Lakeside Apartments District, Oakland, California

Location of the Lakeside district in the City of Oakland.

File:PIC+10-+NEW.JPG

The Hill-Castle Apartment Hotel on Jackson Street

The Hill-Castle Apartment Hotel front entrance showing incised lettering and Art Deco ornamentation

Beaux Arts-style entrance to the Regillus apartment building

File:PIC+12-+NEW.JPG

Historic Tudor Chateau style apartment building at the corner of 17th and Madison Street

Oakland's Lakeside Apartments District
Neighborhood
Country	United States
State	California
County	Alameda
Metro Area	The San Francisco Bay Area
City	Oakland
Government
Elevation	12 ft (4 m)
ZIP code	94612
BART Stations	City Center/12th Street, Lake Merritt, 19th Street
AC Transit Bus routes	13, 59

The Lakeside Apartments District, also known simply as "The Lakeside" is a residential neighborhood on the west side of Oakland's urban saltwater Lake Merritt adjacent to Downtown Oakland, California. The neighborhood/district is considered by most Oaklanders to be bordered by Harrison Street to the West, Oak Street/Lakeside Drive to the East, 14th Street to the South, and Lakeside Drive/20th Street to the North. Most of the district was officially designated by the City of Oakland as a historic neighborhood with architecturally significant historic resouces Unlike some other nearby neighborhoods, the district has seen a continued history of sustained residency and historic preservation and moderate apartment vacancies in part because of its superior, central location, and historically significant architecture. All parts of the district are within 4 blocks' walking distance to either Lake Merritt or Downtown Oakland.

Historic Architecture

This area is graced by several historically significant apartment buildings built in the 1920s. Some are in the art-deco style of the 1920's and are protected as official city landmarks. During a City Cultural Heritage Survey in the 1980s most of the district was designated as featuring historically significant architectural resources by a Cultural Heritage Survey conducted by the City of Oakland's Planning Department and it's Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board from 1980-1985.

Neighborhood Parks

Lakeside Park

Necklace of Lights at Lakeside Park surrounding Lake Merritt

The district is adjacent to Oakland's Lakeside Park, which lies to the east and northeast of the district. Lakeside Park is a public city park ring and green space surrounding Oakland'sLake Merritt and is often called the Crown Jewelof Oakland's parks. Lakeside park is historically significant as featuring North America's first official wildlife refuge, designated in 1870. The state legislature voted the Lake Merritt Wildlife Refuge into law in 1870, making it the first such refuge on the North American continent. No hunting of any sort was to be allowed and the only fishing was to be by hook and line. Under the name Lake Merritt Wild Duck Refuge, the site became a National Historic Landmark on May 23, 1963.Under the name Lake Merritt Wild Duck Refuge, the site became a National Historic Landmark on May 23, 1963., It also features a garden center with several cultivated gardens, and the Municipal Boat House on Lakeside Drive. A restaurant is currently planned for this Boat House building, which is being renovated at the present.

Snow Park

The district is also adjacent to Oakland's Snow Park a 4.2 acre, public city park bordered by 19th Street, the Schilling Gardens Parcel, Harrison Street and Lakeside Drive. Snow Park, which is named after Oakland resident Henry Snow, was once the site of the first Oakland Zoo, the Sidney Snow Zoo, named after Henry Snow's son, which opened in 1943. It currently features sitting benches and a golf putting green, which many neighborhood and citywide residents, and nearby office workers enjoy.

Civic and Cultural Features

The Art Deco style Oakland Main Library Branch on 14th Street

The neighborhood is also walking distance to the Main Branch of the Oakland Public Library on 14th Street Between Madison and Oak Street,the Oakland Museum on Oak Street, downtown nightclubs and the city's official Uptown Entertainment District, not to mention city, county, and state government offices and other office buildings.

