(This story was reprinted from Oakland Local.) Published on Thursday, November 29, 2012 by Lauren Soldano In the last few months, a new word has been coined by Realtors at Lawton Associates, Better Homes and Gardens RE and other local realtors to describe the North Oakland neighborhood between Emeryville, Rockridge and Temescal: “NOBE,” which stands for North Oakland Berkeley Emeryville. Some long-time residents and community organizations – specifically members of local food justice collective Phat Beets – say that the new moniker, as well as other marketing strategies, are making the area attractive to gentrifiers – and not reflecting the neighborhood as it is today. Phat Beets collective member Josh Cadji says the collective first learned about the “NOBE” marketing project when their organization was featured on the neighborhood map put out by “NOBE” Realtors. “It listed all these hip new places that were not historical institutions or organizations or businesses,” Cadji said. “Obviously they’re not including black-owned businesses and really, they’re not including restaurants owned by black folks.” Cadji pointed out that the “NOBE” map’s boundaries are almost identical to those of the North Oakland gang injunction area drawn by the city of Oakland two years ago, still in
