Oakland California CA Warrant Search

Oakland, California Oakland (pronounced /ˈoʊklənd/) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of California. It is a major West Coast port, located on San Francisco Bay, about 8 miles (13 km) east of San Francisco. Oakland is a central hub city for the Bay Area subregion collectively called the East Bay, and it is the county seat of Alameda County. Based on United States Census Bureau estimates for 2010, Oakland is the 41st-largest city in the USA with a population of 446,901.The area was inhabited by the Ohlone people for thousands of years before Spanish settlers displaced them in the 18th and 19th centuries. Spain expanded the Viceroyalty of New Spain and colonized Alta California to stop the advancement of Russia from Alaska. Much of the land that was to become Oakland was held by the Peralta family under the Rancho San Antonio (Peralta) land grant. New Spain became independent in 1821 under the name 'Mexico.' In 1846, the Territory of Alta California was conquered by American forces, becoming simply 'California.' Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, American squatters laid legal claim to the land held by the Peralta family. In 1852, the California legislature incorporated the town of Oakland.Initially, Oakland grew from having its hillside oak and redwood timber resources logged to build San Francisco, and Oakland's fertile flatland soils helped it become a prolific agricultural region. In the late 1860s, Oakland was selected as the western terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. It continued to grow into the 20th century with its port, shipyards, and a thriving automobile industry. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, many San Franciscans left that city's destruction, and a great number of Oakland's homes were built during the 1910s and 1920s. An extensive streetcar network connected most of Oakland's neighborhoods to inter-city rail lines and to ferry lines.During the 1940s, thousands of war-industry workers moved to Oakland from the Deep South, and the late 20th century saw a steady influx of immigrants from around the globe. According to the 2000 U.S. census, Oakland is the second most ethnically diverse city in Alameda County, with many languages spoken.Oakland has struggled with significant challenges, including high unemployment, widespread poverty, and an elevated rate of violent crime. Ruptures along the nearby San Andreas fault caused severe earth movement in 1906 and 1989. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Oakland suffered many deaths and injuries, as well as significant property damage. San Andreas quakes cause induced creep in the Hayward fault, which runs directly through Oakland. In 1991, an urban firestorm destroyed nearly 4,000 homes and killed 25 people in the Oakland hills; it was the worst such firestorm in American history.Oakland is home to several major corporations including Kaiser Permanente and Clorox, and the city serves as corporate headquarters for nationwide businesses like Dreyer's and Cost Plus World Market.Oakland is also the home of Rocky Road ice cream and the Mai Tai cocktail. It has enjoyed a thriving West Coast blues scene and can claim numerous prominent homegrown musicians representing such genres as rhythm and blues, funk, punk, heavy metal, and hip hop. Recreational attractions include the Fox Theater, the Paramount Theatre, Jack London Square, Lake Merritt, the Oakland Estuary, the Oakland Zoo, the Oakland Museum of California, the Chabot Space and Science Center, Oracle Arena, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the East Bay Regional Park District ridge line parks and preserves, and Chinatown. The Ohlone The earliest known inhabitants were the Huchiun tribe, who lived there for thousands of years. The Huchiun belonged to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone (a Miwok word meaning 'western people'). In Oakland, they were concentrated around Lake Merritt and Temescal Creek, a stream that enters the San Francisco Bay at Emeryville. Spanish colonialism Conquistadors from New Spain claimed Oakland and other Ohlone lands of the East Bay, along with the rest of California, for the king of Spain in 1772. In the early 19th century, the Spanish crown deeded the East Bay area to Luís María Peralta for his Rancho San Antonio. The grant was confirmed by the successor Mexican republic upon its independence from Spain.[citation needed] The ranch included a stand of oak trees that stretched from the land that is today Oakland's downtown area to the adjacent part of Alameda, then a peninsula. The Peraltas called the area encinal, a Spanish word that means 'oak grove.' Upon his death in 1842, Peralta divided his land among his four sons. Most of Oakland fell within the shares given to Antonio Maria and Vicente, who opened the land to American settlers, loggers, European whalers, and fur-traders.[citation needed] 1840s and 1850s Continued development occurred after 1848 when, as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican-American War, the Mexican government ceded 1.36 million km² (525,000 square miles; 55% of its pre-war territory (excluding Texas) to the United States in exchange for US$15 million (equivalent to $313 million in 2006 dollars) The original settlement in what is now the downtown was initially called 'Contra Costa' (Other Coast) and was included in Contra Costa County before Alameda County was established on March 25, 1853. The California state legislature incorporated the town of Oakland on May 4, 1852. In 1853, John Coffee 'Jack' Hays, a famous Texas Ranger, was one of the first to establish residence in Oakland while performing his duties as Sheriff of San Francisco. 