Though the Gaslamp Quarter is now
considered a must-see on the list of San
Diego attractions, Cohn said the business owners have done what they can to
prevent it from becoming too touristy.
“One of the things (the association)
discussed was not trying to gentrify it
too much,” Cohn said. “Your success can
become your limitation if you fill an area
with T-shirt shops or chains that are
only for visitors. People want
to visit because it’s differ-
ent from where they
come from.
“There are definitely characters that
inhabit redeveloped areas and downtowns
– and we didn’t want to sanitize that. It’s
very tricky to find that balance.”
Downtown Oakland
building buzz
Cities across the state are in a constant
state of improving their downtown
districts, knowing that a healthy urban
core is key to the overall wellbeing of a
city.
Oakland’s downtown area, for
instance, is in the midst of a rebirth –
charged with an injection of new housing and retail development projects.
Former mayor Jerry Brown’s 10K
Initiative campaigned to bring 10,000
housing units to downtown Oakland
and is in the midst of execution with
several high-profile apartment and condo
projects completed and in the works,
which mean a built-in customer base for
new stores, galleries and restaurants in
the area. It’s a project that has garnered
a lot of national interest in the city,
with Outside magazine recently naming
Oakland one of the 20 Best Towns in
America.
“We’ve received so much national media
exposure this past year regarding the
influx of new, great restaurants – the New
York Times and Wall Street Journal have
called Oakland the new Gourmet Ghetto,”
“We’ve received so much national media exposure this past year regarding the
influx of new, great restaurants.”MANETTE BELLIVEAU president / Oakland Convention & Visitors Bureau
said Manette Belliveau, president and
chief executive officer of the Oakland
Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Belliveau said the bureau has even
launched a campaign around the culinary
scene in Oakland, complete with a Web
site and e-newsletters detailing the city’s
more than 550 dining destinations.
Developers are investing $375 million into
turning Jack London Square into the next
great Oakland neighborhood, a project
with an enormous emphasis on creating a
culinary epicenter in the East Bay.
“Right now Jack London Square is in
transition,” said John Dern, owner of Dern
Greinetz and Co., a hotel and restaurant
advisory group. “The developers have
bought out or excused most of the old
tenants that didn’t fit the profile, but it’s
going to fill up very quickly and it will be a
Jack London Square in Oakland is enjoying a stream
of new gleaming eateries such as Miss Pearl’s Jam
House, left, while taking care to protect its history.
Heinold’s First and Last Chance, above, has been in
continuous operation since 1883 and sits steps away
from the entrance to Jack London Market.
very vibrant destination for the East Bay,
as well as visitors coming to the Bay Area.”
Dern is the man responsible for securing
the crème de la crème in the Bay Area
dining scene for the waterfront district,
and, so far, he’s been successful at bringing in bold-faced names, including San
Francisco luminaries Meg Ray of high-end
bakery Miette, Daniel Patterson of Coi
and Rick Hackett of Market Bar.
“It’s always hard to convince somebody
of something before it happens,” Dern
said. “But 10 years ago South of Market
(in San Francisco) was a ghost town, and
now most of the great, new restaurants
are there.”
