Oakland Neighborhoods Map, V2.1

Speaking of a long time since posting things, it's been more than 5 years since I first posted my Oakland Neighborhoods Map. Since then numerous Oakland blogs have come and gone, the amount of time I've been able to spend on the blog has waxed and waned, but over the years, there's been one constant: my all-time most popular posts are related to maps of Oakland (you can click on the 'maps' button below the site banner to see more). And the most popular of those, by an order of magnitude, has been the neighborhoods map. At some point Google updated custom maps and broke the original. I upgraded it to the new format, added some new content, and took advantage of some of the new features of the new custom maps engine.

So without further ado, I present the Oakland Neighborhoods Map, V2.1. As with the previous version, the basic map is based on the Street Trees. With lots of time spent poring over other maps, historical documents, and vague descriptions, I added some of the informal neighborhood names like Dogtown. If your browser supports it, there should be interactive version of the map below:


But all that said, the map is far from perfect. A lot of the 'street trees' names aren't used, and with any of the names that are used, people disagree about the exact boundaries. Myself, I disagree about the concept of exact boundaries for neighborhoods, because unless there's a physical barrier like a freeway, most boundaries aren't exact, and people's perceptions are different. Exercises best left to the user include: Where is DTO? Where is East Oakland? Is Uptown a real neighborhood?

The new version adds pictures of signs of some of the areas showing what they label themselves, refines the details of some of the boundaries, and even adds some historical neighborhoods that most people have no idea existed. Finally, I added a feature for myself, but some of you may find it useful, too. Go to the relatively easy to remember URL http://nmap.ouroakland.net, and it will redirect you to the Google Map page.

Unfortunately, the new Google Maps engine lost (or hid) some useful features, like the ability to load other custom maps on top this one, search for an address or otherwise use a custom map like a regular Google map, and probably some other things. Sigh.

Oakland Urban Paths: Rockridge Ramble

Ididn't go on the most recent Oakland Urban Paths walk earlier this month, but there's a nice write-up of the Rockridge Ramble by OUP founder Paul Rosenbloom.

I did do the test walk with Paul, where we noted the non-matching sidewalk stamps and street signs, at what is now the corner of Romany Road and Golden Gate Avenue. The names stamped in the sidewalk are McAdam St. and Hays Ave., and a nearby contractor stamp is dated 1913. But when were the streets first created? When did they change names?



Examining the great set of historic maps of Oakland at teczno.com, we can learn a few things. McAdam Street is on the 1877 map, and started at "Broadway Street" near where the Safeway is now, and went through land owned by H.P. Livermore. It's not clear how far the street actually went, since on the map the upper part is drawn as a perfectly straight line, which is unlikely given the hills.

Between 1877 and 1912, there was clearly a whole lot of building going on. The 1912 map shows McAdam Street with a different, curvier route, and Hays Avenue, along with a whole lot of other streets that weren't on the earlier map.

The 1936 map shows McAdam Street is now Broadway Terrace, and Hays Avenue is now Golden Gate Avenue. It's possible the labeling as Broadway Terrace is an error, because there's a road in the current location of Broadway Terrace on the map with no label on the nearby section. Finally, the 1950s map shows the present names, Romany Road and Golden Gate Avenue, as do the 1967 map and the current day maps.

Wayfinding around Oakland

If you've ever looked at a map of Oakland or traveled near the borders, you've probably realized it can be difficult to know exactly when you're in Oakland or in one of the neighboring cities. For example, while going south on San Pablo, you'll go from Berkeley, to Oakland, to Emeryville, back to Oakland. Here are some simple tips on figuring out where you are, as well as some basic information about the neighborhood.

Street Signs

One of the easiest ways to figure out where you are is to look at the nearest street sign. Each city has its own design for street signs, so you can quickly figure out which city you're in:

Oakland:


Berkeley:


Emeryville:


Sometimes the differences are more subtle. Piedmont's signs are green and white like Oakland's. But most Oakland street signs have the oak tree logo on them (a few older ones don't), and are in mixed case, whereas the Piedmont signs are all uppercase. San Leandro signs are green and white, too, but have a cherry logo representing San Leandro's agricultural history:

Oakland:


Piedmont:


San Leandro:


There are exceptions like the aforementioned older Oakland signs without the oak tree logo, or the special sign for "Bill Louie's Corner" in Chinatown that's blue and white, but in general it's a good way to figure out which city you're in.