1860s and 1870s The town and its environs quickly grew with the railroads, becoming a major rail terminus in the late 1860s and 1870s. In 1868, the Central Pacific constructed the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point, the site of today's Port of Oakland. The Long Wharf served as the terminus both for the Transcontinental Railroad and for local commuter trains of the Central (later, Southern) Pacific. The Central Pacific also established one of its largest rail yards and servicing facilities in West Oakland, which continued to be a major local employer under the Southern Pacific well into the 20th century. The principal depot of the Southern Pacific in Oakland was the 16th Street Station located at 16th and Wood, which is currently being restored as part of a redevelopment project. In 1871, Cyrus and Susan Mills paid $5,000 for the Young Ladies' Seminary in Benicia, renamed it Mills College, and moved it to its current location in Oakland, adjacent to what is now Seminary Boulevard. In 1872, the town of Brooklyn was incorporated into Oakland. Brooklyn, a large municipality southeast of Lake Merritt, was part of what was then called the Brooklyn Township. Streetcar suburbs A number of horsecar and cable car lines were constructed in Oakland during the latter half of the 19th century. The first electric streetcar set out from Oakland to Berkeley in 1891, and other lines were converted and added over the course of the 1890s. The various streetcar companies operating in Oakland were acquired by Francis 'Borax' Smith and consolidated into what eventually became known as the Key System, the predecessor of today's publicly owned AC Transit. In addition to its system of streetcars in the East Bay, the Key System also operated commuter trains to its own pier and ferry boats to San Francisco, in competition with the Southern Pacific. Upon completion of the Bay Bridge, both companies ran their commuter trains on the south side of the lower deck direct to San Francisco. The Key System in its earliest years was actually in part a real estate venture, with the transit part serving to help open up new tracts for buyers. The Key System's investors (incorporated as the 'Realty Syndicate') also established two large hotels in Oakland, one of which survives as the Claremont Resort. The other, which burned down in the early 1930s, was the Key Route Inn, at what is now West Grand and Broadway. From 1904 to 1929, the Realty Syndicate also operated a major amusement park in north Oakland called Idora Park. Early 1900s The original extent of Oakland, upon its incorporation, lay south of today's major intersection of San Pablo Avenue, Broadway, and Fourteenth Street. The city gradually annexed farmlands and settlements to the east and the north. Oakland's rise to industrial prominence, and its subsequent need for a seaport, led to the digging of a shipping and tidal channel in 1902, which created an 'island' of nearby town Alameda. In 1906, its population doubled with refugees made homeless after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Concurrently, a strong City Beautiful movement, promoted by Mayor Frank K. Mott, was responsible for creating and preserving parks and monuments in Oakland, including major improvements to Lake Merritt and the construction of Oakland Civic Auditorium, which cost US$1M in 1914. The Auditorium briefly served as an emergency ward and quarantine for some of Oakland's Spanish flu victims in 1918 and 1919. The three waves of that pandemic killed more than 1,400, out of 216,000, Oakland residents.By 1920, Oakland was the home of numerous manufacturing industries, including metals, canneries, bakeries, internal combustion engines, automobiles, and shipbuilding. 1920s The 1920s were economic boom years in the United States as a whole, and in California in particular. Economic growth was fueled by the general post-World War I recovery, as well as oil discoveries in Los Angeles and, most notably, the widespread introduction of the automobile.[citation needed] In 1916, General Motors opened a major Chevrolet automobile factory in East Oakland, making cars and then trucks until 1963, when it was moved to Fremont in southern Alameda County. Also in 1916, the Fageol Motor Company chose East Oakland for their first factory, manufacturing farming tractors from 1918 to 1923. In 1921, they introduced an influential low-slung 'Safety Bus', followed quickly by the 22-seat 'Safety Coach.' Durant Motors operated a plant in Oakland from 1921 to 1930, manufacturing sedans, coupes, convertibles, and roadsters. By 1929, when Chrysler expanded with a new plant there, Oakland had become known as the 'Detroit of the West.' Russell Clifford Durant (called 'Cliff' by his friends) was a race car driver, speedboat enthusiast, amateur flier, President of Durant Motors in Oakland, and son of General Motors founder William 'Billy' Crapo Durant. In 1916, he established Durant Field at 82nd Avenue and East 14th Street. The first experimental