Malonga Casquelord Arts Center

File:PIC+6.jpg

The City's Malonga Casquelord Arts Center on Alice Street

The neighborhood also features the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts on Alice Street, a public community asset owned and administered by the City of Oakland and its Department of Parks and Recreation.The building features a performance theater, fine arts studios where numerous Afro-roots dancers, percussionists, and other musicians study and create music and visual arts, the Studio One Arts Center, and Single Room Occupancy (SRO) apartments where several artists in residence reside. Formerly known as the Alice Arts Center, this building was re-named in 2005 in honor of Malonga Casquelord, an accomplished Senegalese percussionist who was killed in 2003 by a drunk driver traveling in the wrong direction on Lakeside Drive in front of the Essex condominium building.

Neighborhood Retail and Commercial Activity

File:PIC+2.jpg

A neighborhood sidewalk cafe on 17th Street

Most neighborhood restaurants, shops, and services are locally owned and independently operated and enjoy a good business relationship with neighborhood residents who walk to them. Immediately within the neighborhood are small ground floor retail shop spaces which currently feature 6 grocery and liquor markets, 2 laundry and dry-cleaner shops, a fabric shop, a gift shop, a tatoo parlor, a gym, a sidewalk cafe 1 block from Lake Merritt open into the evenings, a pet food shop, a diner, a sandwich shop, and two bars.

Transportation Infrastructure

Mass Transit Connections

A BART Subway train departs the nearby Lake Merritt BART station at 9th and Oak Streets

Many residents in this neighborhood do not own cars and walk to shops, work loctions, and transit connections. Many locate to the area for the convenience of nearby transit hubs on Broadway such as the 12th Street, 19th Street, and Lake Merritt BART subway stations, and multiple AC Transit local service, Rapid service, and Transbay Express, and All Nighter service bus stops.

Bicycle Facilities

Other residents enjoy the bicycle infrastructure in the area such as the 'BikeLink' bicycle lockers at the nearby 12th Street BART Station, and numerous city-installed bike racks to which they can lock their bikes. Oakland's Bicycle Master Plan, and Oakland's Measure DD park improvement plan for Lake Merritt calls for an automobile lane reduction and re-striping of bike lanes onto two of the district's streets: Lakeside Drive and Madison Street. The plan also calls for the installation of a separated class 1 bikeway immediately around the perimeter of Lake Merritt. As of this writing, Oaksterdam University is planning a bicycle rental service nearby at 15th and Franklin.

Car Sharing Services

An hourly car-sharing provider, Zipcar, has opened two new locations in the neighborhood at 15th and Harrison. A former zipcar location at 17th and Harrison was destroyed by a residential development project on that corner parcel. Yet another car sharing service, locally-based City CarShare has a car at 14th and Jackson and another at the Lakehurst Apartment Hotel at 17th and Jackson.

Residential Permit Parking

Despite the density of the area, many residents must drive cars for work purposes, or due to disabilities, and enjoy the convenience of Oakland's Area-F Residential Permit Parking (RPP) zone which now includes almost all streets in the neighborhood. Under this program, residents and neighborhood business owners can obtain one optional sticker per residence or business from the Oakland's Finance and Management Agency, the revenue arm of the City Government which is tasked with the duty of enforcing California Vehicle Code and Oakland Municipal Code parking and traffic laws. After obtaining the sticker, residents can then park their car for three days and be exempted from the posted parking restrictions, which are two hours in most areas. Oakland's Finance and Management Agency has recently proposed a controversial increase in the RPP sicker fee, despite the millions of dollars in revenue it collects from current permit holders and from citations and auctions of towed cars.

Private and Commercial Parking Lots

Other car-driving residents park in the neighborhood's many "public parking" lots day and night, and in garages beneath most buildings constructed after 1955. Monthly parking costs in the neighborhood currently range between $60 to $175 per month, with an average of around $100 per month.

