Oakland City Center

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Oakland City Center at night. The sculpture is called There, by Roslyn Mazzilli.

Oakland City Center is an office and shopping complex in Downtown Oakland, California. It covers twelve city blocks, between Broadway and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 14th Street abuts the northeast side of the complex and the Oakland Convention Center and Marriot Hotel extend southwest to 10th Street.

1 History
2 Neighborhood Perceptions
3 Consumer Demographic
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

City Center was a product of the urban renewal policies of the mid to late twentieth century. A large section of the center of Downtown Oakland was appropriated by the city through the force of eminent domain and demolished to make way for an enclosed shopping mall, high-rise office buildings, a hotel, and an above ground parking structure. In the draft Central District Plan, the Redevelopment Agency originally had an ambitious goal of razing 70 city blocks, but neighborhood residents and the Downtown Property Owner's Association objected, and the plan was scaled back to only 12 blocks between 10th and 14th Streets on the west side of Broadway. Residents were evicted from several residential hotels for purported code enforcement reasons under an aggressive plan called "Opeation Padlock." Several pawnshops and Oakland's Moulin Rouge Theatre were leveled. According to Dr. Richard A. Walker, Georaphy Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the much-beloved delicatessen, Ratto's, which had been in business since around the turn of the century, was threatened by demolition before citizen protest saved it. [1]

The Clorox Building, viewed from 12th Street

The first office building, at 14th and Broadway, opened on December 18, 1973. The first skyscraper, the Clorox Building, opened next door in 1976. However, construction stalled, and by the 1980s the mall still hadn't been built and most of the site was still vacant. The project was redesigned, with a smaller outdoor retail complex and new federal office building replacing the mall, and a partial restoration of the original street grid. Several new buildings were completed in 1990, including the retail complex, named City Square, and 1111 Broadway, the new headquarters of American President Lines. Economic recovery of downtown Oakland was stalled by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and a recession in the early 1990s, and private development at City Center stopped for the next few years. Government employment was not affected; the Ron Dellums Federal Building complex was completed in 1994, bringing more pedestrian traffic to the struggling mall.

555 City Center.

In December of 1996, Oakland City Center, including the development rights to the remaining undeveloped parcels, was sold to the Shorenstein Company. The company planned to build four high-rise office buildings on the remaining four lots. Only one was built, 555 City Center, which was completed in 2002. The Shorenstein Company sold the development rights for one of the lots back to the city, which in turn sold it to the Olson Company, which is building market rate condominiums. The Shorenstein Company is now planning to build condominiums on one of the two remaining vacant parcels, and an office tower on the other.

[edit] Neighborhood Perceptions

Despite having an open-air design feel reflecting the sight lines and symmetry of former streets which appear closed to vehicular traffic, and despite the appearance of it being connected to the rest of the downtown area, City Center is seen by many Oakland residents as an island of private property acquired through eminent domain. To others, it represents a positive development marking a new phase of the growth of downtown Oakland's commercial real estate market. Despite its open-air design, the complex is under the exclusive custody and control of the massive and powerful Shorenstein Company, a privately held real estate development empire headquartered across the bay in San Francisco. Contracted private security guards vigilantly police the area to expel Oakland's own version of the Dalit (outcaste), the "untouchable" homeless, mentally ill, and local high school students. Pedestrian permission to pass through the mall is subject to the revocation of the owner as specified in section 1008 of the California Civil Code. Despite the mall being a place of significant weekday public accommodation and interaction, the Freedom of Speech and Assembly clauses of the First Amendment are seen as a gray area, subject to a hodgepoge of case law holdings at the City Center mall. In recent years, picketing and political protets at this mall without permission of the owners or their representatives have been subject to walkie talkie chatter and corresponding tresspassing calls to the police.

Providing stark architectural contrast, The Tribune Tower, at 13th and Frankilin, is reflected in one of the windows of a city center building.

The project has come under criticism in recent years by a new crowd of younger Oakland transplants for not having any restaurants open past early evening, and also for not having any night spots for occupying such strategic downtown land at Oakland's urban center. A stroll through City Center on a Saturday night, or Sunday afternoon, or any night of any week for that matter, will quickly reveal what appears to some as a ghost town of blowing newspapers and pigeon crap. Others accept the evening tranquility of the complex as indicative of downtown Oakland traditionally being more of a job center than a residential enclave. The photo of city center at night featured above, taken by Bay Area photographer David Corby, is an accurate portrait of the complex at nightfall. In fact, that is mostly the way the facility looks at night, any night. By Monday morning, the bathroom floor tiles of the vicinity are freshly hosed down for the sensibilities of the tenants, a maintence habit that many have speculated will become an Achilles heel for the owners after a lawsuit following a slip and fall on the wet tiles, or a trip and fall on a garden hose. In other ways, City Center has become the butt of other jokes about both of its escalators up and down from the adjacent BART subway station, which have been out of service for over a year as of February 2006, and a large, sculpture-sized neon sign at the entrance to the BART station which has been partially burnt out since at least mid-2005. To many Oaklanders and downtown workers at the complex, there is a definite, visible perception that the Shorenstein Company is beginning to let the complex fall into a state of disrepair and neglect. Accordingly, some speculate that the owners may desire to redevelop the land where the outdoor mall is yet again, with taller buildings. Indeed there has been a significant appreciation in downtown Oakland real estate. In theory, the land is underutilized from a redeveloper's prospective.

[edit] Consumer Demographic

The client base of its shopping and restaurants are stereotyped as a gentrified mix: downtown office workers and city and federal bureaucrats who are seen as returning to the safety and comfort of San Francisco and other commuter bedroom communities as the sun sets on Oakland. However, others would beg to differ, pointing out that increasing numbers of these workers are choosing to reside in lofts, condos, and apartments around parts of downtown Oakland. Many such residential units have been built downtown in recent years, a legacy of current Mayor Jerry Brown's "10K initiative" to bring 10,000 new residents downtown.

An expensive hourly paking garage is conveniently located beneath the mall, (and beneath the water table) for its patrons. The close proximity of the parking garage is a convenient comfort for some of these patrons who will tell you they prefer not to walk through the unknown territory of the surrounding neighborhoods. Other saavy driving visitors park on side streets, complaining of the prices at the garage. Still others hold that the parking is a bargain compared to the downtowns of other cities. The mall features an upscale fitness and racquet club with limited evening hours and expensive monthly dues and initiation fees. It also features an array of "smoothie" shops, espresso bars, and eateries featuring "wraps" (burritos) and other refreshing treats. Despite the corporate franchise eateries, City Center is blessed with a Max's diner, Max's being a small group of locally owned and revered diners serving nourishing traditional Jewish deli delights and all-American fare.

To many longtime downtown residents, City Center is a different district entirely from the nit and grit of the endangered species list a few blocks to the east, namely the resident hotels and apartments, the bus stops, barber shops, shoeshine stands, newsstands, and working class bars, patronized by a colorful and eclectic mix of downtown residents.