transcontinental airmail through-flight finished its journey at Durant Field on August 9, 1920, with Army Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and Navy Lt. Bert Acosta at the controls of the Junkers F 13 re-badged as the model J.L.6 . The airfield served only secondary duties after 1927, as its runway was not long enough for heavily loaded aircraft. In April 1930, test pilot Herbert 'Hub' Fahy and his wife Claire hit a stump upon landing, flipping their plane and mortally wounding Hub without injuring Claire. Durant Field was often called Oakland Airport, though the current Oakland International Airport was soon established four miles (6 km) southwest.On September 17, 1927, Charles Lindbergh attended the official dedication of the new Oakland Airport. A month earlier, on August 16, participants in the disastrous Dole Air Race had taken off from Oakland's new 7,020-foot (2,140 m) runway headed for Honolulu 2,400 miles (3,900 km) away—three fliers died before getting to the starting line in Oakland; five were lost at sea, attempting to reach Honolulu; and two more died searching for the lost five. On May 31, 1928, Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew departed Oakland in Southern Cross on their successful bid to cross the Pacific by air, finishing in Australia. In October 1928, Oakland was used as a base for the World War I aircraft involved in the final filming of Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels. In 1928, aviator Louise Thaden took off from Oakland in a Travel Air to set a women's altitude record, as well as endurance and speed records.Oakland expanded during the 1920s, flexing enough to meet the influx of factory workers. Approximately 13,000 homes were built between 1921 and 1924, more than between 1907 and 1920. Many of the large downtown office buildings, apartment buildings, and single-family houses still standing in Oakland were built during the 1920s; and they reflect the architectural styles of the time.Rocky Road ice cream was created in Oakland in 1929, though accounts differ about its first promoter. William Dreyer of Dreyer's is said to have carried the idea of marshmallow and walnut pieces in a chocolate base over from his partner Joseph Edy's similar candy creation. World War II During World War II, the East Bay Area was home to many war-related industries. Among these were the Kaiser Shipyards in nearby Richmond. The medical system devised for shipyard workers became the basis for the giant Kaiser Permanente HMO, which has a large medical center at MacArthur and Broadway, the first to be established by Kaiser. Oakland's Moore Dry Dock Company expanded its shipbuilding capabilities and built over 100 ships.Valued at $100 million in 1943, Oakland's canning industry was its second-most-valuable war contribution after shipbuilding. Sited at both a major rail terminus and an important sea port, Oakland was a natural location for food processing plants, whose preserved products fed domestic, foreign, and military consumers. The largest canneries were in the Fruitvale District and included the Josiah Lusk Canning Company, the Oakland Preserving Company (which started the Del Monte brand), and the California Packing Company.Prior to World War II, blacks constituted about 3% of Oakland's population. Aside from restrictive covenants pertaining to some Oakland Hills properties, Jim Crow laws mandating racial segregation did not exist in California, and relations between the races were mostly harmonious. What segregation did exist was voluntary; blacks could, and did, live in all parts of the city.The war attracted large numbers of laborers from around the country, though most were poor whites and blacks from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi—sharecroppers who had been recruited by Henry J. Kaiser to work in his shipyards. These immigrants from the Jim Crow South brought their racial attitudes with them, and the racial harmony that Oakland blacks had been accustomed to prior to the war evaporated. Southern whites expected deference from their black co-workers, and initially Southern blacks were conditioned to grant it. As Southern blacks became aware of their more equal standing under California law, they began to reject subservient roles; the new immigrants prospered, though they were affected by rising racial discrimination and informal post-war neighborhood redlining.The Mai Tai cocktail was first concocted in Oakland in 1944, and it became very popular at Trader Vic's restaurant. Established in 1932, just four years later, Trader Vic's was so successful San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen was inspired to write, 'the best restaurant in San Francisco is in Oakland.' Trader Vic's was chosen by the State Department as the official entertainment center for foreign dignitaries attending United Nations meetings in San Francisco. The restaurant continued to grow in popularity and was running out of room when, in 1951, founder Victor Bergeron opened a larger one in San Francisco. In 1972, the flagship Oakland restaurant moved to the nearby Emeryville Marina. Post-WWII (1940s and 1950s) In 1946 National City Lines (NCL), a General Motors holding company, acquired 64% of Key System stock; during the next several years NCL engaged in the conspiratorial dissolution of Oakland's electric streetcar system. NCL