Downtown Oakland - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Downtown Oakland is the central business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

of Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

; roughly bounded by 6th Street or the Oakland Estuary

Oakland Estuary

The Oakland Estuary is the body of water separating the cities of Oakland and Alameda, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. On its western end it connects to San Francisco Bay, while its eastern end connects to San Leandro Bay.-Crossings:...

on the southwest, Interstate 980

Interstate 980

Interstate 980 is a short Interstate Highway spur entirely within Oakland, California, connecting Interstate 580 and State Route 24 to Interstate 880 near Downtown Oakland. I-980 passes the Oakland Convention Center and near the famous Jack London Square. I-980 is commonly considered the dividing...

on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lake Merritt

Lake Merritt

Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon that lies just east of downtown Oakland, California. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. A popular 3.1 mile walking and jogging path runs along its perimeter...

on the east.

The Downtown area is sometimes expanded to refer to the industrial and residential Jack London Square

Jack London Square

Jack London Square is a popular tourist attraction on the waterfront of Oakland, California. Named after the author Jack London and owned by the Port of Oakland, it is the home of stores, restaurants, hotels, an Amtrak station, a ferry dock, the historic Saloon, the cabin Jack London lived in the...

and Jack London warehouse district areas, the Lakeside Apartments District

Lakeside Apartments District, Oakland, California

The Lakeside Apartments District neighborhood, also known as The Gold Coast, and simply as The Lakeside, is one of Oakland, California's historic residential neighborhoods between its Downtown district and Lake Merritt...

a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lake Merritt

Lake Merritt

, the Civic Center district

Civic Center, Oakland, California

Oakland's Civic Center neighborhood is a residential and public building district on the east side of Oakland's Central Business District. Its borders are roughly Downtown and Harrison Street to the west, the East Lake Neighborhood and Lakeshore Avenue to the east, the Lakeside Apartments District...

, Oakland's Chinatown

Chinatown, Oakland, California

The Chinatown neighborhood in Oakland, California, is a pan-Asian neighborhood which reflects Oakland's diverse Asian American community. It is frequently referred to as "Oakland Chinatown" in order to distinguish it from nearby San Francisco's Chinatown...

, and the south end of Oakland's Broadway Auto Row

Broadway Auto Row, Oakland, California

Oakland's Broadway Auto Row is a strip of land along Broadway between Grand Avenue at the Southwest, and 40th Street to the Northeast. The strip has a history of land use for car dealerships, light industrial businesses, and other automotive service businesses that serve motorists. The businesses...

an area along Broadway which has historically been used by car dealers and other automotive service businesses. While many consider these areas outside of downtown proper, they are generally considered more geographically proximate to Downtown Oakland than to East Oakland, North Oakland

North Oakland, Oakland, California

North Oakland is an area in Oakland, California, bordered by West Oakland, downtown Oakland, Oakland Hills and the adjacent cities of Berkeley, Emeryville and Piedmont. Annexed to Oakland in 1897, it is known as the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and is the childhood home of both Dr. Huey P....

or to West Oakland and are thus sometimes associated with Downtown Oakland.

In January 2009, urban rioting occurred downtown and in the Lakeside Apartments District

Lakeside Apartments District, Oakland, California

following BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle's shooting of Oscar Grant III

BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant

Oscar Grant was fatally shot by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California, United States, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco, BART Police officers detained...

on January 1, 2009.

In mid-2009, Oakland's city council revised zoning and building height regulations in downtown and the greater central business district.

Black Cowboy Parade

Downtown Oakland hosts the only celebration of its kind in the nation in memory of the black cowboys who helped settle the American West. The annual parade typically begins on an early October weekend at DeFremery Park in West Oakland en route to Frank Ogawa Plaza where judging booths are set up. After an awards ceremony, the parade returns to DeFremery Park, for a celebration.

