Groundwork starting to pay off in Oakland - How Mayor Jerry Brown saved Oakland.

If you build it, they will come.

That was the promise - and the pledge - made in 1999 by then-Mayor Jerry Brown when he took office and promptly launched an economic push to revitalize downtown Oakland.

Now, 15 years later, that effort is about to pay a large dividend. We're way past 10K now - Brown's plan to revive downtown Oakland with shops and restaurants and new housing units for 10,000 residents.

That plan set the stage - with housing and upgraded entertainment and dining venues to greet new arrivals - for the economic boom Oakland is now seeing, one that could change the face - and the perception - of this hard-luck city.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Groundwork-starting-to-pay-off-in-Oakland-5212290.php