Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, California
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Piedmont Avenue is a street in North Oakland, California. It is also the name of the neighborhood which surrounds the street.
Piedmont Avenue the street stretches diagonally from Broadway to Ramona Avenue, one block above Pleasant Valley (51st Street), and the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood is generally considered to reach laterally from Broadway to Oakland Avenue and the border to the City of Piedmont, which is a separate, land-locked municipality within Oakland.
Piedmont Avenue Elementary School, located north of the business district, has grades Kindergarten through 5th. Attendance is roughly 350; average class size about 20. Average test scores are somewhat below average for American schools, but have been improving in recent years. The Catholic Church of Saint Leo the Great also operates a school on Piedmont Avenue.[1]
There are several landmarks in the area. The center of the Piedmont Avenue commercial strip is a Julia Morgan-designed 1916 red brick building, the Fred C. Turner Stores, which is between 41st and 40th. At the north end of Piedmont Avenue and Pleasant Valley is the hillside Mountain View Cemetery, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and contains the Julia Morgan designed Chapel of the Chimes. Kaiser Permanente's flagship hospital is located on the south end of the street.
Piedmont Avenue was once the terminus of the Key System's C line. The station building at 41st Street is still there, but a parking lot now occupies the land where the tracks were. AC Transit's 12, 57, 59, and C lines now serve the neighborhood.
One of the hidden jewels of the neighborhood is Glen Echo Creek, located 1/2 a block south of the avenue. Many local residents are not aware of the park's existence, due to its quirky location and small size.
[edit] Business district
The Piedmont Avenue commercial strip features numerous locally-owned small businesses, including shops, bars and restaurants, the locally famous Fentons Creamery, an independent movie theater, comic book store and more.
Piedmont Avenue is a haven for caffeine addicts. Gaylord's Cafe Espresso (formerly known as Uncle Gaylord's), whose outside seating area features the best eye-candy on the Avenue, and Peet's Coffee have both been in the neighborhood since the 1980s. Starbucks arrived more recently, directly across from Gaylord's. L'Amyx Tea Bar serves several varieties of tea and desserts. Rooz Cafe sells breakfast, sandwiches, salads and really good coffee, and provides Wi-Fi service with purchase.
There are many specialty stores on Piedmont Ave such as Dr. Comics and Mr.Games, the local comic book store, and Teddies Party Store for balloons, birthday party favors and holiday decorations. Crackerjacks, a children's and maternity resale boutique on Glen behind Peet's, carries used and new toys, clothing and equipment, and Bella Ceramica imports beautiful handcrafted Italian pottery and dishes. The quirky Video Room at the northern end of the Avenue rents DVDs and now operates an eBay drop-off point, and the Piedmont Piano Company sells instruments and operates a music school. The local independent stationery store, Piedmont Stationers has everything from printer cartridges and a Notary Public to Clairefontaine and Waterman - not to mention the cutest dog on the block, Frances.
The Piedmont Theater is a small movie theater, owned by Landmark Theatres, that typically shows avant garde and foreign films. Typical of "art-house" cinemas, the seating configurations can be a little odd, and the screens smaller, compared to larger multiplexes; nonetheless, the theater is popular and often plays movies that would not be seen elsewhere, or that have a very limited distribution.
Fentons Creamery serves ice cream and sundaes made on the premises, as well as traditional lunch fare such as sandwiches, burgers and salads. As of 2006, they now serve traditional breakfasts including waffles, eggs, and breakfast meats such as bacon and link or patty sausage, in pork or turkey varieties. Fentons has been in the Piedmont Avenue area since 1894, and in its current location since 1961. Favorites include the "Black and Tan" and the enormous "Banana Special." Fentons ice cream is particularly well known for its serving size as well as its quality.
The area is also a haven for diners, with Ethiopean, Mexican, Indian, Caribbean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and many other types of food available within a small area, including the newly-opened second location of the popular César. Food shopping is also easy with the Piedmont Grocery and other smaller independent grocery stores lining the street, including Euromix, a European and international deli towards the northern end of the Avenue.
[edit] External links
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or MapQuest
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, or WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood Improvement League
- Interactive Map - Oakland Convention and Visitors Bureau
- East Bay Neighborhoods: Piedmont Avenue, Oakland - Guide from the San Francisco Chronicle
- Mountain View Cemetery
- Echo Creek
- Oakland City Councilmember Jane Brunner, who represents the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood
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| Downtown and Lake Merritt | Adams Point · Chinatown · City Center · Crocker Highlands · Grand Lake · Jack London Square · Lakeside/Lower Lake Merritt · Old Oakland · Trestle Glen |
| East Oakland | Dimond District · Elmhurst · Fruitvale · Glenview · Grass Valley · Laurel · Maxwell Park · Oakmore · Redwood Heights · Ridgemont · Seminary · Sequoyah Heights |
| North Oakland and Montclair | Claremont · Golden Gate · Montclair · Piedmont Avenue · Piedmont Pines · Rockridge · Temescal |
| West Oakland | |