Land Development

The area is strategically located between Lake Merritt and Downtown Oakland and it is this valuable and picturesque location that has profit-minded developers and Oakland's Redevelopment Agency salivating over the prospect of constructing all manner of residential buildings which have been proposed to be anywhere from 5 to 42 stories in height. Current neighborhood and community benefits standards more or less require that all of these developments include some form of ground floor retail to have any chance of political survival at "community meetings," Oakland's Preliminary Design Review Committee, the City's Planning Commission, and City Council. One particular development, The "Madison Lofts" at 14th and Madison one block from the Lake was approved in part because its design included a "Transit Information Kiosk" and a City CarShare service satellite location. On the other hand, this project came under intense scrutiny by several vocal and outspoken nearby residents because of its close proximity to, and possible impacts upon, a historic building immediately adjacent to the project. This historic building is the former Scottish Rite Center which is now home to a Mosque, the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California (ICCNC)

Approved Development Projects

"Jackson Courtyard Condominiums"

A particular iconic eyesore has emerged in the neighborhood, an unfinished building: "Jackson Courtyard" a.k.a. Trojan Tower at 1401 Jackson Street at the corner of 14th Street. The original developer of this project, Curtis Eisenberger, and his company Mariposa Management, broke ground on this project with its construction contractor E.I.C.O.N. in August 2003. Four years later, this project sits, shrink-wrapped in white plastic reminiscent of a Trojan condom, partially finished. The building currently stands as both a zeitgeist of the Oakland, Bay-Area and California real-estate markets. It is also seen by some as a symbol of how even a Transit Oriented Development project which features a ground-floor retail shop space, underground parking, a 1st floor bicycle storage room, and which is located only 4 blocks from a BART metrorail station, can fail due to unforeseen financing and construction pitfalls.

"Madison Lofts"

File:Islamic small-1.jpg

The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, a historic mission revival building originally constructed to be a Scottish Rite Masonic Temple

In 2003 "Affordable Housing Associates" a Berkeley, California non-profit proposed a 7 story, 76 unit apartment building which has been funded in part with affordable housing entitlement funds and predevelopment loans from the California State Department of Housing & Community Development and the City of Oakland. The building was originally expected to be completed in 2005, but is still unfinished as of February 2008. It includes studio, one, two and three bedroom units that feature a combination of traditional floor plans as well as two story lofts with flexible layouts. The building will also feature Transit Oriented Development characteristics to include multiple ground floor retail shop spaces, a transit information kiosk, a [[City CarShare] satellite location,and 54 parking spaces for 73 units. This project came under intense scrutiny from neighborhood activists for its site: a popular commercial parking lot. It was also criticized for its architectural design which, many, including District 3 City Councilmember Nancy Nadel, saw as insensitive to the character of a Mosque next door to the project, the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, an historic Mission Revival building.

Proposed Development Projects

"Emerald Views"/ "222 19th Street"

File:06.09.02.Schilling-aerialMINE.jpg

Aerial photo of Schilling Gardens parcel

In 2005, a group of speculators purchased an historic 1920's luxury apartment building at 244 Lakeside Drive on Lake Merritt. The land parcel on which the building sits featured the historic Schilling Gardens. The Shilling Gardens is the last remaining portion of a cultivated Japanese garden originally planted in 1886 behind spice magnate August Schilling's victorian mansion once located on the West shore of Lake Merritt. Today the garden features a stand of several mature Coast Redwood trees and the garden as a whole is considered by city's Register of Historical Resources to be a landmark "of highest importance." After purchasing the parcel, the owners divided the parcel into two pieces, one along Lakeside Drive featuring the apartment building, and another parcel behind the building featuring the gardens. The owners then sought to donate the gardens parcel to the City of Oakland in exchange for historic property tax credits. Oakland's Real Estate Division and Department of Parks and Recreation Staff entered into discussions with the owners. City staff asserted the parcel would need ADA accessibility improvements and bathroom facilities, despite bathroom facilities immediately next door at Snow Park. The responsible city staff also insisted the owners pay $760,000 for the aforementioned upgrades, and an additional $178,000 per year, in perpetuity, for ongoing maintenance.

Subsequently, the negotiations fell apart and Parks and Recretion Director Audree Jones-Taylor said she didn't bring the decision before the Oakland City Council because she thought that the department dealing with the owner, the city's Real Estate division, was doing that. For his part, Real Estate Division head Frank Finelli declined to take any responsibility for the missed opportunity. He said he was presented with "budget restraints" and that, in any case, his role was limited to providing "real estate-related expertise.".

