ABOUT THE CITY
Oakland is a complex city of striking contrasts. At once a city for the rough and gracious, rundown and elite, hard-pressed and arty. Oakland’s essential combinations of hues and colors, constitute the fuller portrait of a city as eclectic and contradictory as its diverse citizenry. Oakland, like New York, is constituted of a number of very distinct, village-like neighborhoods, all of which play host to a heady mix of cultures and peoples. The popular Rockridge district is a little eccentric town of tree-lined streets, with professionals and their families, breezily going about their way down leafy lanes lined with renovated craftsman bungalows. Lake Merritt, some ten minutes walking distance from downtown, is a salt-lake body of water that connects to the estuary. Walkers and joggers round the lake’s 3.5 mile shore daily, and Oaklanders in their canoes, small sail boats, kayaks, and all manner of skiffs and rowboats ply the waters. Whichever neighborhood you have the opportunity to call home, you will enjoy all that Oakland and its residents have to offer. Oakland is the most American of cities in the Bay Area.
About Oakland
Founded in 1852, Oakland, California has history that goes back much further than its 150 years. Native Americans lived in the region for over 5,000 years. The Spanish visited the area in the 1770s, and came to settle about 50 years later. Asians, African Americans, and those of Northern European extraction came with the Gold Rush, and put down their own roots.
Washington Street
The transcontinental railroad arrived in Oakland in 1869. To accommodate tired passengers, the area near the station at 7th Street and Broadway grew into Oakland’s first shopping district. Washington Street, just around the corner from the station, included both hotels and shopping. Oakland’s fourth City Hall presides over the street in 1888.
Dimond District
Oakland’s Dimond District bears the name of Hugh Dimond whose home was once located in present-day Dimond Park. The Altenheim looms on the horizon in this1890 photo (see photo below) taken from “Prospect Hill” at the intersection of present-day Lincoln Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard.
History of Oakland
1200 b.c. Ohlone Indians settle in the area that would become Oakland.
1772 Spanish explorers are the first Europeans to visit the East Bay.
1797 Established in Fremont, Mission de San José extends Spanish jurisdiction over the area that would become Oakland.
1820 Luis Maria Peralta is awarded a 44,800-acre land grant from the King of Spain that includes most of present-day Alameda County.
1821 The first non-Native American dwelling in what is now Oakland is built by Antonio Maria Peralta near Paxton and 34th Streets.
1842 Don Peralta divides his land among his four sons. Most of Oakland lies within the shares given to Antonio Maria and Vicente. Full-scale logging operations begin in the East Bay Hills by new settlers.
1849 During the California Gold Rush, Oakland becomes the mainland staging point for passengers and cargo traveling between the Bay and the Sierra foothills.
Oakland Fast Facts
Population 399,484
Female 51.7%
Male 48.3%
Median Age 33.0
Ethnic Makeup:
Afro American 35.7%
Asian 15.2%
Hispanic 21.9%
White/Caucasian 31.3%
Other 34.7%
Climate
| Month | Avg Hi | Avg Lo | Avg Precip |
| Jan | 57°F | 45°F | 4.85 in. |
| Feb | 61°F | 48°F | 4.27 in. |
| Mar | 63°F | 49°F | 3.56 in. |
| Apr | 66°F | 51°F | 1.38 in. |
| May | 69°F | 53°F | 0.57 in. |
| Jun | 72°F | 56°F | 0.11 in. |
| Jul | 73°F | 57°F | 0.07 in. |
| Aug | 73°F | 58°F | 0.10 in. |
| Sep | 75°F | 58°F | 0.33 in. |
| Oct | 72°F | 55°F | 1.33 in. |
| Nov | 64°F | 49°F | 3.14 in. |
| Dec | 58°F | 45°F | 3.23 in. |
Berkeley
About Berkeley
There’s more to Berkeley than the University of California. While the campus may be the city’s economic and cultural nexus, Berkeley’s neighborhoods are as distinctive as they are diverse. From the scruffy, countercultural appeal of Telegraph Avenue to the Olympian grandeur of the hills and the post-industrial hip of Fourth Street, the communities of Berkeley all celebrate the city’s iconoclastic but self-assured character.
U.C. Campus
Perennially ranked among the top three universities in the country, the University of California at Berkeley has much to offer visitors as well as students: museums, libraries, superb views from the campanile, public lectures by Nobel laureates, world-class entertainment and NCAA sports. The main campus is situated with a compact elegance at the base of the rugged hills that are home to the Strawberry Canyon recreational area and the Lawrence Hall of Science. Campus life for Cal’s 35,000 students centers (inasmuch as it centers at all) on Sproul Plaza and Sather Gate. In the sunny plaza in front of the administration building, you can find dozens of student organizations staffing tables at lunchtime.
