Amtrak Oakland Maintenance Facility

AMCO Chemical was a chemical distribution company located in Oakland, California. The land the company operated on is designated as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund cleanup site. Operated from the 1960s until 1989, chemicals were brought to the company in rail tank cars. The contents were off-loaded into 55-gallon drums which were stored on the lot until the chemicals were transferred into smaller containers for re-sale. An investigation by the Oakland Fire Department, Alameda County and the U.S. Coast Guard found over 100 full and empty 5- and 55-gallon drums, some of which were leaking. Subsequent to AMCO ceasing operations in 1989, the lot was used by DC Metals for scrap storage until 1998, and by Cable Moore, Inc. for cable storage until the present time. In June 1995, a construction crew digging a trench noted a strong chemical odor in the dirt. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), DC Metals, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted an investigation which uncovered chlorinated solvents and other contaminants, including vinyl chloride, and soil gas. Due to the presence of groundwater found during the investigation, emergency remediation processes were initiated but later ceased before completion. The EPA had collected enough data to determine the nature and extent of contamination in the groundwater and soil beneath the former facility. Around 90 chemicals in the groundwater and 40 chemicals in soil beneath the former AMCO facility exceeded screening levels. The EPA also collected soil and produce samples in the yards of residences next to the former AMCO facility fence line (on Center and Third streets). The samples were tested for VOCs, metals and pesticides. Lead was detected at high concentrations in a limited number of soil samples. The levels in the shallow and deep soil samples range from 26.2 to 53,000 milligrams/kilogram (mg/kg). Some of these levels are well above levels that would be considered safe for residential exposure, particularly for children. Urban soils typically have lead levels of about 500 mg/kg. In Oakland, naturally occurring lead level for native soil is 14 mg/kg. The site was listed on the National Priority List (Superfund) on September 29, 2003. The detailed remediation investigation concluded in 2006.

Prescott (also known as The Lower Bottoms or The Bottoms) is a residential neighborhood and commercial district in West Oakland in Oakland, California. The neighborhood boundaries are Mandela Parkway to the east, 7th Street to the south, West Grand Avenue to the north, and Frontage Road to the west.

West Oakland station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station serving the West Oakland neighborhood in Oakland, California, United States. It has two elevated side platforms, and is located near the eastern end of the Transbay Tube. All lines except the Richmond-Berryessa/North San José line stop at the station. The Oakland Wye is located to the east of the station.

The Crucible is a nonprofit industrial arts school in Oakland, California, United States. Established in Berkeley in 1999, the institute was moved to its present location in 2003.The Crucible has classes in blacksmithing, ceramics, enameling, fire performance, foundry, glass, hot wheels, jewelry, kinetics and electronics, machine shop, moldmaking, neon and light, stone working, textiles, welding, woodworking, and other industrial arts with an average of 5,000 students a year. The Crucible's Youth Program serves over 3,000 youth annually, half of whom are members of the West Oakland community who have access to free classes and workshops. Founder, Michael Sturtz, has created two fire operas, a fire ballet, and a burning version of Homer's Odyssey, in addition to the annual Fire Arts Festival held in July. As a nonprofit organization, The Crucible relies on annual membership donations, grants and individual donations.

Liberty Hall is a historic meeting hall used by African-American organizations in Oakland, California. The building, located at 1483-1485 8th St., was built in 1877 as a store and residence. The building was designed in the Italianate style and features projecting bays at its northwest and southwest corners, a bracketed cornice, a frieze with dentils and crown moldings, and a hipped roof.Local 188 of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the African-American fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey, purchased the building for its headquarters in 1925. Founded in 1920, Local 188 was the largest chapter of the UNIA in northern California. The chapter renamed the building Liberty Hall, the name used by all of the UNIA's meeting halls. During its time in the building, the UNIA used it for its meetings, activities, and holidays such as Lincoln's Birthday and Garvey Day. A fire burnt the building's roof in 1931, and the UNIA's activism in Oakland declined afterward. The organization sold the building in 1933.After the UNIA left the building, one of Oakland's chapters of the International Peace Mission movement took over the building. The International Peace Mission was a religious movement led by Father Divine, an African-American preacher from New York. Father Divine, who was considered the Second Coming by his followers, was known for hosting free banquets at his home during the Great Depression. The International Peace Mission continued to operate in the building until the 1950s, though its activities declined after the early 1940s.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1989.

