Rand McNally named Oakland as having the best weather in the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. census, Oakland and Long Beach, California are the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States, with over 150 languages spoken in Oakland. Attractions include Jack London Square, the Oakland Museum of California, the Chabot Space and Science Center, Lake Merritt and Chinatown.

The earliest recorded inhabitants were the Huchiun tribe, belonging to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone (a Miwok word meaning "western people"). In Oakland, they were heavily concentrated around Lake Merritt and Temescal Creek, a stream which enters the San Francisco Bay at Emeryville.

Oakland, along with the rest of California, was claimed for the Spanish king by explorers from New Spain in 1772. In the early 19th century, the area which later became Oakland (along with most of the East Bay), was granted to Luís María Peralta by the Spanish royal government for his Rancho San Antonio. The grant was confirmed by the successor Mexican republic upon its independence from Spain. The area of the ranch that is today occupied by the downtown and extending over into the adjacent part of Alameda (originally not an island, but a peninsula), included a woodland of oak trees. This area was called encinal by the Peraltas, a Spanish word which means "oak grove", the origin of the later city's name. Upon his death in 1842, Peralta divided his land among his four sons. Most of Oakland fell within the shares given to Antonio Maria and Vicente. They would open the land to settlement by American settlers, loggers, European whalers, and fur-traders.

Full-scale settlement and development occurred following California being conquered by the United States during the Mexican-American War, and the California Gold Rush in 1848. The original settlement in what is now the downtown was initially called "Contra Costa" and was included in Contra Costa County before Alameda County was established on March 25, 1853. The California state legislature incorporated the town of Oakland on May 4, 1852.

The town and its environs quickly grew with the railroads, becoming a major rail terminus in the late 1860s and 1870s. In 1868, the Central Pacific constructed the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point, the site of today's Port of Oakland. The Long Wharf served as both the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad as well as the local commuter trains of the Central (later, Southern) Pacific. The Central Pacific also established one of its largest rail yards and servicing facilities in West Oakland which continued to be a major local employer under the Southern Pacific well into the 20th century. The principal depot of the Southern Pacific in Oakland was the 16th Street Station located at 16th and Wood which is currently (2006–7) being partially restored as part of a redevelopment project.

A number of horsecar and cable car lines were constructed in Oakland in the latter half of the 1400s. The first electric streetcar set out from Oakland to Berkeley in 1891, and other lines were converted and added over the course of the 1890s. The various streetcar companies operating in Oakland were acquired by Francis "Borax" Smith and consolidated into what eventually became known as the Key System, the predecessor of today's publicly owned AC Transit. In addition to its system of streetcars in the East Bay, the Key System also operated commuter trains to its own pier and ferry boats to San Francisco, in competition with the Southern Pacific. Upon completion of the Bay Bridge, both companies ran their commuter trains on the south side of the lower deck direct to San Francisco. The Key System in its earliest years was actually in part a real estate venture, with the transit part serving to help open up new tracts for buyers. The Key's investors (incorporated as the "Realty Syndicate") also established two large hotels in Oakland, one of which survives as the Claremont Resort. The other, which burned down in the early 1930s, was the Key Route Inn, located at what is now West Grand and Broadway. From 1904 to 1929, the Realty Syndicate also operated a major amusement park in north Oakland called Idora Park.

The original extent of Oakland upon its incorporation lay south of today's major intersection of San Pablo Avenue, Broadway and 14th Street. The city gradually annexed farmlands and settlements to the east and north. Oakland's rise to industrial prominence and its subsequent need for a seaport led to the digging of a shipping and tidal channel in 1902, creating the "island" of nearby town Alameda. In 1906, its population doubled with refugees made homeless after the San Francisco earthquake and fire who had fled to Oakland. In 1915, a Chevrolet plant was opened at the southern border of Oakland. By 1920, Oakland was the home of numerous manufacturing industries, including metals, canneries, bakeries, automobiles, and shipbuilding.

