Frank H Ogawa Plaza

Large public plaza with grassy areas as well as a curious concrete pit right in front of the main entrance to City Hall. Its location right above the BART station and at the confluence of all the major AC Transit bus lines makes it a natural gathering point. Indeed, it’s often used for public events and unofficial gatherings, whether musician flash mobs, city parks & recreation festivals, or intense demonstrations. Although it’s well known as one of the spots where police clashed violently with Occupy protestors, among other episodes, it’s usually a peaceful area that the public can enjoy. Very much the heart and focal point of Oakland.

Architecturally, it’s on odd mix of styles — ramps and whatnot, although the overlooking buildins are very impressive. There’s a few stores here, but nothing like the plaza across the road.
I remember coming here during Occupy, and it shows how much the vibe of the place can vary (verus right now with all the rain). Not entirely a place that appeals to hang out — again the city center plaza wins here, but something that reflects Oakland a little.

I don’t even know where to begin to write this review on Frank H Ogawa Plaza, except the plaza wasn’t here when I was a young kid, growing up (20^th & San Pablo) not too far from this area.
San Pablo Avenue started at the corner of 14^th & Broadway, going northerly to other cities (on one side) and between these streets that somewhat ran parallel to each other was a pie-​shaped building which once had Tully’s Coffee. In front of the Oakland City Hall was a street called Washington Street. Washington Street starts at 10^th Street now, heading in a southerly direction to the waterfront of the Jack London Square Area. Okay, enough with some history of downtown Oakland and its surroundings.
Working in the Elihu M Harris State Building back in the days, I always enjoy the brisk walk around the plaza during my lunch break in the summer. Occasionally I would bring a «brown bag» lunch to the plaza, so I can people watch and relax outdoors on one of their benches, or I would buy my lunch from one of the eateries nearby.
In the past during the summer months, KBLX would do a free concert on Wednesdays. I remember one of the guests performing was Marvin Holmes (local talent — it’s «Funky Mule Time» — one of his hits and a favorite with McClymonds High School pep squad). Surprisingly, he did not have his own album and he wanted to buy mine for $ 40. (Sorry, no can do, even though I paid $ 3.99 back in 1967 – 1968 at a record shop called Reid’s Record.
This was also the place to be when Senator Barack Obama came to visit City of Oakland on March 17, 2007. At the time he was vetting to become a candidate for President of the US. Yep, I was one of the lucky ones that got to shake his hand and take a picture of him from about five feet away. (It put a big smile on my face!)
Another event that I attended was Earth Day at the plaza. Many vendors and various agencies were there to provide information on the environment and some even provided freebies. Each year there was a woman known as «Madame Ovary» who was such a great and wonderful storyteller, mesmerizing me with her witty, humorous and somewhat whimsical stories and/​or tales. I found out she was a librarian prior to doing the part of Madame Ovary.
For several years I have known as a precautionary not to walk in the plaza alone, especially during the holiday season after 5:15 PM, to head to the 12^th Street BART Station and/​or to the bus stop on 13^th & Broadway. The area is not well lit during that time, and one can face the risk of being accosted and/​or mugged. Fortunately, I was never mugged and/​or had my purse snatched from me.
It has been a while since I have been back to Frank H Ogawa Plaza (at least 7 years). Today, earlier this afternoon, my husband and I were there for an event that we just could not pass up — Berry Gordy Day. Mr. Gordy of Motown Records was «in the house», honored by many keynote speakers, which included Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Mayor Jean Quan and a host of other representatives for Senator Loni Hancock, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner and Assemblyman Rob Bonta. Included in this presentation were performers singing some of the Motown hits, which more of these hits will be performed at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco — Motown Revue, the musical.
A few years ago, and it was unfortunate, Frank H Ogawa Plaza was an eyesore when the grassy area became a dirt pile and it lost its beauty except for the big oak tree. I am glad to see the plaza back to its original form.

used to be a nice park until occupyers destroyed it. THIS IS FRANK OGAWA PLAZA not Oscar Grant Plaza! who are you kidding?
I am SO tired of Oakland.

There are so many people who are able to use this space to voice their particular dissatisfaction with the city and state-​Frank Ogawa Plaza is walkable from anywhere in the downtown area and accesible to BART. That’s all good and fine, unless you’re the one who works downtown and must try to work over the relentless din of some fire and brimstone jerk yowling about hell, or semi trucks cruising the block honking their horns. I also could have also done without witnessing a murder from my office digs. The area gets pretty rough towards the end of the month when the local indigent population goes off their medication, and you don’t have to walk very far without smelling the skunky odor of some of the local pot club fare.
But that’s not Frank Ogawa Plaza’s fault– it’s the fault of the leadership in City Hall, and the state of our nation as a whole. Jobs! Education! Leadership! We all need some of that.
Now the grass has finally grown back from that smelly disaster that was Occupy Oakland, and I am mightily pleased. I love a good protest as much as the next person, but I’d prefer it without the raw sewage odor and the flagrant destruction of a nice public space.
The Oakland oak tree is very nice.

