Editing Oakland, California (section)

===City beginnings===
[[File:1857 U.S. Coast Survey Map of San Antonio Creek and Oakland, California (near San Francisco) - Geographicus - SanAntonioCreek-uscs-1857.jpg|thumb|left|1857 map of Oakland]]
In 1851, three men—[[Horace Carpentier]], Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon—began developing what is now downtown Oakland.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of the Port of Oakland: 1850–1934|url=http://www.waterfrontaction.org/learn/wpa_hist_%201-6.pdf|website=waterfrontaction.org|page=1|access-date=February 17, 2018|archive-date=June 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621035026/http://www.waterfrontaction.org/learn/wpa_hist_%201-6.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1852, the Town of Oakland was incorporated by the state legislature.<ref>[https://clerk.assembly.ca.gov/sites/clerk.assembly.ca.gov/files/archive/Statutes/1852/1852.PDF#page=13 ''Statutes of California'', 1852, p.180]</ref> During this time, Oakland had 75–100 inhabitants, two hotels, a wharf, two warehouses, and only cattle trails. Two years later, on March 25, 1854, Oakland re-incorporated as the City of Oakland.<ref>[https://clerk.assembly.ca.gov/sites/clerk.assembly.ca.gov/files/archive/Statutes/1854/1854.PDF#page=17 ''Statutes of California'', 1854, pp.183–187]</ref> Horace Carpentier was elected the first mayor, though a scandal ended his mayorship in less than a year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1857 US Coast Survey & A D Bache Rare Antique Map Oakland Brooklyn & San Antonio Creek California |url=https://www.classicalimages.com/products/1857-a-d-buache-rare-antique-map-oakland-brooklyn-san-antonio-creek-california-1 |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=Classical Images |language=en}}</ref> In 1853, a preparatory academy was founded in Oakland that soon became the [[College of California]], and in 1869, the first campus of the [[University of California]]. The university moved just north to [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] in the 1870s.<ref name="Marsden">{{cite book|last1=Marsden|first1=George M.|title=The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief|date=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780195106503|pages=134–40|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9QOfEZrrLYC&pg=PA134}}</ref>

During the 1850s, just as gold was discovered in California, Oakland started growing and further developing because land was becoming too expensive in [[San Francisco]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hometown Chinatown : the history of Oakland's Chinese community|last=Armentrout Ma|first=L. Eve|isbn=9781138862791|location=New York|oclc=898926053|date = February 27, 2015}}</ref> People in China were struggling financially as a result of the [[First Opium War]], the [[Second Opium War]], and the [[Taiping Rebellion]], so they began migrating to Oakland, many of whom were recruited to work on railroads. However, the Chinese struggled to settle because they were discriminated against by the white community and their living quarters were burned down on several occasions.<ref name="Iris">{{Cite book|title=The Chinese in America : A Narrative History |last=Iris |first=Chang |date=March 2004 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9780142004173 |location=New York |oclc=55136302}}</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2022}}

The city and its environs quickly grew with the railroads, becoming a major rail terminal in the late 1860s and 1870s. In 1868, the [[Central Pacific Railroad|Central Pacific]] constructed the [[Oakland Long Wharf]] at Oakland Point, the site of today's [[Port of Oakland]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kqed.org/news/11745239/how-have-a-bunch-of-19th-century-victorians-survived-in-downtown-oakland|title=How Old Oakland's Historic Buildings Survived Decay (and Demolition)|last=Levi|first=Ryan|date=May 9, 2019|website=KQED|language=en-us|access-date=May 10, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510034123/https://www.kqed.org/news/11745239/how-have-a-bunch-of-19th-century-victorians-survived-in-downtown-oakland|archive-date=May 10, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A number of [[horsecar]] and [[Cable car (railway)|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, California|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]].