Sidewalk Stamps

Once you know what city you're in, how do you figure out how old the area is? This technique I learned from Oakland geologist Andrew Alden, who led the Oakland Urban Paths: Rock and Walk in February. Look down at most sidewalks, and you'll see stamps in the concrete from the contractor who built them. This is far from an exact measure of a neighborhood's age, as sometimes sidewalks came first, sometimes they came later, and of course, sidewalks get torn up and replaced. But looking at a number of older stamps in an area can give you some idea of how old the neighborhood is. You can also check any public stairs in the neighborhood. Andrew has a whole blog devoted to Oakland sidewalk stamps.

Purple Glass

I heard about this technique recently from Oakland historian Ruby Long. Prior to World War I, manganese was widely used in glass-making as a clarifying agent. Exposed to ultraviolet light for a long time, it turns purplish. Most of the manganese came from Germany, but with the outbreak of WWI, that supply was cut off. So while you can't set an exact date, purpled glass is generally 1915 or earlier, and 1920 at the latest. I saw this most recently on the OHA Piedmont Avenue walk that Ruby led, where she pointed out the basement skylight glass that has turned purple over the years:

Ruby also pointed out the sidewalk stamps as a way to gauge the age of a neighborhood. Though in the case of the stamps near Piedmont Avenue School, the (original) school was much older (100+ years) than the "WPA 1941" stamps in the sidewalk in front.

Palm Trees

This technique you may have heard about from Oakland historian Dennis Evanosky on an Oakland Heritage Alliance walk, talking about "the palm tree method." It's probably the least precise but most interesting technique. Basically, if you see one or more old palm trees, particularly a row of them, you can guess that something of historical note was there.

For example, this row of palm trees along 9th Avenue marks the edge of the "Borax" Smith estate:

Not every palm tree indicates something interesting, but it's a clue that there may be more to investigate.

So next time you're walking around Oakland, look up, look down, and look around to see what you can learn about the area you're in.

More photos:


Note: Andrew has good additional ideas he left in the comments: noting where street addresses suddenly change, parking restrictions change, and where recycling bins change. All are clues that you may have crossed a border into another city.

Oakland neighborhoods in the news

The questions of what a neighborhood is and where people consider it to be has long interested me. Clearly it interests other people, too, because my Oakland neighborhoods map post is by far the most popular post on Our Oakland, garnering 30 times the page views of most posts. (And of course, this post linking to it will further skew the imbalance.)

It's also interesting to note what the press, both locals and outsiders, refer to a neighborhood as. For a while I tracked stories to note how they refer to Oakland neighborhoods in an attempt to help answer the nebulous question, Where is East Oakland? In general, the stories refer to Oakland, downtown Oakland, some wealthier neighborhoods, but if about crime, mostly 'west Oakland' and 'east Oakland'.

So I was interested to read a story on SFGate, Longfellow a neighborhood key to Oakland's future which nicely sums up some of the issues facing Oakland. If the city can't reduce crime everywhere in Oakland, people will leave.

Justin Berton's article is mostly about the Longfellow neighborhood, which some folks call JAMMI - Just Above the MacArthur Maze Interchange (sadly, the JAMMI blog hasn't been updated in over 3 years). But it also mentions that not all residents think of their neighborhood as Longfellow; some think of it as Santa Fe (which is just north of Longfellow) because of the school there. It also refers to the nearby Golden Gate neighborhood (though it says it's to the northeast instead of to the northwest). I do wonder a bit about the reference by one resident to "the flat bottoms of West Oakland". Village Bottoms perhaps?

In any event, it's an interesting article, and nice to see reference to other Oakland neighborhoods, even if it is about crime.

Oakland Scenic Tour Map

In honor of Oakland's 160th Birthday, all this week I'll be running articles about Oakland history. For more about some of the events going on, check out my article on Oakland Local. See past posts about Oakland history here.

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If you've spent any time in Oakland, you've probably looked up at some point and seen a sign like this one. And if you're like me, you've wondered, "Where are the others? Can I get a map of them? Where does the tour go?"

To find out, I talked to local historian and writer, Annalee Allen. First the good news: there is a map of 52 signs marking hundreds of points of interest, including historical sites, shopping districts and vistas. Now the bad news: the map has been out of print since the late 90s. And while most of the sites are still there, some notable ones are gone, like Jack London Village which was demolished in 2001.

It turns out Annalee did the historical research for the map, and her boss, Samee Roberts, was in charge of the project for the city, so she was very familiar with it. It was created by the Oakland Office of Marketing and Public Information, and the Oakland Convention and Visitors Authority, which is now the Oakland Convention and Visitors Bureau run by the Chamber of Commerce. The map cover features a lovely Art Deco style rendering of some of the points of interest like the Tribune Tower and the Paramount Theatre. The iconic signs were designed by Oakland artist Sharyn Gayton.

The tour begins in downtown at Oakland City Hall (#1), goes all over Oakland, then returns to nearby Oakland City Center (#52). Not surprisingly, the majority of the map points are near downtown and Lake Merritt, but there are points as far west as West Oakland District (#48), as far north as Claremont Resort (#26), as far east as Dunsmuir House and Gardens (#38), and as far south as Oakland International Airport (#39). The last may seem an odd thing to include on a scenic tour, but it becomes clearer when you read the subpoints included, namely the Martin Luther King, Jr. Shoreline and the Western Aerospace Museum at the historic North Field. And remember that the map was produced with the Oakland Convention and Visitors Bureau, and that the signs were paid for by various corporate and other sponsors, which also helps explain why the map includes the Oakland Convention Center (#3) and various businesses are listed in the subpoints.

The map I got is copyright 1995, and wasn't the first version of the scenic route map. I went to the Oakland History Room at the main library to see if I could find the earlier ones. While I didn't find any earlier versions of this map, I did find other Oakland scenic tour maps, and discovered that this wasn't even the first tour of Oakland with signs. An editorial from the Tribune from July 24, 1967 describes "Oakland's Tourist Drive":

Within the next week or so, signs bearing a colorful oak leaf emblem will begin sprouting in Oakland. The markers will designate a 45-mile "Scenic Tour" through and by the city's oldest and newest attractions."

It then goes on to talk about the importance of promotional efforts at attracting visitors and getting them to spend money in Oakland.

I found even earlier Oakland tour maps, though no indication they had accompanying signs. There were no copyright dates on them, but based on the listed population and various geographic clues, I believe this one is from the late 1940s:

If I were creating such a map, I'd include more listed subpoints in West Oakland, like 16th Street Station; and various neighborhoods like Jingletown. And ignoring the problem of sponsorship, not include the Oakland Airport (or move it to North Field) or the APL Building as listed points. What points would you include on a scenic tour of Oakland?

note: I'd love to see the 1967 map and signs. Anybody have a picture of one or one of the maps?

A Google map showing the approximate location of the 52 signs and the labels they were given on the map:

View Oakland Scenic Tour in a larger map

Oakland maps

Maps of Oakland have long been one of the most popular features here on Our Oakland, and one of my favorite things to work on. I love maps, I love Oakland, so what's not to like?

A recent question reminded me about the map of taco trucks in Oakland (which was created by a Google maps user named Krys). Unfortunately, the map hasn't been updated since 2008. The most recent change I noticed in taco trucks was El Ojo De Agua taco truck and stand at Fruitvale and 12th St. is now another Taqueria Sinaloa, replete with an orange paint job. I haven't been by the original at 22nd Ave. to see if there are changes there.

In any event, I've listed the Oakland maps I know of below. What interesting maps of Oakland do you know of?

Oakland maps that I've created

neighborhoods map - A map of every neighborhood in Oakland I could find a reference to. Some names are official, some are unofficial, some are no longer used, but they're all a part of Oakland history.

council districts - The 7 city council districts of Oakland, plus 1 at-large. These districts can be adjusted every 10 years to reflect the current population distribution.

planning districts - Districts of Oakland; used on the city of Oakland general plan and zoning map.

how I visualize Oakland - How I visualize Oakland, which is by definition not very useful and is ever-evolving. Because of the other maps, I know of many more neighborhood names, but don't always think of the areas that way.

Our Oakland signs - Shows all the signs I've posted in the Our Oakland signs feature, and some that I haven't yet covered.

news by neighborhood - A frequency map of how newspaper articles define neighborhoods across Oakland.

neighborhood name signs - A companion to the neighborhoods map -- what do neighborhoods label themselves?

DIY resources map - Resources in the East Bay for do-it-yourself home improvement types.

There are also a number of map-related posts on Our Oakland, including the popular Wayfinding Around Oakland.

Oakland maps created by others

county district locator - Figure out what district you live in for voting for BART, EBMUD, congress, and lots more. Not a Google map, but very useful for anyone in Alameda County.

historic Oakland maps - This is an amazing set of historical maps of Oakland. You can see how Oakland grew over the years, see Lake Merritt become a 'lake' (see The Lake That Isn't), and see what was lost when freeways divided Oakland.

T-RACES redlining map - An unpleasant historical map, showing redlining by banks, realtors, etc. In other words, institutionalized racism.

taco trucks - A map of taco trucks around Oakland. As noted above, the map hasn't been updated in a while.

food systems - A map of community gardens, farmers markets, and other alternative food sources around Oakland.

fire stations - Ever wonder where the nearest fire station is? This map will show you. I've been to a number of the stations over the years working with Oakland Firefighters Random Acts, and there's a wide variety in ages, building styles and capacities amongst the different stations.

Crimespotting Oakland - An interactive map showing recent crimes in Oakland. You can adjust the dates included, the type of crimes, and the time of day. The graphical representation of the fact there's too much crime in Oakland.

Creeks and Watersheds - The OMCA links to maps of the creeks and watersheds of Oakland, as well as a bit of history about the creeks and their names.

neighborhood name signs

Exactly where neighborhoods are is frequently arbitrary, and what they're called is often a source of disagreement (see the discussion on thedto.com, Where is the DTO?). There are various ways of defining what a neighborhood is. I've started a map-and-photo project which considers another: what the neighborhood labels itself with signs. As with other methods, it's going to be imperfect, and definitely less complete than the Oakland Neighborhoods Map since not all neighborhoods put up signs and some of those are unofficial, but it's another way of looking at things.

So here's the Oakland place name signs map:

View Oakland place name signs in a larger map
Some of the signs are metal (especially the district signs put up by the city), some are vinyl banners (which can look OK until they fade and tear), and some are wooden signs (particularly the ones in the hills). But there are a few unique ones, like the clock in Montclair, the road-spanning arch in the Laurel, or the gazebo in Oak Center.

From Oakland neighborhood signs

More recently I've been seeing some nice name and direction signs, like this one in Fruitvale. Not only do they tell people where they are, they reflect something of the area, and give directions of how to get to various points nearby.

As usual, this is a work in progress. I'd love to know of other neighborhood and district signs around Oakland. Particularly in East Oakland; I've spotted some, but as a lot of these signs get put up in business areas and wealthier residential areas, there aren't as many in East Oakland.

Speaking of maps and where lines get drawn, it was interesting to watch the discussion the other night on the redistricting plans for voting districts in California. While that includes all of California, this discussion was in Oakland and was focused on the Bay Area. It was note-worthy to hear how often variations on the idea "don't combine my district with people who aren't like me" were put forth. Less often were pleas to "don't split my area" (like Oakland or West Oakland). If you're interested in the state redistricting process, check out the We Draw The Lines website. I don't envy the commission their task.

Oakland districts map

Yet another way of marking areas of Oakland -- the Oakland general plan and zoning map. Which is also used for the larger divisions in the OMCA neighborhoods map.
View Oakland Districts in a larger map

I based mine on a Google map by mathew, which was based on Districts defined by the Oakland Street Tree Selections. I'm still cleaning it up some, but the basic shapes are probably familiar to anyone who's looked at any aspect of Oakland city planning. Some of the names suggest interesting possibilities for news reports to use as a minimum reference as suggested in the earlier post. Well, except Central East Oakland and Central. But certainly better than labeling all news as being in Oakland or East Oakland. Thoughts?

The shapes and names may also be familiar from this poster that dc at Fragmentary Evidence spotted in a shop window:

Very similar to the OMCA neighborhoods map, right down to the names and the orientation with north not straight up. Kind of a cool design, but I still don't like all the names.

news by neighborhood - where is East Oakland?

Inspired in part by a post at A Better Oakland some time back asking Where is East Oakland?, I started keeping track of where in Oakland news stories were reported. Many times the article simply says "Oakland"; sometimes it gives an address, block or intersection. More interesting is when it names a specific neighborhood or district of Oakland. Is there a bias towards reporting crime in Oakland? In East Oakland? Where exactly is East Oakland? Or as noted on Oakland Space Academy

...when you hear about crime in Oakland, it happens in Oakland. Whereas when you here about crime in San Francisco, it is typically attributed to a specific neighborhood, usually Bayview-Hunter's Point or maybe the Tenderloin.

Going from least specific to most, the colors are as follows:
green - Oakland
blue - East Oakland
red - West Oakland
purple - Downtown
yellow pin - named neighborhood or other

View news by neighborhood in a larger map
Note that I've only linked stories that give some sort of location, be it address, block, intersection or neighborhood name. Also note that anything older than 30 days or so in the Tribune gets archived, so most of the links no longer work, so I've included a brief synopsis of the title.

While my observations aren't scientific or even remotely complete (I've missed lots of stories, and I don't follow SFGate that closely), looking at the map does suggest there's a tendency to report news in Oakland as being in Oakland, East Oakland, West Oakland or Downtown, rather than in a specific neighborhood. Particularly if it's a crime; non-crime articles are more likely to get the neighborhood named. And it's not just San Francisco media, either -- most of the stories I've mapped come from the Oakland Tribune. There are plenty of exceptions either way (e.g., areas around Lake Merritt get a mixture), but I've definitely noticed a trend.

So while referring to every single neighborhood on the Oakland neighborhoods map would be overkill and counterproductive (because most people don't know where a lot of those neighborhoods are and some names are no longer in use), it would be great if the Tribune and other media started referring to neighborhoods or at least districts when reporting*, instead of lumping stories in Oakland and crimes in East Oakland.

(* Maybe closer to what's on my Oakland map? Though that's somewhat out of date, now -- I'm aware of more specific neighborhoods in what I labeled as East Oakland on that map, largely through volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and riding my bike to and from the worksites.)

Oakland by race & ethnicity

Oakland by race

Ilove maps and I love Oakland, so I was happy when OaklandSeen pointed me to a map of Oakland with 2000 census data by race & ethnicity overlaid. We all know Oakland is diverse, but not equally in all parts.

I took Erica Fischer's Bay Area map from Flickr and overlaid it with the Oakland neighborhoods map to give a better sense of where things are. But even without the overlay, you can pick out some neighborhoods like Chinatown, and geographical areas like Mountain View Cemetery (where there aren't very many living people) and the regional parks.

One surprise to me was how diverse and densely populated the area just north of Lake Merritt is (Adams Point, HarriOak, Grand Lake). Click for the full-size map without the overlay.

For other interesting maps from around the U.S. and around the world, check out Bill Rankin's Radical Cartography site.

Bike to Work Day and Car Free Challenge

Tomorrow is Bike to Work Day, to encourage more people to bike (and take public transit as needed) instead of driving to work. To make the idea more palatable, Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) and the Bay Area Bike Coalition (BABC) have set up energizer stations around the city. You can even ride into Downtown with your council member (and eat pancakes)! Can't bike all the way? AC Transit is supporting Bike to Work Day and has bike racks on the front of buses. Bikes are allowed on BART with some restrictions.

More reading:
WOBO's Bike to Work Day hub
BABC's Bike to Work Day hub
map of the energizer stations
post at Today in Montclair

As wonderful as it is, Bike to Work Day is a one-day event. Hopefully it will encourage more people to consider biking (possibly in connection with public transit). But if you want to show you're really committed (or some would say, really should be committed), take part in Bike to Work Day tomorrow and then take part in TransForm's Car Free Challenge the first seven days of June. Ideally you'd not ride in a car at all that week, but that may not be practical. So instead you register (for prizes, a t-shirt, and an after party) and then set your mileage goal as low as you can. This event also supports the work of TransForm. Join up with other Oakland bloggers and be part of the Blogoaksphere Car Free Challenge Team.

As a reminder for both events, Google Maps now supports directions via bike. That feature is still in development, but between that and the WOBO and BABC resources you should be able to figure out a bike route or bike + transit route to your destination.

blog pulse: bike routes in Google Maps!

showing bike paths and lanes

Sure, there's some local discussion about street cars in Oakland. I'd love to see it happen and agree with 21st Century Urban Solutions that streetcars would help revitalize Oakland, but I'm not expecting it anytime soon.

No, the big news that's not just in Oakland but all over the blogosphere is that Google Maps at long last has bike routes and mapping. You can read the official pronouncement at the Official Google Blog. It's still in development, but it looks like they've got a good start, with maps in over 150 cities. The routes give priority to bike paths and lanes, and attempt to avoid steep routes. For example, coming back from Kaiser, the first suggestion was coming up Moraga. At the cost of an additional 0.9 miles, the second suggestion was to go up Broadway and around past Lake Temescal which is less steep. On the other hand, it didn't suggest going up the Shepherd Canyon Trail behind Montclair Village, but instead riding up Colton Blvd. Using the trail adds 0.8 miles, but Colton is hecka busy and hecka steep. The trail keeps you off the street for much of the way (and on less busy and steep streets for the rest), so is well worth the added mileage.