I’m actually a fan of this plaza, not just because I am the Foursquare mayor of it currently :)
As far as it’s functionality, it serves its purpose well. People congregate here, eat lunch here, events are put on here. The term undesirables is only due to the perspective of who labels them as such. I think the fact that there is continual presence is great.
There is a lot of social context here: Occupy Oakland, various protests, etc. Makes the place lively and feels important. Space is framed well by the buildings — offering great enclosure, and usually on Fridays, there is a group of people who do an elaborate chalk mural. Always amazing.
The stair cases seem to limit circulation though, forcing people to walk around rather than through. Also, the placement of a bike parking box in the middle of where people walk is strange. Shouldn’t placed it against the wall or something.
BART is located here. All they need is a few establishments that open late, and dense housing on one of the buildings and this place will be happening all day. Currently, things do end at 5pm.
Alright, that’s my urban planning lesson for the day.

«Occupy, Shmoccupy»
by Wemdash
2÷2÷12
Wow. Every time I land a job in Oakland there is some kind of dramatic historical event which causes me to crawl out of my own little world, and look on in wonder. Maybe, I ask myself, can we actually transcend this shit and become everything we hope to be as individuals and as members of society? YES YES YES. we are golden now. thank God someone finality decided to stick up for the 99%!! of us who aren’t total schmucks.
And so on and so forth until I realize that we are actually still pretty lame.
Eleven years ago I was working in Oaktown as a file clerk (gopher type work of a distinctly pointless nature). I was getting off at 12 Street Bart like any other typical day. At the exact same time, on the other side of the country, some ridiculously (almost cartoonishley) angry men were hijacking airliners and using them to play chicken with skyscrapers and government buildings.
I don’t even remember who told me what was going down because it was one of those collective experiences where you just seem to find out at the same time as everyone else. But there we all were, standing at the threshold of F.O. Plaza just kind of dazed. Someone had a radio and a bunch of people I had never met and will never see again were huddled around listening. I joined them. someone patted someone’s back. A lady was tearing up. Another lady took her hand and held it.
I walked around Down Town Oakland for a good part of that afternoon (obviously my office was closed) and saw people ACTUALLY SMILING AT EACH OTHER IN DOWN TOWN OAKLAND. Yup, it was bad news but we were finally going to start looking out for each other. We were going to take this unbelievable and grotesque act of violence and turn it into a catylist for positive change. Yeah, we were gonna crucify the SOB’s responsible for the mayhem, but we were also going to have a national conversation about how to make a world where no one would ever feel the need to hurt someone else like this again.
Then the finger pointing started. Shrill pundits got up on soap boxes. The national conversation we all desperately needed to have got hijacked by pandering low lifes and fear peddlers. We didn’t get to have a conversation at all, we got fucking Ann Coulter instead.
In Down Town Oakland a bum went back to being a bum and a 12 year old might still shoot you if you didn’t give him one of your cigarettes.
Fast forward to 2011. I am getting off BART on my way to work. My new job job is different: I am now A Senior File Clerk (Gogher Sr. if you dont mind muthafucka).
Whoa! there I saw it: a bunch of peopel – positive fucking people protesting the injustice and doing a general strike agains the man. My interest was piqued. Finally, I thought, now we are REALLY gonna change things! How can three to four thousand of us be wrong?
For once it was about treating the next guy as your brother and the next gal as your sister. IT WAS DOWNTOWN OAKLAND AND WE WERE ACTUALLY SMILING AT EACH OTHER.
ouch.

This review and the five stars are for the gigantic oak tree that stands proudly in the plaza, silently watching the centuries pass as history unfolds itself around us all.
This past month has seen riots and protests in the form of Occupy Wall Street and Oakland beneath its broad-​stretching boughs. But the tree has also witnessed irony this past month.
Nigh one hundred twenty years past, another protest took place beneath this very oak, in the very same plaza. The Panic of 1893 took hold of our nation in much the same manner as Occupy Wall Street — the values and concerns of the people then repeat themselves in today’s fight against corporate America and government. Look it up. In 1893, Jack London stood upon a soapbox preaching the rights of laborers everywhere and the injustices of the wealthy and corporate conglomerations. He was arrested. They didn’t have tear gas back then.
Surely, the fight we embrace today has been echoed countless times throughout history, and our fair city is no different. The great oak still grows. It continues to watch and record. What will the next hundred twenty years bring us? Mayhaps the same protests all over again.

