Bay Farm Island is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of the city of

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda (island), Alam ...

, though it is separated from the rest of the city on

Alameda Island Alameda Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay in California. It is south and west of, and adjacent to, Oakland, California, Oakland, and across the bay eastward from San Francisco. Located on the island is most of the city of Ala ...

by an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

San Leandro Bay San Leandro Bay is a body of water in the San Francisco Bay. It is connected to the Oakland Estuary today, but was originally separated by land which formerly connected Alameda with Oakland. It is located along the east of the Oakland Internat ...

. Its ZIP code is 94502. The location was originally an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in San Francisco Bay, but due to land reclamation it has become a

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

and is now connected to the mainland of

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

and

Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States, 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by the Port of Oakland and has domestic passenger f ...

. Marshes and other areas of the island were also reclaimed. Prior to 20th century development, Bay Farm Island was farmland with

asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. It was once classified in ...

being the principal crop, thus it was also formerly known as ''Asparagus Island''. In addition, the area was the site of large

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...

beds which regularly supplied restaurants in nearby San Francisco. Bay Farm is home to the 36-hole Chuck Corica Golf Complex, office and retail complexes, and several housing developments. There is a chain of lagoons as well as several community parks including Shoreline Park. Four elementary schools serve the island: Bay Farm Elementary, Chinese Christian School, Coastline Christian School, and Amelia Earhart Elementary. Bay Farm was the home of the headquarters of the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

when the team was in Oakland from 1995 until 2020. A

greenbelt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...

is also present which encompasses the perimeter of the peninsula.

Harbor Bay Isle

The largest development on Bay Farm is named "Harbor Bay Isle", generally bounded to the north and east portion of the island by Island Drive and Mecartney Road. Harbor Bay Isle is divided into seven villages; six villages cover twenty homeowner's associations in each of the residential

subdivision Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...

s, and one village covers commercial interests, including the Harbor Bay business park. Harbor Bay Isle excludes the three southern townhome developments, Islandia, Casitas, and Garden Isle, as well as the single-family homes to the east of Island Drive. Much of the development is built on

reclaimed land Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lak ...

Southern Crossing

Bay Farm was proposed as a site for the eastern end of another bridge from San Francisco across

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

. The so-called Southern Crossing was first conceptualized in the 1940s and canceled in 1958.

Schools

There are four elementary schools on Bay Farm Island: Bay Farm Elementary, Chinese Christian School, Coastline Christian School, and Amelia Earhart Elementary. The latter is named for aviator

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...

, who started many of her flights from the nearby Oakland Airport.

Notable residents

Chris Isaak Christopher Joseph Isaak (born June 26, 1956) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional actor. He is widely known for his breakthrough hit and signature song "Wicked Game", as well as other songs such as "Blue Hotel", "Baby D ...

, recording artist *

David Segui David Vincent Segui, (; born July 19, 1966) is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman. Segui was born in Kansas City, Kansas, the son of former Major League baseball pitcher Diego Seguí. He played collegiate baseball for Louisia ...

, former MLB first baseman *

Jim Otto James Edwin Otto (born January 5, 1938) is an American former professional football player who played as a center for the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. He played collegia ...

, former center for Oakland Raiders *

Stan Bunger Stan Bunger (born June 8, 1956 in San Francisco, California) is an American broadcast journalist. He was the morning co-anchor at KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM in San Francisco from 2000 until his retirement in 2021. He first joined KCBS in 1982 an ...

, radio broadcast journalist

Public transit

AC Transit AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...

provides local bus service in addition to express commuter "Transbay" service to the

Transbay Terminal The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2 ...

in Downtown

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. In the weekday mornings and afternoons there are student only bus rides from neighborhoods on Bay Farm Island to various local schools. The free Harbor Bay Business Park Shuttle connects the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal with the Harbor Bay Business Park and

Oakland Coliseum station The Oakland Coliseum station complex is located in the East Oakland area of Oakland, California, United States. The complex consists of two separate stations, Amtrak's Oakland Coliseum station, and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)'s Coliseum stati ...

. In addition, the Harbor Bay Ferry provides commuter (rush hour) service to the

San Francisco Ferry Building The San Francisco Ferry Building is a terminal for ferries that travel across the San Francisco Bay, a food hall and an office building. It is located on The Embarcadero in San Francisco, California and is served by Golden Gate Ferry and San ...

. Harbor Bay Ferry website

References

External links

* * {{San Francisco Bay watershed, state=autocollapse Islands of Alameda County, California Islands of Northern California Bay Farm Island Islands of San Francisco Bay