In 2006 and 2007, the owners cobbled together a seasoned, well-connected real estate development team, led by 70 year old San Francisco resident Michael Joseph O'Donoghue, more commonly known simply as Joe O'Donoghue, a man the San Francisco Chronicle once labeled a "belligerent construction titan." O'Donoghue is generally credited with changing the landscape across the bay in San Francisco through his lobbying for development projects on behalf of the San Francisco Residential Builders Association(RBA). O'Keefe has also retained the services of Oakland's "Go-To-Lobbyist" 39 year old Carlos N. Plazola , a former aide to Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who resigned in the wake of controversy of conflicts on interest on zoning matters affecting his personal real property portfolio, and Laura Blair a former deputy City Attorney who now works with Plazola's outfit "Terra Linda Development Services," an Oakland based Corportation Plazola owns, which labels itself as "a land development and entitlement consulting company." The owners, Mountain View, California residents David and Kari O'Keefe, and former San Francisco Building Inspection Commissioner, real estate investor, and racehorse owner Chief Roy Guinnane, who once made headlines when it came to light that he made a short-term, no-interest loan of $58,000 to the San Francisco inspections boss, Amy Lee. proposed a 42 story high-rise condominium skyscraper for the historic Schilling Gardens parcel. They have tentatively labeled the project "Emerald Views" though the official planning documents on file with the city of Oakland refer to the project as "222 19th Street." This parcel is approximately one half block from the lake's current shoreline, at 222 19th Street between Jackson and Alice Streets. Standing at approximately 457’ tall (measured from grade to the top of roof forms), the Emerald Views skyscraper would become the tallest building in Oakland If constructed, San Francisco based Project architect Ian Birchall concedes that "the entire site has to be dug up" to construct the new tower. However, Birchall said the developers intend to replant some of the existing shrubs, plants, and ferns in a new garden area that will abut the sides and back of their proposed building.

The project's height and bulk would cast a shadow over a significant portion of not only Lakeside Park in the afternoons but also the few remaining areas of Snow Park that currently receive easterly sunlight every morning since trees currently shade much of Snow Park. Because of its height, the building would also be anticipated to cast a long shadow over Lake Merritt, Lakeside Park, and the bird sanctuary within Lakeside Park to the east of the parcel. To date the developers have only publicly circulated a sunlight and shadow impact rendering for high noon, 12:00P.M. on the summer solstice, June 21, the day of the year with the most hours of sunlight. The project has been formally submitted to Oakland's Planning Department and Planning Commission which is currently conducting an environmental review of the project to include hydro-geological issues, sunlight and shadow impacts, and air and noise pollution, among a host of other potential environmental impacts.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown previously owned a 20 percent stake in the Schilling Gardens parcel, but sold out his share to Guinnane in 2006 and maintains that he fears that an adjacent high-rise will hurt the value of the building he bought into. Speaking about the project to notable investigative reporter Phil Matier, Brown claimed in 2006 that "I ain't in that deal."

"1439 Alice Street"

In early 2007, San Francisco developer, Mark Borsuk, who is also a retail leasing broker and real property attorney, proposed the construction of a 37 story market-rate condominium skyscraper for a parcel he asserts his family has owned since the late 1940's. Standing at At 395, feet the building would be one of the tallest in Oakland second only to the Ordway Building in nearby Downtown Oakland. Borsuk's sharply angular building was designed by Gensler architect J. Jeffrey Hall. Renderings of this proposed project revealed it to be 35 story glass covered skyscraper that would be built on top of what is currently a combined 2 story parking garage and retail shop space. The project would maintain the current parking garage facade, with a neo-classical style design for the first two levels, with a modern, angular glass tower springing out of the top.The design was controversial, and was seen to have failed passage before Oakland's Preliminary Design Review Committee, a city planning body in part because of its lack of substantial ground floor retail space allocation, though Borsuk did propose a ground floor wine bar/cold food cafe space for a small portion of the first floor. Other neighborhood residents were unhappy about the square footage of the proposed building resident lobby, and elimination of a current 1st floor exterior retail space entrance. Borsuk also proposed a mid-building "wellness center"/"personal services" commercial space, but admitted he had no anchor tenant for this area. Some neighborhood residents were concerned this commercial space would become the home to an expensive beauty salon, a medical or professional office, or home to another high-end service for the convenience and real property value of the building residents and not designed as an inclusive space with a retail tenant that would appeal to the current middle-class residents of the neighborhood. Still other residents were concerned that the wealthy residents that would move into the expensive, market-rate condominiums in this project would eventually organize under the theory of reverse sensitivity and complain about the music and drumming emanating from the City of Oakland's Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, directly across the street, which is home to Afro-roots percussionists and artists in residence.

