Alameda 1

 At the turn of the 19th century, the city of Alameda took a large chunk of Charles Froling's land away to build a street. Froling had planned to build his dream house on the plot of land he received through inheritance. To spite the city and an unsympathetic neighbor, Froling built a house 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, 54 feet (16 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) high on the tiny strip of land left to him. The Froling spite house is still standing and occupied.

Alameda is also known for its Fourth of July parade, which is advertised as the second oldest and second longest Fourth of July parade in the United States. [19] It features homemade floats, classic cars, motorized living room furniture, fire-breathing dragons, marching bands, and large crowds. The parade route is about 3 miles (5 km) long.

The Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS) was decommissioned in 1997, and now is in process of being turned over to the City of Alameda for civilian development. The area of the former NAS is now known as Alameda Point. Portions of this area are now in commercial use, but the transfer process has been slowed down by disputes between the Navy and the city regarding payment for environmental cleanup of the land. In late July 2006, the City of Alameda announced a deal with the Navy that would turn the land over to the city for $108M. The preliminary development concept calls for 1700 housing units to be developed at Alameda Point.

In September 2006, the developer, Alameda Point Community Partners, withdrew from development of Alameda Point. In May 2007, the City selected the SunCal Companies as the Master Developer of Alameda Point and, in July 2007, the parties were negotiating terms for a development agreement. In August 2010, the Alameda City Council voted unanimously to deny SunCal's development proposal for Alameda Point. Many reasons were cited in the staff report including a developer-initiated ballot measure that was defeated in February 2010 by a margin of 85%

After two previous failures, voters in the city passed a ballot measure in 2000 authorizing a bond measure for construction of a new library to replace the city's Carnegie library, damaged during theLoma Prieta earthquake. The city also received state funds for the new library and opened the doors to the new facility in November 2006.

Celera, UTStarcom and BioTime are among the companies based in Alameda.

The 33rd America's Cup Race was won by Golden Gate Yacht Club racing team BMW Oracle, founded by Larry Ellison. One possible use of the air station would be an alternate or partnered site with San Francisco for 34th America's Cup. Within 2 weeks of the Golden Gate Yacht Club winning the America's Cup, Alameda city council with local support sent a unanimous letter of support to hold AC 34 in San Francisco Bay Area.

Rosenblum Cellars Winery and St. George Spirits are located at Alameda Point. In 1978, Alameda veterinarian Dr. Kent Rosenblum and his wife Kathy founded Rosenblum Cellars. In 2008, the company was purchased by Diageo Estates.

In December, 2007, St. George Absinthe Verte, produced by St. George Spirits became the first brand of American-made absinthe to be legally produced in the United States since a ban was enacted in 1912.

City officials continue to seek ways to spur economic development on the island, including the restoration of the historic Art Deco city landmark Alameda Theatre. The theater restoration project included a multiplex to make the project financially feasible and a parking structure to accommodate patrons of the theater and avoid excessive impact on parking in the Park Street area. Following some setbacks during construction the public opening was May 21, 2008, with a gala event.

The South Shore Mall Twin Cinema opened in 1969 and served as a prominent theater on the island until its closure in 1998. In 2002, the building was demolished and its former site is now a parking lot.

Alameda also had one other operating movie theater, Central Cinema. The theater opened in December 2004 and closed in June 2008. It was a 42-seat house at 842 Central Avenue (near the western end of Webster Street). The building had previously been both a community center and a mortuary, and the operator of the movie theater was able to use a quirk of the site zoning to legally operate a movie theater. The theatre had only one screen, but featured couches and armchairs for seating.