Land use and points of interest

Downtown Oakland is home to apartment and condominium dwellers, numerous retail businesses, tall modern office buildings, shorter mixed-use historic buildings, the hubs of AC Transit

AC Transit

AC Transit is an Oakland-based regional public transit agency serving the western half of Alameda County and parts of western Contra Costa County in the western, Bay-side area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area...

and BART, which has three underground stations, the city's official Entertainment District which includes the historic Paramount and Fox Theatre

Fox Oakland Theatre

The Fox Oakland Theatre is a 2,800-seat movie theater, located at 1807 Telegraph Avenue in downtown Oakland, California. The theater was designed by Weeks and Day, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and reopened on February 5, 2009....

s, nightclubs, and restaurants, the headquarters of Clorox

Clorox

The Clorox Company is a US-based manufacturer of various food and chemical products based in Oakland, California, which is best known for its bleach product, Clorox.- History :...

, City Center

Oakland City Center

Oakland City Center is an office and shopping and hotel complex in Downtown Oakland, California. The complex is the product of a redevelopment project begun in the late 1950s. It covers twelve city blocks between Broadway on the east, Martin Luther King Jr. Way...

, a portion of Old Oakland

Old Oakland

Old Oakland, formally known as the Old Oakland Historic District, is a historic district in downtown Oakland, California. The area is located on the northwest side of Broadway, between the City Center complex and the Jack London Square district, and across Broadway from Chinatown.The Old Oakland...

, and a portion of Chinatown

Chinatown, Oakland, California

.

Downtown includes a portion of the oldest part of the city. The area from the Oakland Estuary

Oakland Estuary

inland to 14th Street between West Street and the Lake Merritt Channel was the original site of Oakland, and there are several 19th century houses scattered around the edges of downtown and in Chinatown. The Oakland Museum is located on Oak Street near the southeastern edge of Downtown.

Higher education

Laney College

Laney College is a community college located in Oakland, California, next to the Lake Merritt BART station and the Kaiser Convention Center. Laney is the largest of the four colleges of the Peralta Community College District which serves northern Alameda County.Laney College originally opened in...

, with more than 12,000 students, is located on Fallon Street near the Lake Merritt BART station. Other educational institutions include Lincoln University

Lincoln University (California)

Lincoln University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian university based in Oakland, California. The university is located near the 12th Street BART station in downtown Oakland. It enrolls about 400 students in undergraduate and graduate level programs in business administration, as well an...

, a small business school catering mainly to international students, and a downtown office of Cal State East Bay. Oaksterdam University

Oaksterdam University

Oaksterdam University is a non-accredited for-profit educational facility and "political institution" founded in November 2007 by medical marijuana activist Richard Lee to offer training for the cannabis industry, with a mission to "legitimize the business and work to change the law to make...

, a business college which prepares students for medical cannabis

Medical cannabis

Medical cannabis refers to the use of parts of the herb cannabis as a physician-recommended form of medicine or herbal therapy, or to synthetic forms of specific cannabinoids such as THC as a physician-recommended form of medicine...

work, is located on 15th Street in an area referred to as "Oaksterdam

Oaksterdam

Oaksterdam is a cultural district on the north end of downtown Oakland, California, where medical cannabis in a variety of competitively priced smokeable and edible preparations is available for purchase in multiple cafes, clubs, and patient dispensaries. Oaksterdam is located on the north end of...

".

The original campus

College of California

The College of California was the predecessor of the University of California system of public universities. The private college was founded in 1855 by noted educator Dr. Samuel H. Willey...

of UC Berkeley was located between Franklin, Harrison, 12th and 14th streets; and the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

system is currently headquartered in Downtown.

Public primary and secondary education

Lincoln Elementary School, one of the few public elementary schools in the downtown of a major US city, is on the edge of downtown, near the center of Chinatown. The Oakland School for the Arts

Oakland School for the Arts

Oakland School for the Arts is a performing arts charter school in Oakland, California.OSA is located on the Fox Oakland Theatre at 530 18th Street across from Telegraph.On April 1, 2009 OSA was selected to be a California Distinguished School....

, a charter school

Charter school

Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...

, is building a new facility surrounding the Fox Oakland Theatre

Fox Oakland Theatre

in Oakland's Uptown Oakland

Uptown Oakland

Uptown is a neighborhood in Downtown Oakland, California, located just north of the center of downtown. Its boundaries are ill-defined, but most definitions include the area bounded by Grand Avenue at the north, Telegraph Avenue on the west, City Center plaza on the south, and Harrison Street on...