converted the Key System's electric streetcar fleet to diesel buses, tracks were removed from Oakland's streets, and the lower deck of the Bay Bridge was converted to automobile traffic, which reduced the passenger carrying capacity of the bridge. Freeways were planned and constructed, which partitioned the social and retail fabric of neighborhoods, and increased automobile ownership further reduced demand for mass transit. The state Legislature created the Alameda and Contra Costa Transit District in 1955, which still exists today as AC Transit, the third-largest bus-only transit system in the nation.Soon after the war, with the disappearance of Oakland's shipbuilding industry and the decline of its automobile industry, jobs became more scarce. Many of the poor blacks who had come to the city from the South decided to stay in Oakland. Longstanding black residents complained that the new Southern arrivals 'tended towards public disorder,' and the segregationist attitudes that some Southern migrants brought with them disrupted the racial harmony that Oaklanders had been accustomed to before the war. Many of the city's more affluent residents, both black and white, left the city after the war, moving to neighboring Alameda, Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito to the north; to San Leandro, Hayward, Castro Valley and Fremont in Southern Alameda County; and to the newly developing East Bay suburbs, Orinda, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek and Concord. Between 1950 and 1960, about 100,000 white property owners moved out of Oakland—part of a nationwide phenomenon called white flight.By the end of World War II, blacks constituted about 12% of Oakland's population, and the years following the war saw this percentage rise, along with an increase in racial tensions. Starting in the 1950s, the Oakland Police Department began recruiting officers from the South to deal with the expanding black population and changing racial attitudes; many were openly racist, and their repressive police tactics exacerbated racial tensions.Oakland was the center of a general strike during the first week of December 1946, one of six cities across the county that experienced a general strike in the first few years after World War II. It was one of the largest strike movements in American history, as workers were determined not to let management repeat the union busting that followed the first World War.In the late 1950s, the largest high-rise up to that time was planned on the former site of Holy Names University, a parcel at the corner of 20th and Harrison Streets: the headquarters building of Kaiser Corporation. Also during this era, the oldest section of Oakland at the foot of Broadway was transformed into Jack London Square.Oakland, which had been racially harmonious and quite prosperous before the war, by the late 1950s found itself with a population that was increasingly poor and racially divided. 1960s and 1970s In 1960, Kaiser Corporation erected its headquarters at the former site of Holy Names University, a parcel at the corner of 20th and Harrison Streets. It was the largest skyscraper in Oakland, as well as 'the largest office tower west of Chicago' up to that time. Also during this era, the oldest section of Oakland at the foot of Broadway, Jack London Square, was redeveloped into a hotel and outdoor retail district.During the 1960s, the city was home to an innovative funk music scene that produced well-known bands like Sly & the Family Stone, Graham Central Station, Tower of Power, Cold Blood, and The Headhunters. Larry Graham, the bass player for both Sly & the Family Stone and Graham Central Station, is credited with the creation of the influential slap and pop sound still widely used by bassists in many musical idioms today.By 1966, only 16 of the city's 661 police officers were black. Tensions between the poverty-stricken black community and the predominantly white police force were high, and police brutality against blacks was common. Killings of young black men in Harlem and San Francisco added fuel to the fire. In this charged atmosphere, the Black Panther Party was founded by Oakland City College (later Merritt College) students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale as a response to police brutality.It was also during the 1960s that the Oakland Chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club began to grow into a formidable organization. By the 1980s, it was the most feared and respected of all Hells Angels chapters. Its Oakland Clubhouse still sits on Foothill Boulevard.President Johnson's 'War on Poverty' found major expression in Oakland. The 'free market' conservative think tank Manhattan Institute for Policy Research claims that at one point, various federal programs dispensed monies each year that amounted to close than twice the Oakland's annual budget.During the 1970s, Oakland, along with many other American cities, began to experience serious problems with gang-controlled dealing of heroin and cocaine, with attendant increases in both violent crime and property crime. Drug kingpin Felix Mitchell was responsible for much of this criminal activity, and Oakland's murder rate increased to twice that of San Francisco or New York City.On October 2, 1973 a sniper on the ground killed an Oakland police surveillance helicopter pilot, a Vietnam war