A boulevard of painted storefronts and murals, and the actual BART platform where Fruitvale Station shot its confrontation scene.
What Fruitvale looks like
International Boulevard runs through Fruitvale as a wide commercial spine, rebuilt with a marked bus lane and glass shelters like the one at . Two storey buildings in painted stucco line the block there, orange and yellow fronts with apartments over the shops below. Some carry round arched windows and red tile coping in a Mission Revival style, the same style repeated on bungalows farther from the boulevard.
Storefronts along the boulevard carry hand painted signs in Spanish, advertising fruterias and carnicerias with murals of produce across the upper wall. Green bins of fruit sit out on the sidewalk under striped awnings, and a metal gate is pulled across the doorway after hours.
A paved plaza runs from the BART station to International Boulevard, planted with rows of palm trees and framed by columns faced in orange and blue mosaic tile. Cafes and small shops open directly onto the plaza, under a sign reading Fruitvale Village at the corner building.
Side streets off the boulevard hold detached one and two storey houses behind low fences and hedges. Freight tracks cross toward over the Oakland Estuary, its twin towers visible above the rooftops from the water side of the neighborhood.
Shot in Fruitvale
Fruitvale Station filmed on the actual BART platform where Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a transit police officer in the early hours of January 1, 2009. BART gave the production three four-hour nights on the platform, mostly for the confrontation scene, with train interior footage leading up to it filmed on the last of those nights. The production also shot at a Farmer Joe's Marketplace on Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland's Dimond district, about two miles north of here, where Grant is shown trying to get his job back.
Fruitvale Station, 2013
The confrontation and shooting are reconstructed on this platform, the same one where BART police detained and shot Grant. The production filmed at night, with the elevated canopy and platform edge visible in the film as they stand today.
Pilsen's 18th Street has the same mix of one and two storey storefronts with hand painted signs in Spanish, panaderias and carnicerias with murals across their upper walls, the way Fruitvale's boulevard does. Pilsen's murals run larger and more figurative than Fruitvale's storefront signs. Its brick fronts read redder too, so a tight frame on one storefront holds the match better than a wide block shot. Try searching painted storefront murals now.
Boyle Heights runs a similar low rise commercial spine along Cesar Chavez Avenue, with stucco storefronts, roll down security gates and produce stands set out on the sidewalk under awnings. The San Gabriel Mountains sit in the background of any wide shot there, which Fruitvale's flatter skyline does not have, so a street level frame avoids giving it away. Try searching produce stands under awnings now.
Excelsior in San Francisco, California
The Excelsior's stretch of Mission Street has the same one and two storey stucco buildings from the 1920s, with apartments over shops and a similar mix of small grocers and taquerias. San Francisco's steeper hills show up at the end of most cross streets there, so a frame held tight to the block keeps the match convincing. Try searching small grocers and taquerias now.
