Why I Wish Oakland Had MUNI.
Credit: Pi.1415926535
San Francisco does a lot of things wrong, but one thing it fundamentally does better than anywhere else in California is public transportation. Not trying to sound like Scott Wiener, but MUNI is the shit. I’m not referring to the buses, which are also great, but to the city’s rail network that carries San Franciscans to almost every corner of town.
San Francisco is truly the only city in California where a car is optional. Los Angeles is six thousand suburbs in a trench coat, the rest of California’s major cities are demonstrably fewer suburbs in smaller trench coats. I’m sorry, but it’s true. San Francisco is the West Coast’s only true urban area in a classical sense: walkable, dense, and architecturally diverse with an expansive, city-specific metro system.
And this aspect of San Francisco is one of the main things I miss from across the Bay in Oakland. ‘The Town’ is one of California’s major metropolitan areas that, for the most part, fits fairly well into my categorization of a California trench coat city. It’s primarily residential, outside of Downtown with a few notable exceptions.
While the lack of density does make walkability less viable, Oakland could increase its walkability with a city-wide rail network. Why do I think Oakland could achieve this? Because it used to have one.
Way back in 1903, Oakland had what was called “The Key System” which ran streetcar and commuter train services similar to modern-day MUNI throughout Oakland and adjacent East Bay cities like Berkeley, Richmond and even Piedmont.
Things were going well until the automotive industry conspired to essentially destroy Oakland’s rail system. In 1946 National City Lines acquired a 64% stake in the Key System, to usher automotive transportation in the rapidly urbanizing East Bay. Shortly after the acquisition, a journalist by the name of E. Jay Quinby published documents proving that National City Lines was secretly owned by General Motors, Firestone Tire, and Phillips Petroleum. This is what I assume CitiesByDiana would satirically call a holy trinity.
Despite E. Jay Quinby’s best efforts, and a trial that accused National City Lines of trying to monopolize mass transit by forcibly transitioning America’s major cities from rail systems to bus systems, the key system eventually folded and AC Transit took its place.
Considering the results, one has to wonder what Oakland would be like had the Key System survived. I sometimes imagine the joy of taking a streetcar from the heart of Downtown Oakland, along Telegraph Avenue to the center of UC Berkeley. There was even an Oakland Avenue line that led directly into Piedmont. At the top of Oakland Ave, there’s an amazing view of San Francisco Bay and the city that shares its namesake. It was probably pretty enjoyable to descend down the hill toward the heart of Oakland while taking in the view.
Unfortunately, due to corporate greed, we’ll never get to experience that. Unfortunately, due to corporate greed, we won’t get to experience a lot of things.
But hey, sometimes it’s good to look at what was possible in the past to give you hope for the future.
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Howdy! My name is Katy Atchison and I'm an Associate Editor for Broke-Ass Stuart.
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