Additional reading:

• Official Google Blog
• Google LatLong blog
• BoingBoing
• TreeHugger

my Oakland map

Finishing off map week is the most accurate but least useful map: how I visualize Oakland. It's by definition 100% accurate because it's how I think of things, but it's not terribly useful outside of telling people how I think of our fair city.

View my Oakland map in a larger map
It's kind of like a single data point in the Mapping Oakland project. Not nearly as useful as a bunch of maps like this aggregated together.

Some good news is that I heard back from Robert, the researcher behind the Mapping Oakland project. Although the web page hasn't been updated, he's still working on things:

I am actually finishing up the analysis for Temescal and Fruitvale districts... I hope to have the maps up on the web page sometime by mid April. I'm presenting the results in April, so after I complete my presentation I will have a bit of time to start uploading the maps to the net.

Back to my map. You may be wondering why some large areas are a single district, while a few small neighborhoods get labeled. In no particular order:

• Hiller Highlands - this is known (at least by name) to most residents of the Oakland hills, because it's where the 1991 Oakland firestorm started
• Sobrante Park - this neighborhood at the far south end of Oakland is where I've been volunteering to help build houses with Habitat for Humanity East Bay for the last several years (and an older development 10+ years ago, too)
• Village Bottoms - I first heard of Village Bottoms because of a workshop at West Coast Green last year
• Ghosttown - I heard about Ghosttown because of Ghost Town Farm, Novella Carpenter's urban farm. It got a big jump in publicity when she published Farm City, a book about her experiences with urban farming.

The rest of my map is much more arbitrary, depending on how much time I've spent in different parts of Oakland and their proximity to different landmarks like Lake Merritt or the zoo.

All in all, not a particularly useful map. It'd be great to be able to compare other people's similar maps, though not very practical because of the difficulty in creating them.

Oakland Council Districts

Continuing with my map mania, I've created a Google map of the City Council districts. It's based on the City of Oakland Council District Locator map, but being in Google Maps means you can easily layer it with other maps. Some interesting things I noticed: District 1 includes a swath of the hills north of Panoramic Hill, all the way up to and beyond Grizzly Peak Blvd. -- I didn't know that was part of Oakland. Also of note are the large areas of the bay included in districts 3 and 7.

View Oakland City Council Districts in a larger map

As with the neighborhoods map, any errors are likely mine, not from the source map. In many places the district boundaries follow roads or streams, but I had to make a few guesses here and there, and the areas over the bay are approximations based on the original map.

How are the districts divided? According to the city charter, it's based on the previous districts, but every 10 years after 1993 or if significant territory is annexed the boundaries can be adjusted:

Section 203. Nomination and Election of Councilmembers... The districts shall be as they exist upon the taking effect of this section, until revised by ordinance. In the year 1993, and every ten years thereafter, and whenever any substantial territory is annexed to or consolidated with the City, the Council shall form new districts not exceeding seven. Districts shall be composed of contiguous territory, as equal as possible in population, and as geographically compact as practicable. No change in the boundary of a district shall operate to exclude an incumbent from office before the expiration of the term for which he was elected or appointed.

Oakland neighborhoods map

Please note there is an updated version of the map here. You can also use the special URL, http://nmap.ouroakland.net

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For some time, I've been wanting a neighborhood map of Oakland. A while back Google Maps added tags for the neighborhoods, and Yahoo Maps even marks them with colored polygons at some zoom levels. But I'm a fan of Google Maps (not just because K works for Google), so I wanted something like that in Google Maps. That works at all zoom levels. And includes some of the lesser known and unofficially designated neighborhoods like Dogtown. Not too much to ask, right?

I found one Google Map that someone had created with data from the city, but it doesn't always load properly, and it only had the 'official' neighborhoods. The Oakland Department of Public Works has a good map showing some of the alternate names, but it's not in Google or Yahoo Maps and doesn't have boundaries.

So after poring over various maps, including the Oakland Museum's Neighborhood Search, the aforementioned DPW map, Wikipedia, and others, I created my own. Besides including various unofficial neighborhoods, it can be layered with other Google Map layers like Transit, Traffic, etc. or my map of Oakland signs. You can even view it in Google Earth, and lay it over 3D terrain, with 3D buildings, etc.


View Larger Map

I'll be the first to admit the map isn't perfect. Any outright errors are likely mine, not from the source maps. And neighborhoods don't usually begin and end exactly on street boundaries (except sometimes freeways that cut a swath through them), so it's bit arbitrary to begin with. But hopefully you'll find it useful and/or interesting for your explorations of Oakland.