[edit] 1920s

The 1920s were economic boom years in the United States as a whole, and in California especially. Economic growth was fueled by the general post-war recovery, as well as oil discoveries in Los Angeles, and the widespread introduction of the automobile. Oakland grew significantly in the 1920s. According to the Oakland Tribune yearbook for 1925, more houses were built from 1921 to 1924 than in the period 1907 to 1920. Many of the single-family houses still standing in Oakland were built in the 1920s. Many large office buildings downtown were built in the 1920s, and reflect the architectural styles of the time.

[edit] World War II

During World War II, the East Bay Area was home to many war-related industries. Among these were the Kaiser Shipyards in nearby Richmond whose medical system for shipyard workers became the basis for the giant Kaiser Permanente HMO, which has a large medical center at MacArthur and Broadway, the first to be established by Kaiser. Oakland's Moore Dry Dock Company expanded its shipbuilding capabilities and built over 100 ships.

The war attracted large numbers of laborers from around the country to Oakland, many of whom were African Americans from the western South (Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas), who enjoyed great prosperity during the war years but still had to confront Jim Crow racial discrimination.

[edit] Post-WWII (1940s and 1950s)

white flight.

During this period, the freeway system was constructed and the Key System was dismantled. The largest high rise was constructed on the west side of Lake Merritt, the headquarters building of Kaiser Corporation (the industry, not the HMO). Also in this era, the seedy, rundown area at the foot of Broadway was transformed into Jack London Square.

Nonetheless, by the late 1960s, Oakland, which had been quite prosperous before the war, found itself with a population that was increasingly poor.

[edit] 1960s and 1970s

In 1966, only 16 of the city's 661 police officers were black. Tensions between the poverty-stricken black community and the predominantly white police force were high, and killings of young boys in Harlem and San Francisco added fuel to the fire. In this charged atmosphere, the Black Panther Party was founded by Oakland City College students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale as a response to police brutality.

During the 1960s the city was home to an innovative funk music scene which produced well-known bands like Sly & the Family Stone, Graham Central Station, Tower of Power, Cold Blood, and The Headhunters. Larry Graham, the bass player for both Sly & the Family Stone and Graham Central Station, is credited with the creation of the extremely influential slap and pop sound still widely used by bassists in many musical idioms today. It was also during the 1960s when the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club's Oakland Chapter, began to grow into a formidable organization. By the 1980s it was the most feared and respected of all Hells Angels chapters. Its Oakland Clubhouse still sits at 4019 Foothill Boulevard in East Oakland. In sports, the Oakland Athletics MLB club won three World Series in a row (1972, 1973, and 1974); the Golden State Warriors won the 1974–1975 NBA championship; and the Oakland Raiders of the NFL won Super Bowl XI in 1977.

[edit] 1980s and 1990s

Starting in the early 1980s, the number of Latinos, mostly of Mexican origin, began to increase significantly in Oakland, especially in the Fruitvale district and spilling over into East Oakland. This district is one of the oldest in Oakland, growing up around the old Peralta estate (now a city park). It has always had a concentration of Latino residents, businesses and institutions, but increased immigration, which has continued right up to the 21st century has added greater numbers.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Oakland featured prominently in rap music, both as the hometown for such artists as MC Hammer, Digital Underground, Spice 1, Hieroglyphics (including Souls of Mischief and Del tha Funkee Homosapien), The Luniz and Too $hort. Tupac Shakur (2pac), who grew up in Baltimore and New York City and later moved to Oakland, lived there longer than in any other city. Outside of the rap genre, Grammy award winning artists such as Green Day, En Vogue and Tony! Toni! Tone! also emerged from Oakland.

The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on October 17, 1989, in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, measuring 7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale. Several structures in Oakland were badly damaged. The double-decker portion of the Cypress Viaduct freeway (Interstate 880) structure, located in Oakland, collapsed, killing 42. The eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge also sustained significant damage and was closed to traffic for one month. Throughout the 1990s, buildings throughout Oakland were retrofitted to better withstand earthquakes.

