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 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.