"In-fill" Controversies

In recent years Oakland city planning authorities have approved proposed residential mixed use development projects in this neighborhood in part because they are considered by some to be "infill". In other words, they are purported to be "filling in" "vacant" lots. Most all such lots are have daily commercial use. Many fill a high demand for commercial private automobile parking for the neighborhood's drive-in workforce by day and for some of the neighborhood's automobile driving residents and drive-in bargoers and restaurant parons by night. One such "vacant" "underutilized" lot on 14th Street at Madison, directly adjacent to the boundaries of the neighborhood, is used as a pre-school playground for several neighborhood children who attend the school, as it is walking distance for their 'car-free' parents. A developer recently proposed a project for this particular lot which has been tentatively titled "1301 Madison."

Some developers purport that projects proposed for the district's parcels, developed and undeveloped, are substantially exempted from the Environmental Review provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act(CEQA) because they are considered "infill." Conversely, some activists have pointed to the applicability of the "cumulative impact" provisions of that law arguing that the residents of the neighborhood have already been subjected to several consecutive years of construction, dust, pile-driving, carcinogenic diesel fumes from idling trucks and heavy equipment, and all manner of construction noise.

Political Representation

Municipal Representation

The entire neighborhood lies within the boundaries of Oakland City Council District 3, represented by West Oakland-based council member and longtime West Oakland resident Nancy Nadel, who ran for Mayor of Oakland during the 2006 election, which was narrowly won by Ron Dellums, who defeated his closest opponent, Oakland City Council President and Council Member Ignacio De La Fuente, in the three-way race.

County, State, and Congressional Representation

At the County level the neighborhood lies within Alameda County Board of Supervisiors District 5 and is represented by Supervisor Keith Carson. At the state level, the neighborhood lies within California's 16th State Assembly District and is represented in that lower house by Assemblymember Sandre Swanson(D-Oakland). The neighborhood is also within California's State Senate District 9 which is represented by the current President pro tempore of the California State Senate, Don Perata(D-East Bay). The neighborhood lies within California's progressive 9th Congressional district represented in Washington by U.S. Representitive Barbara Lee.

Neighborhood Associations

Lakeside Apartment Neighborhood Association

In recent years, some neighborhood groups and activists have organized political opposition to market-rate condominium towers lacking in inclusionary zoning and other projects that some residents feel do not match the architectural and historical character of the neighborhood such as The Lakeside Apartment Neighborhood Association.

Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group

Another neighborhood association, the Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group seeks to notify residents of, and encourage a dialog about development projects that are proposed in the Lakeside Apartments District and the advantages and disadvantages of these projects. In the event of a proposed project, the DLMNG holds neighborhood meetings to discuss with neighborhood residents how the project would affect open space, sunlight and shadows, traffic and air pollution, car parking demand, rental housing demand pressures and average rents in the neighborhood. They seek to ask neighborhood residents how a proposed project would benefit the community and neighborhood in regard to generation of tax revenue, additional shops/stores, housing, and employment opportunities within walking distance.

External links

• Lakeside Apartment Neighborhood Association
• The Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group Website
• The Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group Listerv
• Emerald Views/Schilling Gardens Residential High-Rise Project
• Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group Blog
• Finish 14th & Jackson or Tear It Down!

Adjacent Oakland Neighborhoods and Attractions

• Adams Point
• Chinatown
• Downtown Oakland
• Jack London Square
• Lake Merritt
• Oakland City Center
• Old Oakland
• Uptown Oakland

See also

• Affordable Housing
• Community Land Trusts
• Gentrification
• Historic Preservation
• Inclusionary zoning
• Planned shrinkage
• Rent Control
• Renters Rights
• Principles of Intelligent Urbanism
• Urban Squatting
• Urban renewal