Frank H. Ogawa Plaza is a public square located in Downtown Oakland.

Location and elements

Occupy Oakland Nov 12 2011 PM 29.jpg Frank H. Ogawa Plaza is located where San Pablo Avenue converges with Broadway and 14th Street. The west side of the plaza is the site of

Oakland City Hall Oakland City Hall is the seat of government for the city of Oakland, California. The current building was completed in 1914, and replaced a prior building that stood on what is now Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Standing at the height of , it was the first ...

and a city office building. Around the plaza are several Beaux-Arts styled commercial buildings from the early 20th century. New buildings have been constructed to fit visually with the older architecture. The plaza is a public space. Most of the plaza is composed of "The Commons", a raised lawn. The plaza also features "The Forum", or amphitheater—a space for public gatherings and performances. A portion of San Pablo Avenue which runs along the north side of the plaza has been

pedestrianized Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

and incorporated into the plaza, along with the blocks of 15th Street on either side of the plaza. An entrance to the 12th Street/Oakland City Center BART station is located at the intersection with Broadway. At the center of the plaza is a single large Coast Live Oak, the symbol of the city. The plaza is adjacent to the Oakland City Center complex, directly across 14th Street to the south.

Latham Square Latham may refer to: Places Australia * Latham, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra, Australia * Latham, Western Australia Tanzania * Latham Island United States * Latham, Illinois, a small town * Latham, Kansas, a small town * Lat ...

, a small plaza where Telegraph Avenue converges with Broadway, is one block to the northeast.

History

In 1896, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' reported on a young

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

giving speeches in what was then called "City Hall park". The open space in front of the city hall was part of Oakland's Administrative Buildings project that included the redevelopment of the city center in 1994. 1998 marked the completion of the renovated plaza. Along with being the seat of government, the area has become part of the city's arts culture with the annual Art and Soul Festival and publicly commissioned art. In 2001, the city council commissioned a sculpture for the plaza from artist

Bruce Beasley Bruce Beasley (born 1939, in Los Angeles, California) is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born in Los Angeles and currently living and working in Oakland, California. He attended Dartmouth College from 1957–59, and the University of Ca ...

. The sculpture, ''Vitality'', was completed in 2002. The plaza has been the site of various protests and civil disobedience.

Name of the plaza

In 1998, the Oakland City Council renamed City Hall Plaza as "Frank H. Ogawa Plaza" in honor of

Frank H. Ogawa Frank Hirao Ogawa (May 17, 1917 – July 13, 1994) was a civil rights leader and the first Japanese American to serve on the Oakland City Council, of which he was a member from 1966 until his death in 1994. Early life A Nisei, Ogawa was ...

, a

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

leader and the first

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

to serve on the Oakland City Council. Ogawa served on the Council from 1966 until his death in 1994. The plaza displays a bronze bust of Ogawa.

Occupy Oakland

Members of Occupy Oakland used Ogawa Plaza as a main protest encampment in the fall of 2011. Their presence was criticized for potential health and safety concerns. However, others defended the camp, presenting statistics showing that Oakland became safer during the occupation; they showed e-mails of police attempting to cover that up. Frank H. Ogawa Plaza was unofficially renamed as "Oscar Grant Plaza" by the Occupy Oakland protesters.

Oscar Grant Oscar Grant III was a 22-year-old African-American man who was killed in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009 by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid ...

was a young Hayward man who was shot in the back while lying on the ground by a

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes on of rapid transit lines, including a spur line in eastern Contra Costa County which uses ...

police officer in 2009.

References

{{Oakland, California Occupy Oakland Parks in Oakland, California Tourist attractions in Oakland, California Squares in the United States