International Boulevard (in

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 ...

), East 14th Street (in

San Leandro San Leandro (Spanish for " St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland to the northwest, and Ashland, Castro Valley, and Hayward to the sout ...

), and Mission Boulevard (in Hayward, Union City, and Fremont) are a major road in

Alameda County, California Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. Al ...

. The section now known as International Boulevard was also named East 14th Street until 1996, owing to its position in the

East Oakland East Oakland is a geographical region of Oakland, California, United States, that stretches between Lake Merritt in the northwest and San Leandro in the southeast. As the southeastern portion of the city, East Oakland takes up the largest portio ...

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogona ...

; though fully deprecated within the city of Oakland today, this name is still commonly used, especially in casual speech. (East 14th Street is the only correct name in the city of San Leandro to this day.) Mission Boulevard is so named as number 43300 is the location of

Mission San José Mission San José may refer to: *Mission San José (California), a Spanish mission in Fremont, California * Mission San Jose, Fremont, California, a neighborhood *Mission San Jose High School, a high school in Fremont, California *Mission San José ...

. South of 42nd Avenue and the end of

California State Route 77 California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

(CA-77, SR 77, or "Highway 77"), the street is signed as CA-185; after the junction with CA-92 (which carries the San Mateo Bridge) in Hayward, it is signed as part of CA-238; between I-680 and I-880, it is signed as the relatively obscure CA-262. The Oakland portion features

median strip The median strip, central reservation, roadway median, or traffic median is the reserved area that separates opposing lanes of traffic on divided roadways such as divided highways, dual carriageways, freeways, and motorways. The term also a ...

boarding platforms to accommodate the

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 ...

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

line. International Boulevard, East 14th Street, and Mission Boulevard are each among the longest continuously-named streets in the Bay Area individually. The numbers along the International Boulevard are notable in that they are continuous, growing with no large gaps from 102 International Boulevard (at 1st Avenue, one block from Lake Merritt), to 10970 International Boulevard (at the intersection with Durant Avenue on the Oakland/San Leandro border). In 1996, the city of Oakland renamed its portion of East 14th Street as International Boulevard to acknowledge the cultural diversity of the route, and to address the stigma of the segment being seen as a high-crime area. Fruitvale, a neighborhood of Oakland with a large Hispanic population, is centered on International Boulevard's intersections with Fruitvale and 35th Avenues, and has seen considerable economic growth in recent years. Immediately northwest of Fruitvale are many businesses long owned locally by East and Southeast Asian residents. Much of the rest of International Boulevard is made up of predominantly low-income African-American communities. Some portions of International Boulevard have gained a reputation as areas of prostitution, and are part of Oakland's continuing troubles with underage prostitution. An award-winning short film about underage prostitution,
International Boulevard: A Documentary
',Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
covers the issue of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) in Oakland, and on a national level.

Transportation

AC Transit 1T runs on the boulevard north of Davis Street, running in the median with center boarding islands between Durant Avenue and 20th Avenue.

References and sources

Streets in Alameda County, California Streets in Oakland, California {{California-road-stub