Closeup aerial view of Downtown Oakland and Lakeside Park

Downtown Oakland is the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

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 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

; roughly bounded by both the

Oakland Estuary The Oakland Estuary is the strait in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, separating the cities of Oakland and Alameda and the Alameda Island from the East Bay mainland. On its western end, it connects to San Francisco Bay San Francis ...

and Interstate 880 on the southwest,

Interstate 980 Interstate 980 (I-980) is a short auxiliary Interstate Highway entirely within Oakland in Northern California, connecting I-580 and State Route 24 (SR 24) to I-880 near Downtown Oakland. I-980 passes the Oakland Convention ...

on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and

Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. It is historically significant as the United States' first official wildlife refuge, designate ...

on the east. The Downtown area is sometimes expanded to refer to the industrial and residential

Jack London Square Jack London Square is an entertainment and business destination on the waterfront of Oakland, California, United States. Named after the author Jack London and owned by the Port of Oakland, it is the home of stores, restaurants, hotels, Amtrak ...

and Jack London warehouse district areas, the Lakeside Apartments District, which are a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of

, the Civic Center district,

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

, and the south end of Oakland's Broadway Auto Row, an area along Broadway which has historically been used by car dealers and other automotive service businesses. While many consider these areas outside of downtown proper, they are generally considered more geographically proximate to Downtown Oakland than to

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 ...

, North Oakland or to

West Oakland West Oakland is a neighborhood situated in the northwestern corner of Oakland, California, United States, situated west of Downtown Oakland, south of Emeryville, and north of Alameda. The neighborhood is located along the waterfront at the P ...

and are thus sometimes associated with Downtown Oakland.

Culture

Black Cowboy Parade

Downtown Oakland hosts the only celebration of its kind in the nation in memory of the

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

s who helped settle the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

. The annual parade typically begins on an early October weekend at DeFremery Park in West Oakland en route to Frank H. Ogawa Plaza where judging booths are set up. After an awards ceremony, the parade returns to DeFremery Park for a celebration. Downtown Oakland view from Lake Merritt

Land use and points of interest

Downtown Oakland is home to apartment and condominium dwellers, numerous retail businesses, tall modern office buildings, shorter

mixed-use Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

historic buildings, the hubs of

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 ...

and

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...

, which has three underground stations, the city's official Entertainment District which includes the historic

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

and Fox Theatres, nightclubs, and restaurants, the headquarters of

Clorox The Clorox Company (formerly Clorox Chemical Company) is an American global manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products. As of 2020 the Oakland, California based company had approximately 8,800 employees worldwide. Net sales ...

City Center A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

, a portion of Old Oakland, and a portion of

. Downtown includes a portion of the oldest part of the city. The area from the

inland to 14th Street between West Street and the Lake Merritt Channel was the original site of Oakland, and there are several 19th century houses scattered around the edges of downtown and in Chinatown. The

Oakland Museum The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cal ...

is located on Oak Street near the southeastern edge of Downtown.

Education

Higher education

Laney College Laney College is a Public college, public community college in Oakland, California. Laney is the largest of the four colleges of the Peralta Community College District which serves northern Alameda County, California, Alameda County. Laney Coll ...

, with more than 12,000 students, is located on Fallon Street near the Lake Merritt BART station. Other educational institutions include Lincoln University, a small business school catering mainly to international students, and a downtown office of Cal State East Bay.

Oaksterdam University Oaksterdam University is self-recognized as the world's first cannabis college. Located in Oakland, CA, the educational facility was founded in November 2007 by medical marijuana activist Richard Lee to offer quality training for the cannabis ...

, a business college which prepares students for

medical cannabis Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...

work, is located on 15th Street in an area referred to as " Oaksterdam". The original campus of

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

was located between Franklin, Harrison, 12th and 14th streets; and the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

system is currently headquartered in Downtown.

Public primary and secondary education

Lincoln Elementary School, one of the few public elementary schools in the downtown of a major US city, is on the edge of downtown, near the center of Chinatown. The Oakland School for the Arts, a

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

, is building a new facility surrounding the Fox Oakland Theatre in Oakland's

Uptown Oakland Uptown Oakland is a neighborhood in Oakland, California, located in the northern end of Downtown. It is located roughly between West Grand Avenue to the north, Interstate 980 to the west, City Center and 14th Street to the south, and Broadway to ...

