The San Francisco-Oakland megalopolis has had an astounding number of shopping malls over the years. Since the first one opened in 1952, there have been something like thirty-seven built within the six Bay Area counties of San Francisco (City & County), San Mateo, Marin, Sonoma, Alameda and Contra Costa.
Six Lost Malls will be covered in this section. Four have been demalled into power centers, one repurposed as a retail-office center, and another completely demolished. The Lost Malls of San Francisco-Oakland are listed as follows, with their original names used;
*WESTLAKE TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER [1951-2004]
*EL CERRITO PLAZA [1958-2000]
*LARWIN PLAZA [1962-2002]
*EASTMONT MALL [1970-1993]
*ALCOSTA MALL [1966-1993]
*FREMONT FASHION CENTER [1968-1990]
A seventh Lost Mall, SAN MATEO FASHION ISLAND, was in operation between 1982 and 1996. Its dedication, in the early 1980s, fell after our website's timeline focus. To be inducted into the Mall Hall of Fame, a shopping hub must have opened between the years 1946 and 1979.
The first stretch of motor expressway in the Bay Area, the Bayshore Freeway, ran between South San Francisco and San Mateo and opened to traffic in 1949. It was extended into San Francisco proper in the early '50s, where it was officially deemed the James Lick Freeway. Hayward's SOUTHLAND CENTER [1964] was the region's first freeway-friendly shopping mall. It was -and is- adjacent to the Interstate 880-Nimitz Freeway.
San Francisco-Oakland's Lost Malls were spread throughout the East and West Bay suburbs, as are the five branches of the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) network. The current 131.4 route-mile, fifty station, system was inaugurated, with a 28-mile starter line, in September 1972. This route ran between the MacArthur and Fremont stations. Extensions opened in 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2016 and 2020. A prospective extension to downtown San Jose could be operational by 2036.
The "BART to O-A-K," or Oakland Airport Connector, operates as a 3.2-route mile Automated Guideway Transit line. It began revenue service in November 2014, connecting with the BART Coliseum-Airport station.
Major shopping hubs serviced by the BART rail system include EL CERRITO PLAZA, BAYFAIR CENTER, SHOPS AT TANFORAN, STONERIDGE CENTER and GATEWAY PLAZA (nee' FREMONT FASHION CENTER).
The City-County of San Francisco is also served by its San Francisco Municipal Railway, or MUNI, which has been in operation since 1917. Today's 34.6-route-mile light rail network serves thirty-three stations, eighty-seven additional stops and provides access to the STONESTOWN GALLERIA mall.
