Warriors Victory Parade To Showcase Revitalized Part Of Downtown Oakland
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) -- As the Golden State Warriors prepare to celebrate their first NBA championship in four decades with their fans, Oakland is especially ready to show off a revitalized downtown along Friday's parade route.
The parade will start at Broadway and 11th Street at Warriors headquarters, before heading north along Broadway to West Grand Avenue. It's a stretch of downtown that has seen tens of millions of dollars in public and private investments.
"We estimate there's been 200 new retail storefronts within the last 6 years," said Andrew Jones of the Downtown Oakland Association.
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In recent years, the city teamed up with banks to offer loans to people who decided to do business on Broadway.
Lasonya Chatman opened her shoe store seven years ago on Broadway at 17th. Chatman said she has seen the transformation.
"A lot of the stores are closing down. They're bringing in a lot of bars and restaurants, so you have a different crowd of people," Chatman said.
Those new bars and restaurants are the main reason why a few years ago, The New York Times named Oakland as one of the top five travel destinations in the world.
"Exposure. I'm hoping it brings more exposure to downtown because a lot of people stopped shopping downtown," Chatman said.
Despite the progress, it's not hard to see some empty store fronts along the parade route. Business owners are hoping the parade and the estimated half a million parade goers will give them an economic boost.
"I want to say Oakland Warriors, not San Francisco Warriors or the Golden State Warriors. Oakland, this is perfect, we need that kind of energy for here," said Barbara Tengeri, who celebrated the last Warriors championship 40 years ago.
Tengeri said the city picked the right parade route.
After Broadway, the parade will march alongside Lake Merritt, where the city spent tens of millions of dollars to improve the lake.
"I'm confident, I'm excited. I'm truly looking forward to seeing that many people, with that amount of energy in our downtown," Jones said.
