Emeryville, California

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Emeryville is a city located in Alameda County, California. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its proximity to San Francisco, the University of California, Berkeley, and Silicon Valley has been a catalyst for recent economic growth. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 6,882.

1 Ambiance
2 History
3 Mudflats and other environmental features
4 Business and Industry
5 Transportation
6 Geography
7 Demographics
8 Bibliography
9 External links

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Ambiance

While the actual resident population is small, large business presence draws many commuters and shoppers. Combined with heavy through traffic (Emeryville provides direct or indirect access from I-80, I-580, I-880, I-980, SR-24, and SR-13 to the Bay Bridge, in addition to San Pablo Avenue, the old US 40, providing access to Berkeley) this creates an area that feels much more dense than the population alone might indicate. Parking, however, is generally adequate, and overall road surface conditions are good. Few buildings exceed three stories in height, though the Bay Street area is currently (2005) being expanded to include additional stories on many buildings that will sell as townhomes for sale and apartments for rent. Many of the older warehouses have been converted to lofts for use by artists, businesses and as residences. The trend started in the mid 1980s with the conversion of the Besler Building for use by artists.

While many people take advantage of the proximity to San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland for entertainment options, Emeryville does offer movie theaters, bars, clubs, and a few small parks, though the major draw is the shopping (see below).

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History

Before the colonization of the area by Spain in 1776, this area was the site of extensive native American settlements. Mudflats rich with clams and rocky areas with oysters, plus fishing, hunting, and acorns from the local oak trees provided a rich and easily expolited food source for the residents. They would dispose of their clam and oyster shells in a single place, over time creating a huge mound— the Emeryville Shellmound [1].

Emeryville was named after Joseph S. Emery. In 1884, Joseph Emery was president of a narrow-gauge railroad called the California and Nevada Railroad. The railroad originally intended to extend from Oakland, through Emery (Emeryville) and then east across the Sierra Nevada Mountains at the gold mining town of Bodie, California. From Bodie the railroad would extend east through Nevada to a connection with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Despite its grandiose intentions, the railroad only built from Oakland to Orinda and by 1903 was sold to the Santa Fe Railway.[2]

With the late 19th and early 20th century urban development of the San Francisco Bay Area, Emeryville played a role as a naturalistic playground for the people of the bay. In the early 20th century, a large park, dance hall and fairground were built along the waterfront on the shellmound to serve as an entertainment and social spot in the area. On February 22, 1920 the first dog race track to employ an imitation rabbit opened in Emeryville. These have since been paved, with the shellmound hauled away for building materials - replaced in the early 20th century by heavy industry, including for a long time a paint factory of Sherwin-Williams, then easily recognizable for a large animated neon sign, showing a can of red paint, tilting, spilling, and covering a globe of the earth, with the slogan "We Cover the Earth". It was also once the location of Shell Development, the research arm of Shell Oil Company, relocated in 1972 to Houston, Texas. The area has significantly recovered from its depressed post-industrial period. The town is now a center for various research and development companies, drawing upon the bay area's well educated and experienced scientific, technical, artistic, and business workforce. With the reconstruction of the area from industrial to technical research and development, intellectual property creation, and "Big Box" shopping, there have been opportunities for anthropologists to re-examine the lower portions of the original shellmound and to excavate, examine, and re-inter elsewhere the contents of native American burial sites in the area.

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Mudflats and other environmental features

At one time, the Emeryville Mudflats were famous for their stench. This was due to the hydrogen sulfide gas resulting from the effluent of untreated sewage from Emeryville and nearby cities, particularly nearby Oakland and Berkeley. In the 1950s the East Bay Municipal Utility District constructed a regional sewage treatment plant and cured the noxious problem.

The Emeryville Mudflats then became famous for public art, erected without compensation from driftwood timbers and boards by professional and amateur artists and art students from local high schools, the University of California, Berkeley, the California College of Arts and Crafts and the Free University of Berkeley.

In the late 1990s, the sculptures and materials were removed in the interest of establishing a more natural and undisturbed marshland for the nurturing of wildlife. This process continues around the bay in many other wetlands, former diked grazing fields, and salt production evaporation ponds. The Olympia Oyster, a bivalve mollusc is associated with the Emeryille Shellmound.

