Oakland was founded in the year 1852 and is the eighth largest city in California. It is the county seat of Alameda County and is eight miles east of San Francisco across San Francisco Bay. Oakland is the forty-fourth largest city in the United States with a population of 420,183.

A major port in of the West Coast, Oakland is home to many large corporations such as Clorox, Kaiser Permanente and the headquarters of Dreyers. It is also a central hub for the East Bay, a sub-region of the Bay area. Along with Long Beach, Oakland is the most diverse ethnically in the United States with more than 150 languages spoken. Tourist attractions in this city include the Oakland Zoo, the Oakland Museum of California, Jack London Square, Chabot Space and Science Center, East Bay Regional Park District, Lake Merritt and Chinatown. Annual cultural events held in Oakland include the Fine Arts Festival, Oakland International Film Festival and Temescal Street Fair.