Name	Oakland
Website	http://www.oaklandnet.com
Settlement type	City
Official name	City of Oakland
Nickname	Oaktown, The O, The Town
Map caption	Location in Alameda County and the state of California
Pushpin map	USA2
Pushpin map caption	Location in the United States
Coordinates region	US-CA
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	United States
Subdivision type1	State
Subdivision name1	California
Subdivision type2	County
Subdivision name2	Alameda
Government type	Mayor-Council
Leader title	Mayor
Leader name	Jean Quan (D)
Leader title1	Senate
Leader name1	Loni Hancock (D)
Leader title2	Assembly
Leader name2	Nancy Skinner (D)Sandré Swanson (D)Mary Hayashi (D)
Leader title3	U. S. Congress
Leader name3	Barbara Lee (D) (CA-09)
Established date
unit pref	US
area footnotes
area total sq mi	78.002
area land sq mi	55.786
area water sq mi	22.216
area total km2	202.024
area land km2	144.485
area water km2	57.54
area water percent	28.48
Population as of	2010
Population total	390724
population rank	1st in Alameda County8th in California47th in the United States
Population density km2	auto
Population demonym	Oaklander
Timezone	PST
Utc offset	−8
Timezone dst	PDT
Utc offset dst	−7
Postal code type	ZIP code
Postal code	94601, 94602, 94603, 94605, 94606, 94607, 94610, 94611, 94612, 94618, 94619, 94615, 94621
Area code	510
Coordinates display	inline,title
Elevation m	12.8
Elevation ft	42
Blank name	FIPS code
Blank info	06-53000
Blank1 name	GNIS feature ID
Blank1 info	0277566
Footnotes	}}

Oakland () is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a population of 390,724 in 2010. Originally incorporated in 1852, Oakland is the county seat of Alameda County and is a central hub city for a region of the San Francisco Bay Area known as East Bay.

Oakland's territory covers what was once a mosaic of coastal terrace prairie, oak woodland, and north coastal scrub. Oakland served as a rich resource when its hillside oak and redwood timber were logged to build San Francisco, and Oakland's fertile flatland soils helped it become a prolific agricultural region. During the California Gold Rush, Oakland became the main staging post for passengers and cargo journeying between the Bay Area and the Sierra foothills. In the late 1860s, Oakland was selected as the western terminal of the Transcontinental Railroad. It continued to grow into the 20th century with its busy port, shipyards, and a thriving automobile industry. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, many San Franciscans left that city's destruction, and a great number of Oakland's homes were built during the 1910s and 1920s. An extensive streetcar network connected most of Oakland's neighborhoods to inter-city rail lines and to ferry lines, most of whose routes continue as bus lines today.

The 20th century saw a steady influx of immigrants to Oakland from around the globe who, along with thousands of African-American war-industry workers who relocated from the Deep South during the 1940s, have made Oakland one of the most ethnically diverse major cities in the country. Oakland is known for its history of political activism, as well as its professional sports franchises and major corporations, which include health care, dot-com companies and manufacturers of household products. The city is a transportation hub for the greater Bay Area, and its shipping port is the fifth busiest in the United States.

Oakland has a Mediterranean climate with an average of 300 sunny days per year. Lake Merritt, a large estuary centrally located east of Downtown, was designated the United States' first official wildlife refuge. Jack London Square, named for the author and former resident, is a tourist destination on the Oakland waterfront. Some progress has been made in reducing the city's high crime rate; violent crime is primarily concentrated in certain neighborhoods, although property crime remains problematic throughout the city. Oakland is continually listed among the top cities in the United States for sustainability practices, including a #1 ranking for usage of electricity from renewable resources.

History

The Ohlone

The earliest known inhabitants were the Huchiun tribe, who lived there for thousands of years. The Huchiun belonged to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone (a Miwok word meaning "western people"). In Oakland, they were concentrated around Lake Merritt and Temescal Creek, a stream that enters the San Francisco Bay at Emeryville.

The area was inhabited by the Ohlone people before Spanish settlers displaced them in the 18th and 19th centuries. Spain expanded the Viceroyalty of New Spain and colonized Alta California to stop the advancement of Russia from Alaska. Much of the land that was to become Oakland was held by the Peralta family under the Rancho San Antonio (Peralta) land grant. New Spain became independent in 1821 under the name "Mexico." In 1846, the Territory of Alta California was conquered by American forces, becoming simply "California." Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, American squatters laid legal claim to the land held by the Peralta family.

Early history

Conquistadors from New Spain claimed Oakland and other Ohlone lands of the East Bay, along with the rest of California, for the king of Spain in 1772. In the early 19th century, the Spanish crown deeded the East Bay area to Luís María Peralta for his Rancho San Antonio. The grant was confirmed by the successor Mexican republic upon its independence from Spain. The ranch included a stand of oak trees that stretched from the land that is today Oakland's downtown area to the adjacent part of Alameda, then a peninsula. The Peraltas called the area ''encinal'', a Spanish word that means "oak grove." Upon his death in 1842, Peralta divided his land among his four sons. Most of Oakland fell within the shares given to Antonio Maria and Vicente, who opened the land to American settlers, loggers, European whalers, and fur-traders

Continued development occurred after 1848 when, as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican-American War, the Mexican government ceded ; 55% of its pre-war territory (excluding Texas) to the US in exchange for $15 million. The original settlement in what is now the downtown was initially called "Contra Costa" ("opposite shore", the Spanish name for the lands on the east side of the Bay) and was included in Contra Costa County before Alameda County was established on March 25, 1853. The California state legislature incorporated the town of Oakland on May 4, 1852. In 1853, John Coffee "Jack" Hays, a famous Texas Ranger, was one of the first to establish residence in Oakland while performing his duties as Sheriff of San Francisco.

The town and its environs quickly grew with the railroads, becoming a major rail terminal in the late 1860s and 1870s. In 1868, the Central Pacific constructed the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point, the site of today's Port of Oakland. The Long Wharf served as the terminus both for the Transcontinental Railroad and for local commuter trains of the Central (later, Southern) Pacific. The Central Pacific also established one of its largest rail yards and servicing facilities in West Oakland, which continued to be a major local employer under the Southern Pacific well into the 20th century. The principal depot of the Southern Pacific in Oakland was the 16th Street Station located at 16th and Wood, which is currently being restored as part of a redevelopment project. In 1871, Cyrus and Susan Mills paid $5,000 for the Young Ladies' Seminary in Benicia, renamed it Mills College, and moved it to its current location in Oakland, adjacent to what is now Seminary Boulevard. In 1872, the town of Brooklyn was incorporated into Oakland. Brooklyn, a large municipality southeast of Lake Merritt, was part of what was then called the Brooklyn Township.

A number of horsecar and cable car lines were constructed in Oakland during the latter half of the 19th century. The first electric streetcar set out from Oakland to Berkeley in 1891, and other lines were converted and added over the course of the 1890s. The various streetcar companies operating in Oakland were acquired by Francis "Borax" Smith and consolidated into what eventually became known as the Key System, the predecessor of today's publicly owned AC Transit. In addition to its system of streetcars in the East Bay, the Key System also operated commuter trains to its own pier and ferry boats to San Francisco, in competition with the Southern Pacific. Upon completion of the Bay Bridge, both companies ran their commuter trains on the south side of the lower deck, directly to San Francisco. The Key System in its earliest years was actually in part a real estate venture, with the transit part serving to help open up new tracts for buyers. The Key System's investors (incorporated as the "Realty Syndicate") also established two large hotels in Oakland, one of which survives as the Claremont Resort. The other, which burned down in the early 1930s, was the Key Route Inn, at what is now West Grand and Broadway. From 1904 to 1929, the Realty Syndicate also operated a major amusement park in north Oakland called Idora Park.

Early 1900s

The original extent of Oakland, upon its incorporation, lay south of today's major intersection of San Pablo Avenue, Broadway, and Fourteenth Street. The city gradually annexed farmlands and settlements to the east and the north. Oakland's rise to industrial prominence, and its subsequent need for a seaport, led to the digging of a shipping and tidal channel in 1902, which created an "island" of nearby town Alameda. In 1906, its population doubled with refugees made homeless after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Concurrently, a strong City Beautiful movement, promoted by Mayor Frank K. Mott, was responsible for creating and preserving parks and monuments in Oakland, including major improvements to Lake Merritt and the construction of Oakland Civic Auditorium, which cost $1M in 1914. The Auditorium briefly served as an emergency ward and quarantine for some of Oakland's Spanish flu victims in 1918 and 1919. The three waves of that pandemic killed more than 1,400, out of 216,000, Oakland residents.

By 1920, Oakland was the home of numerous manufacturing industries, including metals, canneries, bakeries, internal combustion engines, automobiles, and shipbuilding.

1920s

The 1920s were economic boom years in the United States as a whole, and in California in particular. Economic growth was fueled by the general post–World War I recovery, as well as oil discoveries in Los Angeles and, most notably, the widespread introduction of the automobile. In 1916, General Motors opened a major Chevrolet automobile factory in East Oakland, making cars and then trucks until 1963, when it was moved to Fremont in southern Alameda County. Also in 1916, the Fageol Motor Company chose East Oakland for their first factory, manufacturing farming tractors from 1918 to 1923. In 1921, they introduced an influential low-slung "Safety Bus", followed quickly by the 22-seat "Safety Coach." Durant Motors operated a plant in Oakland from 1921 to 1930, manufacturing sedans, coupes, convertibles, and roadsters. By 1929, when Chrysler expanded with a new plant there, Oakland had become known as the "Detroit of the West."

Russell Clifford Durant (called "Cliff" by his friends) was a race car driver, speedboat enthusiast, amateur flier, President of Durant Motors in Oakland, and son of General Motors founder William "Billy" Crapo Durant. In 1916, he established Durant Field at 82nd Avenue and East 14th Street. The first experimental transcontinental airmail through-flight finished its journey at Durant Field on August 9, 1920, with Army Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and Navy Lt. Bert Acosta at the controls of the Junkers F 13 re-badged as the model J.L.6. The airfield served only secondary duties after 1927, as its runway was not long enough for heavily loaded aircraft. In April 1930, test pilot Herbert "Hub" Fahy and his wife Claire hit a stump upon landing, flipping their plane and mortally wounding Hub without injuring Claire. Durant Field was often called Oakland Airport, though the current Oakland International Airport was soon established four miles (6 km) southwest.

On September 17, 1927, Charles Lindbergh attended the official dedication of the new Oakland Airport. A month earlier, on August 16, participants in the disastrous Dole Air Race had taken off from Oakland's new runway headed for Honolulu away—three fliers died before getting to the starting line in Oakland; five were lost at sea, attempting to reach Honolulu; and two more died searching for the lost five. On May 31, 1928, Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew departed Oakland in ''Southern Cross'' on their successful bid to cross the Pacific by air, finishing in Australia. In October 1928, Oakland was used as a base for the World War I aircraft involved in the final filming of Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels. In 1928, aviator Louise Thaden took off from Oakland in a Travel Air to set a women's altitude record, as well as endurance and speed records.

Oakland expanded during the 1920s, flexing enough to meet the influx of factory workers. Approximately 13,000 homes were built between 1921 and 1924, more than between 1907 and 1920. Many of the large downtown office buildings, apartment buildings, and single-family houses still standing in Oakland were built during the 1920s; and they reflect the architectural styles of the time. Rocky Road ice cream was created in Oakland in 1929, though accounts differ about its first promoter. William Dreyer of Dreyer's is said to have carried the idea of marshmallow and walnut pieces in a chocolate base over from his partner Joseph Edy's similar candy creation.

World War II

During World War II, the East Bay Area was home to many war-related industries. Among these were the Kaiser Shipyards in nearby Richmond. The medical system devised for shipyard workers became the basis for the giant Kaiser Permanente HMO, which has a large medical center at MacArthur and Broadway, the first to be established by Kaiser. Oakland's Moore Dry Dock Company expanded its shipbuilding capabilities and built over 100 ships.

Valued at $100 million in 1943, Oakland's canning industry was its second-most-valuable war contribution after shipbuilding. Sited at both a major rail terminus and an important sea port, Oakland was a natural location for food processing plants, whose preserved products fed domestic, foreign, and military consumers. The largest canneries were in the Fruitvale District and included the Josiah Lusk Canning Company, the Oakland Preserving Company (which started the Del Monte brand), and the California Packing Company.

Prior to World War II, blacks constituted about 3% of Oakland's population. Aside from restrictive covenants pertaining to some Oakland Hills properties, Jim Crow laws mandating racial segregation did not exist in California, and relations between the races were mostly harmonious. What segregation did exist was voluntary; blacks could, and did, live in all parts of the city.

