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The East Bay is a subregion of the
San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States and is
comprised of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. It lies
on the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo
Bay and is generally considered to include not just the
shorefront cities but the nearby inland valleys located
on the east side of the Berkeley Hills. San Francisco Bay's eastern
shore was once known as "Contra Costa" (literally
"opposite coast"), a name now used for and exclusively
associated with Contra Costa County, which occupies the
East Bay shoreline's northern quarter and extensive inland
areas, amounting to about half of the land area, with the
remainder in Alameda County.
Culture
East Bay was known for punk rock music in the late 80's
to early 90's and is the birthplace of bands like Operation
Ivy, Rancid, Grimple, Green Day, Filth, Blatz, and AFI.
Oakland is the home of the Soul band Tower of Power, and
east Oakland is also known as the birthplace of Hyphy.
Touring popular singers and bands
are seen in locations such as the Oakland Coliseum Arena
and nearby Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the refurbished
Paramount Theater (Oakland), the Greek Theater (U. C. Berkeley
campus), and the Concord Pavilion (whose official name will
vary with the sale of naming rights, currently known as
the Sleep Train Pavilion)
The bayside East Bay (specifically
Oakland) has had difficulties in providing support for large
scale classical ballet and symphony, which may be attributed
to the strong draw of talent, funding, and audiences to
the world class competition in nearby San Francisco, yet
strong small scale operations, and especially those with
specific cultural biases have long thrived in many of the
east bay bayside communities and in outlying suburbs. An
example is the Berkeley Opera, which typically stages only
three productions in a season, and in a relatively small
venue, but is attractive because of its innovative and accessible
productions, sometimes using complete modern English libretto
translations, or showing lesser known works by major composers.
Another small opera company operates in Livermore. High
quality small orchestras such as the California Symphony
can be found in the larger suburban centers. Other more
urban venues for music such as La Peña (Hispanic/Chicano
music), Ashkenaz (World Music & Dance), and Freight
and Salvage (folk music) provide specific cultural orientations
not found in major venues and so continue to thrive, with
many of these venues operated as cooperatives rather than
as for-profit private endeavours.
Hertz Hall on the UC Campus frequently
hosts world famous musicians and groups and the venue includes
a spectacular organ suitable for classical performances.
The Oakland Museum of California
offers quality permanent and touring exhibitions in a modern
setting, with emphasis on artworks, photograpy, and artifiacts
related to California and its history, while the smaller
Bedford Gallery hosts a number of exhibitions eash year,
usually exhibits related to themes of popular interest such
as motorcycles or hot rods or keen social and political
observations as expressed through sculpture, pottery, quilting,
weaving, or photography. The Bedford Gallery is located
in Walnut Creek's Lesher Center For the Arts, which is the
usual venue for the California Symphony and the Diablo Light
Opera among others.
The Chabot Space and Science Center
is a modern science hall with interactive exhibits and both
a planetarium and an IMAX dome theater.
Cities
Except for its mountains and hills which remain undeveloped
and some farmland in eastern Contra Costa and Alameda Counties,
the East Bay is highly urbanized. The East Bay shoreline
is an urban corridor with several cities exceeding 100,000
residents, including, Oakland, Hayward, Fremont, Richmond,
and Berkeley. In the inland valleys on the east side of
the Berkeley Hills, the land is fairly well developed, but
there are areas which are still rapidly growing, particularly
on the eastern fringe of Contra Costa county and the Tri-Valley
area. In the inland valleys, the housing stock tends to
be more suburban, the population density less and the cities
smaller. The only cities exceeding 100,000 residents in
the inland valleys are Antioch and Concord.
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