Oakland, California, situated across the bay from San Francisco, is the quintessential second city. It is, depending on the metaphor of choice, in the shadow of, little sibling to, or the grittier neighbor of its more celebrated urban counterpart. But those metaphors—to say nothing of the greatest cliché of all, Gertrude Stein’s “there is no there there” dismissal of the city—grew outworn long ago. Oakland is a city like any other, deserving of its own history and commentary, independent from constant comparison with San Francisco.

Schwarzer offers just such a history in this rollicking, sprawling compendium of, in the words of its subtitle, the development and disruption of Oakland from the 1890s to the present. Focusing on the built environment, this book is primarily about parks, automobiles, highways, and housing, with some mass transit, shopping centers, and urban renewal alongside. It is organized accordingly, with chapters such as “Streetcar Stratification,”...

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