Moore Dry Dock Company was a ship repair and shipbuilding company in Oakland, California. In 1905, Robert S. Moore, his brother Joseph A. Moore, and John Thomas Scott purchased the National Iron Works located in the Hunter's Point section of San Francisco, and founded a new company, the Moore & Scott Iron Works Moore had previously been vice president of the Risdon Iron Works of San Francisco. Scott was nephew to Henry T. and Irving M. Scott, owners of the nearby Union Iron Works, where John had risen from apprentice to superintendent. Their new business was soon destroyed by fire resulting from the San Francisco earthquake. They quickly recovered and were back in business before the end of 1906 by purchasing Boole & Sons shipyard on Union Street in Oakland.In 1909, Moore and Scott decided to move across the Bay, and so purchased the W.A. Boole and Son Shipyard, located in Oakland at the foot of Adeline Street along the Oakland Estuary. In 1917, Moore bought out Scott and changed the business name to Moore Shipbuilding Company. The company built a number of United States Shipping Board cargo ships used in World War 1. In 1922, the company name was changed to Moore Dry Dock Company, operating primarily as a repair yard. Its shipbuilding capabilities were expanded in the World War II era, providing over 100 ships for the U.S. Navy and merchant marine. Moore ranked 82nd among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. Shipbuilding ceased at war's end, but repair operations continued. Moore Dry Dock Company finally closed in 1961. The yard was notable for its employment of several thousand African Americans, in both skilled and unskilled positions, at a time when they confronted major job discrimination. At the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park an inscription honoring the wartime contributions made by the Bay Area Shipyards during World War II states that "Moore Dry Dock handled the difficult jobs of production, repair and conversion that slowed overall output in other yards." In 1950, the Moore facility was the target of a union picket when sailors were having a dispute with a ship owner whose ship was in Moore's dry dock at the time. The court battle which ensued eventually led to the Moore Dry Dock Standards for Primary Picketing at a Secondary Site (Sailors' Union of the Pacific (Moore Dry Dock Co.), 92 NLRB 547, 27 LRRM 1108 (1950)).Moore Dry Dock Company ceased operations in 1961. Its site at the foot of Adeline Street on the Oakland Estuary is now occupied by Schnitzer Steel Industries, a large scrap metal recycling concern, based in Portland, Oregon.

Peralta Villa is a neighborhood in Oakland in Alameda County, California. It lies at an elevation of 20 feet (6 m). It was formerly an unincorporated community.

Acorn or Acorn Projects are a series of housing projects in the Acorn Redevelopment Project Area or the Acorn neighborhood of West Oakland. Acorn, also known as "The Corns" or the "Cornfields", neighbors a wide variety of public housing. It is bordered by the high rise City Towers Apartments and low rise Mohr Apartments to the South, Cypress Village to the West, Market Street to the east and 10th Street to the north. Originally consisting of three housing units, Acorn 1, Acorn 2 and Acorn 3, The City of Oakland Housing Authority renovated the entire Acorn housing complex during the late 1990s in efforts to combat crime. Acorn 2 and Acorn 3 were renamed "Town Center Apartments at Acorn" and "Courtyard Apartments at Acorn". Meanwhile, Acorn 1 was completely demolished and small community of two-story single-family houses between Filbert and Market Streets were built in its place. Adjacent to Acorn, there are three high-rise buildings known as the City Towers (formally named Apollo Housing) that resemble the high-rises of Chicago and New York City. Technically, City Towers (or "The Highrises" as they are known to locals) are a separate community of housing projects however, during the renovation of Acorn in the 1990s, many of the original residents of Acorn were relocated to City Towers. As a result, City Towers are often mistaken as being part of the same public housing units as Acorn. Acorn is home to the Acorn street gang. Due to close proximity, skirmishes between Acorn and neighboring Cypress Village as well as Lower Bottoms occur frequently. In order to reduce the violence between the two housing projects, in 2003 local rappers from both Acorn and Cypress released an underground mixtape titled Acorn & Cypress inspired by other unity rap albums like the Bloods and Crips Bangin' on Wax releases. Since then, West Oakland based rap label Livewire Records founded by J Stalin (who originates from Cypress Village) has signed numerous rappers from both housing units, including Acorn native Shady Nate. In 2014, the housing project was featured in season 5, episode 2 of the National Geographic Channel television show Drugs, Inc. A segment of the episode titled "Cokeland", was filmed in and around the Acorn and City Towers housing complexes.

