stake for VAMP. In October, Smart Bomb, an Oakland artist collective and event series, threw VAMP a rent party to help Carpenter and Parker make the November payment. Smart Bomb and record label the Long Road Society hosted another rent party on Dec. 15.

Since the Ghost Ship warehouse fire killed 36 people at a music event Dec. 2, 2016, I feel like Oakland, a city that has long touted its creative class, has backed off championing artists and artist spaces.

Artists helped make Oakland a cool place to live. Now the cool people are getting squeezed out of the city they made attractive. It reminds Carpenter of the cultural shift in San Francisco.

“It was like the capital of counterculture. It had so many weirdos and artists hanging out there that made San Francisco what it is — it’s all gone,” Carpenter said. San Francisco “got whitewashed, and you’re left with no character. It’s been polished. Overnight.”

It wouldn’t be a good look if the same happened to Oakland.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays and Thursdays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr