A couple of sharp-eared listeners sent this “Bay Curious” podcast along to the Exedra which we are reposting here for the benefit of our local readers:
The city of Piedmont in the East Bay is a bit of a geographical oddity. It’s not even 2 square miles in size and is surrounded on all sides by the city of Oakland.
If you take a close look, the borders of the town seem to make no sense. Instead of following streets or physical landmarks — like the borders of most towns do — in Piedmont the borders snake around, sometimes through the middle of homes.
![Bay Curious Podcast](https://www.kqed.org/dist/e85fe8b2f5f26d76a1b7a7cea4e80b51.png)
Bay Curious listener DL has long wondered what’s up with this doughnut hole in the middle of Oakland. He asked, “Why is Piedmont a separate city from Oakland?”
“I think it’s worth understanding the history and then we can ask questions as a community, ‘Is that still relevant today?’ ” he said.
Now this is a story about Piedmont, of course, but as soon as we started digging around, we quickly found that the story of Piedmont starts in Oakland. . . .
Fascinating! I lived in Piedmont almost 25 years and never knew this.