The war attracted tens of thousands of laborers from around the country, though most were poor whites and blacks from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas—sharecroppers and tenant farmers who had been recruited by Henry J. Kaiser to work in his shipyards. These immigrants from the Jim Crow South brought their racial attitudes with them, and the racial harmony that Oakland blacks had been accustomed to prior to the war evaporated. Southern whites expected deference from their black co-workers, and initially Southern blacks were conditioned to grant it. As Southern blacks became aware of their more equal standing under California law, they began to reject subservient roles; the new immigrants prospered, though they were affected by rising racial discrimination and informal post-war neighborhood redlining.

The Mai Tai cocktail was first concocted in Oakland in 1944, and it became very popular at Trader Vic's restaurant. Established in 1932, just four years later, Trader Vic's was so successful San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen was inspired to write, "the best restaurant in San Francisco is in Oakland." Trader Vic's was chosen by the State Department as the official entertainment center for foreign dignitaries attending United Nations meetings in San Francisco. The restaurant continued to grow in popularity and was running out of room when, in 1951, founder Victor Bergeron opened a larger one in San Francisco. In 1972, the flagship Oakland restaurant moved to the nearby Emeryville Marina.

Post-WWII (1940s and 1950s)

In 1946 National City Lines (NCL), a General Motors holding company, acquired 64% of Key System stock; during the next several years NCL engaged in the conspiratorial dissolution of Oakland's electric streetcar system. NCL converted the Key System's electric streetcar fleet to diesel buses, tracks were removed from Oakland's streets, and the lower deck of the Bay Bridge was converted to automobile traffic, which reduced the passenger carrying capacity of the bridge. Freeways were constructed, which partitioned the social and retail fabric of neighborhoods. In the 1948 federal case "United States v. National City Lines Inc.," the defendants were found guilty on a count of conspiring to monopolize the provision of parts and supplies to their subsidiary companies. The companies were each fined $5,000, and the directors were each fined one dollar. The verdicts were upheld on appeal in 1951. The state Legislature created the Alameda and Contra Costa Transit District in 1955, which still exists today as AC Transit, the third-largest bus-only transit system in the nation.

Soon after the war, with the disappearance of Oakland's shipbuilding industry and the decline of its automobile industry, jobs became scarce. Many of the poor blacks who had come to the city from the South decided to stay in Oakland, and longstanding black residents complained that the new Southern arrivals "tended towards public disorder." The segregationist attitudes that some Southern migrants brought with them disrupted the racial harmony that Oaklanders had been accustomed to before the war. Many of the city's more affluent residents, both black and white, left the city after the war, moving to neighboring Alameda, Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito to the north; to San Leandro, Hayward, Castro Valley and Fremont in Southern Alameda County; and to the newly developing East Bay suburbs, Orinda, Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek and Concord. Between 1950 and 1960, about 100,000 white property owners moved out of Oakland—part of a nationwide phenomenon called white flight.

By the end of World War II, blacks constituted about 12% of Oakland's population, and the years following the war saw this percentage rise. There was also an increase in racial tension. Starting in the late 1940s, the Oakland Police Department began recruiting officers from the South to deal with the expanding black population and changing racial attitudes; many were openly racist, and their repressive police tactics exacerbated racial tensions.

Oakland was the center of a general strike during the first week of December 1946, one of six cities across the county that experienced such a strike after World War II. It was one of the largest strike movements in American history, as workers were determined not to let management repeat the union busting that followed the first World War. Oakland, which had been racially harmonious and prosperous before the war, by the late 1950s found itself with a population that was becoming progressively poor and racially divided.

1960s and 1970s

In 1960, Kaiser Corporation erected its headquarters at the former site of Holy Names University, at the corner of 20th and Harrison Streets. It was the largest skyscraper in Oakland, as well as "the largest office tower west of Chicago" up to that time. During this era, the oldest section of Oakland at the foot of Broadway, Jack London Square, was redeveloped into a hotel and outdoor retail district. During the 1960s, the city was home to an innovative funk music scene that produced well-known bands like Sly & the Family Stone, Graham Central Station, Tower of Power, Cold Blood, and The Headhunters. Larry Graham, the bass player for both Sly & the Family Stone and Graham Central Station, is credited with the creation of the influential ''slap and pop'' sound still widely used by bassists in many musical idioms today.

By 1966, only 16 of the city's 661 police officers were black. Tensions between the black community and the largely white police force were high, and police malfeasance against blacks was common. The Black Panther Party was founded by Oakland City College (later Merritt College) students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale .

It was also during the 1960s that the Oakland Chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club began to grow into a formidable motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate. Its Oakland Clubhouse is still on Foothill Boulevard.

During the 1970s, Oakland began to experience serious problems with gang-controlled dealing of heroin and cocaine when drug kingpin Felix Mitchell created the nation's first large-scale operation of this kind. Both violent crime and property crime increased during this period, and Oakland's murder rate rose to twice that of New York and many other major cities.

In late 1973, the Symbionese Liberation Army assassinated Oakland's superintendent of schools, Dr. Marcus Foster, and badly wounded his deputy, Robert Blackburn. Two months later, two men were arrested and charged with the murder. Both received life sentences, though one was acquitted after an appeal and a retrial seven years later.

Sports

In sports, the Oakland Athletics MLB club won three consecutive World Series championships in 1972, 1973, and 1974, in addition to three consecutive World Series appearances from 1988 to 1990; the A's won the 1989 contest. The Golden State Warriors won the 1974–1975 NBA championship. The Oakland Raiders of the NFL won Super Bowl XI in 1977 and Super Bowl XV in 1981, while also appearing in Super Bowl II in 1968 and Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003.

1980s and 1990s

Starting in the early 1980s, the number of Latinos, mostly of Mexican origin, began to increase in Oakland, especially in the Fruitvale district. This district is one of the oldest in Oakland, growing up around the old Peralta estate (now a city park). It always had a concentration of Latino residents, businesses and institutions, and increased immigration, continuing into the 21st century, has added greater numbers.

During the 1980s, crack cocaine became a serious problem in Oakland.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Oakland's black plurality reached its peak at approximately 47% of the overall population. Oakland featured prominently in rap music, as the hometown for such artists as MC Hammer, Digital Underground, Hieroglyphics (including Souls of Mischief and Del tha Funkee Homosapien), The Luniz, Tupac Shakur, and Too Short. Outside of the rap genre, Grammy-award winning artists such as En Vogue, Tony! Toni! Tone!, and Billie Joe Armstrong of the trio Green Day also emerged from Oakland.

On May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb placed underneath traveling eco-activist Judi Bari's car seat exploded, tearing through her backside and nearly killing her. The bomb was placed directly under the driver's seat, not in the back seat or luggage area as it presumably would have been if Bari had been transporting it knowingly. Immediately after the 1990 car bombing, while Bari was in Oakland's Highland Hospital, she and a friend were arrested on suspicion of knowingly transporting the bomb. The Alameda County district attorney later dropped the case for lack of evidence, and in 2004 the FBI and the City of Oakland agreed to a $4 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by Bari's estate, and her friend, over their false arrest.

On October 20, 1991, a massive firestorm (see 1991 Oakland firestorm) swept down from the Berkeley Hills above the Caldecott Tunnel. 25 people were killed, and 150 people were injured, with nearly 4,000 homes destroyed. The economic loss has been estimated at $1.5 billion, and it was the worst such firestorm in American history. Many of the original homes were rebuilt on a much larger scale.

In late 1996, Oakland was the center of a controversy surrounding Ebonics (African American Vernacular English), an ethnolect the outgoing Oakland Unified School District board voted to recognize on December 18.

During the mid 1990s, Oakland experienced somewhat of an economic "renaissance" with new downtown land development such as a $140 million state government center project, a $101 million city office building, and a 12-story office building for the University of California, Office of the President. The City Center redevelopment project was bought by Shorenstein Co., a San Francisco real estate firm. Office vacancies dropped to 11 percent from 16 percent in 1996. Officials at the Port of Oakland and Oakland International Airport, began multimillion-dollar expansion plans to keep pace with rival shipping ports and airports on the West Coast.

Loma Prieta earthquake

The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on October 17, 1989, a rupture of the San Andreas fault that affected the entire San Francisco Bay Area. The quake's surface wave measured 7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale, and many structures in Oakland were badly damaged. The double-decker portion of the freeway (Interstate 880) structure collapsed. The eastern span of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge also sustained damage and was closed to traffic for one month.

2000s

After his 1999 inauguration, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown continued his predecessor Elihu Harris' public policy of supporting downtown housing development in the area defined as the Central Business District in Oakland's 1998 General Plan. Since Brown's stated goal was to add 10,000 residents to downtown Oakland, it became known as the "10K" plan. It resulted in redevelopment projects in the Jack London District, where Brown purchased and later sold an industrial warehouse, which he used as a personal residence, and in the Lakeside Apartments District near Lake Merritt, where two infill projects were approved. The 10K plan touched the historic Old Oakland district, the Chinatown district, the Uptown district, and downtown.

The 10K plan and other redevelopment projects were controversial due to potential rent increases and gentrification, which would displace lower-income residents from downtown Oakland into outlying neighborhoods and cities. Additional controversy over development proposals arose from the weakening of the Bay Area and national economy in 2000, 2001, 2007, and the credit crunch and the recession of 2008. These downturns resulted in lowered sales, rentals and occupancy of the new housing and slower growth and economic recovery than expected.

The Oakland Athletics have long sought a site to build a new baseball stadium. A deal announced in 2006 to build a new park in Fremont, to be called Cisco Field was halted three years later as a result of opposition from businesses and local residents. Local efforts have been put forth by both fans and city politicians to retain the A's, including three potential locations near downtown and the Oakland waterfront. The South Bay city of San Jose has shown continuing, strong interest to be the team's new home, and is the preferred destination for current team owner Lew Wolff.

The Oakland Ballet, performing in the city since 1965, folded temporarily in 2006 due financial problems and the closure of their performance facility, the Calvin Simmons Theater at the Kaiser Convention Center. The following year, founder Ronn Guidi announced the revival of the Ballet under new director Graham Lustig, and the program continues to perform at the Laney College Theater.

In the early morning hours of January 1, 2009, unarmed civilian Oscar Grant was shot and killed by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle on a crowded platform at the Fruitvale BART Station in East Oakland. Officers had subdued Grant in a prone position for allegedly resisting arrest, before Mehserle shot Grant in the back with his gun, which he claimed to have mistaken for his stun gun. In the ensuing week, demonstrations and riots took place in downtown Oakland, with demonstrators citing police brutality and racial injustice as their motivation. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in July 2010, and sentenced to two years in prison. Both the verdict and sentencing set off further demonstrations in downtown Oakland, which included looting and destruction of property.

In February 2009, the Fox Oakland Theatre reopened. The theatre had been closed for most of the previous 42 years, with few events held there. After a thorough restoration, seismic retrofit, and many other improvements following years of severe neglect (including a fire as recently as 2004), the historic landmark theater started drawing patrons from all over the Bay Area.

On March 21, 2009, Oakland parolee Lovelle Mixon, 26, fatally shot four Oakland police officers, and wounded a fifth officer. At approximately 1 pm, Mixon shot and killed two officers during a routine traffic stop. Mixon fled the scene, hiding in his sister's nearby apartment, and shortly after 3 pm he killed two more officers. During the ensuing shootout, the police killed Mixon in self-defense and a fifth officer was wounded. Three of the officers killed were ranking sergeants, the first time the Oakland Police Department had lost a sergeant in the line of duty. It was the single deadliest day for sworn personnel in the department's history.

Geography

Oakland is located at 37°48'16"N 122°16'15'W in the longitudinal middle of California, on the east side of San Francisco Bay.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 78.0 square miles (202.0 km²). 55.8 square miles (144.5 km²) of it is land and 22.2 square miles (57.5 km²) of it (28.48 percent) is water.

Oakland's highest point is Grizzly Peak which is . Oakland has of shoreline.

Oaklanders most broadly refer to their city's terrain as "the flatlands" and "the hills", which until recent waves of gentrification have also been a reference to Oakland's deep economic divide, with "the hills" being more affluent communities. About two-thirds of Oakland lies in the flat plain of the East Bay, with one-third rising into the foothills and hills of the East Bay range.

Neighborhoods

Oakland has more than 50 distinct neighborhoods, many of which are not "official" enough to be named on a map. The common large neighborhood divisions in the city are downtown Oakland and its greater Central Business District, Lake Merritt, East Oakland, North Oakland, West Oakland, and the Oakland Hills. East Oakland actually encompasses more than half of Oakland's area, stretching from Lakeshore Avenue on the east shore of Lake Merritt southeast to the San Leandro border. North Oakland encompasses the neighborhoods between downtown and Berkeley and Emeryville. West Oakland is the area between downtown and the Bay, partially surrounded by the Oakland Point, and encompassing the Port of Oakland. In 2011, Oakland was ranked the 10th most walkable city in the United States.