History of Berkeley
In the beginning, there were cows.
Where the University of California campus and the City of Berkeley now stand, the cattle of the Peralta Rancho land grant roamed, more or less unobstructed, until 1873. That was the year that the first 191 students of the newly minted University of California moved from temporary quarters in Oakland into the campus’ two not-quite-finished buildings.
U.C. Berkeley grew and flourished, accompanied by the kind of growing pains particular to a university—enterprising students knocking over trolley cars to create an excuse for missing lectures, and, in 1879, the suspension of the entire sophomore class over their “obscene parody” of the Junior Class Day program. The city of Berkeley grew with the campus; a downtown appeared and prospered. The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, which left Berkeley unscathed, attracted thousands of stability-seeking immigrants from across the Bay. Residential neighborhoods spread out from the campus. University Presidents Benjamin Ide Wheeler and Robert Gordon Sproul presided over the expansion of the university to its present size, securing its prestigious faculty and international reputation.
Where to Stay in Berkeley
Choosing a hotel in Berkeley is a good deal easier than choosing a restaurant. We’ve made it even simpler by breaking Berkeley accommodations down into four basic categories:
I-80 Corridor
With the expansion of high technology/Internet/biotech businesses along Interstate 80, hundreds and hundreds of hotel rooms have magically appeared in nearby modern, multistory business hotels run by national chains. At the foot of University Avenue, there is the Ramada Inn and Holiday Inn Express Motel, while across I-80 at the Berkeley Marina, the Radisson complements its sprawling waterside hotel with a conference center.
Even more hotels have converged near the freeway on rapidly emerging Emeryville to the south: a spanking new Holiday Inn, a Courtyard by Marriott, the just-renovated Sheraton Four Points and the towering new Woodfin. These hotels all come equipped with meeting facilities, computer hook-ups, copiers, fax service and other business necessities.
Climate
| Month | Avg Hi | Avg Lo | Avg Precip |
| Jan | 56°F | 44°F | 5.13 in. |
| Feb | 59°F | 46°F | 4.75 in. |
| Mar | 61°F | 47°F | 4.08 in. |
| Apr | 64°F | 49°F | 1.63 in. |
| May | 67°F | 51°F | 0.61 in. |
| Jun | 70°F | 54°F | 0.14 in. |
| Jul | 70°F | 55°F | 0.07 in. |
| Aug | 71°F | 56°F | 0.10 in. |
| Sep | 72°F | 56°F | 0.36 in. |
| Oct | 70°F | 53°F | 1.37 in. |
| Nov | 62°F | 48°F | 3.62 in. |
| Dec | 57°F | 44°F | 3.54 in. |
Voter Registration
It is important to note that if you are registering to vote for the first time, changing your name or political party, or have moved to a new county, you must also complete a Voter Registration form to update the SOS Elections Division database. Give your completed Voter Registration form to a technician, and DMV will mail it to the SOS Elections Division office for updating.
When applying for or renewing your driver license or identification card at any DMV office, you have the opportunity of registering to vote.
When you have your new address, complete a DMV change of address form, and the Secretary of State (SOS) Elections Division will be notified of your address change. You can download the DMV Change of Address form DMV 14, or you may request a change of address form by calling your local DMV office at 1 (800) 777-0133.
Even if you are not conducting business with DMV, you may pick up Voter Registration forms at any DMV office. Compete the form and mail it to the SOS Elections Division preprinted address on the form.
Public Transportation
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)
(510) 465-2278
P.O. Box 12688,
Oakland CA 94606-2688
Oakland is fairly compact and easy to get around in. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) makes it easy to get around the entire region. The Oakland airport is located just a few miles from downtown, and very close to the coliseum and arena.
AC Transit
817-1717
1600 Franklin Street
Oakland, CA 94612-2800
511 and ask for AC Transit.
AC Transit is an innovative, modern bus system, owned by the public of the East Bay.
Amtrak
(510) 238-4306 or (800) 872-7245
245 Second St. at Alice Street
Jack London Square, Oakland
Amtrak trains bound for the north (Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington) and south (Los Angeles) leave daily from the Oakland station and from the Berkeley station, located on Third Street at University Avenue. Although there is no train station in San Francisco, Amtrak passengers can catch shuttle buses from San Francisco’s Ferry Building, located on the Embarcadero between Market and Mission streets. The buses connect to the Emeryville Amtrak station in the East Bay.