According to the City's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	United States Coast Guard	2,200
2	Alameda Unified School District	1,068
3	Abbott Diabetes Care	900
4	Alameda Hospital	692
5	City of Alameda	400
6	Wind River Systems	620
7	Bay Ship & Yacht	370
8	College of Alameda	358
9	Safeway	345
10	Celera	330

Alameda's first newspaper, the Encinal, appeared in the early 1850s and the paper's editor was instrumental in the movement to incorporate the city. Following the Encinal, several other papers appeared along geographic lines, and the Daily Argus eventually rose to prominence. A young Alameda native, Joseph R. Knowland, wrote political and historical articles for the Alameda papers. Later, Knowland owned the powerful Oakland Tribune. Around 1900, the Daily Argus began to fade in importance and east and west papers The Times and The Star combined to take the leading role as theAlameda Times-Star in the 1930s. The Times-Star was sold to the Alameda Newspaper Group in the 1970s.

In 1997, the Hills Newspaper chain was bought by Knight Ridder, at the time, the second-largest newspaper chain in the U.S. Following the buyout, former Hills Newspapers employees recognized the lack of a local community voice in Alameda, and again formed a new locally-based newspaper, the Alameda Sun, in 2001. In 2006, Knight Ridder announced its impending sale to McClatchy Corp., a Sacramento-based publishing firm. McClatchy Corp. has put the Contra Costa Times, which under the Knight Ridder reorganization included all five of the original Hills Newspapers, up for sale. The current owners of the Alameda Times-Star, MediaNews, Inc., based in Colorado, have announced a strong interest in buying both the Contra Costa Times chain and the San Jose Mercury News, consolidating the daily newspaper market of the East Bay, effectively under one owner.

The Alameda community is currently served by two weekly newspapers, the Alameda Journal, owned by the MediaNews Group, and the Alameda Sun.

Unlike surrounding communities, Alameda has a municipal power service, Alameda Municipal Power (AMP), that delivers services directly to consumers. AMP sold the majority of its telecommunications business to Comcast in 2008 but continues to provide telecommunication service at Alameda Point.

During the California electricity crisis of 2000 and 2001, Alameda Municipal Power did not raise electricity rates, while residents in most of the state endured significant price increases.

The Alameda Arts Council (AAC) serves as the local Alameda City arts council.

The Alameda Museum, on Alameda Avenue near Park Street, features displays on the history of Alameda. There is also an active monthly lecture series on topics of local interest.

Alameda Women Artists holds yearly shows at the Alameda Museum and has many active artists exhibiting around the Island City.

Rhythmix Cultural Works, founded by Janet Koike, is located on Blanding Avenue. It is a combination live/work studio, gallery, and performance space and has hosted events from musical and theatrical productions to religious services and birthday parties. According to Rhythmix' web site, "Rhythmix Cultural Works (RCW) opened its doors (on June 2), 2007. The 501(c) (3) was established in 1999 as the umbrella for RhythMix world music ensemble and RCW cultural exchange programs. From 1999-2002, RCW coordinated six successful cultural exchange trips to Cuba and Japan. During this same period, the RhythMix ensemble (now Maze Daiko) reached thousands of children through San Francisco Symphony Adventures in Music, Young Audiences and Bread & Roses programs. Inspired by these experiences, Artistic Director-Janet Koike, spent five years renovating an industrial space in Alameda to provide a home for RCW..."

The Frank Bette Center for the Arts defines its mission as "... a place for meetings, readings, showings, and other creative doings," based on the late artist/poet Frank Bette's intention to have his home become an art center after his death. The FBCA offers classes, poetry reading events, and a rotating "Endless Call for Art" that encourages creatives of many disciplines to display and market their work. Events and classes include figure drawing, watercolor, beading, photography, Artist Trading Card swaps, poetry for teens, poetry readings and slams, and more. The FBCA is home to an annual "Plein Air Paint-Out" hosting plein-air artists from all over the world, who are invited to paint outdoors in Alameda's amazing range of light and temperate climate. The FBCA is also home to the West Coast's only regularly scheduled Body Art Jam. Professional and amateur body artists - including body painters and henna artists - from all over the San Francisco Bay Area come to practice and share knowledge at these jams, held the 2nd Wednesday monthly.

