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This is a tale of two cities - the Oakland you thought you knew, and the new Oakland: vibrant and artistic, inviting and growing, unique among its Bay Area neighbors. Oakland, California's eighth-largest city, is truly on the rise.

While much of the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area has been experiencing growth and prosperity, Oakland is just now hitting its stride. As Silicon Valley expands and San Francisco rents continue to skyrocket, Oakland's prime location, affordable housing, proximity to top educational institutions and diverse workforce all help it attract new jobs and new workers. New leadership and a populace eager for change have signaled a new dawn for this historic city.

Oakland is poised for a dramatic economic and cultural renaissance, thanks in part to major improvements to its infrastructure, linking it more closely to its more prosperous neighbors. With its own international airport, a new downtown Amtrak rail station, the Nelson Mandela Parkway replacing the earthquake damaged Cypress Freeway, and the fourth largest port in the United States, Oakland is accessible by land, air and sea. The short BART ride to downtown San Francisco also makes it closer to that city's commercial centers than many parts of San Francisco itself.

Of course, Oakland has its own businesses to boast about. It is home to 32,000 firms, including major manufacturing, service and food processing industries, as well as numerous entrepreneurial endeavors. With new hotels recently built or underway near the airport, more service jobs are projected.

A core of 300 high-tech ventures are thriving in the East Bay. Established corporations such as Informix, Sun Microsystems, Health Systems Design and smaller companies draw on the talent from many of the local educational institutions, including UC Berkeley, Mills College, Cal State Hayward as well as many nearby technical colleges and universities.

Start-ups such as Cybergold and Zhone Technologies regard Oakland as ideal for building their businesses. Among the attractions are a diverse and skilled labor force of 180,000, affordable housing, newly-established commerce zones offering business incentives which the city and private agencies are partnering to offer.

Army Base Beachhead

At the forefront of much of Oakland's makeover is the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, which has its marching orders - turn the soon-to-be-converted, 200-acre Oakland Army base into a Mecca for high- tech, bio-tech, light industrial, and R&D firms. The site's proximity to the Port of Oakland as well as downtown make it prime commercial real estate.

A number of other areas are enjoying a rebirth. West Oakland, home to a manufacturing and light industrial zone, is also creating a transportation hub. A nearby housing project is offering affordable single-family homes, and Giant Foods just opened in the Acorn Plaza Shopping Center, the first real supermarket to serve those residents in some time. A new Youth Opportunity Center provides training and placement services for the young who are out of school and out of work.

The Oakland Coliseum is at the heart of another area abuzz with the promise of new jobs and prosperity. Zhone Technologies, a start-up spun from Lucent Technologies, is building a 20-acre campus across the street that will employ almost 1500. About 20 blocks away is a new Federal Express facility, along with Webvan's 400,000 square-foot facility. Just Deserts is opening a new production and distrib-ution center as well. The coliseum activity was made possible in large part to assistance and business incentives from the Oakland Private Industry Council, the Oakland Commerce Corporation and other agencies that worked to cut red tape.

Also noteworthy is the area around Broadway near 22nd, home to a cluster of communications technology companies.

Downtown's Upturn

Jack London Square is truly vibrant with its waterfront restaurants, multiplex theater, entertainment center, the Jazzy Yoshi's restaurant and nightclub, new lofts and live/work spaces. Downtown also includes the City Center, Old Oakland and Chinatown. The Gap is coming to Broadway, and the Shorenstein Company will be building a new 20-story office building.

Mayor Jerry Brown, himself a downtown resident, is inviting 10,000 others to join him. In this case, more is more. The mayor has mobilized city government for his 10K initiative, knowing that with new residents comes a critical mass to support day and night commerce.

Safer Streets

Oakland not only looks safer, it is. While the city's population is up, crime is down. Even before Mayor Brown came on board, City Manager Robert Bobb led a campaign to transform Oakland's rough image. His well-publicized focus on grime and crime has tackled blight wherever it was found within the city.

"It's a safe city, if you keep your nose clean," admonishes Oakland Police Captain Ralph Lacer. "The city is tracking crime like never before. We experienced crime reduction of almost 20 percent last year," a trend continuing this year, Lacer says.

Overall, the next five years promises to provide Oakland with a prosperity that once it could hardly have dreamed possible, and maybe at last it will turn around the line that has haunted it for so long. Maybe at last, there will be a 'there' there.