Lake Merritt, an urban estuary near downtown, is a mix of fresh and salt water draining in and out from the Oakland Harbor at the San Francisco Bay and one of Oakland's most notable features. It was designated the United States' first official wildlife refuge in 1870. Originally a marsh-lined wildlife haven, Lake Merritt was dredged and bordered with parks from the 1890s to the 1910s. Despite this reduction in habitat, Oakland is home to a number of rare and endangered species, many of which are localized to serpentine soils and bedrock. Lake Merritt is surrounded by notable residential and business districts, including downtown and Grand Lake.

Other neighborhoods of note include an historic Chinatown, the heavily Latino Fruitvale district, and the upscale shopping districts of Rockridge and Piedmont Avenue.

The relatively affluent city of Piedmont, incorporated in Oakland's central foothills after the 1906 earthquake, is a small independent city completely surrounded by the city of Oakland.

Climate

Based on data gathered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oakland is ranked #1 in climate among U.S. cities. Oakland's climate is typified by the temperate and seasonal Mediterranean climate. Summers are usually dry and warm and winters are mild and wet. More specifically, it has features found in both nearby coastal cities such as San Francisco and inland cities such as San Jose, making it warmer than San Francisco and cooler than San Jose. Its position on San Francisco Bay directly across from the Golden Gate means that the Northern part of the city can occasionally experience cooling maritime fog. It is far enough inland, though, that the fog often burns off by midday, allowing it to have typically sunny California days. The hills tend to have more fog than the flatlands, as the fog drifts down from Berkeley.

The U.S. Weather Bureau kept weather records in downtown Oakland from October 4, 1894, to July 31, 1958. During that time, the record high temperature was on June 24, 1957, and the record low temperature was on January 23, 1949. The wettest year was 1940 with and the driest year was 1910 with . The most rainfall in one month was in January 1911. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on February 12, 1904.

The National Weather Service today has two official weather stations in Oakland: Oakland International Airport and the Oakland Museum (established 1970).

Ruptures along the nearby San Andreas fault caused severe earth movement in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1906 and 1989. San Andreas quakes induces creep (movement occurring on earthquake faults) in the Hayward fault, which runs directly through Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose and other Bay Area cities. In 1991, an urban firestorm destroyed nearly 4,000 homes and killed 25 people in the Oakland hills; it was the worst such firestorm in American history.

Demographics

2010

The 2010 United States Census reported that Oakland had a population of 390,724. The population density was 5,009.2 people per square mile (1,934.0/km²). The racial makeup of Oakland was 134,925 (34.5%) White, 109,471 (28.0%) African American, 3,040 (0.8%) Native American, 65,811 (16.8%) Asian (8.7% Chinese, 2.2% Vietnamese, 1.6% Filipino, 0.7% Cambodian, 0.7% Laotian, 0.6% Korean, 0.5% Japanese, 0.5% Indian), 2,222 (0.6%) Pacific Islander, 53,378 (13.7%) from other races, and 21,877 (5.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 99,068 persons (25.4%). Among the Hispanic population, 18.1% are Mexican, 1.9% Salvadoran, 1.3% Guatemalan, and 0.7% Puerto Rican.

The Census reported that 382,586 people (97.9% of the population) lived in households, 5,675 (1.5%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 2,463 (0.6%) were institutionalized.

There were 153,791 households, out of which 44,762 (29.1%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 50,797 (33.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 24,122 (15.7%) had a female householder with no husband present, 8,799 (5.7%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 11,289 (7.3%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 3,442 (2.2%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 52,103 households (33.9%) were made up of individuals and 13,778 (9.0%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49. There were 83,718 families (54.4% of all households); the average family size was 3.27.

The population was spread out with 83,120 people (21.3%) under the age of 18, 36,272 people (9.3%) aged 18 to 24, 129,139 people (33.1%) aged 25 to 44, 98,634 people (25.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 43,559 people (11.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36.2 years. For every 100 females there were 94.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.8 males.

There were 169,710 housing units at an average density of 2,175.7 per square mile (840.0/km²), of which 63,142 (41.1%) were owner-occupied, and 90,649 (58.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 8.5%. 166,662 people (42.7% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 215,924 people (55.3%) lived in rental housing units.

Income

In 2008 the median income for a household in the city was $48,596 and the median income for a family was $55,949. Males had a median income of $46,383 versus $44,690 for females. The per capita income for the city was $30,094. In 2007 approximately 15.3 percent of families and 17.0 percent of the general population were below the poverty line, including 27.9 percent of those under age 18 and 13.1 percent of those age 65 or over. 0.7% of the population is homeless. Home ownership is 41% and 14% of rental units are subsidized. The unemployment rate as of August 2009 is 17.5%.

As of the census of 2000, the median income for a household in the city is $40,055, and the median income for a family is $44,384. Males have a median income of $37,433 versus $35,088 for females. The per capita income for the city is $21,936. 19.4% of the population and 16.2% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 27.9% of those under the age of 18 and 13.1% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Shifting of cultures

Since the 1960s, Oakland has been known as a center of Northern California's African-American community. However, between 2000 and 2010 Oakland lost nearly 25% of its black population. The city demographics have changed due to a combination of rapid gentrification along with many African-Americans relocating to Bay Area suburbs, or moving to the Southern United States. Though blacks never constituted a majority of Oakland's population, they formed a strong plurality for many years, peaking in 1980 at about 47% of the population. Despite the decline, black residents maintain their status as Oakland's single largest ethnic group as of 2010, at 27% of the population, followed by whites at 26% and Latinos of any race at 25%.

Recent trends have resulted in cultural shifts, leading to a decline among some of the city's longstanding African-American institutions, such as churches, businesses, and nightclubs, which has been a point of contention for some long-time black residents.

In recent years, immigrants and others have marched by the thousands down Oakland's International Boulevard in support of legal reforms benefitting illegal immigrants. In 2009, Oakland's city council passed a resolution to create municipally-issued "Oakland identification cards" to help residents get easier access to city and business services, improve their civic participation and encourage them to report crimes to police. The following year, Oakland's city council resolved to divert new municipal economic investment from firms headquartered in Arizona in the wake of that state's attempt to control illegal immigration.

An analysis by the Urban Institute of U.S. Census 2000 numbers showed that Oakland had the third-highest concentration of gays and lesbians among the 50 largest U.S. cities, behind San Francisco and Seattle. Census data showed that, among incorporated places that have at least 500 female couples, Oakland had the nation's largest proportion. In 2000, Oakland counted 2,650 lesbian couples; one in every 41 Oakland couples listed themselves as a same-sex female partnership.

Crime

As with many large cities in the United States, Oakland has struggled with numerous challenges, including high unemployment and elevated rates of poverty. Oakland's crime rate began to escalate during the late 1960s, and by the end of the 1970s Oakland's per capita murder rate had risen to twice that of San Francisco or New York City. In 1983, the National Journal referred to Oakland as the "crime capital" of the San Francisco Bay Area. Crime continued to escalate during the 1980s and 1990s, and during the first decade of the 21st century Oakland has consistently been listed as one of the most dangerous large cities in the United States. Among Oakland's 35 police patrol beats, violent crime remains a serious problem in specific East and West Oakland neighborhoods. In 2008, homicides were disproportionately concentrated: 72% occurred in three City Council districts, District 3 in West Oakland and Districts 6 and 7 in East Oakland, even though these districts represent only 44% of Oakland's residents.

Crime remains one of Oakland's most serious challenges, and Oakland continues to have a reputation among its own citizens, its understaffed police force, and residents of other Bay Area cities as a dangerous place, with one of the top five highest rates of violent crime in the U.S. According to Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts, during 2011 Oakland has averaged three street shootings per day, some of which cause injury or death to innocent bystanders. Batts also said “You don’t want a police state, but you want enough [police] to deal with the demand in the city.” The number of police officers in Oakland has steadily declined during the past several years. "But the men and women of the Oakland Police Department are still going out there and still stopping dangerous people, people with weapons, and trying to make a difference in the community," said Officer Jeff Thomason, a department spokesman.

Oakland ranks highly in California for most categories of crime, and violent crimes such as assault, rape and murder occur from two to five times the U.S. average. The 120 murders recorded in 2007 made Oakland's murder rate third highest in California, behind Richmond and Compton. Historically, most murders have occurred in West Oakland and the flatlands of East Oakland between I-580 and I-880. Montclair, Rockridge and some areas in North Oakland have fewer problems with violent crime.

Property crime is widespread throughout the city. Oakland recorded the highest robbery and motor vehicle theft rates in California, with one robbery per 114 citizens and one car theft per 40 citizens, three to four times the state average. Carjackings occur two to three times more frequently in Oakland than in other cities of comparable size, and police have recorded at least one reported carjacking in every Oakland neighborhood.

African Americans comprise less than one-third of Oakland's residents, yet they are over-represented in crime statistics, and most homicides occur in African-American neighborhoods. Journalist Earl Ofari Hutchinson mentions crime in Oakland as an example of a rising problem of "black-on-black" crime, which Oakland shares with other major cities in the US. Bill Cosby mentions Oakland, Chicago and Detriot as a few of the many American cities where crime is "endemic" and young African-American men are being murdered and incarcerated in disproportionate numbers. Cosby opines that the parents of such youths and young men, and "the Black community in general," have failed to inculcate proper standards of moral behavior.

In 2006, when Oakland's homicide count in reached its highest total in more than a decade, the five-year average for homicide victims in Oakland was broken down as follows: 77% Black, 15.4% Hispanic, 3.2% White, 2.8% Asian and 1.6% Unknown. The five-year average for homicide suspects in Oakland breaks down as follows: 64.7% Black, 8.6% Hispanic, 0.2% White, 2.0% Asian and 24.4% Unknown. In 2006, homicide victims under the age of 18 tripled compared to previous years. Five year averages compiled for 2001–2006 showed that 30% of murder victims were between the ages of 18 to 24 and another 33% were between 25 and 34 years old. Males made up 96% of suspects and 88% of victims.

The homicide drop in 2010 was the city's fourth in a row, and violent crime in general was down 27%. Although the police department’s resources have been diminishing, according to Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan the Oakland police department is committed to improved public safety by increasing police presence during peak crime hours, improving intelligence gathering, and moving more aggressively to arrest violent crime suspects.

Police understaffing

Despite its high crime rate, Oakland has fewer police officers than many other major cities. “When Police Chief Anthony Batts took this job, we started out with 830 officers. We’re down to about 666 officers. If this city is going to be a safe place for us to live and raise our family then we as a city have to determine what it’s going to cost us to do that and how to get there,” Oakland City Council President Larry Reid agreed with Batts that more police officers are needed but said that "residents will have to open their wallets first."

In Oakland, the number of police officers has been declining, and case loads are increasing. Since 2003 the number of police officers in the country's fifth most dangerous city has declined by 102. The number of crimes that each officer has to deal with is double or triple those handled by officers in other major California cities. The number of homicide detectives is down from 14 in 2010, to 9 currently. Detective caseload is more than any other major city in California, except Fresno. In 2008, the Police Department had the lowest homicide clearance rate among California’s large cities because the department is understaffed and the detective work in certain instances is not as thorough because there are simply not enough officers.

In 2004 the number of police officers per 10,000 residents was as follows:

Baltimore—49

Newark—46

Philadelphia—46

Chicago—45

New York City—44

Detroit—39

St. Louis—39

Atlanta—35

Cleveland and Boston—34

San Francisco—29

Los Angeles—23

Oakland—18

Since that year the number of police officers in Oakland has declined by approximately 12%.

Economy

Oakland is a major West Coast port, and there are nearly 200,000 jobs related to marine cargo transport. These jobs range from minimum wage hourly positions to Transportation Storage and Distribution Managers who earn an annual average salary of $91,520. The city is also home to several major corporations including Matson, Kaiser Permanente and Clorox, as well as corporate headquarters for national retailers like Dreyer's and Cost Plus World Markets. The first Longs Drugs store opened in Oakland. Tech companies such as Ask.com and Pandora Radio are located in Oakland, and in recent years many start-up high tech and green energy companies have found a home in the downtown neighborhoods of Uptown, City Center, Jack London Square and Lake Merritt Financial District.

Oakland experienced an increase of both its population and of land values in the early-to-mid first decade of the 21st century. The 10k Plan, which began during former mayor Elihu Harris' administration, and intensified during former mayor Jerry Brown's administration resulted in several thousand units of new multi-family housing and development.

Top employers

According to the City's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

! #	! Employer	! # of Employees
1		7,734
2	Kaiser Permanente	6,606
3	Oakland Unified School District	5,689
4	City of Oakland	4,630
5	United States Postal Service	3,961
6	Internal Revenue Service	2,500
7	Southwest Airlines	2,313
7	FedEx	2,241
9	Peralta Community College District	2,020
10	Children's Hospital Oakland	1,970

Arts and Culture

Oakland has a significant art scene and claims the highest concentration of artists per capita in the United States. Galleries exist in various parts of Oakland, with the newest additions centered mostly in the Uptown area. The city offers a wide variety of cuisine in both restaurants and markets, often featuring locally grown produce and international foods which reflect the city’s ethnically diverse population. Historically a focal point of the West Coast blues scene, Oakland is also home to musicians representing such genres as rhythm and blues, funk, punk, heavy metal, and hip hop.