The Cypress Village housing projects (officially named Peralta Villa Public Housing Community) are a series of housing complexes stretching from 10th Street to 14th Street and Kirkham Way. Cypress is located in between the Acorn neighborhood and Lower Bottoms neighborhood in West Oakland. Cypress Village is one of the three housing projects in West Oakland, along with the Campbell Village Court and the Acorn Projects. Cypress Village was built by the Oakland Housing Authority after World War II, when many African-Americans began to migrate to Oakland. It was one of four all-black segregated projects built at the time. After the Cypress Freeway was built in 1954-1957 immediately in front of the project, most whites and middle-class blacks left the neighborhood to avoid the noise and pollution. By the 1980s Cypress Village was a "drug supermarket" where Huey P. Newton purchased drugs. The neighborhood suffered further disruption in 1989 when the freeway collapsed in the Loma Prieta earthquake. However, at the city of Oakland's insistence, the State of California rebuilt the freeway to avoid the neighborhood and instead cleaned up contamination on its property and, fifteen years later, completed a boulevard on the site named the Mandela Parkway, with a landscaped park in the median. Cypress Village is the home of rapper J Stalin of the Livewire record label.Due to close proximity, skirmishes between Cypress Village and neighboring Acorn as well as Lower Bottoms occur frequently. In order to reduce the violence between the two housing projects, in 2003 rappers from both Acorn and Cypress released an underground mixtape titled Acorn & Cypress inspired by other unity rap albums like the Bloods and Crips Bangin' on Wax releases. Since then, West Oakland based rap label Livewire Records founded by J Stalin (who originates from Cypress Village) has signed numerous rappers from both housing units including Acorn resident Shady Nate.

Campbell Village is a neighborhood of Oakland, California in Alameda County, California. It lies at an elevation of 16 feet (5 m). Campbell Village is the site of the Campbell Village Court housing projects.

The Campbell Village Court housing projects are a series of complexes located in the Campbell Village part of the Lower Bottoms area of West Oakland California. Campbell Village Court is bound by Willow Street to the west, Campbell Street to the east, 10th street to the north, and 8th street to the south.It is not far from the abandoned 16th Street Train Station and the Mandela Parkway.

The Hughes Mining Barge, or HMB-1, is a submersible barge about 99 m (324 ft) long, 32 m (106 ft) wide, and more than 27 m (90 ft) tall. The HMB-1 was originally developed as part of Project Azorian (more widely, but erroneously, known as "Project Jennifer"), the top-secret effort mounted by the Central Intelligence Agency to salvage the wreckage of the Soviet submarine K-129 from the ocean floor. The HMB-1 was designed to allow the device that would be used to grasp and lift the submarine to be constructed inside the barge and out of sight, and to be installed in the Glomar Explorer in secrecy. This was done by towing the HMB-1, with the capture device inside, to a location near Catalina Island (off the coast of California), and then submerging it onto stabilizing piers that had been installed on the seafloor. The Glomar Explorer was then maneuvered over the HMB-1, the retractable roof was opened, and the capture device lifted into the massive "moon pool" of the ship, all within clear sight of people on the beach.After the conclusion of Project Azorian, the HMB-1 was mothballed at the Todd Shipyard in San Francisco, California until November 1982. At that time, the United States Navy towed the huge barge to a Lockheed Martin facility in Redwood City, California, where it became a floating drydock for the construction and sea trials of the Sea Shadow, an experimental stealth ship being tested by the Navy. Sea trials of the Sea Shadow continued until 1986.