That's the aim of a project that starts this week in the area.

The city of Oakland is building new pedestrian-friendly features, from benches and wider sidewalks at crossing-areas, to low streetlights and welcoming-arches on each end of the strip. This work is part of a $2.5 million project the Community and Economic Development Agency, Public Works Agency and the District 4 City Council office have planned for the past seven years.

"When you make things more pedestrian-friendly, it becomes a place where people want to spend time," said Jerry Goeres, chairman of the Laurel Merchants Association.

Project organizers hope that the area will turn into a place where people meander through stores, rather than drive to one shop and leave, said Councilwoman Jean Quan.

She expects the area to benefit from increased density, as residents move into the nearby Leona Quarry development of 400-plus homes, as well as other residential projects that the city hopes to attract to the corridor.

"(Merchants) envisioned the area as being a village," Quan said.

The area is home to a large number of Chinese and Hispanic families, and Quan hopes that Laurel's new look will encourage these immigrants and other residents to interact more frequently -- transforming the neighborhood into "Rockridge with an ethnic edge," she said.

The renovations represent one step in the process of making the corridor a business improvement district, or BID -- an organization of store owners who tax themselves to beautify the streets, build parks and make other improvements.

Four such districts -- Montclair, Rockridge, Lakeshore and Fruitvale -- now exist in Oakland, said Stephanie Floyd-Johnson, manager of the city's economic development neighborhood revitalization program. The districts contribute about $660,000 to city projects, Floyd-Johnson said.

"It's smart for the city to invest in these areas, because they're generating the taxes," she said. "We need districts like this."

The merchants' association could become an official business district over the next 18 months, Floyd-Johnson said.

Businesses that tax themselves must be willing to invest without seeing an immediate payback, said Cheikh Diakhate, owner of Africa by the Bay, a MacArthur Boulevard import store. He is willing to contribute to the proposed Laurel business improvement district, he said, so the neighborhood can draw more businesses.

"If you see a district look cleaner and safer, you'd be willing to pay money to get in there," he said.

Reach Bruce Gerstman at 510-748-1681 or by e-mail at## bgerstman@cctimes.com.

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