International Boulevard is a street in Oakland, California (formerly known as East 14th Street) that changes names while stretching from suburban Hayward (where it is known as Mission Boulevard and as such, also runs through Union City, Fremont (where it passes the historic Mission San José), and eventually the city of San Jose), through San Leandro (where it retained the original name of East 14th after the name was changed inside the Oakland city limits in 1996), and East Oakland (known since 1996 as International). South of 42nd Avenue, the street is signed as California State Route 185 (SR 185, or simply referred to as Highway 185); after the junction with Highway 92 (which carries the San Mateo Bridge) in Hayward, it is signed as part of Highway 238. As such, it is one of the longest continuous streets in the Bay Area.
For years, from about the late 1970s to today, East Oakland experienced social and economic decline as more affluent middle class residents relocated to the nearby suburbs. As a result, much of the portion of East 14th in the city of Oakland increasingly became a scene of closed and boarded-up storefronts, graffiti, prostitution, drug dealings and murders, furthering Oakland's regional reputation as a dangerous city. Girls are often snachted and impressed into prostitution simply by walking down this street, according to the New York Times.[1] In order to improve this image and jump-start redevelopment efforts, in 1996 the Oakland city council changed the name of East 14th Street (within the Oakland city limits) to International Boulevard, including the portion maintained by the city between Lake Merritt and 42nd Avenue as well as the alignment under SR 185's designation as it approached suburban San Leandro, which opted to keep the East 14th name for its alignment of the street. Eventually the bad reputation continued until the California Highway Patrol stepped in years later (as a state-funded road, SR 185 is under CHP jurisdiction) to curtail crime in that portion of Oakland.