Transportation

Motor vehicle limitations

City Hall Plaza is a city park and a "pedestrian plaza" which includes what was once the terminus of San Pablo Avenue where it met Broadway at 14th Street. It also includes 15th Street, which once ran through what is now "Kahn's Alley," past the 250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza building, across Clay Street, through what is now a glass windowed lobby of the California State office building, connecting with Jefferson Street on the building's west side entrance. Motor vehicle traffic has also been excluded from where former city streets, Washington street and 13th street, were once aligned through what is now the

Oakland City Center Oakland City Center is an office, shopping and hotel complex in Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California. The complex is the product of a redevelopment project begun in the late 1950s. It covers twelve city blocks between Broadway on the east, Marti ...

development. Today, the area features an outdoor retail mall with pedestrian streets laid out to replicate the original street grid.

BART

Three subway

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 ...

stations serve downtown: 12th Street/Oakland City Center and 19th Street are both located on the Broadway subway corridor, while

station is in the eastern area of

, at 8th and Oak Streets. Most BART trains travel through the

Oakland Wye The Oakland Wye is an underground flying wye junction in downtown Oakland, California which serves the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. Trains can switch between (a) the northbound Richmond or Antioch lines (first station: , underground), ...

Broadway and 13th SE entrance to 12th Street station, April 2020

AC Transit

Several routes operated by AC Transit pass through or end in Downtown Oakland. These include: Local Routes * 1T: upgraded bus service featuring partial center dedicated lanes and median stops, from Downtown Oakland (11th + Clay) to San Leandro BART via International Boulevard * 6: Downtown Oakland (10th + Washington) to Downtown Berkeley (Oxford + Addison) via most of

Telegraph Avenue Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California, Berkeley campu ...

* 12: Jack London Square Amtrak Station to Berkeley–Westbrae (Gilman + Sixth) via parts of Grand Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Way (mostly in Berkeley), and Gilman Street (Berkeley) * 14: West Oakland BART to

Fruitvale BART ''Fruitvale Station'' is a 2013 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler. It is Coogler's feature directorial debut and is based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man killed in 2009 by Bay A ...

via 14th Street and parts of East 18th Street, East 21st Street, East 27th Street, School Street, and High Street * 18: Lake Merritt BART to Albany–

UC Village UC Village, also called University Village or University Village Albany, is a housing community for students and postdocs who are married or have dependents. It is owned and administered by the University of California, Berkeley. It is located wit ...

via parts of Martin Luther King Jr. Way,

Shattuck Avenue Shattuck Avenue is a major city street running north–south through Berkeley, California, and Oakland, California. At its southern end, the street branches from Telegraph Avenue in Oakland's Temescal district, then ends at Indian Rock Park i ...

(mostly Berkeley), and Solano Avenue (Berkeley and Albany) * 19: Downtown Oakland (11th + Jefferson) to Fruitvale BART via Buena Vista Avenue (

Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...

) * 20: Downtown Oakland (11th + Jefferson) to the

Dimond District The Dimond District () is a neighborhood centered on the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue in East Oakland, Oakland, California, East Oakland, California, in the United States. It is located about two miles east of Lake Merr ...

(Fruitvale + MacArthur) via parts of Webster Street (in Alameda), Alameda South Shore Center, Park Street (Alameda), and Fruitvale Avenue * 29:

Emeryville Emeryville may refer to: * Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San ...