veteran, with a head shot from a sniper rifle. The helicopter crashed nose down in a parking lot and exploded in a ball of flame near Fruitvale and Foothill in east Oakland, killing a second Oakland police officer who died from burns. The 'August Seventh Guerrilla Movement' claimed responsibility for the sniper attack.In late 1973, the Symbionese Liberation Army assassinated Oakland's superintendent of schools, Dr. Marcus Foster, and badly wounded his deputy, Robert Blackburn. Two months later, two men were arrested and charged with the murder. Both received life sentences, though one was acquitted after an appeal and a retrial seven years later. The SLA, led by the self-named 'Cinque,' went on to kidnap newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, from her Berkeley apartment the following year.Former U.S. Senator William Knowland editor and publisher of the Oakland Tribune, died in February 1974.In sports, the Oakland Athletics MLB club won three World Series in a row (1972, 1973, and 1974); the Golden State Warriors won the 1974–1975 NBA championship; and the Oakland Raiders of the NFL won Super Bowl XI in 1977. 1980s and 1990s Starting in the early 1980s, the number of Latinos, mostly of Mexican origin, began to increase in Oakland, especially in the Fruitvale district. This district is one of the oldest in Oakland, growing up around the old Peralta estate (now a city park). It always had a concentration of Latino residents, businesses and institutions, and increased immigration, continuing into the 21st century, has added greater numbers.During the 1980s, crack cocaine became a serious problem in Oakland. The drug culture that had gained a foothold during the 1970s became increasingly violent and socially disruptive. Poverty increased, and the free market conservative think tank Manhattan Institute for Policy Research reports that by the end of the 1980s, more than 20% of Oakland's population was on welfare.During the late 1980s and 1990s, Oakland featured prominently in rap music, as the hometown for such artists as MC Hammer, Digital Underground, Hieroglyphics (including Souls of Mischief and Del tha Funkee Homosapien), The Luniz, and Too Short. Outside of the rap genre, Grammy-award winning artists such as En Vogue, Tony! Toni! Tone!, and Billie Joe Armstrong of the trio Green Day also emerged from Oakland.The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on October 17, 1989, a rupture of the San Andreas fault that affected the entire San Francisco Bay Area. The quake's surface wave measured 7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale, and many structures in Oakland were badly damaged. The double-decker portion of the Cypress Viaduct freeway (Interstate 880) structure collapsed, killing 42. The eastern span of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge also sustained damage and was closed to traffic for one month. Throughout the 1990s, buildings throughout Oakland were retrofitted to better withstand earthquakes.On May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb placed underneath traveling eco-activist Judi Bari's car seat exploded, tearing through her backside and nearly killing her. The bomb was placed directly under the driver's seat, not in the back seat or luggage area as it presumably would have been if Bari had been transporting it knowingly. Immediately after the 1990 car bombing, while Bari was in Oakland's Highland Hospital, she and a friend were arrested on suspicion of knowingly transporting the bomb. The Alameda County district attorney later dropped the case for lack of evidence, and in 2004 the FBI and the City of Oakland agreed to a $4 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by Bari's estate, and her friend, over their false arrest.On October 20, 1991, a massive fire (see 1991 Oakland firestorm) swept down from the Berkeley Hills above the Caldecott Tunnel. 25 people were killed, and 150 people were injured, with nearly 4,000 homes destroyed. The economic loss has been estimated at $1.5 billion. Many of the original homes were rebuilt on a much larger scale.In late 1996, Oakland was the center of a controversy surrounding Ebonics (African American Vernacular English), an ethnolect the outgoing Oakland Unified School District board voted to recognize on December 18.During the mid 1990s, Oakland experienced somewhat of an economic 'renaissance' with new downtown land development such as a $140 million state government center project, a $101 million city office building, and a 12-story office building for the University of California, Office of the President. The City Center redevelopment project was bought by Shorenstein Co., a San Francisco real estate firm. Office vacancies dropped to 11 percent from 16 percent in 1996. Officials at the Port of Oakland and Oakland International Airport, began multimillion-dollar expansion plans to keep pace with rival shipping ports and airports on the West Coast. 