Grounds for Concern?
What Kilovolt’s Exit Reveals About West Oakland’s Growth
After moving back to Oakland in July 2020, for many (many!) months the only people I spoke to were the baristas and staff at Kilovolt Coffee. As part of a daily constitutional, I’d also get a very large cold brew with a lil’ simple syrup. I was grateful for finding a place that regularly sold a 24-ounce cold brew, but I was even more grateful for someone to talk to1. I was so grateful I got the team mini bottles of Hendricks, bubbles, and a lemon as stocking stuffers—just enough for a personal French 75.
At the time, Mandela Parkway was still quiet. The Pretty Lady diner had extended its run from the 1960s for another year in takeout form before the space ultimately became Matt Horn’s Kowbird. Tanya Holland’s2 Brown Sugar Kitchen had already moved downtown. There wasn’t a farmers market yet. “Baller” was more likely to refer to Lil’ Troy than a baseball team. There was no climbing gym, and Horn BBQ was still just a billboard promise.
Ethan Ashley started in West Oakland by fixing up bank-owned homes after the 2008 financial crisis—not in a predatory way, but hands-on, helping friends, getting to know the neighborhood. Lunch was at the taco truck, but if they wanted coffee, they had to go to Emeryville or Downtown.
Seeing an opportunity to add coffee to the neighborhood, in 2013 Ashley raised a bit of money from folks who had expertise — despite a near-calamitous pitch meeting when the internet went out and his polished pitch deck wouldn’t load. “I had to wing it,” he chuckled.
Ashley shared his surprise at “making money almost immediately” because they didn’t have to hold an inventory, and the only expenses were rent, staff, and the coffee supplier. But he also noted that running Kilovolt has always been a bit of a rollercoaster, with good years and tough ones.
Before the pandemic, they were doing well, but Ashley described their fate symbiotically with the surrounding community. As the neighborhood struggled in tougher economic times, “things were topsy-turvey,” Ashley recalled.
One surprising bright spot was the opening of the Lampwork Lofts3, which brought business to Kilovolt, and they also cited the coffee shop as a nearby amenity to prospective residents. “They're like, ‘Oh, come, come see the neighborhood. We got a park. We got this coffee shop.’”
As someone who moved back to Oakland4 during the pandemic, I didn’t get a chance to step inside Kilovolt until I’d ordered from the COVID-safe takeout window for at least six months. But it was immediately clear the space was meant for gathering, with tables and a couch, as well as local art lining the walls.
Ashley liked the idea of Kilovolt as ‘a place to see people and catch up on news.’ And while people regularly ask him to expand to other locations, he’s worried about losing that community connection with expansion. “I don't care about what's happening in Alameda, I don't want to go to Richmond. [Kilovolt] is here. This is here.”
Unfortunately Kilovolt’s building was recently sold, and the new landlords have not given Ashley a chance to renew their lease. So Kilovolt will be moving in a week.
“I don't care about what's happening in Alameda, I don't want to go to Richmond. Kilovolt is here. This is here.”
While I was heartbroken at the thought of Mandela Parkway losing a warm staff with good coffee (and really good sandwiches), just as more investment poured into the neighborhood, I don’t think I appreciated how much Kilovolt offered.
Losing the lease wasn’t just about location—it was about who gets to take risks. “There's this new place, and they've just spent millions of dollars on that. And so they need to nail it. And so they just can't take chances.” He continued, “For me, I could take chances. I could hire somebody who maybe doesn't have experience with coffee. Maybe they've been trying to turn their life around. And I could take that chance because there's not so much pressure for me.”
Kyle Chayka describes “AirSpace5” as “the strangely frictionless geography created by digital platforms.” As a result, if you’re in Mexico City, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Tokyo — or even Oakland — you can have the exact same minimalist, hipster coffee shop experience.
Kilovolt isn’t that. And I don’t think West Oakland wanted that from Kilovolt.