Annual cultural events

Events which celebrate the diverse cultures of Oakland include:

Oakland Greek Festival (mid-May)

Temescal Street Fair (June)

Fire Arts Festival (July)

Laurel Street Fair (early August)

Lakefest (early August)

Chinatown Streetfest (late August)

Art & Soul Festival (mid-August)

Montclair Jazz & Wine Festival (mid-September)

Koreatown/Northgate Culturefest (mid-September)

Germanfest (mid-September)

Eat Real Festival (late-September)

Black Cowboy Parade (early October)

Oaktoberfest (early October)

Oakland International Film Festival (September or October)

Fruitvale Dia de los Muertos Festival (Sunday before November 1)

Oakland Inspiration Awards (November)

Oakland Holiday Parade (First Saturday in December)

Attractions

AXIS Dance Company

Chabot Space and Science Center

Children's Fairyland

Chinatown

Dunsmuir House

Fox Oakland Theatre, reopened: pending tour information TBA.

Jack London Square

Lake Merritt, Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Oldest wildlife/bird sanctuary in North America, Lake Merritt Garden Center, Bonsai Garden

Mountain View Cemetery, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and resting place of many famous Californians

Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, home of baseball’s Oakland Athletics, and the Oakland Raiders of the NFL

Oakland Aviation Museum

Oakland Museum of California

Oakland Public Library

Oakland Zoo

Oracle Arena, directly adjacent to the Oakland Coliseum, home to the Golden State Warriors of the NBA

Paramount Theatre

Pardee Home

Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, Museum of History and Culture

Preservation Park

USS Potomac, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential yacht

Nightlife

Downtown Oakland has an assortment of bars and nightclubs. They include dive bars, dance clubs, modern lounges and jazz bars. The Paramount Theater features headlining musical tours and productions, while Fox Oakland Theatre draws various musical genres including jam bands, rock, punk, blues, jazz, and reggae. The Paramount and Fox theaters often book simultaneous events creating busy nights uptown.

Oakland is home to a world-class jazz venue, Yoshi's, near Jack London Square. Jack London Square is a nighttime destination with its movie theaters, restaurants, and clubs. Recent years have seen the growth of the "Oakland Art Murmur" event, occurring in the Uptown neighborhood the first Friday evening of every month.

"There is no there there"

Oakland has been made famous from a quote by writer Gertrude Stein in her 1937 book ''Everybody's Autobiography'': "There is no there there." Originally declared upon learning as an adult her childhood home in Oakland had been torn down, over time the quote has become misconstrued to represent the city of Oakland itself.

Modern-day Oakland has turned the quote on its head, with a statue downtown simply titled "There." Additionally, in 2005 a sculpture called HERETHERE was installed by the City of Berkeley on the Berkeley-Oakland border at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The sculpture consists of eight-foot-tall letters spelling "HERE" and "THERE" in front of the BART tracks as they descend from their elevated section in Oakland to the subway through Berkeley.

Professional sports

Oakland has teams in three professional sports: Basketball, baseball, and football.

!Club	!Sport	!Founded	!League	!Venue
Oakland Athletics	Baseball	1901 (in Oakland since 1968)		Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Oakland Raiders	American Football	1960 (in Los Angeles from 1982–1994)	National Football League: American Conference. AFC West	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Golden State Warriors	Basketball	1946 (In Oakland since 1971)		Oracle Arena

Oakland's former sports teams include:

Oakland Oaks, Pacific Coast League of Baseball, 1903–1955. (The Oaks played at Oaks Park in Emeryville after 1912.)

Oakland Oaks, American Basketball League, 1962.

Oakland Oaks, American Basketball Association, 1967–1969.

Oakland Seals, National Hockey League, 1967–1976.

Oakland Clippers, North American Soccer League, 1968.

Oakland Stompers, North American Soccer League, 1978.

Oakland Invaders, United States Football League, 1983–1985.

Oakland Skates, Roller Hockey International, 1993–1996.

Oakland Slammers, International Basketball League, 2005–2006.

Parks and recreation

Parks

Mosswood Park

Joaquin Miller Park

Joseph Knowland State Arboretum and Park, home of the Oakland Zoo

Lake Merritt

Morcom Rose Garden best from July through October

Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, headquarters of the Peralta rancho, Rancho San Antonio

William Joseph McInnes Botanic Garden and Campus Arboretum, located on the Mills College campus

Additionally, the following seven East Bay Regional Parks are located entirely or partially in the city of Oakland:

Anthony Chabot Regional Park

Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve

Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve

Redwood Regional Park

Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve

Roberts Regional Recreation Area

Temescal Regional Park

Places of worship

Some of the most prominent places of worship in Oakland include: Evangelistic Outreach Center, Green Pastures, the Presbyterian, First Presbyterian Church of Oakland; Greek Orthodox Ascension Cathedral; the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Christ the Light; the United Methodist Chinese Community Church; the Unitarian First Unitarian Church; the Mormon Oakland California Temple; the Muslim, 31st Street Islamic Center, Light-House Mosque; the Reform Jewish Temple Sinai; the Conservative Jewish, Temple Beth Abraham; and the Orthodox Jewish, Beth Jacob Congregation, American Baptist; Faith Baptist Church of Oakland and the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Government

Oakland has a mayor-council government. The mayor is elected for a four-year term. The council has eight council members representing seven districts in Oakland with one member elected at-large; council members serve staggered four-year terms. The mayor appoints a city administrator, subject to the confirmation by the City Council, who is the chief administrative officer of the city. Other city officers include: city attorney (elected), city auditor (elected), and city clerk (appointed by city administrator). Oakland's Mayor is subject to a tenure limited to two terms. There are no term limits for the city council. Three council members are currently on their fourth term, and Councilman De La Fuente is serving for his fifth term, approaching two decades in office.

Oakland City Hall was evacuated after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake until $80M seismic retrofit and hazard abatement work was complete in 1995.

Jean Quan was elected mayor in November 2010, beating Don Perata and Rebecca Kaplan in the city's first ranked choice balloting.

In the state legislature Oakland is located in the 9th Senate District, represented by Democrat Loni Hancock, and in the 14th, 16th, and 18th Assembly Districts, represented by Democrats Nancy Skinner, Sandré Swanson, and Mary Hayashi respectively. Oakland is represented in the United States House of Representatives by Barbara Lee and is located in California's 9th Congressional District, which has a Cook PVI of D +38.

Education

Primary and secondary education

Most public schools in Oakland are operated by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), which covers the entire city of Oakland; due to financial troubles and administrative failures, it has been in receivership by the state of California since 2002. The Oakland Unified School District (2006–2007) includes 59 elementary schools, 23 middle schools, 19 high schools, with 9 alternative education schools and programs, 4 adult education schools and early childhood education centers at most of the elementary schools There are 46,000 K–12 students, 32,000 adult students, and 6,000 plus employees. Overall, OUSD schools have performed poorly for years. In the 2005 results of the STAR testing, over 50 percent of students taking the test performed "below basic," while only 20 percent performed at least "proficient" on the English section of the test. Some individual schools have much better performance than the city-wide average, for instance, in 2005 over half the students at Hillcrest Elementary School in the Montclair upper hills neighborhood performed at the "advanced" level in the English portion of the test, and students at Lincoln Elementary School in the Chinatown neighborhood performed at the "advanced" level in the math portion.

Oakland's three largest public high schools are Oakland High School, Oakland Technical High School, and Skyline High School. Oakland Tech has various academies, including its much renowned Engineering Academy, which sent more girls to MIT in 2007 than any other public school west of the Mississippi. There are also numerous small public high schools within Castlemont Community of Small Schools, Fremont Federation of High Schools, and McClymonds Educational Complex, all of which were once single, larger public high schools that were reorganized due to poor performance (Castlemont High School, Fremont High School, and McClymonds High School, respectively).

25 public charter schools with 5,887 students operate outside the domain of OUSD. One, North Oakland Community Charter School (NOCCS), an elementary and middle school, is one of the few public progressive schools in the country. Lionel Wilson College Prep Academy and Oakland Unity High School have been certified by the California Charter Schools Association. Other charter schools include the Oakland Military Institute, Oakland School for the Arts, Bay Area Technology School, and Oakland Charter Academy.

There are several private high schools. Notables include the secular The College Preparatory School and Head-Royce School, and the Catholic Bishop O'Dowd High School, Holy Names High School and St. Elizabeth High School. Catholic schools in Oakland are operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland also include 8 K–8 schools (plus 1 in Piedmont on the Oakland city border). Northern Light School is a private nonprofit elementary and middle school. Bentley School is an Independent Co-educational K–12, college preparatory school, located on two campuses in Oakland and Lafayette, California.

Colleges and universities

Accredited colleges and universities include:

Peralta Community College District

* Laney College

* Merritt College

California College of the Arts (formerly the ''California College of Arts and Crafts'')

Holy Names University (formerly ''Holy Names College'')

Lincoln University

Mills College (Julia Morgan School for Girls is a private middle school for girls housed on the campus)

Patten University

Samuel Merritt College (a health science college)

Oakland is also the home of the headquarters of the University of California system, the University of California Office of the President.

In 2001, the SFSU Oakland Multimedia Center was opened, allowing San Francisco State University to conduct classes near downtown Oakland. The Oakland Higher Education Consortium and the City of Oakland's Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) opened the Oakland Higher Education Center downtown in 2002 to provide "access to multiple higher education service providers within a shared urban facility." Member schools include primary user California State University, East Bay as well as Lincoln University, New College of California, Saint Mary's College of California, SFSU Multimedia Studies Program, UC Berkeley Extension, University of Phoenix and Peralta Community College District.

Media

Oakland is served by major television stations broadcasting primarily out of San Francisco and San Jose. The region's Fox affiliate, KTVU, is based in (and licensed to) Oakland at Jack London Square along with co-owned independent station KICU-TV (licensed to San Jose). In addition, the city is served by various AM and FM radio stations as well; AM stations KMKY, KNEW and KQKE are licensed to Oakland.

Oakland is served by the ''East Bay Tribune'', which covers all of Alameda County and Western Contra Costa County and is published by the Bay Area News Group. The ''Oakland Tribune'', now defunct, published its first newspaper on February 21, 1874. The Tribune Tower, which sports a clock, is one of Oakland's landmarks. At key times throughout the day (8:00 am, noon and 5:00 pm), the clock tower carillon plays a variety of classic melodies, which change on a daily basis. In 2007, the Oakland Tribune moved its offices from the tower to an East Oakland location, before folding in 2011.

The ''East Bay Express'', a locally-owned free weekly paper, is based in Jack London Square and distributed throughout the East Bay.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Air & Rail

Oakland residents have access to the three major airports of the San Francisco Bay Area: Oakland International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, and San Jose International Airport. Oakland International Airport, located within the city limits of Oakland, is 4 miles (6 km) south of downtown Oakland and serves domestic and international destinations. AC Transit provides 24-hour service to the airport, and the AirBART shuttle provides frequent service between the airport and BART's Oakland Coliseum Station.

The city has regional and long distance passenger train service provided by Amtrak, with stations located near Jack London Square and the Oakland Coliseum. Amtrak's ''California Zephyr'' has its western terminus at the nearby Emeryville, CA station.

Mass Transit

The most recent census data compiled in 2007 before gasoline price spikes in 2008, show 24.3 percent of Oaklanders used public transportation, walked or used "other means" to commute to work, not including telecommuting, with 17 percent of Oakland households being "car free" and or statistically categorized as having "no vehicles available."

Bus transit service in Oakland and the inner East Bay is provided by the Alameda and Contra Costa Transit District, AC Transit. The district originated in 1958 after the conspiratorial dissolution of the Key System of streetcars. Many AC Transit lines follow old routes of the Key System.

The metropolitan area is served by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) from eight stations in Oakland. The system has headquarters in Oakland, with major transfer hubs at MacArthur and 19th Street stations. BART's headquarters was located in a building above the Lake Merritt BART station until 2006, when it relocated to the Kaiser Center due to seismic safety concerns.

The Alameda / Oakland Ferry operates ferry service from Jack London Square to Alameda, San Francisco, and Angel Island. Oakland licenses taxi cabs, and has zoned cab stands in its downtown, including a bicycle pedi-cab service.

The Oakland City Council adopted a Bicycle Master Plan in 1999 as a part of the Land Use and Transportation (LUTE) element of Oakland's 1998 General Plan. In addition, the Oakland City Council reaffirmed the bike plan in 2005 and 2007. Several miles of bike lanes were created as a result of the plan, with more awaiting funding. Facilities for parking thousands of bicycles have been installed downtown and in other commercial districts throughout Oakland.

