Alameda

City, Alameda County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 94501, 94502

Island-peninsula city. Located at one of the choicest spots in the Bay Area, population of 75,823. Site of many Victorians and stately homes. Also many small and modest homes and many apartments. Compared to other towns, a great commute. www.mccormacks.com

School scores middle to high. In 2005, residents voted to extend and raise a tax to retain music, art and other electives and keep classes small and passed another bond to renovate schools.

Crime low and may decline in the coming years. Alameda is attracting more college educated and more professionals.

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A town in transition. In 1997, the Navy closed an airfield and naval base and turned over 2,000 acres to the city. Alameda has been debating what to build on the base and over the next 10 years expects to add 5,000 to 10,000 residents to the base and nearby streets.

Complicating the job, the housing market has slowed and the land, contaminated by decades of aircraft use, must be cleansed. After the lead developer for the biggest job dropped out, the city council in 2007 was reviewing bids from other developers. Something will be erected — the property is too choice to be left idle — but at this stage much remains to be decided.

Meanwhile, the city council is reviewing applications for smaller plots and many businesses have moved into the former military buildings. www.mccormacks.com

Alameda is composed of a peninsula and three islands: one tiny, one a Coast Guard base, and the main island two miles wide and seven miles long where most of the housing is located. The main island, called Alameda, is separated from Oakland by an estuary. Immediately to the south of the main island is the peninsula called Bay Farm Island.

Here is where you'll find some of the newest housing in the city, two 18-hole golf courses, a 9-hole course, a driving range, the training camp for the Oakland Raiders, and a modern, high-tech office park.

The town that tore down all its billboards boasts about 20 parks, seven marinas (over 2,000 berths), a skate park, five yacht clubs, three libraries, model airplane field, trails, many activities (soccer, football, etc.) for kids and adults, and over 100 clubs and service groups.

Amenities include a shopping center, first-class restaurants, movie house, playhouse and local theater company, light opera company. Annual art and wine festival. Hometown stores that have won the affections of residents: Tucker's Ice Cream Parlor, Ole's Waffle House, the Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy and Pagano's hardware. Big party and parade on the Fourth of July. Annual sand castle contest. Two dog parks, one for big dogs, one for small. Under consideration, a movieplex.

Jazz and nightclubs and more movies nearby, in Jack London Village, Oakland. The delights of San Francisco are just across the Bay Bridge, a BART ride (from Oakland) of less than a half-hour. Or a drive of about 20 minutes. www.mccormacks.com

A few miles away, at the Oakland Coliseum, big-time professional sports (Warriors basketball, Athletics and Raiders). Alameda has what most East Bay cities lack — an open, approachable shore, about six miles of sandy beach, operated as a regional park. Historically, cities have surrendered the shore to industry and the railroad. Water is popular with sailors and windsurfers.

Alameda started in 1900 connected to Oakland. At that time, Alameda was considered a prestige address, attractive to the affluent who built stately homes. Then the-powers-that-be decided to cut a ship-channel and presto, an island came into existence. It is now connected to Oakland by three bridges and two tunnels.

As the century progressed, the island gradually was built out with bungalows, apartments, and here and there, more mansions.

Alameda has about 3,500 Victorian and Queen Anne homes, more than San Francisco. Alameda codes protect Victorians and preserve other older buildings and historic shopping districts. Owners love their “Vics” and spend time and money to restore and maintain them. Tours available to visit a few.

Streets clean. Graffiti absent. Many small shops. Good town for strolling. Many arguments over quality-of-life issues. www.mccormacks.com

Alameda also has many older homes that are plain and small and sometimes run down. It's expensive to upgrade an old home and some owners have let things slide or done minimal repairs. Some homes have one-car garages. Some garages are converted horse barns.

Thousands of apartments have been built along the shore. After a rush of apartment construction in the 1980s, residents voted to forbid anything bigger than a duplex.

For the fairly new, drive to Harbor Bay, waterfront development on Bay Farm Island. Planned community built around five “villages.” Most of the residential growth in the last 25 years has been at Harbor Bay, which also includes the business park, 300 acres.

Some neighborhoods — notably Ballena Bay on the main island — feature homes with their own docks.