And although I’m excited about the Ballers, Prescott Market, the return of June’s Pizza, and Brix Factory Brewing, I’m worried about the legacy businesses that independently invested in West Oakland and contributed to its identity getting left behind as development increases. Not just Kilovolt, but unique spots like Blk Girls Greenhouse and Underdog Film Lab.
As Ashley puts it, increasing development and rents for businesses and individuals may have an unintended consequence of limiting what we get to enjoy in Oakland. “[People] can't really afford to have bands or have art careers or something. You gotta get yourself a job at Facebook, you know if you want to make it.”
With the upcoming election, I asked Ashley what he hopes the next mayor will prioritize for small business owners like him. It may surprise readers that it’s not crime. “It's very newsworthy when it's on Trestle Glen,” he told me. “But crime is not really as bad as people make it out to be. It's very shocking when it's in a ‘nice’ neighborhood.”
According to Ashley, they haven’t had a car break in in over a year. The cyclical nature he described matches his (and the SFPD’s) hypothesis that the break-ins stop when there’s nowhere to fence the property, “usually it'll happen like every other day for a month, and then it goes away.”
For Ashley, it’s most important that the next mayor “tamp down on fly-by-night property developers.” Sensing my confusion, he explained how he’d made investments in another space via permits, a sewer pipe, and other upgrades, after assurances from the landlord that they wanted to be in the neighborhood for decades. But they quickly flipped the building and he lost the space.
He sees this as harmful to communities because small businesses’ lives may depend on a longer term relationship with a space, and it’s not always possible as properties change hands.
Ashley believes he’s found a more community-oriented landlord for Kilovolt’s next location. “She [the developer] is a really reasonable person. It's not like a board of old men in some faraway place.” His new landlord seems invested in Kilovolt’s success, and is helping with paperwork, plumbing, and permitting.
And unlike his last experience, the new landlord understands the stakes. Ashley excitedly shared that she’s helping in a really important way that echoes the frustrations Tallboy shared last week. “My lease doesn't officially start until the permits close, which is great, because, when you're paying rent on a space you can't use now, all your capital's gone.”
I’ll miss grabbing a coffee on my way to the city or while running weekend errands, but I’m hopeful Kilovolt’s next home will keep the coffee—and these important conversations—flowing.
How you can help
☕️ Visit Kilovolt’s current location until April 20th
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, April 15. Oakland Special Election. VOTE!
Thursday, April 17. 7pm. Oakland Heritage Alliance Lecture: Oakland’s Legacy Businesses. Cities across the country are beginning to adopt legacy business programs to support long-established small businesses and boost neighborhood shopping. Why should Oakland adopt a legacy business program? What would the benefits be, and what businesses should be included? Tickets on Eventbrite
April 19, 2pm ET. Find common ground - Addressing Immigration. Braver Angels will bring together an equal number of Reds and Blues to do a deep dive into the topic of immigration. By the end, participants will jointly come up with shared points of agreement, values, concerns, and policies. Sign up free on Eventbrite.
April 25, 5-9pm: JOIN or DIE Screening. Join or Die is a film about why you should join a club—and why the fate of America depends on it. Follow the story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of Robert Putnam, whose legendary "Bowling Alone" research into American community decline may hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis. RSVP on Partiful.
May 4, 9:30-12pm: Make a Miniature Vignette. In this 2.5 hour workshop for adults, you’ll create a miniature scene that features a wall and floor, framed piece of art, console table, miniature books, and clock. You’ll get to customize your space with a choice of art print and mini-framing method, “tile” color and pattern, wall color, clock color, and more. Final dimensions approx. 7.75” tall x 6” wide x 3.7” deep. Hosted by JOINERS regular, Erica Meade.RSVP at Brushstrokes Studio.
See Roy Wood Jr. on the importance of small talk.
I looked up the namesake when I lived in the neighborhood, and the building originally was a GE incandescent bulb factory.
You’d never guess what I was gazing at.
Original article in The Verge (possible paywall), also check out his book Filterworld.