I was so excited to read an article about Oakland in PAW (Princetonians, March issue). I was born and raised in Oakland and left only in 2013 when I got pregnant after a residency at Children’s Hospital of Oakland. Both of my brothers and I (lawyer, engineer, doctor) felt like Oakland was an unaffordable option for raising children. With median single family home prices over $1 million and the Black population dwindling from 47% to 20%, Oakland has a different set of problems than when we arrived in the 1980s.

I love Oakland and hope to see more of Malcolm Ryder ’76 and Constance Hale ’79’s projects, but I also hope that activists like them see the city for what it’s becoming, good and bad. For now, I’m raising my children in New Orleans, an imperfect city in a problematic state with its own beautiful buildings.

Hannah Duggan ’04
New Orleans, La.