Street Dreamin'

"It’s not that my brother and I are unappreciative or ungrateful when it comes to the cars in our driveway, we just feel like we can do a lot better than what we have. "

By Ryan Baxter

In the unpromising streets of East Oakland, where a good education and job can be hard to come by, there's one thing that keeps people going: "Street Dreamin,'" or the dream for a nice car. Youth Radio's Ryan Baxter grew up in this community - where he watched many of his neighbors, including his own brother, work hard to own fancy, decked-out vehicles. Ryan currently aspires to get his own scraper on 24 inch rims...someday.

The way I see it, “street dreamin'” means to dream and hope of one day being able to drive around your city in a really really nice car. Personally, I live and breathe for cars. Growing up, my brother got me interested in them. He would beat the living daylights out of me, but if he saw a nice car drive by, it would grab his attention and we’d become the best of friends again.

I’m also a street dreamer because my parents don’t have any cars anybody would want to dream about. I actually feel embarrassed when my friends come over and see our buckets just sitting in the driveway: My parents’ cars both have extensive damage and are at least 20 years old. One of them has a busted back window and a jacked up ignition. My brother nearly died driving the other one because its front axel fell off on the freeway.

I don’t think my parents understand the concept of street dreamin’ like my brother and I do because they seem to be content with the vehicles they have. Maybe it’s because we come from completely different generations. My mother grew up with the idea that you should be happy with what you get and be glad that you actually got something to begin with. The same goes for my father.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with their ideas, but if I’m able to make my car look better, faster and cooler, you best believe that I'm definitely going to do that. It’s not that my brother and I are unappreciative or ungrateful when it comes to the cars in our driveway, we just feel like we can do a lot better than what we have.

It seems like a lot of other young people in my community think that way too. In East Oakland, we see people that look like they don’t have much to their names, but they sure do have some tight looking cars that show their names ALL over.

For instance, by the time my brother was twenty two, he already had already spent a couple thousand on a drop-top 1991 mustang with a dope sound system, blacked out head lights, and some gold wire rims. Now, he’s thinking of moving up to some 20 inch rims...and this isn’t even his ideal car! Like I said, that concept that you can always do better is a key philosophy of my brother and I.

My brother is out there street dreamin’ even more than me. After watching his continual work on the mustang, I’ve learned that when you’re finally close to reaching the end of your street dream, and getting your ideal car, it becomes a huge thing on your mind. I mean, I see my brother obsess about it all the time.

I imagine that once you’ve attained the point when you’re no longer street dreamin’ because you've reached your goal and own your dream car, you feel like you’re on top of the world. Maybe it feels like nothing can touch you.

Nice cars mean so much to my brother and I because we’ve been thinking about it for a long, long time. We've waited for that moment when we're sitting in the driver’s seat of our dream cars since childhood.

Having so much passion for cars may seem materialistic. But to me, street dreamin' represents the process of accomplishing a goal I've always had, as well as proving that I have the money to do it. Our street dreams are like air to us, and cars are more than just passenger vehicles - they're symbols of achievement and beauty.