Historically, Emeryville had been the location of a number of heavy industrial uses such as P.I.E, whose properties were developed by bringing in waste and construction debris fill from San Francisco in the early 1900s. Correspondingly much of the underlying soil contained heavy metals, hydrocarbons and other soil contaminants. Much of this contamination was removed in the 1980s when the considerable wave of redevelopment occurred.

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Business and Industry

Emeryville is now home to burgeoning biotechnology, software and film industries. Because of these some consider Emeryville an exclave of the Silicon Valley region, which is about 60 miles south of Emeryville.

Companies include:

Chiron Corporation [3] - a global biotech leader and research company and manufacturer of biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and blood testing kits, providing therapeutics against multiple sclerosis, vaccines against meningitis, flu and rabies, and testing kits for hepatitis and HIV.
Pixar Animation Studios [4], a major animation and computer graphics firm known for award-winning short and feature films such as Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo. In their movie The Incredibles a map is shown on the dashboard of the hero's car, easily recognizable as part of Emeryville near Pixar's headquarters.
Wham-O Toys [5] - a toy company and an inventor's workshop, home of the original frisbee, hacky sack and hula hoop.
Ask.com [6] - a growing Internet search engine that survived the dot.com bust of the 1990s, which uses questions to filter the web for the most relevant articles.

As part of a huge urban renewal project, several enormous shopping centers have opened next to the intersection of Interstate highways 80 and 580. Among their anchor tenants is the first store of Ikea in Northern California, as well as more familiar merchants such as the Home Depot and Toys 'R' Us. A new retail development named Bay Street Emeryville sits along Highway 80 and is home to such merchants as Banana Republic, Gap, Coach and the Apple Store, and restaurants such as California Pizza Kitchen and Pasta Pomodoro. The complex is anchored by AMC Theaters and is located next to Ikea. Will Wrights Spore development team is currently based here.

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Transportation

Emeryville has an Amtrak station, and also sits about two miles west of a nearby Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland. To supplement the bus service provided by AC Transit, the city runs a shuttle service called Emery Go Round.

As for freeway access, it sits on a key section of Interstate 80, just north of where that freeway meets Interstate 880 and Interstate 580 in a gigantic interchange known as the MacArthur Maze. Highway 24 is also accessible from Emeryville, which connects southbound to Interstate 880 via Highway 980 and continues eastward to Highway 680, where the Walnut Creek and Concord areas are located.

Emeryville also maintains a small marina with limited services.

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Geography

Image:CAMap-doton-Emeryville.pngEmeryville is located at 37°50'9" North, 122°17'14" West (37.835926, -122.287253)Template:GR.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.0 km² (1.9 mi²). 3.2 km² (1.2 mi²) of it is land and 1.8 km² (0.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 36.79% water.

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Demographics

As of the census Template:GR of 2000, there were 6,882 people, 3,975 households, and 1,164 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,178.0/km² (5,646.2/mi²). There were 4,274 housing units at an average density of 1,352.6/km² (3,506.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 44.99% White, 19.46% Black or African American, 0.49% Native American, 25.57% Asian, 0.25% Pacific Islander, 4.18% from other races, and 5.06% from two or more races. 8.95% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 3,975 households out of which 10.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 18.0% were married couples living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 70.7% were non-families. 55.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.71 and the average family size was 2.69.

In the city the population was spread out with 11.4% under the age of 18, 13.4% from 18 to 24, 42.2% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 9.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 100.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $45,359, and the median income for a family was $57,063. Males had a median income of $49,333 versus $39,527 for females. The per capita income for the city was $33,260. 13.2% of the population and 6.3% of families were below the poverty line. 4.5% of those under the age of 18 and 8.0% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

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Bibliography

C. Michael Hogan, Michael J. Johnson et al., "Environmental Impact Report for the Eastshore Center Development in the Redevelopment Project Area of the City of Emeryville, prepared for the city of Emeryville by Earth Metrics Inc., Burlingame, CA, July, 1986
Emeryville General Plan, volumes I and II (1979)
Final Environmental Impact Report, Bay Center Development, prepared by the city of Emeryville (1985)

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