Downtown Oakland

The Downtown Oakland area is sometimes expanded to refer to the industrial and residential Jack London Square and Jack London warehouse district areas, the Lakeside Apartments District, which are a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lake Merritt, the Civic Center district, Chinatown, and the south end of Oakland's Broadway Auto Row, an area along Broadway which has historically been used by car dealers and automobile repair shops.

[1] Downtown Oakland hosts the only celebration of its kind in the nation in memory of the black cowboys who helped settle the American West.

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.

Downtown Oakland is home to apartment and condominium dwellers, numerous retail businesses, tall modern office buildings, shorter mixed-use historic buildings, the hubs of AC Transit and BART, which has three underground stations, the city's official Entertainment District which includes the historic Paramount and Fox Theatres, nightclubs, and restaurants, the headquarters of Clorox, City Center, a portion of Old Oakland, and a portion of Chinatown.

Other educational institutions include Lincoln University, a small business school catering mainly to international students, and a downtown office of Cal State East Bay.

[3][4] The original campus of UC Berkeley was located between Franklin, Harrison, 12th and 14th streets;[2] and the University of California system is currently headquartered in Downtown.

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

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.