Eastbay California

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.