Also fairly new, Marina Village, near the community college on the main island, a mix of business and research buildings, small shopping plazas and residential. www.mccormacks.com

Housing units in 2008 totaled 32,527, of which 13,379 were single homes, 4,011 single attached, 14,837 multiples, and 300 mobile homes. Between 2000 and 2006, about 570 units were added to the town’s housing stock.

Traffic is sometimes sluggish on city arterials but the overall commute, compared to other East Bay cities, is good. Buses to Oakland and San Francisco and to BART (commute rail) station in downtown Oakland. Oakland Airport on southern border of Alameda.

Commute ferry to Oakland and downtown San Francisco (ferries leave from Bay Farm Island and from main island, near Alameda Point.) Local jobs by the tens of thousands, in Berkeley, downtown Oakland, the Oakland Airport. For many residents, the commute is only a few miles.

Over the next six years or so, the east span of the Bay Bridge is to be replaced. In the best of times, the Bay Bridge is a mess during commute hours. Construction delays will make it worse but Alamedans have choices: the ferries and BART.

Zero homicides in 2005, one in 2004, zero in 2003, two in 2002 and 2001, one in 2000, zero in 1999, one in 1998, two in 1997. Counts for previous years are three, zero, one, one, two, six, three, zero, two, and two. See Crime. www.mccormacks.com

Alameda, close to Oakland and San Francisco, gives you the conveniences of the city and the safety of the suburb (but take usual precautions: lock doors, etc.).

Oakland airport means noise from jets. Noise suppression measures have been taken. If purchasing a home or renting a place, spend a few hours listening or talk to neighbors. Ask about night flights. Oakland airport is expanding its terminals but not its runways. With the expansion, night flights of cargo planes are supposed to be restricted.

School rankings middling to 90th percentile, compared to other California schools. Voters in 1989 approved a $48 million bond to repair schools, add classrooms. In 2002, another tax was approved, this one to fund salaries, enrich programs and decrease class sizes, and in 2005 a similar tax was passed. In 2005, another renovation bond was passed, $48 million. In 2006, the district opened another elementary, named after civil rights heroine Ruby Bridges. See Schools.

Some of these taxes require two-thirds approval, which is hard to muster in California. Many districts try and fail. When a two-thirds tax passes, it indicates, we believe, strong educational values in the town.

Community college adds much to educational life. www.mccormacks.com

Catholic high school. Three Catholic elementary schools, one Montessori, several smaller schools.

Alameda started the 1990s with 76,459 residents and finished with 72,259 — the drop coming from the base closure. Many people lost their jobs. Stores closed or lost business. Since then, the West End, as the base area is known, has made a comeback. The city’s has fixed up Webster Avenue, the favorite hangout for sailors, with ornamental lights and other touches.

The old residents were blue-collar workers or sailors. The new residents tend to be young professionals. The Coast Guard retained housing for military personnel around the Bay Area.

The military base was famous. From it, the carrier Hornet sailed in 1942 to venture close to Japan and launch the first bombing raid on that country. The raid shamed the Japanese Navy and influenced its disastrous decision to attack Midway Island, perhaps the decisive naval battle of World War II. In 1998, the city saved from the scrapper's torch the “new” Hornet, commissioned in 1943. The ship, as long as three football fields, was tidied up and turned into a museum.

Chamber of commerce (510) 522-0414.

• Among military memories: a jet fighter that soars off a pedestal in front of Encinal High School. www.mccormacks.com

• The town’s biggest mall is being overhauled. Among the new, a Trader Joe’s and a remodeled Safeway. To arrive in 2007 or 2008, Old Navy, TJ Maxx (department store), Bed, Bath and Beyond and Borders Books. Under consideration — and argument — a Target store.

• In 2006, a three-year-boy found a gun in a closet, fired it and accidentally killed a man. Charges were pressed against the gun’s owner.

• New main library opened in 2006.

• Alameda, after upsetting fights over development, now makes many of its building-development decisions by massaging projects until they win community acceptance. Even with this, the town is known as tough place to get anything major built in a hurry.

• The Alameda main island was developed in an era where stores were mixed with housing. This approach, shunned by modern suburbia, is again finding favor among city planners. It encourages local shopping and fewer trips by car and makes it easier for residents to get to know one another. Alameda has many neighborhood restaurants and shops. www.mccormacks.com

City web site: www.ci.alameda.ca.us