The Alameda Art Association has about 80 members as of January 2011, and has a gallery space at South Shore Center mall. The Association began in 1944.

Bridgehead Studios, located on Blanding Avenue, hosts the monthly Estuary Art Attack gallery crawl on the second Friday of every month. Helmed by photographer Chuck diGuida, Bridghead Studios is housed in a repurposed propellor factory. The facility is divided into small and large studio spaces used by photographers, artists, fashion designers, and at one time, a shark-diving expedition company.

The annual benefit, Circus for Arts in the Schools, is held at Kofman Auditorium on Central Avenue. The brain child of acclaimed clown Jeff Raz, this circus is a professional-level display of humor, silliness, skilled movement, and acrobatics that has delighted audiences since its first performance in April 2004. The Circus has raised thousands of dollars to bring teaching artists into classrooms in the Alameda Unified School District.

Pacific Pinball Museum is a nonprofit center on Webster Street, dedicated to teaching about the art, science, and joy of pinball. www.pacificpinball.org

Alameda has been home to many movie sets. Some of the movies filmed on the island have included Bicentennial Man, The Net, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix: Revolutions, Bee Season, the original 1968 Your, Mine and Ours and the movie musical Rent. Parts of Alameda High School were animated for the Animatrix episode "Kid's Story". A massive hangar at the former Naval Air Station Alameda was used to film special scenes requiring computer-generated imagery for movies such as Bicentennial Man, Flubber, What Dreams May Come, Mission: Impossible II and many scenes from theMatrix trilogy, including the signature bullet time scene. The open space of the decommissioned naval base often hosts MythBusters' more dangerous experiments.

Photo-realist Robert Bechtle has painted numerous Alameda subjects, including "Alameda Gran Torino," which was acquired by SFMOMA in 1974 and remains one of Bechtle's most famous works.

Alameda was briefly the home of Robert Louis Stevenson. Benjamin Reed's novel The Bow Tie Gang takes place almost entirely in Alameda circa 1961.

The Alameda Civic Light Opera, which performed Broadway-style musical productions was founded in 1996. It closed in 2010.

The Altarena Playhouse, which performs comedies, dramas and musicals, was founded in 1938 and is the longest continuously operating community theatre in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dance Arts Project was founded by noted instructor and choreographer Michaela Lynch and has offered classes and performance opportunities for Alameda's children for 20 years. Still under the direction of Ms. Lynch, Dance Arts Project has become a fixture in the community and the premier locality for performance arts training in Alameda. In 1992, Miss Michaela Lynch debuted Dance Arts Project at Harbor Bay Club in Alameda. In that first year, the school had one teacher and an enrollment of 50 dancers. With those 50 students, in July 1993, Dance Arts Project had its grand opening on Chestnut Street, where it still operates today. Dance Arts Project has always offered ballet, children’s creative movement and modern dance. Recently, the school added classes in ballroom dance. In 2002, Dance Arts Project expanded its facility to include a second studio, Deux. Today, Dance Arts Project has six teachers working with hundreds of dancers every day, inspiring and encouraging self-esteem, creativity and the love of dance.

Since 2004, Alameda participates in a sister city agreement with Wuxi, China. Also, the city participates in a sister city with Arita, Japan.

Another sister city is Lidingö, Sweden. The initiative came from Alameda in 1959 and was part of President Eisenhower's people-to-people-movement, whose purpose was to develop better understanding among people from different countries after World War II. Both Alameda and Lidingö are islands with a bridge connecting them to a big city.

Webster Street in Alameda has long been the host of many arts, crafts and holiday festivals. During these festivals the city of Alameda will block of a portion of Webster St. for the entertainment of festival goers. Festivals such as the Peanut Butter Jam Festival brings a lot of local and outside visitors to Alameda to enjoy the fun, food and games.

Spring Fling is in April. Park street Art & Wine fair that is the end of every July.