What’s in a name? Oscar Grant Plaza on Ohlone Land used to be called Frank Ogawa Plaza, but was renamed to acknowledge the fact that this is a double (triple, quadruple) occupation: the US occupation of Native American land, the corporate annexation of the US, etc. Oscar Grant, if you didn’t know, was an unarmed 23 year old African American man who was brutally murdered by BART police. However, his murder was filmed, bringing intense media scrutiny. To name the heart of the Oakland Occupation after him sends the message that we, the people, have made it our business to hold the agents of injustice (hopeful even the internal ones!!) accountable. I recently heard that Frank Ogawa was imprisoned in a concentration camp along with many other Japanese American citizens during WWII, so changing the name packs less of a wallop than if it had been called Thomas Jefferson Plaza, but still feels important and symbolic.
I’m giving this plaza 4 rather than a full 5 stars due to the police presence. Riot police that don’t respect there own rules of engagement can be such a turn off! I marked this plaza «kid friendly» but I would recommend taking your tots home when the blue meanies start massing. When I found this plaza, I had been looking for some time for a temporary autonomous zone in the bay area. If you are seeking ontological anarchy, this is the spot. A locus of popular protest against corporate greed, a miasma of radical ideas thicker than sage smoke flows through OGP. Accommodations are spartan, but you don’t have to camp — OGP is great for a day trip. I recommend taking a tour from Cassie Thornton, participating in the consensus based decision making of the GA, taking in a dance party and especially the radical poetry open mic on Sundays.
I haven’t been down there much since the general strike, but I intend to make it my business to go back and get involved! Maybe I’ll see you there.

Accomodations were adequate and comfrotable, but the staff was very rude.

And to think… to think… I was sitting right behind the President-​elect!

If this is supposed to be the Oakland City Hall plaza… then I’m far from being impressed. Due in part from being a Marketing minor, I have a stingy motto of listening and having an ear for the public! And what this should be more of is a casual hangout, not some classy, stylish-​looking area with suits. I know, I know — I haven’t lost sight of what context I’m speaking of. but please, the places to buy food at are too upscale and there isn’t any other atmosphere here. Like what Rob M said of the homeless people urinating there… ugh!

NARRATIVE
I was so jonesin’ to check my email before leaving the wired world. So I left the 12^th Street Oakland BART Station and walked over the large Oak tree in Frank Ogawa plaza. Seateed on beautiful granite stairs I have all the wireless I could want.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Broadway/​13^th Streets
Oakland, CA
PRICE RANGE
Free
SUMMARY
Lovely downtown park in front of City Hall that houses everything from afternoon lunch goers to NPR’s Storycorps Griot trailer, busking violinists and dancers, capture the flag tournaments, and the Barack Obama rally.
Oh, and FREE WIFI!
SERVICE
City staff keep the plaza beautiful. A nice rare find in the city.
RESTROOMS
I shouldn’t suggest the greenery.
SUGGESTION
Continue to bring community events to this space. As the condos get filled with those grabbing their piece of Oakland, I am sure it will be used more, but for now it’s a bustling green in the daytime and a little night-​time oasis in the city.
Keep Oakland beautiful!

Attended the Barack Obama Rally there and was impressed with the general feel and layout. Plus Frank Ogawa was an awesome public servant. Though I am a SF’er to the end this is a good sign for Downtown Oakland!

I’m glad I went to the rally today but was very disappointed that I was amongst many that didn’t actually get to *see* Barack.
I really wish he had stood on the 2^nd floor balcony of City Hall — Eva Peron style. Now that would have made a statement.

It’s kind of sad actually. An example of what happens when you pedestrainize an area that doesn’t really have a natural draw to it. There’s nothing there but city offices so on weekdays, during lunch, the plaza appears used and active. But during working hours and then after hours and on the weekends you find yourself alone; or you and the two homeless guys laying in their own pools or urine are alone. Given the situation they would have been better off allowing vehicles to go through, at least that would bring in the opportunity for more circulation and traffic and maybe some commerce that didn’t shut down at 2pm on a weekday. The bust of Frank Ogawa (a prominent businessperson/​civic leader in Oakland’s history) is nice and contains some info but it is diminutive in the square named for him. The other two pieces of public art are more grandiose and yet miss the mark, particularly the «rusty erection» (a friend coined that one) which marks a sad ending to the plaza.