Randall Hall sweeps illegally dumped trash in March on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland. The city annually receives 25,000 cleanup requests for illegal dumping, a so-far intractable problem.

Nothing can cure Oakland’s blight — except perhaps its people.

That’s the idea behind the Oakland Civic Assembly on Transforming Oakland’s Vacant Spaces: 20,000 randomly selected Oakland households received invitations to participate. From hundreds of replies, organizers selected by lottery a demographically representative pool of 40 Oaklanders. These residents will convene over three weekends late this summer and fall, earning a $1,350 stipend for their time.

The delegates’ task is straightforward but immense. They will hear from experts, weigh hard data from the Possibility Lab at UC Berkeley, debate competing interests and forge consensus-based recommendations on how to revitalize commercial strips and convert the city’s vacant lots into vibrant community assets. Institutional backing is robust, spearheaded by the national research-and-action institute PolicyLink and the Democracy Policy Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Healthy Democracy, a nonprofit of experienced assembly designers from the Pacific Northwest, will run the proceedings.

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As part of their learning, the assembly participants might consider taking a walk or two around parts of Oakland to see vacant commercial spaces and empty lots, as I recently........

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