Greyhound Bus
(800) 231-2222
Service from Oakland and Berkeley to numerous locations throughout the United States.
Air Transportation
Oakland International Airport
(510) 577-4000
1 Airport Drive at Hegenberger Boulevard
About 30 km (20 miles) southeast of San Francisco
Getting into the city:
Taxi: 40- to 60-minute trip to San Francisco, $35-$50, daily 24 hours.
Bus: AC Transit, tel. 1/510/817-1717, 45- to 60-minute trip to downtown Oakland, every 15-30 minutes, Mon-Fri 5:40am- 12:50am, Sat-Sun 6:20am-12:50am, fare $1.25. From downtown Oakland, take Bus A, C, F, N, O, T to San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal.
Subway: BART, tel. 1/510/562-7700, 15- to 30-minute trip from Coliseum Station to downtown San Francisco, every 30 minutes, Mon-Fri 6am-11:30pm, Sat-Sun 8am-11:30pm, fare $2.75. To reach the Coliseum Station from the airport, take an AirBART shuttle bus, 15- to 30-minute trip, every 30 minutes, Mon-Fri 6am- 11:30pm, Sat-Sun 8am-11:30pm, fare $2. Passengers must purchase tickets at machines inside the airport.
Limo: Precision Limousine, tel. 1/800/559-6200, 40-minute trip to San Francisco, daily 24 hours, fare $63-$88. Shuttle: BayPorter Express, tel. 1/415/467-1800, 45-minute trip to San Francisco, every hour, daily 6:30am-midnight, fare $20.
Dining & Nightlife
Though a fairly small city, the scope and influence of Berkeley’s restaurant scene are positively outsized. California Cuisine started here, after all. The effects of Chez Panisse and chef/owner Alice Waters’ fresh food revolution are still being felt as far as Paris (where she has been asked to set up a restaurant at the Louvre). The East Bay’s other top-flight “white tablecloth” restaurants are very much in Waters’ vanguard: each fall Robert and Maggie Klein journey to Tuscany to find extra virgin olive oil good enough for their Rockridge restaurant, Oliveto. Whether elegant or casual, it is simply impossible to find a more international selection of restaurants than in Berkeley. Within a few blocks of campus, one can dine inexpensively on the cuisine of at least fifty different countries. And, should the culinary climate inspire one to head to the kitchen, a range of cooking and specialty food stores stands ready to meet the most epicurean requirements (see District Guides).
Film
The Pacific Film Archive at the Berkeley Art Museum on Bancroft puts together often obscure but consistently riveting programs at their 234-seat theater, and has a great little cafe to boot. Down the street, the UC Theater is a revival house’s revival house. One screen, 1,300 seats, faded art deco flourishes—if only the sound system were better. Factoid: the UC (not connected with the university) showed the Rocky Horror Picture show every Saturday night for 25 years. Berkeley is one city where downtown movie houses are thriving. The Fine Arts, the Landmark’s Act One and Two, the California, the Shattuck, and the UA Berkeley form a four-block, 25-screen phalanx, but it’s still not enough to keep shows from selling out. Quick and fun downtown eateries make it a great scene for a cheap date. The Oaks and the Albany are reliable old favorites for North Berkeleyites. The Elmwood Cinema has slightly cheaper tickets for last month’s best movies and is located within a stone’s throw of a dozen restaurants. The Dolbyized neo-Deco Emery Bay 10, right off the freeway in nearby Emeryville, provides movie-goers with a mulitplex of dinner choices in the Emery Bay Market’s international food court.
Theater
Many critics consider the award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre (or Berkeley Rep, as it’s commonly known) to be the finest theater company in the Bay Area—some feel it’s the best outside of New York. Since 1968, the Rep has been rewarding audiences with challenging, contemporary drama, and has become possibly the largest performing arts organization in Northern California. The theater is at 2025 Addison Street in downtown Berkeley (+1 510 204 8901, http://www.berkeleyrep.org/). Other, smaller ensembles round out the Berkeley theater scene: in North Berkeley, the Actors Ensemble Theater plays at the Live Oak Park Theater.
Music
Classical
The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra is one of the best-kept musical secrets in the country. Conducted by rising star Kent Nagano, the Berkeley Symphony puts on an adventurous program of works by contemporary composers like John Adams, leavened with Brahms, Beethoven and Bruckner. Nagano’s reputation attracts the highest echelon of soloists. The Berkeley Symphony performs at Zellerbach and Hertz Halls on the U.C. campus, as well as in San Francisco. Further information can be found at http://www.berkeleysymphony.org/.
