Oakland's Occupy flash point now thriving OAKLAND With Occupy gone, a grassroots revitalization is under way

Cortt Dunlap,(middle) managing partner of Awaken Cafe, which opened two months ago in Oakland, Calif., as he is about to leave with his son Keaton Dunlap, 21 mos. old, on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. Cortt Dunlap,(middle) managing partner of Awaken Cafe, which opened two months ago in Oakland, Calif., as he is about to leave with his son Keaton Dunlap, 21 mos. old, on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Oakland's Occupy flash point now thriving 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

Where there was tear gas at 14th and Broadway in Oakland just months ago, there's now upscale chocolate being made straight from the cocoa bean.

Where there were masked vandals and riot police, a swank cafe now bills "zero carbon footprint" beer - delivered by bicycle from a local brewery.

They aren't the ominous visions feared last fall when the City Council president, among others, declared that Occupy Oakland's month-long encampment would scare restaurants, retailers and companies away from the downtown for a decade. Instead, there's a renaissance.

The fuel, shop owners say, is and has been the massive influx of new residents downtown in recent years. Those residents, in turn, have emboldened entrepreneurs and others who've long been working toward a revitalized downtown, said Cortt Dunlap, managing partner of the bustling Awaken Cafe, which opened in February.

"The momentum was so much it couldn't be derailed," said Dunlap. "To say the downtown Oakland community is so fragile that Occupy Oakland was going to bring it down is belittling and shortsighted. It doesn't understand the big picture."

Growth widespread

The growth isn't just at one intersection. Five blocks away in Old Oakland, five tenants were given free rent for six months at vacant storefronts to see if they could make it as retailers. Three are about to sign leases. At least five bars, some attached to restaurants, are set to open in downtown this year. Seven of downtown's most prominent condo complexes are on pace to sell out in the next six months, developers say.

But the most startling changes may be on Broadway between 14th and 15th streets. This is the intersection that made Oakland globally famous, or infamous, with images of broken glass, wounded protesters and phalanxes of police. Vacant storefronts have seemed the norm.

Now, the block has Awaken and Bittersweet cafes, the latter officially opening last week. Oakollectiv, a clothing shop, faces Oaklandish, a T-shirt shop that sells images of Oakland pride. All opened within the past year after taking over long-vacant spaces.

The quartet of businesses has changed the area, a perpetual no-man's land between the flourishing Uptown District and Old Oakland, said Steve Snider, manager for the Downtown Oakland Association.

"They've been instrumental in moving that energy downtown," Snider said.

Oakland easier

Each came with different motivations.

Bittersweet has long had a thriving shop in the Rockridge District, several miles northeast of downtown, and in recent years its owners have wanted to branch out. But an attempt in Danville proved unsuccessful and, after six years, their shop in San Francisco's Pacific Heights no longer seemed worth the battle with city bureaucracy and costs, said Penny Finnie, the business' co-founder.

So downtown they went. Oakland, Finnie said, "doesn't have the same constraints that San Francisco does."

Bittersweet's new location will not only be a cafe selling lunch, confections and drinks like salted caramel hot chocolate, but it will also be the business' hub for roasting coffee, making chocolate and packaging chocolate bars.

Most surprising to some is that Awaken Cafe is open until 10 p.m. every day but Friday and Saturday, when it's open until midnight. It's an anomaly in a stretch many consider a ghost town after 6 p.m. on weekdays.

"It used to be, when we said we were going to be open on Saturdays, other businesses were like, 'why?' " Dunlap said. "Finally, enough businesses are trying it out that it's working."

These new businesses are nice, said council President Larry Reid. But it's not like having a Nordstrom downtown, which Walnut Creek has, or a Bloomingdale's, like San Francisco has.

Major retailers wanted

The bevy of new shops "really does show folks that you can be successful" as a business downtown, Reid said. "But we have the mom and pop stuff. Oakland residents deserve to have the same kind of major retailers you see in other cities."

The biggest retailers downtown are Sears and Men's Wearhouse.

Reid does not back off the idea that Occupy had an impact on attracting business to the city. In fact, despite the forced clearing of the camp five months ago, he said his fear of Occupy's impact continues due to its periodic protests, which require police attention.

"That fear is not going to go away," Reid said, "until Occupy ceases and desists the behavior they've done in the past."