On October 20, 1991, a massive fire (see 1991 Oakland firestorm) swept down from the Berkeley Hills above the Caldecott Tunnel. 25 were killed and 150 injured and over 2,000 homes were destroyed. The economic loss has been estimated at $1.5 billion. Many homes were rebuilt much larger than they originally were.

In late 1996, Oakland was the center of a controversy surrounding Ebonics (African American Vernacular English), an ethnolect the outgoing Oakland Unified School District board voted to recognize on December 18.^[10][11]

[edit] 2000s

Jerry Brown, who was elected mayor of Oakland in 1998, initiated a plan to bring an additional 10,000 residents to downtown Oakland. The plan has resulted in several redevelopment projects near Lake Merritt, Jack London Square, and other neighborhoods just outside of downtown. These redevelopment projects have been controversial as many residents see these projects as gentrification, resulting in the loss of lower-income and minority residents in downtown Oakland. Additionally, the weakening of the Bay Area economy in 2000 and 2001 resulted in low occupancy of the new housing and slower growth and economic recovery than expected. In recent years demand for high-rise condos and towers has surged, as in San Francisco; there are currently many proposals for high-rise buildings, including a 63 floor, 827 ft. (252 m) tower that will rival the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco. The developer says that the height could be pushed up to beat out the Transamerica Pyramid, possibly giving Oakland a considerable skyline as well.

Additionally, the Oakland Athletics have long been searching for a site to build a new baseball stadium. A site the A's found desirable was found near Telegraph Avenue and 20th Street in downtown Oakland, but was instead slated for a housing development. The site was favored by the Athletics for a new stadium as it was accessible by public transit and nearby freeways. Finally in 2006, the A's announced a deal to build a new stadium in Fremont, California, to be called Cisco Field.

In February 2006, the Oakland Ballet closed due to financial problems and the closure of their performance facility, the Calvin Simmons Theater at the Kaiser Convention Center. The Oakland Ballet had been performing in Oakland since 1965.^[12] In 2007, however, founder Ronn Guidi announced the revival of the Oakland Ballet. A performance of The Nutcracker is scheduled for December, 2007, including members of the Oakland Ballet Academy, which Guidi presides over. A new use for the Kaiser Convention Center was proposed in 2006: a redevelopment designed to nucleate a cultural and educational district with the nearby Oakland Museum of California and Laney College.^[13] In July 2006, the Oakland City Council approved a bond measure to expand the city's library system and convert the closed Center into a replacement for the city's aging main library, but Oakland voters defeated the library bond measure in the November 2006 election.^[14]

Ron Dellums, a former Berkeley city council member and U.S. Representative, was elected mayor in June 2006. The mayoral election race was contentious between Dellums and other candidates, including Oakland city council president Ignacio de la Fuente and councilmember Nancy Nadel.^[15] Each candidate had different visions of Oakland's future and different ideas about how to combat crime, encourage appropriate urban development, and foster successful public schools. In what was essentially a three-way race, Dellums barely won the required majority of votes needed to win without a runoff election in November.^[16]

---

LOCAL LINKS

| City of Oakland official web page | Archaeology of Oakland | Oakland travel guide from Wikitravel | Interactive District Map: Oakland Convention and Visitors Bureau | Galleries Map of Oakland | Oaklandhistory.com images | Oakland Heritage Alliance - non-profit membership organization advocating the protection, preservation, and revitalization of Oakland's architectural, historic, cultural and natural resources. | Oaklandish - ongoing public arts and media campaign designed to illuminate the unique cultural legacy of Oakland, | Oakland History on the Web from Oakland Public Library | Oakland Collection Online of the Oakland Museum of California. Over 7,000 Oakland objects including historical photographs, paintings, documents, objects, all about Oakland. | Oakland Neighborhoods Map at the Oakland Museum website. | Oakland Photos The Claremont Hotel, Downtown Oakland, Jack London Square, Preservation Park, Port of Oakland | Oakland schools Test scores, parent reviews and ratings for Oakland schools. | Downtown Oakland Aerial Photographs from 1946 for Google Earth