Recommended Tours
The center of student life is Sproul Plaza, opening off Bancroft Way at Telegraph Avenue. It is easily reached from the Downtown Berkeley BART station by walking up Center Street and following Strawberry Creek though the eucalyptus groves to the lower half of the plaza. The plaza’s upper half, fronted by imposing, neo-classical Sproul Hall (the administration building) was the site of the first Free Speech Movement sit-ins. It was here that in October, 1964, FSM leader Mario Savio mobilized a massive, two-day student protest from the roof of a police car containing arrested student organizer Jack Weinberg. In fact, the front steps of Sproul Hall are now called the Mario Savio Steps. Look for the plaque, set into the center of the top step fronting the plaza. Still bustling in these less momentous times, upper Sproul Plaza is filled with recruiting tables at lunchtime. Myriad student organizations (political, religious, environmental and social) enjoy the freedoms won by Savio and his comrades to lobby for political causes of every stripe, as well as to bring their classmates to the Student Christian Fellowship.
Dividing upper Sproul Plaza from lower Sproul Plaza is the King Student Union. In the King basement are bookstores, Cal clothing and gift shops, and a snack bar. Outside, in the lower plaza, pickup drum bands lay down Afro-Latin rhythms on evenings and weekends. On the other side of lower Sproul is Zellerbach Hall, the venue for the many attractions of Cal Performances.
Sports
Golden State Warriors Basketball
1011 Broadway
Oakland, CA
(510) 986-2200
Oakland Athletics Baseball
7000 Coliseum Way
Oakland, CA
(510) 430-8020
Oakland Raiders Football
1220 Harbor Bay Pkwy
Oakland, CA
(510) 864-5000
U of C Athletics
A founding member of the Pac 10 Conference, Cal fronts teams in every major sport played at the American collegiate level—or at least those sports not requiring the presence of ice or snow. The California Golden Bears, as its teams are known, play football at Memorial Coliseum and basketball at the Haas Pavillion. Pac 10 competition includes big names like UCLA, Washington, Arizona, USC and, of course, hated rival Stanford. Further information about sports at Cal is available at http://calbears.fansonly.com.
During Cal’s long history, just about every team has won an NCAA championship at one time or another (or in the case of the football Bears, the Rose Bowl). The men’s basketball team has been improving of late, and won the NIT tournament in 1998. There is one sport, however, in which Cal has always been dominant: water polo.
Education
Community Colleges
Community colleges exist for two major purposes. The first is to serve as a bridge from high school to college by providing courses for transfer toward a bachelor’s degree. Four out of 10 collegebound high-school graduates start their college education this way.
The second function of community colleges is to prepare students for the job market by offering entry-level career training as well as courses for adult students who want to upgrade their skills for the workplace. They often offer programs that are not available at four-year schools, like fashion design.
Liberal Arts Colleges
Liberal arts colleges offer a broad base of courses in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Most are private and focus mainly on undergraduate students. Classes tend to be small and personal attention is available.
Online Learning
Recent years have witnessed the rise of online degree programs, to allow the busy professional a chance to work at their own pace from the comfort of their home on the path to getting a degree. The costs to students are typically the same as for traditional classes— and financial aid is equally available—while the cost to the institution can be much less.
There are online universities ranging from legitimate distance learning systems to fly-by-night degree-mills. It’s important to research a particular institution before deciding to enroll in their system. Generally, brick-and-mortar schools that also offer online classes are the safest, though there are plenty of fully accredited online universities out there.
Nearly 3 million students are believed to be taking online classes at institutions of higher education in the United States this year. That number has been growing about 25% a year recently. Now, virtually all public higher education institutions, as well as a vast majority of private, for-profit institutions, now offer online classes. By contrast, only about half of private, nonprofit schools offer them. Online schools offer everything from Associate’s degrees to Doctoral programs with available emphases in everything from Business Administration to Criminal Justice to Nursing. Some programs require students to attend some campus classes or orientations, but many are delivered completely online. Online courses generally require a computer with a broadband connection, but are now a serious option for the busy professional.
Public vs. Private
Public colleges are usually less expensive, particularly for in-state residents. They get most of their money from the state or local government. Private colleges rely on tuition, fees, endowments, and other private sources. Private colleges are usually smaller and can offer more personalized attention and often more prestige.
Universities
Generally, a university is bigger than a college and offers more majors and research facilities. Class size often reflects institutional size and some classes may taught by graduate students.
Upper Division
Upper-division schools offer the last two years of undergraduate study, usually in specialized programs leading to a bachelor’s degree. Students then generally transfer to an upper-division college after completing an associate degree or after finishing a second year of study at a four-year college.
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