Arrowhead Marshland

Located between Highway 880 and the Oakland International Airport, Arrowhead Marshland is a commercial strip leading up to the airport. While most people know it has the prominent hotel strip that houses long distance travelers through the Oakland International Airport, its second identity is to serve as the tertiary parking lot to the adjacent Oakland Coliseum, which is the home of the Raiders, Athletics and Golden State Warriors.

While only encompassing about a half dozen streets, Arrowhead Marshland is almost exclusively used for commercial industries. If you’re driving through the area, you’ll come across the mid-sized Countryard Merriot (along with a couple more lodging accommodations), a couple convenience stores, gas stations, a Toyota dealership and a few gritty businesses closer towards the Oakland International Airport. There are also a couple moderately attractive business parks lining Edgewater Drive. This real-estate is usually accented by modestly groomed landscaping surrounding the commercial buildings and the adjacent parking lots.

Visitors in the area tend to know its location because it serves as the primary off ramp to the Oakland International Airport. Others know it because the Alameda Municipal Golf Course and the San Leandro Bay are located just a minutes drive from the neighborhood’s bounds. Otherwise, it is simply the piece of land situated adjacent to the busy Oakland Coliseum and the Golden State Warriors basketball facility. For transportation, many visitors choose to use the Oakland Coliseum Bart station, which is located just on the opposite side of the stadium.

Raiders’ fans would not be happy to know that the area just to the west of their home stadium bares the name of their hated Chiefs’ stadium, Arrowhead, but so is the irony of geography in this area. Most people in Oakland, however, only know this area as the hotel and restaurant strip near the Oakland Airport. The main drag, Hegenberger, is the avenue everyone exits off to get to their flights, and hotels and restaurants have taken advantage of this to line the busy street.

The most prominent hotel along Hegenberger is the Courtyard Marriot with its high rising façade. As far as restaurants, you can also find an In-N-Out Burger by the freeway (in a run down looking shopping strip), a Carrows, and a Yoshino. The restaurant that best takes advantage of its location, however, is Hegenburgers, a burger place of course. I’ve only been there once, but you basically can order any of twenty different kinds of burgers, from a Philly (like a cheese steak version of a burger) to a plain older Hammy. Definitely worth the experience if you just stopping in from out of town—gives you a taste of the seedy Oakland vibe.

You also get gas stations and convenience stores, the usual sorts of businesses here.

What most of those who are heading for the airport to head out of town don’t know about this area, is that there is also a thriving office park stretching to the north of the main drag--not much sign of the “marshland remains.” In its place, you find a sharp angled grid of streets, with boxy one story buildings housing the likes of the Teamsters, a credit union, and a Korean newspaper. Really kind of bland in appearance, but one of the many areas that have used Oakland’s lower rents to draw in local businesses.