(Christie + 64th) to Trestle Glen (Lakeshore + Walavista) via Hollis Street (mostly Emeryville), Peralta Street, parts of 10th, 11th, and 12th Streets, and Lakeshore Avenue * 33:

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

(Highland Avenue + Highland Way) to Montclair (Moraga + La Salle) via Hampton Road (Piedmont), Oakland Avenue, Harrison Street, and eventually to Park Boulevard * 40: Downtown Oakland (11th + Jefferson) to Bay Fair BART via parts of Foothill Boulevard, Bancroft Avenue, and East 14th Street (San Leandro) * 51A: Rockridge BART to

via Broadway and parts of Webster Street and Santa Clara Avenue (both Alameda) * 62: West Oakland BART to Fruitvale BART via parts of 7th and 8th Streets, 8th Avenue, and 23rd Avenue, passing in front of Highland Hospital. This bus line is unique in not providing service near 12th Street BART station, instead continuing straight on 7th and 8th Streets through Chinatown and into

. * 72 and 72R:

(2nd + Clay; no Amtrak service) to

Hilltop Mall Hilltop Horizon, formerly known as Hilltop Mall, East Bay Science and Technology Center and The Shops At Hilltop, was a regional shopping center in the Hilltop neighborhood of Richmond, California. Hilltop is managed and co-owned by Prologis ...

via parts of San Pablo Avenue. The 72R serves limited stops along the 72 route at higher frequency from Jack London Square to

Contra Costa College Contra Costa College is a public community college in San Pablo, California. It is the west campus of the Contra Costa Community College District. It is part of the California community colleges system, one of the three college systems in Califor ...

; 72 line trips also short turn at Contra Costa College when Hilltop Mall is closed. A few 72, 72R, and 72M trips begin and end outside of downtown Oakland, usually at the beginning and end of service hours, or when providing supplementary service to schools in El Cerrito. * 72M: Jack London Square (2nd + Clay) to

Point Richmond Point Richmond, also sometimes referred to locally as The Point, is a neighborhood in Richmond, California, United States, near the eastern end of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, between Interstate 580 and the San Francisco Bay. History O ...

(Castro + Tewksbury) via parts of San Pablo Avenue and

Macdonald Avenue Macdonald Avenue is the main east-to-west artery in Richmond, California.Posey and Webster Street tubes and serving the west of Alameda. The 314 formerly made two trips per week through downtown Oakland from the West Oakland Post Office to the

Walmart Supercenter Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

at Hegenberger Road and Edgewater Drive in

, via Santa Clara Avenue (Alameda) and Doolittle Drive. Service has been suspended on this line since March 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Transbay Routes * NL:

Transbay Transit Center The Transbay Transit Center (officially the Salesforce Transit Center for sponsorship purposes) is a transit station in downtown San Francisco. It serves as the primary bus terminal — and potentially as a future rail terminal — for the San ...

(San Francisco) to Eastmont Transit Center via parts of West Grand Avenue, 20th Street (Thomas L. Berkley Way), Grand Avenue, and MacArthur Boulevard, serving limited stops * O: Transbay Transit Center to Fruitvale BART, mainly via Santa Clara Avenue (Alameda). In the San Francisco direction, buses make one stop at 7th and Alice Streets in Chinatown; towards Fruitvale BART, one stop is made near downtown at 5th and Washington Streets, and another in West Oakland at 5th and Market Streets. * W: Transbay Transit Center to Bridgeside Shopping Center (Alameda) via parts of Webster Street and High Street (both only in Alameda). The W serves the same stops in Oakland as the O.

All-Nighter All Nighter or Allnighter may refer to: * ''All Nighter'' (film), a 2017 comedy * ''The Allnighter'' (film), a 1987 comedy * ''The Allnighter'' (album), a 1984 album by Glenn Frey * All Nighter (night bus service), a network in the San Francisc ...

Routes (all routes meet near 20th Street and Broadway) * 800: the sole late-night Transbay service, from the Transbay Transit Center to Richmond BART/Amtrak via parts of 7th Street, Telegraph Avenue, University Avenue (Berkeley), San Pablo Avenue (Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito) and Macdonald Avenue (Richmond), approximating the route of BART service from Richmond * 802: to Berkeley Amtrak via San Pablo Avenue * 805: to

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 ...

