Cypress Sling

Long before Brown Sugar Kitchen opened its doors, the Cypress freeway ran though West Oakland, dividing the neighborhood in half. Homes were demolished to make way for the freeway, the traffic clogged the area with pollution, and some historians point to it as a factor in the neighborhood’s demise. In 1989, the freeway fell during the Loma Prieta earthquake. Many people were injured in the collapse and 43 others died, but out of that tragedy came West Oakland’s rebirth. Rat