Bridges, freeways, and tunnels

Oakland is served by several major highways: Eastbound Bay Bridge traffic entering Oakland then splits into three freeways at the MacArthur Maze freeway interchange: Interstate 580 (MacArthur Freeway) heads southeast toward Hayward and eventually to the California Central Valley; Interstate 880 (Nimitz Freeway) runs south to San Jose; and the Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80/I-580) runs north, providing connections to Sacramento and San Rafael, respectively. Interstate 980 (Williams Freeway) begins its eastbound journey at I-880 in Downtown Oakland before turning into State Route 24 (Grove Shafter Freeway) at I-580. State Route 13 begins as the Warren Freeway at I-580, and runs through a scenic valley in the Oakland Hills before entering Berkeley. A stub of a planned freeway was constructed at the High Street exit from the Nimitz Freeway, but that freeway extension plan was abandoned.

In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake caused the Cypress Street Viaduct double-deck segment of the Nimitz Freeway to collapse, killing 42 people. The old freeway segment had passed through the middle of West Oakland, forming a barrier between West Oakland neighborhoods. Following the earthquake, this section was rerouted around the perimeter of West Oakland and rebuilt in 1999. The east span of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge also suffered damage from the quake when a 50-foot (15 m) section of the upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck; the damaged section was repaired within a month of the earthquake. As a result of Loma Prieta, a significant seismic retrofit was performed on the western span of the Bay Bridge. The eastern span is currently being replaced, with a projected completion date of 2014.

Two underwater tunnels, the Webster and Posey Tubes, connect the main island of Alameda to downtown Oakland, coming above ground in Chinatown. In addition, the Park Street, Fruitvale, and High Street bridges connect Alameda to East Oakland over the Oakland Estuary.

In the hills, the Leimert Bridge crosses Dimond Canyon, connecting the Oakmore neighborhood to Park Boulevard. The Caldecott Tunnel carries Highway 24 through the Berkeley Hills, connecting central Contra Costa County to Oakland. The Caldecott has three bores, with a fourth under construction.

Freight rail

Freight service, which consists primarily of moving shipping containers to and from the Port of Oakland, is provided today by Union Pacific Railroad (UP), and to a lesser extent by BNSF Railway (which now shares the tracks of the UP between Richmond and Oakland).

Historically, Oakland was served by several railroads. Besides the transcontinental line of the Southern Pacific, there was also the Santa Fe (whose Oakland terminal was actually in Emeryville), the Western Pacific Railroad (who built a pier adjacent to the SP's), and the Sacramento Northern Railroad (eventually absorbed by the Western Pacific, which in turn was absorbed by UP in 1983).

Shipping

As one of the three major ports on the West Coast of the United States, the Port of Oakland is the largest seaport on San Francisco Bay and the fifth busiest container port in the United States. It was one of the earliest seaports to switch to containerization and to intermodal container transfer, thereby displacing the Port of San Francisco, which never modernized its waterfront. One of the earlier limitations to growth was the inability to transfer containers to rail lines, all cranes historically operating between ocean vessels and trucks. In the 1980s the Port of Oakland began the evaluation of development of an intermodal container transfer capability, i.e. facilities that now allow trans-loading of containers from vessels to either trucks or rail modes.

Utilities

Water and sewage treatment are provided by East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). Pacific Gas and Electric Company provides natural gas and electricity service. Municipal garbage collection is franchised to Waste Management, Inc. Telecommunications and subscriber television services are provided by multiple private corporations and other service providers in accordance with the competitive objectives of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Oakland tops the list of the 50 largest US cities using electricity from renewable sources.

Healthcare

Originating in Oakland, Kaiser Permanente, is an HMO started in 1942, during World War II, by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser to provide medical care for Kaiser Shipyards workers. It is the largest managed care organization in the United States and the largest non-governmental health care provider in the world. It is headquartered at 1950 Franklin Street in Downtown Oakland and maintains a large medical center in the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood.

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, an East Bay hospital system, maintains its Summit Campus in the neighborhood known as "Pill Hill" north of downtown. Until 2000, it was the Summit Medical Center before merging with Berkeley-based Alta Bates. All campuses now operate under the Sutter Health network.

Alameda County Medical Center is operated by the county and provides medical services to county residents, including the medically indigent who do not have health insurance. The main campus, Highland Hospital in East Oakland, is the trauma center for the northern area of the East Bay.

Children's Hospital Oakland is the primary medical center specializing in pediatrics in the East Bay. It is a designated Level I pediatric trauma center, and the only independent children's hospital in Northern California.

Sister cities

Oakland has twelve sister cities: {| |- | valign="top" | —Dalian (People's Republic of China) —Fukuoka (Japan) —Nakhodka (Russia) —Ocho Ríos (Jamaica) —Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) —Auckland (New Zealand) | valign="top" | —Sekondi Takoradi (Ghana) —Santiago de Cuba (Cuba) —Agadir (Morocco) —Da Nang (Vietnam) —Funchal (Portugal) —Bahir Dar (Ethiopia) |}

See also

Books about Oakland, California

East Bay

Ebonics Issue in Oakland

Key System of electric streetcars

List of California public officials charged with crimes, Oakland

List of mayors of Oakland, California

List of people from Oakland, California

List of tallest buildings in Oakland, California

Notes

References

External links

City of Oakland official web page

Visit Oakland: Oakland Convention and Visitors Bureau

Category:California Enterprise Zones Category:County seats in California Category:Port settlements in the United States Category:Populated places established in 1852 Category:Incorporated cities and towns in California Category:Cities in Alameda County, California Category:Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area Category:Populated coastal places in California Category:Populated places in the United States with African American plurality populations

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name	California
fullname	State of California
flag	Flag of California.svg
flaglink	Flag
seal	Seal of California.svg
former	California Republic
map	Map of USA CA.svg
nickname	The Golden State
demonym	Californian
motto	Eureka
mottoenglish	I have found it
capital	Sacramento
borderingstates	Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Baja California
officiallang	English
languages	English (Only) 57.6%Spanish 28.2%
largestcity	Los Angeles
largestmetro	Greater Los Angeles Area
largestcounty	San Bernardino
governor	Jerry Brown (D)
lieutenant governor	Gavin Newsom (D)
legislature	California State Legislature
upperhouse	California State Senate
lowerhouse	California State Assembly
senators	Dianne Feinstein (D)Barbara Boxer (D)
Representative	34 Democrats, 19 Republicans
postalabbreviation	CA
tradabbreviation	Calif.
arearank	3rd
totalarea	423,970
totalareaus	163,696
landarea	403 932
landareaus	155,959
waterarea	20,047
waterareaus	7,737
pcwater	4.7
pcforest	35
pcdesert	25
poprank	1st
2000oldpop	33,871,648
2000pop	37,253,956
2004pop(est)	35,893,799
2003pop	35,484,453
2005pop(est)	36,132,147
densityrank	11th
2000density	90.49
2000densityus	234.4
medianhouseholdincome	US$61,021
incomerank	9th
admittanceorder	31st
admittancedate	September 9, 1850
timezone	Pacific: UTC-8/-7
area code	209 213 310 323 408 415 510 530 559 562 619 626 650 661 707 714 760 805 818 831 858 909 916 925 949
latitude	32° 32′ N to 42° N
longitude	114° 8′ W to 124° 26′ W
width	400
widthus	250
length	1,240
lengthus	770
highestpoint	Mount Whitney
highestelev	4,418
highestelevus	14,494
meanelev	884
meanelevus	2,900
lowestpoint	Death Valley
lowestelev	-86
lowestelevus	-282
isocode	US-CA
electoralvotes	55
website	ca.gov/ }}

boxwidth	25em
name	California
flag	Flag of California.svg
seal	Seal of California.svg
nickname	The Golden State
motto	Eureka
capital	Sacramento
mammal	California grizzly bear (State Animal)
marine mammal	Gray Whale
beverage	Wine
bird	California Quail
colors	Blue & Gold
dance	West Coast Swing
fish	Golden Trout
flower	California Poppy
folkdance	Square dance
fossil	Sabre-toothed cat
rock	Serpentinite
gemstone	Benitoite
grass	Purple Needlegrass
insect	California Dogface Butterfly
marine fish	Garibaldi
mineral	Native Gold
quarter	California quarter, reverse side, 2005.jpg
quarterreleasedate	2005
reptile	Desert Tortoise
tree	California Redwood
wildflower	California Poppy
staterock	Serpentine
song	"I Love You, California"
soil	San Joaquin
tartan	California State Tartan
route marker	California 1.svg }}

California (pronounced ) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation's second- and sixth-largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and San Francisco Bay Area), and eight of the nation's fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland). The capital city is Sacramento.

California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west, to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east—from the Redwood–Douglas-fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney and Death Valley), and has the third-longest coastline of all states (after Alaska and Florida). Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire: about 37,000 are recorded annually.

The name ''California'' once referred to a large area of North America claimed by Spain that included much of modern-day Southwestern United States and the Baja California peninsula. Beginning in the late 18th century, the area known as Alta California, comprising the California territory north of the Baja Peninsula, was colonized by the Spanish Empire as part of New Spain. In 1821, Alta California became a part of Mexico following its successful war for independence. Shortly after the beginning of the Mexican-American War in 1846, a group of American settlers in Sonoma declared an independent California Republic in Alta California. Though its existence was short-lived, its flag became the precursor for California's current state flag. American victory in the war led to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States. Western areas of Alta California became the state of California, which was admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850.

The California Gold Rush beginning in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic change, with large scale immigration from the U.S. and abroad and an accompanying economic boom. Key developments in the early 20th century included the emergence of Los Angeles as the center of the American entertainment industry, and the growth of a large, state-wide tourism sector. The late 20th century saw the development of the technology and information sectors, punctuated by the growth of Silicon Valley. In addition to California's prosperous agricultural industry, other important contributors to its economy include aerospace, education, and manufacturing. If California were a country, it would be the eighth-largest economy in the world and the 35th most populous nation. At least half of the fresh fruit produced in the United States are cultivated in California, and it also leads in the production of vegatables.

Etymology

The word ''California'' originally referred to the entire region composed of what is today the U.S. state of California, plus all or parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming, and the Baja California peninsula of Mexico.

The name ''California'' is most commonly believed to have derived from a fictional paradise peopled by Black Amazons and ruled by Queen Calafia. The story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work ''The Exploits of Esplandian'', written as a sequel to ''Amadis de Gaula'' by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a remote land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts, and rich in gold.

:

Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was inhabited by black women without a single man among them, and they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with strong passionate hearts and great virtue. The island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the bold and craggy rocks.

The name ''California'' is the fifth-oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. and was applied to what is now the southern tip of Baja California peninsula as the ''island of California'' by a Spanish expedition led by Diego de Becerra and Fortún Ximénez, who landed there in 1533 at the behest of Hernán Cortés.|group="note"}}

Geography

California adjoins the Pacific Ocean to the west, Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With an area of , it is the third-largest state in the United States in size, after Alaska and Texas. If it were a country, California would be the 59th-largest in the world in area.

In the middle of the state lies the California Central Valley, bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the Sierra Nevada to the east, the Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. The Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and grows approximately one-third of the nation's food.

Divided in two by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the northern portion, the Sacramento Valley serves as the watershed of the Sacramento River, while the southern portion, the San Joaquin Valley is the watershed for the San Joaquin River; both areas derive their names from the rivers that transit them. With dredging, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers have remained sufficiently deep that several inland cities are seaports.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta serves as a critical water supply hub for the state. Water is routed through an extensive network of canals and pumps out of the delta, that traverse nearly the length of the state, including the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. Water from the Delta provides drinking water for nearly 23 million people, almost two-thirds of the state's population, and provides water to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The Channel Islands are located off the southern coast.

The Sierra Nevada (Spanish for "snowy range") includes the highest peak in the contiguous forty-eight states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 ft (4,421 m). The range embraces Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on Earth, and the deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume.

To the east of the Sierra Nevada are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential migratory bird habitat. In the western part of the state is Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake by area entirely in California. Though Lake Tahoe is larger, it is divided by the California/Nevada border. The Sierra Nevada falls to Arctic temperatures in winter and has several dozen small glaciers, including Palisade Glacier, the southernmost glacier in the United States.

About 45 percent of the state's total surface area is covered by forests, and California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska. Many of the trees in the California White Mountains are the oldest in the world; one Bristlecone pine has an age of 4,700 years.

In the south is a large inland salt lake, the Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave; to the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point in North America, Badwater Basin. The horizontal distance from the lowest point of Death Valley to the peak of Mount Whitney is less than . Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with routine extreme high temperatures during the summer. The southeastern border of California with Arizona is entirely formed by the Colorado River, from which the southern part of the state gets about half of its water.

Along the California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area.