via parts of Grand Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard, and 73rd Avenue * 840: to Eastmont Transit Center via parts of Foothill Boulevard * 851: Downtown Berkeley BART to Fruitvale BART via parts of Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue (Berkeley), College Avenue, Broadway, and Santa Clara Avenue (Alameda) The 1T continues to run at late nights, replacing a segment of line 801 upon the opening of line 1T in August 2020. Passengers may transfer at San Leandro BART to 801 service via International Boulevard, East 14th Street, and Mission Boulevard, approximating the route of BART service from Fremont. Transit passengers traveling in and out of downtown are serviced by various

stops near Broadway and 12th Street, loosely connected to 12th Street BART, as well as the Uptown Transit Center bus mall on 20th Street, connected to 19th Street BART. The Uptown Transit Center features multiple bus shelters with seating,

NextBus NextBus is a public transit vehicle tracking system which uses global positioning satellite information to predict when the next vehicle will arrive at any given transit stop, which attempts to reduce wait times and reliance on schedules. NextBus ...

arrival prediction signs, and local and

Rapid Bus Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd is the largest bus operator in Malaysia operating mainly in urban areas of Klang Valley, Penang & Kuantan. As of August 2022, Rapid KL service brands unit of Rapid Bus, has operates 112 normal routes and also 69 MRT Fe ...

service to Oakland's

streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...

s. These stations host local service,

Rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

service, Transbay Express, and All Nighter service. (Some, but not all, other bus stops in downtown Oakland also include shelters and arrival signs.) A

Clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...

Add Value Machine is located at AC Transit headquarters at 1600 Franklin Street, as well as at all BART stations.

Gondola

The

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

made a proposal to have a privately financed

gondola lift A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supp ...

travel on Washington Street from 10th Street near City Center to Water Street in Jack London Square. It is proposed as a new mode of transportation to the team's future ballpark in Jack London Square. There would be approximately 12-14 gondola cabins, each of which would carry about 35 people, with a projection of 6,000 people transported per hour. This project is estimated to be completed in 2023.

Community Benefit Districts

The Downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt/Uptown District Associations are community benefit districts that were formed in February 2009. Property owners in both Downtown Oakland and the Lake Merritt/Uptown Districts voted by a margin of almost 8 to 1 to support a voluntary property tax to fund services that would improve the quality of life in their respective communities. The associations meet and function jointly. Services funded by these Districts include maintaining cleanliness and order in the public rights of way, improving district identity and advocating on behalf of the area's property owners, business owners and residents. In June 2013, the districts were recognized by the International Downtown Association (IDA) and named the IDA's June Downtown of the Month. The district boards have three organizational committees, including the DISI (District Identity and Street Improvement) Committee, the SOBO (Sidewalk Operations, Beautification & Order) Committee and the Joint ORG (Organization) Committee. The DISI Committee promotes the identity of the districts, encourages economic development and works to create a vibrant downtown through public relations, marketing, and special events. The SOBO Committee oversees cleanliness and order in the public rights of way and manages service providers in keeping with the expectations of our organization and the needs of the community. Through diligent planning and thoughtful allocation of resources, the SOBO committee executes projects that effectively beautify and enhance the safety of the districts for the long term, creating vibrant and celebrated public spaces. And lastly, the Joint Organization Committee oversees the general administration of the corporations, ensures the effective operation of the board, acts as the coordinating framework through which the other committees function efficiently, and works to increase involvement and support for the organizations. The districts have helped fund several neighborhood beautification/improvement projects and initiatives, including The Latham Square pedestrian plaza, back of BART planter boxes, hanging flower baskets and banners, and median landscaping projects, to name a few.

Historic districts

The

Downtown Oakland Historic District The Downtown Oakland Historic District, in the Downtown Oakland area of Oakland, California, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The listing included 43 contributing buildings, one contributing site and one contrib ...

was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1998. The listing included 43

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

, one

contributing site In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

and one

contributing object In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

. and Other historic districts have been designated in Old Oakland: the Lakeside Apartments district, Preservation Park, and the Waterfront

Warehouse district This is a list of notable warehouse districts. A warehouse district or warehouse row is an area found in many urban setting known for being the current or former location of numerous warehouses. Logistically, warehouses are often located in indust ...

References

{{Oakland, California neighborhoods Economy of Oakland, California Neighborhoods in Oakland, California