Oakland is a major West Coast port city in California. It has a mild, Mediterranean-type climate with warm sunny summers and cool winters. The area was inhabited by Costanoan Indians in the 18th century when the Spanish invaded.
In the early-1970s, unemployment, poverty, and crime rates were high in Oakland. The city 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. The murder rate rose to twice that of San Francisco or New York City. In the 1980s Oakland remained as one of America’s most crime-ridden cities Things began to change in the 1990s, much of the city center was rebuilt, and many run-down neighborhoods were gentrified.
Here below are some amazing vintage photos of Oakland by Dave Glass from the 1970s and 1980s that will take you back.
Oscar Grant was murdered in the 80s according to the last one.
I never liked driving on the Cypress structure when I was going to school down in Hayward. I was not at all surprised it collapsed. The concrete was flaking off those pylons and I thought to myself that the straight up and down rebar was not a good idea.
Totally sketchy, I can’t remember if that’s the structure where the ride was an up and down kind of bouncy roller coaster feel to it.
Didn’t realize I grew up in the black and white era.
Wished it showed East Oakland at the time. But pretty cool nonetheless.
We had color film in the 1970s and 1980s.
Spoiler alert: they still make black and white film.