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About Oakland, CA

Oakland is the county seat of Alameda County in west-central Oakland, United States. It is located on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay, just across from San Francisco. The city is built on a flat coastal plain that climbs to the east into hills that follow the beach. Oakland has a moderate Mediterranean climate, with warm, sunny summers and chilly, wet winters. In the summer, it, like its neighbor to the west, experiences morning fogs, which usually clear by midday.

Oakland is the eastern terminus of the vast metropolitan region that surrounds the bay and is anchored by San Jose to the southeast, in addition to San Francisco. Berkeley (north), San Leandro (south), and Alameda (west, on Alameda Island) are nearby municipalities, while Oakland totally surrounds Piedmont. 78-square-mile metropolitan area (202 square km). Oakland-Fremont-Hayward Metro Division, 2,559,296; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont Metro Area, 4,335,391; (2020) 440,646; Oakland-Berkeley-Livermore Metro Division, 2,848,280; San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley Metro Area, 4,749,008.

When the Spanish discovered the region in the late 18th century, it was populated by Costanoan Indians. Rancho San Antonio, a Spanish land grant, was founded there in 1820. Logging began in the region in the 1840s, and it became a transportation hub for commodities and people during the Oakland Gold Rush (1849). Moses Chase, a squatter, and several companions set established the town of Clinton in 1849-50 after leasing and then purchasing lands (later named Brooklyn). Horace W. Carpentier established a trans-bay ferry service to San Francisco in 1851 and purchased a town site to the west of Brooklyn in 1852, calling it Oakland after the oak trees on the grassy plain. In 1854, Carpentier and his companions expanded the territory and established it as a city. Oakland and Brooklyn, which had been divided by a slough bridged in 1853, merged in 1872.

Oakland began building its harbor after being chosen as the western end of the first transcontinental railroad (1869). Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, it saw a major inflow of refugees, considerably increasing its population. The 8.25-mile- (13-kilometer-) long San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (opened 1936) and military and naval stations (constructed in the 1940s) fostered additional population growth and substantial and diverse industrial expansion. During World War II, there was a significant migration of African Americans looking for employment in the city’s industries.

However, by 1960, the city was in decline. After peaking at around 385,000 in 1950, the population continued to decline, and inner-city regions were plagued by poverty, urban ruin, and crime. Racial tensions rose in Oakland’s substantial African American community, and in 1966, the revolutionary Black Panther Party was created there, becoming a key force in the Black power movement. Bobby Seale, one of its members, unsuccessfully campaigned for mayor in 1973; four years later, Lionel Wilson became the city’s first Black mayor.

Efforts to revitalize the city began in the early 1970s, aided by the installation of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) light-rail link to San Francisco in 1972. Much of the city center was restored during the following three decades, and many run-down neighborhoods were gentrified. The population of Oakland recovered in the 1980s and reached the 1950 level in the 1990s. Although African Americans remained the majority of the city’s population, their numbers began to drop, while Hispanics climbed to more than one-fifth of the total. On October 17, 1989, a severe earthquake caused considerable damage to the Bay Bridge and caused a piece of a major roadway along the bay (a portion of which was double-decked) to collapse; repairs were completed by the late 1990s.

Oakland, CA

Oakland is a city in Oakland located on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Jack London Square features a statue of the writer, who was a regular visitor to the region. Old Oakland, which is nearby, has restored Victorian buildings and businesses. The Oakland Museum of Oakland, located in Chinatown, offers state history, nature, and art. Uptown is home to the art deco Fox and Paramount theaters, as well as restaurants, bars, and galleries.

Area: 202.1 km²
Population: 422,575 (2020)
Mayor: Libby Schaaf
Neighborhoods: Downtown Oakland, West Oakland, Chinatown