Frank H. Ogawa Plaza is a historic location in the heart of downtown 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...

.

Location and elements

Frank H. Ogawa Plaza is located where Telegraph and San Pablo Avenues converge with Broadway and 14th Street. The west side of the plaza is the site of Oakland City Hall

Oakland City Hall

Oakland City Hall is the seat of government for the city of Oakland, California. The current building was completed in 1914, after its predecessor was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Standing at the height of , it was the first high-rise government building in the United States...

 and Oakland Police Headquarters. Around the plaza are several Beaux-Arts styled commercial buildings from the early 20th century. New buildings have been constructed to fit visually with the older architecture.

The plaza is a 160000 square feet (14,864.5 m²) public space. Most of the plaza is composed of "The Commons", a raised lawn. The plaza also features "The Forum", or amphitheater—a space for public gatherings and performances.

History

In 1896, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on a young Jack London

Jack London

John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...

 giving speeches in what was then called "City Hall park". The open space in front of the city hall was part of Oakland's Administrative Buildings project that included the redevelopment of the 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...

 in 1994. 1998 marked the completion of the renovated plaza.

Along with being the seat of government, the area has become part of the city's arts culture with the annual Arts and Soul Festival and publicly commissioned art. In 2001, the city council commissioned a sculpture for the plaza from artist Bruce Beasley. The sculpture, Vitality, was completed in 2002.

The plaza has been the site of various protests and other forms of civil disorder.

Name of the plaza

In 1998, the Oakland City Council renamed City Hall Plaza as "Frank H. Ogawa Plaza" in honor of Frank H. Ogawa

Frank H. Ogawa

Frank H. Ogawa was a civil rights leader and the first Japanese American to serve on the Oakland City Council in which he served from 1966 until his death in 1994. Upon his death, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to rename City Hall Plaza in his honor as the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza...

. Ogawa was a civil rights leader and the first Japanese American

Japanese American

are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...

 to serve on the Oakland City Council in which he served from 1966 until his death in 1994. The plaza displays a bronze bust of Ogawa.

Members of Occupy Oakland

Occupy Oakland

Occupy Oakland is a series of demonstrations including the occupation of public spaces that began in downtown Oakland at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall in Oakland, California on October 10, 2011. It is allied with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City and is one of...

 began using Ogawa plaza as a main protest encampment starting on on October 10, 2011. Their presence has been criticize for potential health and safety concerns. The protestors symbolically renamed
Frank H. Ogawa Plaza as "Oscar Grant Plaza". Oscar Grant was a young African American man who was shot in the back by a white Bay Area Rapid Transit

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...

police officer in 2009.