As part of the Ring of Fire, California is subject to tsunamis, floods, droughts, Santa Ana winds, wildfires, landslides on steep terrain, and has several volcanoes. It sees numerous earthquakes due to several faults, in particular the San Andreas Fault.

Climate

California's climate varies from Mediterranean to subarctic.

Much of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with cool, rainy winters and dry summers. The cool California Current offshore often creates summer fog near the coast. Further inland, one encounters colder winters and hotter summers.

Northern parts of the state average higher annual rainfall than the south. California's mountain ranges influence the climate as well: some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Northwestern California has a temperate climate, and the Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coast. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer.

The east side of California's mountains produce a rain shadow, creating expansive deserts. The higher elevation deserts of eastern California see hot summers and cold winters, while the low deserts east of the southern California mountains experience hot summers and nearly frostless mild winters. Death Valley, a desert with large expanses below sea level, is considered the hottest location in North America; the highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere, , was recorded there on July 10, 1913.

Ecology

California is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world, and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities. California is part of the Nearctic ecozone and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions. California's large number of endemic species includes relict species, which have died out elsewhere, such as the Catalina Ironwood (''Lyonothamnus floribundus''). Many other endemics originated through differentiation or adaptive radiation, whereby multiple species develop from a common ancestor to take advantage of diverse ecological conditions such as the California lilac (''Ceanothus''). Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, and the introduction of exotic species have encroached on their habitat.

Flora and fauna

California boasts several superlatives in its collection of flora: the largest trees, the tallest trees, and the oldest trees. California's native grasses are perennial plants. After European contact, these were generally replaced by invasive species of European annual grasses; and, in modern times, California's hills turn a characteristic golden-brown in summer.

Because California has the greatest diversity of climate and terrain, the state has six life zones which are the lower Sonoran (desert); upper Sonoran (foothill regions and some coastal lands), transition (coastal areas and moist northeastern counties); and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic Zones, comprising the state's highest elevations.

Plant life in the dry climate of the lower Sonoran zone contains a diversity of native cactus, mesquite, and paloverde. The Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) is found in the Mojave Desert. Flowering plants include the dwarf desert poppy and a variety of asters. Fremont cottonwood and valley oak thrive in the Central Valley. The upper Sonoran zone includes the chaparral belt, characterized by forests of small shrubs, stunted trees, and herbaceous plants. Nemophila, mint, phacelia, viola, and the California poppy (Eschscholtzia californica)- the state flower- also flourish in this zone, along with the lupine, more species of which occur here than anywhere else in the world.

The high elevations of the Canadian zone allow the Jeffrey Pine, red fir, and Lodgepole Pine to thrive. Brushy areas are abundant with dwarf manzanita and ceanothus; the unique Sierra puffball is also found here. Right below the timeberline, in the Hudsonian zone, the whitebark, foxtail, and silver pines grow. At about 10,500 ft (3,200 m), begins the Arctic zone, a treeless region whose flora include a number of wildflowers, including Sierra primrose, yellow columbine, alpine buttercup, and alpine shooting star.

Common plants that have been introduced to the state include the eucalyptus, acacia, pepper tree, geranium, and Scotch broom. The species that are federally classified as endangered are the Contra Costa wallflower, Antioch Dunes evening primrose, Solano Grass, San Clemente Island larkspur, salt marsh bird's beak, McDonald's rock-cress, and Santa Barbara Island Liveforever. As of December 1997, eight-five plant species were listed as threatened or endangered.

In the transition zone, there are Colombian Black-tailed Deer, black bears, gray foxes, cougars, bobcats, and Roosevelt elk. Reptiles such as the garter snakes and rattlesnakes inhabit the zone. In addition, amphibians such as the water puppy and redwood salamander are common too. Birds such as the kingfisher, chickadee, towhee, and hummingbird thrive here as well.

The Canadian zone mammals include the Mountain Weasel, Snowshoe Hare, Sierra chickadee, and several species of chipmunks. Conspicuous birds include the blue-fronted jay, Sierra hermit thrush, water ouzel, and Townsend solitaire. As one ascends into the Hudsonian zone, birds become scarcer. While the Sierra rosy finch is the only bird native to the high Arctic region, other bird species such as the hummingbird and Clark's Nutcracker. Principal mammals found in this region include the Sierra coney, White-tailed Jackrabbit, and the Bighorn Sheep. As of April 2003, the Bighorn Sheep was listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The fauna found throughout several zones are the mule deer, coyote, mountain lion, Northern Flicker, and several species of hawk and sparrow. Also, as of the same year, 178 species of California plants were listed either as endangered or threatened on this federal list.. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain.

Spanish missionaries began setting up 21 California Missions along the coast of what became known as Alta California (Upper California), together with small towns and ''presidios''. In 1821 the Mexican War of Independence gave Mexico (including California) independence from Spain; for the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico. Cattle ranches, or ''ranchos'', emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. After Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government and were secularized by 1832. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians) who had received land grants, and traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants.

Beginning in the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the U.S. and Canada began to arrive in Northern California, harbingers of the great changes that would later sweep the Mexican territory. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts surrounding California. In this period, Imperial Russia explored the California coast and established a trading post at Fort Ross.

In 1846 settlers rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterwards, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's first and only president was William B. Ide, who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. His term lasted 22 days and concluded when California was occupied by U.S. forces during the Mexican-American War.

The California Republic was short lived. The same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). When Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay and began the military occupation of California by the United States, Northern California capitulated in less than a month to the U.S. forces. After a series of defensive battles in Southern California, including The Siege of Los Angeles, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho, the Battle of San Pasqual, the Battle of Rio San Gabriel and the Battle of La Mesa, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing American control in California. Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, the region was divided between Mexico and the U.S.; the western territory of Alta California, was to become the U.S. state of California, and Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah became U.S. Territories, while the lower region of California, the Baja Peninsula, remained in the possession of Mexico. In 1848 the non-native population of California was estimated to be no more than 15,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with U.S. citizens, Europeans and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By 1854 over 300,000 settlers had come. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the United States undivided as a free state, denying the expansion of slavery to the Pacific Coast.

The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule was located at Monterey from 1777 until 1835, when Mexican authorities abandoned California, leaving their missions and military forts behind. In 1849 the Constitutional Convention was first held there. Among the duties was the task of determining the location for the new state capital. The first legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1861 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento.

Travel between California and the central and eastern parts of the U.S. was time consuming and dangerous. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad through Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains. After this rail link was established, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.

Migration to California accelerated during the early-20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. In order to meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.

Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. A couple of decades later, Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is currently regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology and engineering businesses, and as the U.S. center of agricultural production.

Demographics

Population

California's population was counted by the US Census Bureau at 37,253,956 for the 2010 census, making it the most populous state. Between 2000 and 2009, there was a natural increase of 3,090,016 (5,058,440 births minus 2,179,958 deaths). During this time period, international migration produced a net increase of 1,816,633 people while domestic migration produced a net decrease of 1,509,708, resulting in a net in-migration of 306,925 people. The State of California's own statistics show a population of 38,292,687 for January 1, 2009.

California is the second-most-populous sub-national entity in the Western Hemisphere and the Americas, with a population second to that of State of São Paulo, Brazil. California's population is greater than that of all but 34 countries of the world. Also, Los Angeles County has held the title of most populous U.S. county for decades, and it alone is more populous than 42 U.S. states. In addition, California is home to eight of the 50 most populous cities in the United States: Los Angeles (2nd), San Diego (8th), San Jose (10th), San Francisco (13th), Fresno (34th), Sacramento (35th), Long Beach (36th), and Oakland (47th). The center of population of California is located in the town of Buttonwillow, Kern County.. |group="note"}}

In 2010, illegal aliens constituted an estimated 7.3 percent of the population, the third highest percentage of any state in the country, totaling nearly 2.6 million. More than half originate from Mexico.

Starting in the year 2010, for the first time since the California Gold Rush, California-born residents make up the majority of the state's population.

Racial and ancestral makeup

Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:

57.6% White (40.1% Non-Hispanic White)

13.0% Asian (3.4% Chinese, 3.2% Filipino, 1.6% Vietnamese, 1.4% Indian, 1.2% Korean, 0.7% Japanese, 0.2% Hmong, 0.2% Cambodian, 0.2% Laotian, 0.1% Thai, 0.1% Pakistani)

6.2% Black or African American

1.0% Native American

4.9% Multiracial (1.3% White and "Some Other Race", 1.2% White and Asian, 0.6% White and Native American, 0.5% White and Black, 1.3% Other)

0.4% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (0.1% Samoan, 0.1% Guamanian or Chamorro, 0.1% Native Hawaiian, 0.2% "Other Pacific Islander")

37.6% are Hispanic or Latino (of any race) (30.7% Mexican, 1.5% Salvadoran, 0.9% Guatemalan, 0.5% Puerto Rican, 0.3% Nicaraguan, 0.2% Honduran, 0.2% Cuban, 0.2% Colombian, 0.2% Peruvian)

With regard to demographics, California has the largest population of White Americans in the U.S., an estimated 22,189,514 residents, although most demographic surveys do not measure actual genetic ancestry. The state has the fifth-largest population of African Americans in the U.S., an estimated 2,250,630 residents. California's Asian American population is estimated at 4.4 million, approximately one-third of the nation's 13.1 million Asian Americans. California's Native American population of 285,162 is the most of any state.

According to estimates from 2008, California has the largest minority population in the United States by numbers, making up 57% of the state population. In 2000, Hispanics comprised 32% of the population; that number grew to 37% in 2008. Non-Hispanic whites decreased from 80% of the state's population in 1970 to 42% in 2008.

Approximately 27% of California's public school students in the 2009–10 school year identified themselves as white, and almost 50.4% of the state's students identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino. While the population of minorities accounts for 102 million of 301 million U.S. residents, 20% of the national total live in California.

Armed forces

In California, as of 2002, the US Department of Defense had

123,948 active-duty military personnel

*7,932 US Army personnel

*96,047 US Navy (including 20,000+US Marines)

*19,969 Air Force

58,076 DOD civilian personnel

In California, as of 2000 there were 2,569,340 veterans of US military service: 504,010 served in World War II, 301,034 in the Korean War, 754,682 during the Vietnam War, and 278,003 during 1990–2000 (including the Persian Gulf War).

California's military forces consist of the Army and Air National Guard, the naval and state military reserve (militia), and the California Cadet Corps.

Languages

As of 2005, 57.6% of California residents age five and older spoke English as a first language at home, while 28.2% spoke Spanish. In addition to English and Spanish, 2.0% spoke Filipino, 1.6% spoke Chinese (which included Cantonese [0.6%] and Mandarin [0.4%]), 1.4% spoke Vietnamese, and 1.1% spoke Korean as their mother tongue. In total, 42.4% of the population spoke languages other than English. California was historically one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, and is home to more than 70 indigenous languages derived from 64 root languages in 6 language families. About half of the indigenous languages are no longer spoken, and all of California's living indigenous languages are endangered. There are some efforts toward language revitalization, such as for the Karuk language. The official language of California has been English since the passage of Proposition 63 in 1986. However, many state, city, and local government agencies still continue to print official public documents in numerous languages. For example, the California Department of Motor Vehicles offers the written exam for the standard C Class driver's license in 31 languages along with English, and the audio exam in 11 languages.

Culture

The culture of California is a Western culture and most clearly has its modern roots in the culture of the United States, but also, historically, many Hispanic influences. As a border and coastal state, Californian culture has been greatly influenced by several large immigrant populations, especially those from Latin America.

California has long been a subject of interest in the public mind and has often been promoted by its boosters as a kind of paradise. In the early 20th Century, fueled by the efforts of state and local boosters, many Americans saw the Golden State as an ideal resort destination, sunny and dry all year round with easy access to the ocean and mountains. In the 1960s, popular music groups such as The Beach Boys promoted the image of Californians as laid-back, tanned beach-goers.

In terms of socio-cultural mores and national politics, Californians are perceived as more liberal than other Americans, especially those who live in the inland states. In some ways, California is the quintessential Blue State-- accepting of alternative lifestyles, not uniformly religious, and preoccupied with environmental issues.

The gold rush of the 1850s is still seen as a symbol of California's economic style, which tends to generate technology, social, entertainment, and economic fads and booms and related busts.

Religion

The largest religious denominations by number of adherents as a percentage of California's population in 2008 were the Catholic Church with 31 percent; Evangelical Protestants with 18 percent; and Mainline Protestants with 14 percent. Those unaffiliated with any religion represented 21 percent of the population.

The first priests to come to California were Roman Catholic missionaries from Spain. Roman Catholics founded 21 missions along the California coast, as well as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. California continues to have a large Roman Catholic population due to the large numbers of Mexicans and Central Americans living within its borders. California has twelve dioceses and two archdioceses, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the former being the largest archdiocese in the United States.

