Bay Farm Island, Alameda, California

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Bay Farm Island is a former island and present-day section of the United States city of Alameda, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is divided from the rest of Alameda by an estuary and connected by separate drawbridges for both cars and bicycles. Bay Farm Island is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport.

Bay Farm Island was once an island, subsequently transformed into a peninsula by filling in a natural channel of San Francisco Bay. Marshy areas of the island were also reclaimed by landfill.

Historically, Bay Farm Island was farmland, asparagus being the principal crop, earning the island the sobriquet "Asparagus Island". It was also an important site for oyster beds which were regularly harvested for restaurants in San Francisco.^[1]

Today, Bay Farm Island is now home to the 36-Championship Hole Chuck Corica Golf Complex in addition to many housing developments. The land mass boasts a chain of lagoons as well as several parks including Shoreline Park, and a greenbelt that surrounds Bay Farm's perimeter. In addition to being an affluent neighborhood, it is also the location of a municipal golf course, a high-tech industrial park, a small shopping center, Alameda Alliance for Health, a not-for-profit health plan, and the world headquarters of the NFL football team, the Oakland Raiders.

Also located on Bay Farm Island are two elementary schools: Bay Farm and Earhart Elementary Schools. The former is named for the island community that it serves. The latter is named for famed female aviatrix Amelia Earhart who started many of her flights from the nearby Oakland Airport. A good-natured rivalry exists between the children of the two schools, many of whom are neighbors and play on the same sports teams.

Noteworthy figures hailing from Bay Farm Island include:

David Segui (former MLB first baseman)
Tom Tolbert (former NBA point forward)

A portion of Bay Farm Island is considered "Harbor Bay Isle", generally bounded to the north and west portion of the island by Island Drive and Mecartney Drive. Harbor Bay Isle is a collective of community homeowner's associations serving the Bay Colony, Bay Isle Pointe, Bayview Harbor, Baywood Village, Brittany Bay, Brittany Harbor, Cantamar, Centre Court, Clipper Cove, Columbia, Costa Brava, Freeport, Harbor Pointe, Headlands, Lantern Bay, Pelican Bay, Promontory, Sandpiper Cove, Seastrand, and Woodbridge developments[1]. Harbor Bay Isle excludes the three southern townhome developments, Islandia, Casitas, and Garden Isle, as well as the single-family homes to the east of Island Drive. Harbor Bay Isle funds its own security patrols.

[edit] Public Transit

AC Transit provides local bus service in addition to express commuter "Transbay" service to the Transbay Terminal in Downtown San Francisco. The Harbor Bay Ferry provides commuter service to the San Francisco Ferry Building.^[2] Furthermore the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority plans to commence service to job centers near a new Oyster Point Marina/Park ferry terminal in South San Francisco in 2008.^[2]