Ridgemont is a neighborhood in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, next to

Merritt College Merritt College is a Public college, public community college in Oakland, California, United States. Merritt, like the other three campuses of the Peralta Community College District, is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accr ...

along Campus Drive, the main thoroughfare at the ridgeline. First developed in the 1970s and 1980s, the

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

(one of the last undeveloped parcels in the city of Oakland at the time) began as a subdivision of large, pre-designed, fairly uniform, redwood suburban-style homes. As the Ridgemont subdivision grew, new construction brought to it large estates, both subdivision planned and individual architect-designed. These, the largest homes of the neighborhood, were placed on the neighborhood crest and nearby highest points of the hillsides to take advantage of three-bridge views of the Bay. A newer subdivision,"Monte Vista Homes," on the lower slopes below the Ridgemont subdivision, commenced in 2005 as Desilva, a real estate developer, began building on slopes of the defunct Leona quarry (also known as the Alma

pyrite The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

mine). In preparation for the new subdivision, the development team subcontracted land restoration teams so that the former

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

underwent extensive land recovery ––including the replanting of fire-resistant, native plants for soil retention and beautification––prior to homes construction. But the quarry's outlines – the massive carving out of the hillside over decades – is still visible from as far away as

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. A

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

consumed about twenty acres in the district on September 26, 2017, directly threatening numerous

ridgeline A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

estates, before Oakland Fire Department crews, aided by an air tanker and helicopters which drew water from nearby San Leandro Reservoir, quickly extinguished the blaze. No structures were burned.

References

Neighborhoods in Oakland, California {{AlamedaCountyCA-geo-stub