Oakland travel guide — Oakland tourism and travel information

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Oakland travel guide

about Oakland

Oakland, founded in 1852, is a city on the east side (aka East Bay) of San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. To its north is Berkeley, home to the famous university campus (University of California, Berkeley). To its west is San Francisco, across the Bay Bridge. Oakland is home of the Port of Oakland, which is one of three major shipping ports on the US West coast.

In spite of Oakland's reputation as a high-crime city with a downtown still struggling to get back on its feet and a crumbling public education system, weather, location, and a substantial offering of shopping districts and restaurants representing cuisines both homegrown and worldwide have led real estate prices to rise tremendously in the past decade.

Oakland is the county seat of Alameda County. As of 2000, the city's population was 399,484, making it the third largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area after San Francisco and San Jose.

Tourist attractions in Oakland include the Oakland Museum, the Art Deco Paramount Theater, Chinatown, Jack London Square, Lake Merritt, Children's Fairyland and Network Associates Coliseum, home to the Oakland Raiders National Football League team, the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team, and the Golden State Warriors National Basketball Association team. The city's commercial and residental structures exhibit a great variety of styles, including Art Deco and Craftsman.

The Oakland Tribune published its first newspaper on February 21, 1874. The Tribune Tower, which sports a clock, is one of Oakland's landmarks.

Oakland hosts Oakland International Airport, which serves much of the low-cost air traveler's market from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Oaklanders are understandably frustrated by the misuse of the most famous quote said about their city. "There's no there there," was uttered by Gertrude Stein in reference to her family no longer being in the city, and did not have anything to do with the city itself.

Oakland geography

Oakland is located at 37°47'43" North, 122°13'41" West (37.795227, -122.228111).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 202.4 km² (78.2 mi²). 145.2 km² (56.1 mi²) of it is land and 57.2 km² (22.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 28.28% water.

Oakland history

Oakland was founded in 1852. In 1906 its population grew substantially with refugees made homeless after the San Francisco earthquake and fire.

World War II

During WWII, the East Bay Area was home to a massive Naval shipbuilding industry. The industry attracted a huge amount of laborers from around the country. Many of the new workers were African Americans, who enjoyed great prosperity during the war years.

Post War Years

Soon after the war, the shipbuilding industry virtually evaporated as did the jobs that came with it. Many who came to the city did not leave and decided to settle in their new home of Oakland. Meanwhile, many of the city's more affluent residents fled the city after the war in order to move into newly developing suburbs to the north and south of Oakland's city borders.

Soon Oakland, which had been quite prosperous and affluent before the war soon found itself with a population that was dominated by a lower income class than had been typical for the city. Much of Oakland's current reputation as a high-crime city can be traced to the transformation that occurred after World War II.

60s and 70s Activism

Because the city borders Berkeley, Oakland was home to many activist groups during the 1960s and 70s. The Black Panther Party is perhaps the most famous of the groups that formed in Oakland.

80s and Beyond

In the late 80s and early 90s Oakland was home to two major natural disasters.

On October 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake caused significant damage in Oakland, despite the fact that the epicenter of the quake was more than 70 miles (100 km) away from the city. The Cypress structure, a double decker portion of freeway that collapsed during the earthquake was in Oakland, and the portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge that fell down was on the Oakland side of the span.

On October 20, 1991, the city was struck by the Oakland Hills firestorm. Due to an intense Diablo wind a small brush fire in the East Bay hills turned into an out of control wildfire that spread quickly across 1,600 acres (6 km²) of the dense housing of Oakland and Berkeley's hills. 25 people were killed, 2,449 single family houses were burned down, 427 apartment and condo units destroyed and $1.5 billion in damage were accrued. The fire remains one of the most damaging fires in California history.

Jerry Brown, a former governor of California, known to some as "Governor Moonbeam," was elected mayor in 1998 and re-elected with little opposition in 2002. In March 2004, Oakland's voters approved Measure P, an affirmation of the so-called "strong mayor" system, which enshrined permanently changes in the city charter that had given the mayor chief executive power over city government rather than the city manager (as had been historically the case prior to Brown's election as mayor).

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Oakland real estate

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Oakland, California".

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