2000s After his 1999 inauguration, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown continued his predecessor Elihu Harris' public policy of supporting downtown housing development in the area defined as the Central Business District in Oakland's 1998 General Plan. Since Brown's stated goal was to add 10,000 residents to downtown Oakland, it became known as the '10K' plan. It has resulted in redevelopment projects in the Jack London District, where Brown purchased and later sold an industrial warehouse, which he used as a personal residence, and in the Lakeside Apartments District near Lake Merritt, where two infill projects were approved. The 10K plan has touched the historic Old Oakland district, the Chinatown district, the Uptown district, and downtown.The 10K plan and other redevelopment projects have been controversial among many who believe[who?] these projects have led to rent increases and gentrification that is displacing lower-income residents from downtown Oakland into outlying neighborhoods and cities. Additional controversy over development proposals have arisen from the weakening of the Bay Area and national economy in 2000, 2001, 2007, and the credit crunch and the recession of 2008. These downturns have resulted in lowered sales, rentals and occupancy of the new housing and slower growth and economic recovery than expected.The Oakland Athletics have long been searching for a site to build a new baseball stadium. In 2006, the A's announced a deal to build a new stadium in Fremont, California, to be called Cisco Field. However, as a result of opposition from businesses, and residents' strong opposition regarding another proposed site closer to a future rapid transit station, plans for Fremont ceased in February, 2009. Later that year, a growing grassroots support group 'Let's Go Oakland (Keep the A's)' starting making efforts to keep the team in its current home city; three downtown area locations near the waterfront have been proposed, for a new ballpark. The south-bay city of San José has shown continuing, strong interest, to be the team's new home.In 2001, the Oakland Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church proposed a replacement for the St. Francis de Sales Cathedral (1891), which was damaged in the 1989 earthquake and subsequently demolished. The Diocese proposed situating a Grand Cathedral, rising 15 stories, directly in front of the Kaiser Convention Center and surrounding it with a 'grand plaza,' which would have extended all the way to the edge of the lake. Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM), an Oakland group, proposed an alternative plan involving a remake of the 12th Street Dam, halving the number of traffic lanes. Elimination of the underpasses and overpasses was proposed, with stoplights installed where the road intersects with 12th Street and 1st Avenue. The beach was proposed to be widened, with a gently sloping lawn leading up to the roadway, new walking and bike paths in each direction. Crosswalks with pedestrian-activated stoplights were proposed to replace the tunnels under the freeway. However, an alternative development resulted in the Cathedral of Christ the Light across Harrison Street, from the Lake's west end.In February 2006, the Oakland Ballet folded because of financial problems and the closure of their performance facility, the Calvin Simmons Theater at the Kaiser Convention Center. The Oakland Ballet had been performing in Oakland since 1965. In 2007, however, founder Ronn Guidi announced the revival of the Ballet.A new use for the Kaiser Convention Center at the south end of Lake Merritt was proposed in 2006: a redevelopment designed to nucleate a cultural and educational district with the neighboring Oakland Museum of California and Laney College. In July 2006, the Oakland City Council approved putting a bond measure on the ballot to expand the city's library system and convert the closed Kaiser Center into a replacement for the city's aging main library, but Oakland voters defeated the library bond measure in the November 2006 election.The century-old Lake Merritt Boat House had a major renovation and restoration completed in August 2009. The opening of the Lake Chalet Seafood Bar and Grill followed shortly afterwards. In recent years, several skyscrapers have been proposed for various neighborhoods within the Central Business District. Of note is the 530 ft (162 m), 42-story, 'Emerald Views' luxury condominium tower proposed in 2006. This building was to be constructed on the historic Schilling Gardens parcel at the lake's edge. Another 395 ft (120 m), 37-story tower, '1439 Alice Street,' has been proposed for a parcel directly across the street from the Malonga Casquelord Arts Center. Another skyscraper project was proposed in 2008: the 56-story 715 ft (218 m) Encinal Tower, a mixed-use office and luxury residential skyscraper sited on Broadway above the 19th Street BART station, designed by the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. If approved and built, it would become the tallest building in the city.At approximately 2 am on January 1, 2009, following reports of a fight on a BART train, BART police detained several persons on the platform of the Fruitvale station. BART police officer Johannes Mehserle fatally shot BART passenger Oscar Grant, III in the back as he was detained in a face-down position on the platform. Several days after the shooting, on the night of January 7, 2009, rioters smashed storefront windows, and burned several cars in Oakland's downtown. On January 14, 2009 Mehserle was arrested in Douglas County, Nevada, where he had fled. He was transported back to Oakland and charged by the Alameda County District Attorney's office with Grant's murder. Protests and rioting followed, especially on February 6 when