Great piece on downtown revitalization in Oakland, California

Fox Oakland Theatre, Wikipedia photo.

Comes from the Transbay blog entry, "21st Century Fox," sparked by the reopening of the Fox Oakland Theatre this month after a $70 million renovation project. The entry is very good in discussing the critical mass of nearby projects and how they contribute and generate energy and overall direction despite major problems with the leadership of the current mayor.

Also see "Oakland's Fox Theater Returning to Life" and "Why I love Oakland" (blog entry) from the San Francisco Chronicle and the webpage on the Fox Oakland Theater Restoration Project and the Friends of the Oakland Fox. The first Chronicle story has more photos. From the FOF website:

Once open, by day the theater will provide a permanent home for Oakland's distinctive, tuition-free charter school dedicated to artistic and academic excellence, Oakland School for the Arts. At night, the theater will offer premier ground floor bars and restaurants that open out to a courtyard of trees, benches, and newly widened sidewalks. The theater itself will serve as the flagship live music venue for Another Planet Entertainment, well known for bringing outstanding live entertainment to the Greek Theater, Paramount Theater, and other popular Bay Area venues.

This writeup demonstrates the necessity and value of having multiple uses/revenue streams in line in order to support sustainable management and funding of the building after it reopens.