A Pew Research Center survey revealed that California is somewhat less religious than the rest of the US: 62 percent of Californians say they are "absolutely certain" of the belief in God, while in the nation 71 percent say so. The survey also revealed 48 percent of Californians say religion is "very important," compared to 56 percent nationally.

Economy

thumb|350px|Were California an independent country, its gross domestic product would be ranked [[Comparison between U.S. states and countries by GDP (PPP)|between eighth and eleventh in the world.]]

As of 2007, the gross state product (GSP) is about $1.812 trillion, the largest in the United States. California is responsible for 13 percent of the United States gross domestic product (GDP). As of 2006, California's GDP is larger than all but eight countries in the world (all but eleven countries by Purchasing Power Parity).

In terms of jobs, the five largest sectors in California are trade, transportation, and utilities; government; professional and business services; education and health services; and leisure and hospitality. In terms of output, the five largest sectors are financial services, followed by trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; government; and manufacturing.

California currently has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the nation at 12.5% as of January 2010 and had continued to rise, up significantly from 5.9% in 2007.

California's economy is very dependent on trade and international related commerce accounts for approximately one-quarter of the state’s economy. In 2008, California exported $144 billion worth of goods, up from $134 billion in 2007 and $127 billion in 2006. Computers and electronic products are California's top export, accounting for 42 percent of all the state's exports in 2008.

Agriculture is an important sector in California's economy. Farming-related sales more than quadrupled over the past three decades, from $7.3 billion in 1974 to nearly $31 billion in 2004. This increase has occurred despite a 15 percent decline in acreage devoted to farming during the period, and water supply suffering from chronic instability. Factors contributing to the growth in sales-per-acre include more intensive use of active farmlands and technological improvements in crop production. In 2008, California's 81,500 farms and ranches generated $36.2 billion products revenue.

Per capita GDP in 2007 was $38,956, ranking eleventh in the nation. Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. The Central Valley is the most impoverished, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. Recently, the San Joaquin Valley was characterized as one of the most economically depressed regions in the U.S., on par with the region of Appalachia. Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S. The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, have emerged from the economic downturn caused by the dot-com bust.

In 2010, there were more than 663,000 millionaires in the state, more than any other state in the nation.

State finances

California levies a 9.3 percent maximum variable rate income tax, with six tax brackets, collecting about $40 billion per year (representing approximately 51% of General Fund revenue and 40% of tax revenue overall in FY2007). California has a state sales tax of 8.25%, which can total up to 10.75% with local sales tax included. All real property is taxable annually, the tax based on the property's fair market value at the time of purchase or completion of new construction. Property tax increases are capped at 2% per year (see Proposition 13).

However, California is facing a $26.3 billion budget deficit for the 2009–2010 budget year. While the legislative bodies appeared to address the problem in 2008 with the three-month delayed passage of a budget they in fact only postponed the deficit to 2009 and due to the late 2008 decline in the economy and the credit crisis the problem became urgent in November 2008.

One potential problem is that a substantial portion of the state's income comes from income taxes on a small proportion of wealthy citizens. For example, it is estimated that in 2004 the richest 3% of state taxpayers (those with tax returns showing over 200K USD yearly income) paid approximately 60% of state income taxes. The taxable income of this population is highly dependent upon capital gains, which has been severely impacted by the stock market declines of this period. The governor has proposed a combination of extensive program cuts and tax increases to address this problem, but owing to longstanding problems in the legislature these proposals are likely to be difficult to pass as legislation.

State spending increased from $56 billion in 1998 to $131 billion in 2008, and the state was facing a budget deficit of $40 billion in 2008. California is facing another budget gap for 2010, with $72 billion in debt.

In 2009 the California economic crisis became severe as the state faced insolvency. In June 2009 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said "Our wallet is empty, our bank is closed and our credit is dried up." He called for massive budget cuts of $24 billion, about of the state's budget. Due to the high electricity demand, California imports more electricity than any other state, primarily hydroelectric power from states in the Pacific Northwest (via Path 15 and Path 66) and coal- and natural gas-fired production from the desert Southwest via Path 46.

As a result of the state's strong environmental movement, California has the some of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in the United States, with a target for California to obtain a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020. Currently, several solar power plants such as the Solar Energy Generating Systems facility are located in the Mojave Desert. California's wind farms include Altamont Pass, San Gorgonio Pass, and Tehachapi Pass. And a number of dams across the state also provide hydro-electric power.

The state’s crude oil and natural gas deposits are located in the Central Valley and along the coast, including the large Midway-Sunset Oil Field. Natural gas-fired power plants typically account for more than one-half of State electricity generation.

California is also home to two major nuclear power plants: Diablo Canyon and San Onofre. However, voters banned the approval of new nuclear power plants since the late 1970s because of concerns over radioactive waste disposal. In addition, several cities such as Oakland, Berkeley and Davis have declared themselves as nuclear-free zones.

Transportation

California's vast terrain is connected by an extensive system of controlled-access highways ('freeways'), limited-access roads ('expressways'), and highways. California is known for its car culture, giving California's cities a reputation for severe traffic congestion. Construction and maintenance of state roads and statewide transportation planning are primarily the responsibility of the California Department of Transportation, nicknamed "Caltrans". The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its transportation networks, and California has some of the worst roads in the United States. The Reason Foundation's 19th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems ranked California's highways the third-worst of any state, with Alaska second, and Rhode Island first.

One of the state's more visible landmarks, the Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937. With its orange paint and panoramic views of the bay, this highway bridge is a popular tourist attraction and also accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists. It is simultaneously designated as U.S. Route 101, which is part of the El Camino Real (Spanish for Royal Road or King's Highway), and State Route 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway. Another of the seven bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area is the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (often abbreviated the "Bay Bridge"), completed in 1936. This bridge transports approximately 280,000 vehicles per day on two-decks, with its two sections meeting at Yerba Buena Island.

Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state.

California also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States. The Port of Oakland, fourth largest in the nation, handles trade from the Pacific Rim and delivers most of the ocean containers passing through Northern California to the entire USA.

The California Highway Patrol is the largest statewide police agency in the United States in terms of employment with over 10,000 employees, and perhaps the most legendary, especially because they have been featured in their own sitcom, CHiPs. They are responsible for providing any police-sanctioned service to anyone on California's state maintained highways and on state property.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is by far the largest in North America. By the end of 2009, the California DMV had 26,555,006 driver's licenses and ID cards on file. In 2010, there were 1.17 million new vehicle registrations in force.

Intercity rail travel is provided by Amtrak California, which manages the three busiest intercity rail lines in the U.S. outside the Northeast Corridor, all of which are funded by Caltrans. This service is becoming increasingly popular over flying and ridership is continuing to set records, especially on the LAX-SFO route. Integrated subway and light rail networks are found in Los Angeles (Metro Rail) and San Francisco (MUNI Metro). Light rail systems are also found in San Jose (VTA), San Diego (San Diego Trolley), Sacramento (RT Light Rail), and Northern San Diego County (Sprinter). Furthermore, commuter rail networks serve the San Francisco Bay Area (ACE, BART, Caltrain), Greater Los Angeles (Metrolink), and San Diego County (Coaster).

The California High-Speed Rail Authority was created in 1996 by the state to implement an extensive 700 mile (1127 km) rail system. Construction was approved by the voters during the November 2008 general election, a $9.95 billion state bond will go toward its construction. Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate their own bus lines as well. Intercity bus travel is provided by Greyhound and Amtrak Thruway Coach.

In March 2011, California ranked as a top BEST state in the American State Litter Scorecard for overall effectiveness and quality of its public space cleanliness—-primarily roadway litter—from state and related debris removal efforts.

Government and politics

State government

California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government — the executive branch consisting of the Governor and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification. California allows each political party to choose whether to have a closed primary or a primary where only party members and independents vote. The state's capital is Sacramento.

The Governor of California and the other state constitutional officers serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. The California State Legislature consists of a 40-member Senate and 80-member Assembly. Senators serve four-year terms and Assembly members two. Members of the Assembly are subject to term limits of three terms, and members of the Senate are subject to term limits of two terms.

California's legal system is explicitly based upon English common law (as is the case with all other states except Louisiana) but carries a few features from Spanish civil law, such as community property. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country (though Texas is far more active in carrying out executions). California's "Death Row" is in San Quentin State Prison situated north of San Francisco in Marin County. Executions in California are currently on hold indefinitely as human rights issues are addressed. California's prison population grew from 25,000 in 1980 to over 170,000 in 2007.

California's judiciary is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the federal system has only about 840). It is supervised by the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the Governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years.

Politics

+ Presidential elections results
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California has an idiosyncratic political culture compared to the rest of the country, and is sometimes regarded as a trendsetter. It was the second state to recall their state governor, the second state to legalize abortion, and the only state to ban marriage for gay couples twice by voters (including Proposition 8 in 2008). Voters also passed Proposition 71 in 2004 to fund stem cell research, and Proposition 14 in 2010 to completely change the state's primary election process. California has also experienced disputes over water rights; and a tax revolt, culminating with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, limiting state property taxes.

What has been consistent in the last few decades is that California politics has trended towards the Democratic Party and away from the Republican Party. From 1899 to 1939, California had Republican governors. Once very conservative, having elected Republicans until 1958, California is now a reliable liberal, Democratic state. Since 1990, California has generally elected Democratic candidates to federal, state and local offices, including current Governor Jerry Brown; however, the state has elected Republican Governors, though many of its Republican Governors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, tend to be considered "Moderate Republicans" and more centrist than the national party.

The Democrats also hold a majority in both houses of the state legislature. There are currently 52 Democrats and 27 Republicans in the Assembly; and 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans in the Senate.

The trend towards the Democratic Party is most obvious in presidential elections; the Democratic Party candidate has won California's electoral votes in the last five elections. Additionally, both the state's current Democratic U.S. Senators, Dianne Feinstein, a native and former mayor of San Francisco, and Barbara Boxer, a former congresswoman from Marin County, have held onto their seats since they were first elected in 1992.

In the U.S. House, the Democrats have held a 34–19 edge since the seating of the 110th United States Congress in 2007. As the result of gerrymandering, the districts in California are usually dominated by one or the other party with very few districts that could be considered competitive.

In general, Democratic strength is centered in coastal regions of Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area. Republican strength is still greatest in eastern parts of the state. Orange County also remains mostly Republican. One study ranked Berkeley, Oakland, Inglewood and San Francisco in the top 10 most liberal American cities; and Bakersfield and Orange in the top 10 most conservative cities.

Cities, towns and counties

:''For lists of cities, towns, and counties in California, see List of California counties, List of largest California cities by population, List of incorporated cities and towns in California, List of California urban areas, and California locations by per capita income.''

The state's local government is divided into 58 counties and 482 incorporated cities and towns; of which 460 are cities and 22 are towns. Under California law, the terms "city" and "town" are explicitly interchangeable; the name of an incorporated municipality in the state can either be "City of (Name)" or "Town of (Name)".

Sacramento became California's first incorporated city on February 27, 1850. San Jose, San Diego and Benicia tied for California's second incorporated city, each receiving incorporation on March 27, 1850. Jurupa Valley became the state's most recent and 482nd incorporated municipality on July 1, 2011.

The majority of these cities and towns are within one of five metropolitan areas. Sixty-eight percent of California's population lives in its three largest metropolitan areas, Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Riverside-San Bernardino Area. Although smaller, the other two large population centers are the San Diego and Greater Sacramento metro areas.

The state recognizes two kinds of cities: charter and general law. General law cities owe their existence to state law and are consequentially governed by it; charter cities are governed by their own city charters. Cities incorporated in the 19th century tend to be charter cities. All ten of the state's most populous cities are charter cities.

Education

Public secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in trades, languages, and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and industrial arts students. California's public educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires a minimum annual funding level for grades K-12 and community colleges that grows with the economy and student enrollment figures.

California had over 6.2 million school students in the 2005–06 school year. Funding and staffing levels in California schools lag behind other states. In expenditure per pupil, California ranked 29th (of the 50 states and the District of Columbia) in 2005–06. In teaching staff expenditure per pupil, California ranked 49th of 51. In overall teacher-pupil ratio, California was also 49th, with 21 students per teacher. Only Arizona and Utah were lower.

A 2007 study concluded that California's public school system was "broken".

California's public postsecondary education offers a unique three tiered system:

The research university system in the state is the University of California (UC), a public university system. There are ten general UC campuses, and a number of specialized campuses in the UC system.

The California State University (CSU) system has almost 450,000 students, making it the largest university system in the United States. It is intended to accept the top one-third of high school students. The 23 CSU schools are primarily intended for undergraduate education. The California Community Colleges System provides lower division coursework as well as basic skills and workforce training. It is the largest network of higher education in the US, composed of 110 colleges serving a student population of over 2.9 million.

California is also home to such notable private universities as Stanford University, the University of Southern California, the California Institute of Technology, and the Claremont Colleges. California has hundreds of other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions.