Motor vehicle limitations

City Hall Plaza is a city park and a "pedestrian plaza" which includes what was once the terminus of San Pablo Avenue where it met Broadway at 14th Street. It also includes 15th Street, which once ran through what is now "Kahn's Alley," past 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza building, across Clay Street, through what is now a glass windowed lobby of the California State office building, connecting with Jefferson Street on the building's west side entrance. Motor vehicle traffic has also been excluded from where former city streets, Washington street and 13th street, were once aligned through what is now the Oakland City Center

Oakland City Center

development. Today the area features an outdoor retail mall with pedestrian streets laid out to replicate the original street grid.

AC Transit

Several routes operated by AC Transit pass by or end at Downtown Oakland. These include:

Daytime Routes

1 - International Blvd./Telegraph Avenue
1R - International Rapid
11 - Piedmont-Lake Merritt BART-Fruitvale
12 - ML King, Jr. Way
14 - Downtown-Fruitvale via East Oakland
18 - Park Blvd./Shattuck Ave.
20 - Downtown-Fruitvale via Alameda
26 - Emeryville-Trestle Glen
31 - MacArthur BART-Downtown-Alameda Point
40 - Foothill Blvd.
51A - Broadway/Santa Clara
58L - MacArthur Limited
72/72M - San Pablo Avenue/MacDonald Avenue
72R - San Pablo Rapid
88 - Market Street

Transbay Route

NL - MacArthur Limited (San Francisco-Eastmont)

All-Nighter Routes (all routes meet at Broadway and 14th Street)

800 - Transbay
801 - International Blvd./Mission Blvd.
802 - San Pablo Avenue
805 - MacArthur Blvd.
840 - Foothill Blvd.
851 - Telegraph Avenue/College Avenue

Transit passengers traveling in and out of Downtown are serviced by AC Transit

AC Transit

's downtown bus station at 14th and Broadway, and Uptown

Uptown Oakland

Regional Transit Center bus mall

Bus station

A bus station is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can stop...

on nearby Thomas L. Berkeley Way (20th Street) is now in full farebox service, and features multiple bus shelters with seating, NextBus

NextBus

NextBus is a vehicle tracking system which uses global positioning satellite information to predict when the next bus will arrive at any given bus stop, thereby eliminating wait times and any need for schedules for all transit riders...

arrival prediction signs, local and Rapid Bus

Rapid

A rapid is a section of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. A rapid is a hydrological feature between a run and a cascade. A rapid is characterised by the river becoming shallower and having some rocks exposed above the...

service to Oakland's streetcar suburbs. These stations host local service, Rapid

Bus rapid transit

Bus rapid transit is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling...

service, Transbay Express, and All Nighter service. A Translink Add Value Machine is located at AC Transit Headquarters on Franklin Street.

The "1" line which connects San Leandro and Berkeley, runs through downtown along 12th Street, and down Broadway. The transformation of the one line into a full scale bus rapid transit

Bus rapid transit

corridor is years into the planning process. The most substantial planning alternative proposed for this system would feature articulated buses with five to six doors at boarding platform level, a separated bus-only lane, center median platforms in many areas with proof-of-payment

Proof-of-payment

Proof-of-payment or POP is an honor-based fare collection approach used on many public transportation systems. Instead of checking each passenger as they enter a fare control zone, proof-of-payment requires that each passenger carry a ticket or pass proving that they have paid the fare. Ticket...

ticket machines to speed boarding, and signalization priority to allow bus drivers to change traffic lights in passengers favor.

BART

Three BART stations are located beneath downtown; Oakland City Center/12th Street

Oakland City Center/12th Street (BART station)

12th Street Oakland City Center is an underground Bay Area Rapid Transit station located at 12th Street and Broadway next to the Oakland City Center in Downtown Oakland...

and 19th Street

19th Street/Oakland (BART station)

19th Street/Oakland is an underground Bay Area Rapid Transit station located at 19th Street and Broadway in Downtown Oakland. It is an official northbound transfer station along the BART system, since September 13, 2010....

are under Broadway, while Lake Merritt

Lake Merritt (BART station)

The Lake Merritt Bay Area Rapid Transit station is located in Downtown Oakland on Oak Street near Lake Merritt, Chinatown, Laney College and the Oakland Museum. This station consists of an underground island platform....

is in the eastern part of Chinatown.

