Page 24 - 2017 Travel Guide to California

CITIES
BY DAVID ARMSTRONG
Surprising Cities
California’s smaller towns offer big attractions
OAKLAND
The Grand Lake Theatre in
Oakland, above, opened in 1926 with
vaudeville shows and silent movies,
then with the arrival of talkies,
focused exclusively on the new film
medium, which it does to this day.
California’s golden cities—Los Angeles,
San Francisco, San Diego—are celebrated
around the world, and rightly so. But the
Golden State boasts an engaging range of
things to see and do in less-well-known
locales, as well. In cities ranging in size
from 5,000 inhabitants to nearly 400,000,
a surprising, eclectic menu of food and
drink, art and architecture, history and
sports is available to visitors.
OAKLAND: Overshadowed No More
Few California cities are as surprising as Oak-
land. Long in the shadow of glamorous San
Francisco, the East Bay city of 391,000 has a
mix of vibrancy, energy and diversity all its
own. The recent influx of technology compa-
nies and tech workers from Silicon Valley
and San Francisco is helping to turbocharge
Oakland. Jack London Square is a hive of
restaurants, shops and bay ferries and home
to premier jazz club and Japanese restaurant
Yoshi’s. Right nearby, Ninth Street’s lovingly
renovated Victorian buildings are destina-
tions for food, independent retailers and
vintage architecture. City center’s Lake Mer-
ritt offers boating, waterside walking and
jogging and a cluster of cafés, bars and shops,
plus the engaging Oakland Museum of Cali-
fornia and gloriously old-school Grand Lake
Theatre movie palace. For nightlife, head to
the Uptown district’s colony of restaurants
and bars, the gorgeously restored 1928
Middle Eastern fantasia the Fox Theatre and
1932 Art Deco Paramount Theatre, which
book headline performers. More great cui-
sine can be found in foodie favorite
Rockridge at accomplished eateries such as
Wood Tavern, and in the Rockridge Market
Hall in North Oakland, near Berkeley.
22 2017 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A