Sports

California hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley Ski Resort, the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The NFL Super Bowl has been hosted in California 11 times at four different stadiums.

California has nineteen major professional sports league franchises, far more than any other state. The San Francisco Bay Area has seven major league teams spread in three cities, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. While the Greater Los Angeles Area is home to ten major league franchises, it is also the largest metropolitan area not to have a team from the National Football League. San Diego has two major league teams, and Sacramento has one.

Home to some of the most prominent universities in the United States, California has long had many respected collegiate sports programs. California is home to the oldest college bowl game, the annual Rose Bowl, among others.

California has also long been a hub for motorsports and auto racing. The city of Long Beach holds an event every year in the month of April, which is host to IndyCar Series racing through the streets of downtown. Long Beach has hosted Formula One events there in the past, and also currently hosts an event on the American Le Mans Series schedule. Auto Club Speedway is a speedway in Fontana, and currently hosts one to two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races a year, and used to host CART Indycar races. Infineon Raceway in Sonoma is a multi-purpose facility, featuring a road course and a drag strip. The road course is home to a NASCAR event, an IndyCar event, and used to host an International Motor Sports Association sports car event. The drag strip hosts a yearly NHRA event. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a roadcourse that currently hosts an ALMS event, and formerly hosted CART events. The Auto Club Raceway at Pomona has hosted NHRA drag racing for over 50 years.

Below is a list of major sports teams in California:

! Club	! Sport	! League
Oakland Raiders	American football	National Football League
San Diego Chargers	American football	National Football League
San Francisco 49ers	American football	National Football League
Sacramento Mountain Lions	American football
Los Angeles Dodgers	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Oakland Athletics	Baseball	Major League Baseball
San Diego Padres	Baseball	Major League Baseball
San Francisco Giants	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Golden State Warriors	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Los Angeles Clippers	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Los Angeles Lakers	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Sacramento Kings	Basketball	National Basketball Association
Anaheim Ducks	Ice hockey	National Hockey League
Los Angeles Kings	Ice hockey	National Hockey League
San Jose Sharks	Ice hockey	National Hockey League
		Major League Soccer
Los Angeles Galaxy	Soccer	Major League Soccer
San Jose Earthquakes	Soccer	Major League Soccer
Los Angeles Sparks	Basketball	Women's National Basketball Association
California Cougars	Soccer	Professional Arena Soccer League
FC Gold Pride	Soccer	Women's Professional Soccer
San Jose SaberCats	American football	Arena Football League

See also

List of National Register of Historic Places in California

List of people from California

List of places in California

Pacific Ocean

U.S. state

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

State of California

1973 documentary featuring aerial views of the California coastline from Mt. Shasta to Los Angeles

Time-Lapse Tilt-Shift Portrait of California by Ryan and Sheri Killackey

Category:Former Spanish colonies Category:States and territories established in 1850 Category:States of the United States Category:West Coast of the United States

af:Kalifornië als:Kalifornien ang:California ar:كاليفورنيا an:California frp:California ast:California gn:California az:Kaliforniya bn:ক্যালিফোর্নিয়া zh-min-nan:California be:Штат Каліфорнія be-x-old:Каліфорнія bcl:California bi:Kalifornia bar:Kalifornien bo:ཁྰ་ལེ་ཧྥོར་ནི་ཡ། bs:California br:Kalifornia bg:Калифорния ca:Califòrnia cv:Калифорни cs:Kalifornie co:California cy:Califfornia da:Californien de:Kalifornien nv:Akééháshį́į́h Hahoodzo et:California el:Καλιφόρνια es:California eo:Kalifornio eu:Kalifornia fa:کالیفرنیا hif:California fo:Kalifornia fr:Californie fy:Kalifornje ga:California gv:California gag:Kaliforniya gd:Calafòrnia gl:California hak:Kâ-li-fuk-nì-â hi:कैलिफ़ोर्निया xal:Калифорни ko:캘리포니아 주 haw:Kaleponi hy:Կալիֆորնիա hsb:Kaliforniska hr:Kalifornija io:Kalifornia ig:California ilo:California bpy:ক্যালিফোর্নিয়া id:California ia:California iu:ᑳᓖᐴᕐᓃᐊ/kaaliipuurniia ik:California os:Калифорни is:Kalifornía it:California he:קליפורניה jv:California kn:ಕ್ಯಾಲಿಫೊರ್ನಿಯ pam:California krc:Калифорния ka:კალიფორნია ks:केलिफोर्निया kk:Калифорния kw:Kaliforni sw:California ht:Kalifòni ku:California mrj:Калифорни lad:California la:California lv:Kalifornija lb:Kalifornien lt:Kalifornija lij:California li:Californië jbo:kalifornias lmo:California hu:Kalifornia mk:Калифорнија mg:Kalifornia ml:കാലിഫോർണിയ mi:Karapōnia mr:कॅलिफोर्निया arz:كاليفورنيا mzn:کالیفرنیای جزیره مونا ms:California mn:Калифорни my:ကယ်လီဖိုးနီးယားပြည်နယ် nah:California nl:Californië new:क्यालिफोर्निया ja:カリフォルニア州 frr:California no:California nn:California oc:Califòrnia uz:Kaliforniya pnb:کیلیفورنیا pap:California ps:کالېفورنیا pms:Califòrnia nds:Kalifornien pl:Kalifornia pt:Califórnia ro:California rm:California qu:California suyu ru:Калифорния sah:Калифорния sa:क्यालिफ़ोर्निया sco:Californie sq:Kalifornia scn:California simple:California sk:Kalifornia sl:Kalifornija szl:Kaliforńijo so:Kalifornia ckb:کالیفۆرنیا sr:Калифорнија sh:Kalifornija su:Kalifornia fi:Kalifornia sv:Kalifornien tl:Kaliporniya ta:கலிபோர்னியா tt:Калифорния (штат) te:కాలిఫోర్నియా tet:California th:รัฐแคลิฟอร์เนีย chy:California tr:Kaliforniya uk:Каліфорнія ur:کیلی فورنیا ug:Kaliforniye Shitati vec:Całifornia vi:California vo:Kalifonän wa:Californeye war:California wuu:加利福尼亚 yi:קאליפארניע yo:California zh-yue:加利福尼亞州 diq:Kaliforniya bat-smg:Kalėfuornėjė zh:加利福尼亚州

name	Scott Olsen
team	Free Agent
number	--
position	Starting pitcher
birth date	January 12, 1984
birth place	Kalamazoo, Michigan
bats	Left
throws	Left
debutdate	June 25
debutyear	2005
debutteam	Florida Marlins
statyear	August 19, 2010
stat1label	Win-Loss
stat1value	36-46
stat2label	Earned run average
stat2value	4.80
stat3label	Strikeouts
stat3value	516
teams	Florida Marlins (-) Washington Nationals (-) }}

Scott Matthew Olsen (born January 12, 1984, in Kalamazoo, Michigan) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher who is a free agent.

Early life

Olsen was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He spent his middle school years in Stevensville, MI, and attended Lakeshore Middle School then attended Crystal Lake South High School in Crystal Lake, Illinois, for high school where he was all-conference in baseball. He was drafted 173rd overall during the sixth round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft by the Florida Marlins.

MLB career

Florida Marlins

2005 season

Olsen played his first season in the MLB in 2005 with the Florida Marlins. The team activated him on June 25, 2005, when pitcher Josh Beckett went on the disabled list. Olsen had one win and one loss in five starts, with a 3.98 ERA during the season, but was also later sent to the disabled list with an elbow injury.

2006 season

During the 2006 season with the Florida Marlins, Olsen went 12-10 with a 4.04 ERA. With his 10+ wins and the 10+ wins of his fellow rookies Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco and Anibal Sanchez, the 2006 Marlins became the first team in Major League Baseball history with four rookie pitchers with ten or more wins in one season.

With his 166 strikeouts, Olsen now holds the single-season record for the most strikeouts by a Marlins rookie. He had two 10-or-more strikeout games: 11 vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 27 and 10 vs. the New York Mets on August 1. His 11-strikeout performance against Pittsburgh was the most by any of the Marlins pitchers in 2006.

2007 season

As a hitter, Olsen began the 2007 season 6-for-14 with two runs batted in.

Olsen finished the season with a 10-15 record and a 5.81 ERA. He had 133 strikeouts in 176.2 innings. He was tied with two other Marlins starters for the most wins during the season. His .384 OBP-against was the highest in the majors, as was his .315 batting-average-against and .504 slugging-percentage-against.

2008 season

With the departure of Dontrelle Willis, Olsen admitted to reporters that he coveted the "pitching ace" role. However, Ricky Nolasco put himself in that role with a break-out season. Olsen's 13 intentional-walks-given-up for the season were the most in the majors.

Washington Nationals

On November 11, , he was traded with left fielder Josh Willingham to the Washington Nationals for second baseman Emilio Bonifacio, and minor leaguers right-hander P.J. Dean, and infielder Jake Smolinski.

Shoulder tendinitis forced Olsen to miss about a month and a half, from May 16 to June 29.

Olsen missed the rest of the season following a diagnosis of a left labrum tear following a mid-July start. Surgery to repair the labrum was performed on July 23, 2009.

On December 12, 2009, Olsen, was non-tendered a contract by the Washington Nationals making him a free agent.

On December 13. 2009 Olsen, re-signed with the Washington Nationals for 1 year $1 million.

In Olsen started in the minors, but after one class AAA start was called up. In early May he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Atlanta Braves. The game took place amidst a five game streak where Olsen went 2-0 with a 1.11 ERA. But on May 21 he experienced stiffness in his left shoulder that forced him to the disabled list.

On November 6, 2010, Olsen was outrighted by the Nationals, and elected free agency.

Pittsburgh Pirates

On December 6, 2010, Olsen tentatively agreed to a one-year, incentive-laden agreement with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was released on May 14, 2011.

Suspensions, confrontations and legal trouble

Olsen has had a history of disciplinary problems with the Marlins and legal issues. He was given a black eye by friend and former teammate Randy Messenger during the 2006 season. Shortly afterwards, then-manager Joe Girardi pulled Olsen by the collar and confronted him.

In a 7-6 loss to the New York Mets in July 2006, there was an incident involving former teammate Miguel Cabrera. While pitching to Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca, Lo Duca hit a hard grounder that glanced off Cabrera's glove and rolled into left field. A run scored and Lo Duca raced to second for a double. While the ball glanced off of Cabrera's glove, Olsen seemed to believe that Cabrera did not give his full effort to get to the ball, and as they came off the field, Olsen could be seen shouting something at Cabrera. A moment later, television cameras showed Cabrera in the crowded dugout reaching past teammates to poke his finger at Olsen as the pitcher walked past him. Olsen tried to jab back at Cabrera, who charged Olsen and tried to kick the pitcher before both players were quickly separated by teammates.

In September 2006, Olsen said he hated the Philadelphia Phillies because they dominated the Marlins. His emotions boiled over in the sixth inning of a May 2007 game versus the Phillies, when he became angry at Chase Utley for calling time just before a pitch. The next pitch was ball four, and Utley trotted to first base as Olsen angrily shouted and waved his glove at him.

In June 2007, Olsen received an unspecified fine for making an obscene gesture towards fans during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers in Milwaukee.

On July 15, 2007, during a start against the Washington Nationals, Olsen had a confrontation with pitcher Sergio Mitre in the tunnel heading toward the team clubhouse. Olsen ripped his jersey off and tossed it in the direction of a trainer. According to a source, Mitre and other Marlins took exception to Olsen's actions. That's when tensions got heated. As they left the dugout area, Mitre pinned Olsen against a wall before the two were separated by teammates. Olsen then received a two-game suspension for insubordination, but was still scheduled to make his next start the following Friday against the Cincinnati Reds.

After serving his two-game suspension, and after making his scheduled July 20, 2007, start, Olsen was arrested by police in Aventura, Florida after fleeing from police following a speeding violation (he was clocked going 48 MPH in a 35 MPH zone). He fled for about a mile, at which point he stopped at his home and sat in a plastic chair in the front yard. When police arrived and tried to arrest him, he kicked at the officers who then used a taser to subdue him. Olsen failed a field sobriety test and refused a breathalyzer test. He was booked on charges of driving under the influence, resisting arrest with violence and fleeing and eluding a police officer.

References

External links

Scott Olsen: Profile on the Fish@Bat Florida Marlins Wiki

Scott Olsen - Yahoo! Sports

Scott Olsen - AroundtheDiamond.com

Category:1984 births Category:Living people Category:People from Kalamazoo, Michigan Category:Baseball players from Michigan Category:Major League Baseball pitchers Category:Gulf Coast Marlins players Category:Greensboro Bats players Category:Jupiter Hammerheads players Category:Carolina Mudcats players Category:Albuquerque Isotopes players Category:Florida Marlins players Category:Washington Nationals players

fr:Scott Olsen ja:スコット・オルセン