Posts Tagged ‘Golden Gate District’
Growing up in the Golden Gate
Charles Porter, 68, has lived his most of his life in the Golden Gate district of Oakland.
Porter grew up in a two-story Victorian at San Pablo Avenue and 63rd Street that his parents purchased for $7,500 in 1949. He spent much of his youth at the Golden Gate rec center and the public library, playing games and reading books. He remembers San Pablo Avenue during the 1950s and 60s as a a commercial corridor—department stores, grocers, barber shops, car mechanics, five and dime stores, donut shops, even a movie theater. Back then, Porter remembers, it was one of the first Oakland neighborhoods to open up for African Americans.
Over the past 60 years, he has watched the neighborhood go through a number of changes, and seen the community change with it. For Porter, the changes are just part of the natural life cycle of the neighborhood.
Read MoreStop here, this is the place: Klinknerville
Even to his family, Charles Klinkner was known as an eccentric character. That tends to happen to a man who is arrested for counterfeiting after distributing nickel-sized coins carrying the name of his rubber stamp company, who wears a suit with 40 or 50 pockets in order to carry goods he could sell to a…
Read MoreThe early days of the Golden Gate District
Photos from the early days of Oakland’s Golden Gate District. All photos courtesy of the Oakland History Room of the Oakland Public Library.
Read MoreThe shuttered bars of the Golden Gate
The place where the Mai Tai was invented is now a vacant lot. The original Trader Vic’s—where the world famous rum cocktail was invented in 1944—once stood at 6500 San Pablo Avenue, on the corner of 65th Street. But Trader Vic’s closed that location in 1972 and moved to Emeryville. In the first half of…
Read MoreNeighbors hope to return Golden Gate rec center to its former glory
The Golden Gate Recreation Center could be close to receiving a much-needed upgrade to its facilities after securing a grant from the city, with more money from the state on the way if an application is approved.
Read MoreNeighbors working to create a sense of place in the Golden Gate District
Placemaking–using art to create places of meaning and significance–is catching on in the Golden Gate District with a new project created by neighbors that aims to tell the story of the area, both its history and what people would like to see in the future.
Read MoreNew mural goes up in Golden Gate district
Artists from sessionspace painted a new mural on a Gateway Supermarket wall in the Golden Gate.
Read MoreNeighbors gather to clean up Golden Gate district
Golden Gate residents gathered Sunday afternoon to clean up two blocks of San Pablo Avenue, from 65th Street to 63rd Street.
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