One of the former buildings at Terminal 9 is preserved as a skeletal frameworks at the Township Commons.

Oakland is lined with about 19 miles of waterfront, but the city lacks any reputation for leisure on its bayside. Middle Harbor Shoreline Park and Judge John Sutter Regional Shoreline are outliers in an otherwise lackluster offering of shoreline recreation. 

The root cause behind this dearth is derived from the very thing that put Oakland on the map in the first place: The city’s coastline is largely reserved for the shipping industry and maritime activity. Loading cranes and warehouses took precedence over parks along Oakland’s shore.

A scarcity of waterfront parks was in mind when developers set out to build what is known as the Brooklyn Basin. In the area just south of Jack London Square, developers are in the middle of a multi-year project that is reshaping 65 acres of bayside land to build 3,100 new housing units, with 465 set aside for affordable housing. 

In the middle of this housing boom, they’ve also developed a waterfront park that is attracting folks of all strokes to Oakland's shoreline.

Debon Lodge, left, and her friend Khamani Lamar, both of Oakland, are silhouetted by the sunset as they roller skate on the wooden deck of the Township Commons Park.

Each weekend at the Township Commons, there are multiple events for outdoor dancing, roller skating or just plain picnicking with views of the San Francisco Bay from an Oakland perspective.

The plan is to develop a total of five waterfront parks — half of the development’s 65 acres are earmarked for parks that will string along the Oakland Estuary like a necklace  — but it took a communal effort years ago to bring this revival to the waterfront. 

A 2005 article in SFGATE detailed the fight over “the soul of Oakland waterfront” while the plans were in their initial development. The Brooklyn Basin project is led by Oakland’s Signature Development Group and the China-based investor Zarsion Holdings Group.

Zarsion Holdings Group invested $1.5 billion into the development, and when the deal was announced in 2013, then-Gov. Jerry Brown was in Beijing for a trade mission. Brown and former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan are credited with shepherding the Brooklyn Basin development.

Jim Ratliff, who sat on a city advisory committee overseeing waterfront improvements at the time, opined that the Brooklyn Basin project needed a park as its centerpiece. “Oakland is a waterfront city, but nobody knows it,” he said. 

The fight put up during the blueprint phase is showing its fruits today with the vibrant and unexpected Township Commons that’s become the beating heart of Brooklyn Basin.

Preliminary construction work on the Brooklyn Basin in June 20, 2014.

Found just off the 880 and the Embarcadero within the shadows of apartment complexes steadily rising, the waterfront park is a local spot with a mass regional appeal. The park debuted toward the end of 2020.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, the park was alive with a flurry of communal dances and parties, each having sprouted up all on their own over the past two years. 

At the end of each weekend, the Salsa Bachata Sunday takes over the central boardwalk, where dozens of revelers were swinging their hips and tilting their heads back to the insatiable salsa hit “Yo No Sé Mañana” by Luis Enrique.

The Brooklyn Basin development and the new Township Commons Park as seen from a drone view.

Where the land meets the bay at the park's edge, a lively drag show on roller skates was underway in an open-air venue that’s backdropped by Alameda and Coast Guard Island.

Performers were clad in vibrant outfits and twirled around a makeshift skate rink. A Shania Twain song was covered while a table of judges nodded along to acts. There were paper posts tacked up with Venmo QR codes to send a $7 suggested donation to the event’s host, Rollin’ with the Homos, which puts on the show every fourth Sunday of the month. 

Nick Nieto, a project manager for Signature Development Group, told SFGATE that these events were unplanned but are very welcome.

“The beauty of the space is the number of events that were organic,” he said. “Rollin’ With the Homos approached our property management folks and we said, ‘Go ahead — that’s great!’”

Visitors walk near the 9th Avenue Terminal in the Brooklyn Basin development.

Inside the 9th Avenue Terminal Building are businesses such as Rocky's Market and the California Canoe & Kayak sports store. Rocky’s hosts events ranging from comedy to flamenco. On Sundays, there’s a live music series that differs each week; in the last month alone there was Afro-Caribbean rock music and gospel.

Rocky’s alfresco events allowed for live entertainment during the pandemic’s era of social distancing, but their business is not expected to last past the summer. 

Speaking to the East Bay Times this week, Rocky's chef Corinne Kinczel explained that there was not enough business to remain open, and Rocky's will close its Brooklyn Basin location Aug. 31. There's a grand finale for Melissa Cruz's flamenco show at Rocky's slated for Aug. 26.

The view from the rooftop at Orion Apartments in Brooklyn Basin.

"The Brooklyn Basin team plans to search for a new tenant for the space after Rocky’s closes at the end of August," Nieto said. "It is still early in the build-out of Brooklyn Basin, and the neighborhood will continue grow and evolve over the coming years as new public parks, retail opportunities and residential communities come online."

As commerce faces a headwind at Township Commons, people will continue to visit and relish the park that was uniquely designed to reflect the city’s past. 

Landscape architects from Oakland’s EinwillerKuehl were keen on designing the park as an homage to its maritime roots. The land historically was used to house a long and massive shipping warehouse that dates back to the 1930s. It thrived in a time for break-bulk cargo (when goods were placed in individually counted units), but the warehouse faced a gradual decline as Oakland and Alameda expanded. 

Nieto explained that the site’s death knell came when container shipping became the standard and the creation of the underwater Posey and Webster Street Tubes prevented larger ships from passing through to reach the docks. 

A view of the Township Commons Park as seen from the renovated 9th Avenue shipping terminal.

Today, there are painted numbers on the boardwalk that correspond to where the individual loading docks once stood. 

The steel skeletons of bygone warehouse structures remain throughout the Township Commons to create a palpable sense of the past meeting the present. Similar to the ongoing Brooklyn Basin development and Oakland’s continuous flux, Township Commons ebbs and flows with the passing of time.

Silas Valentino is SFGATE's Travel Editor. He was born in Bakersfield and raised in Marin County. He covered the New York City music scene for The Village Voice before returning west to report for the Point Reyes Light. Recently, he contributed to the launch of a monthly lifestyle magazine called PUNCH that focuses on the Peninsula. Outside of reading, writing and storytelling, Silas values his family (including eight nieces and nephews) and exploring the state. He lives with his girlfriend above a wine shop in Cole Valley. Email: silas.valentino@sfgate.com