Crime

Notable incidents of violent crime have occurred downtown. On Halloween night in 2010, a shooter at Sweets Ballroom at 19th and Broadway shot nine victims.
A murder-robbery occurred at 19th and Webster in July 2010. On Sunday April 11, 2010 An Oakland man was found at 14th and Jefferson after being shot several times and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. In April 2008 several men staged a firearm takeover robbery of a restaurant and its customers at "Pho 84," 17th and Webster. On the afternoon of December 31, 2003, a man was shot to death in broad daylight in front of the Bank of America branch at 300 Lakeside Drive. On the afternoon of Saturday March 2, 2002, A murderer fatally stabbed a man at 14th and Franklin in broad daylight after chasing his victim, a man in his 50s, down the street after an argument. The murderer broke his leg after trying to flee on BART, and was apprehended by police thereafter.

January 2009 riots

The January 2009 riots occurred in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

's Central Business District, downtown, and Lakeside Apartments District

Lakeside Apartments District, Oakland, California

on January 7, 2009 following BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle's shooting of Oscar Grant III

BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant

on January 1, 2009. The urban riots

Urban riots

Riots often occur in reaction to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. Riots may be the outcome of a sporting event, although many riots have occurred due to poor working or living conditions, government oppression, conflicts between races or religions....

arose out of a peaceful protest that began earlier in the day at the Fruitvale BART

Bay Area Rapid Transit

Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...

Station, and evolved into a march

Demonstration (people)

A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...

toward downtown.

Aftermath

Oakland's Community and Economic Development Agency stepped in to provide financial aid to the shop owners whose windows were smashed as a part of the response by the Dellums

Ron Dellums

Ronald Vernie "Ron" Dellums served as Oakland's forty-fifth mayor. From 1971 to 1998, he was elected to thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S...

administration.. Its Business Development Services Division is offering small grants from the façade improvement grant program that can be used for deductibles or repairs, publicizing the Enterprise Zone Tax Credit program, and engaging private lenders to match its contributions. The Oakland Business Development Corporation is also making small business loans. The City’s marketing department is going to step up its focus on downtown boutiques and stores. Security ambassador programs are also beginning as a part of the upcoming Downtown and Lake Merritt Community Benefit Districts.

Community Benefits District

In July 2008, landlords in the district voted a parcel tax upon themselves to fund the "Downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt/Uptown Community Benefit Districts" to provide "special security services, cleaning of sidewalks, beautification, marketing and improvement of district identity and organizational services for businesses in the downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt/Uptown neighborhoods." Since early 2009, the districts have provided roving private security “ambassadors” to sweep up litter, help visitors with directions, and provide security support in Oakland’s downtown.

The districts are governed by advisory boards which have discussed plans and desires to displace political demonstrations following the BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant away from Oakland's downtown center of civic life, and an actual change of venue for the murder trial of former BART police officer Johannes Meserle. The board has also discussed plans to spend district treasury funds to erect a permanent memorial for four slain Oakland police officers at 14th and Broadway, and $10,000 dollars per year for a subscription to "round the clock" Muzak

Muzak

Muzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 1934, Muzak Holdings is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....

to "immediately drive away undesirable people from" three street corners at 13th and Broadway.

The district boards have public relations

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

committees to "feed stories to the press." The committees have recommended "pitching stories to entertainment, business, and real estate journalist (sic), that way crime would not even be part of the scope." The committee also recommended "inviting select reporters to cover the story" of the "Uptown Unveiled" street festival.

Black Cowboy Parade

Land use and points of interest

Higher education

Public primary and secondary education

Motor vehicle limitations

AC Transit

BART

Crime

January 2009 riots

Aftermath

Community Benefits District

See also