Oakland Park was named for the massive stand of trees that lined the Middle River. Our first permanent settlers were the Whidby family, who came from Georgia to South Florida in 1901, when the area was known as Colahatchee. By 1918, other farming families had moved into the area, and bean and pepper fields were abundant. In 1923, a Miami development company initiated the Oakland Park subdivision with one of the biggest barbecues ever held in Broward County, with an estimated attendance of 5,000 people from Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. The city was incorporated first as Floranada in early 1925 by the American-British Improvement Company, a group of international investors. Plans for the resort included two 18-hole golf courses, a polo field, an aviation field, tennis courts, and a yacht club. It was intended to rival Palm Beach, but this vision was carried away with hurricane winds on September 18, 1926. Bankruptcy and devastating damage brought the development to an end. Despite offers from Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, the citizens of Oakland Park agreed that the community could be run more efficiently as an independent city. The city was reorganized and reincorporated as Oakland Park on July 1, 1929.

Oakland Park was named for the massive stand of trees that lined the Middle River. Our first permanent settlers were the Whidby family, who came from Georgia to South Florida in 1901, when the area was known as Colahatchee. By 1918, other farming families had moved into the area, and bean and pepper fields were abundant. In 1923, a Miami development company initiated the Oakland Park subdivision with one of the biggest barbecues ever held in Broward County, with an estimated attendance of 5,000 people from Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. The city was incorporated first as Floranada in early 1925 by the American-British Improvement Company, a group of international investors. Plans for the resort included two 18-hole golf courses, a polo field, an aviation field, tennis courts, and a yacht club. It was intended to rival Palm Beach, but this vision was carried away with hurricane winds on September 18, 1926. Bankruptcy and devastating damage brought the development to an end. Despite offers from Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, the citizens of Oakland Park agreed that the community could be run more efficiently as an independent city. The city was reorganized and reincorporated as Oakland Park on July 1, 1929.

Hella Town reveals the profound impact of transportation improvements, systemic racism, and regional competition on Oakland’s built environment. Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its larger and more glamorous twin, Oakland has a fascinating history of its own. From serving as a major transportation hub to forging a dynamic manufacturing sector, by the mid-twentieth century Oakland had become the urban center of the East Bay. Hella Town focuses on how political deals, economic schemes, and technological innovations fueled this emergence but also seeded the city’s postwar struggles. Toward the turn of the millennium, as immigration from Latin America and East Asia increased, Oakland became one of the most diverse cities in the country. The city still grapples with the consequences of uneven class- and race-based development-amid-disruption. How do past decisions about where to locate highways or public transit, urban renewal districts or civic venues, parks or shopping centers, influence how Oaklanders live today? A history of Oakland’s buildings and landscapes, its booms and its busts, provides insight into its current conditions: an influx of new residents and businesses, skyrocketing housing costs, and a lingering chasm between the haves and have-nots.

Mohs Micrographic Surgery, an advanced treatment procedure for skin cancer, offers the highest potential for recovery--even if the skin cancer has been previously treated. This procedure is a state-of-the-art treatment in which the physician serves as surgeon, pathologist, and reconstructive surgeon. It relies on the accuracy of a microscope to trace and ensure removal of skin cancer down to its roots. This procedure allows dermatologists trained in Mohs Surgery to see beyond the visible disease and to precisely identify and remove the entire tumor, leaving healthy tissue unharmed. This procedure is most often used in treating two of the most common forms of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. The cure rate for Mohs Micrographic Surgery is the highest of all treatments for skin cancer--up to 99 percent even if other forms of treatment have failed. This procedure, the most exact and precise method of tumor removal, minimizes the chance of regrowth and lessens the potential for scarring or disfigurement

"Oakland is a well-kept secret, a port city of dramatic topography and physical beauty, varied social groups and one-off neighborhoods. In his incisive history, Mitchell Schwarzer examines the development of Oakland's built environment from the onset of the twentieth century to the present, especially in light of its status as a second city playing underdog to glamorous San Francisco across the bay. His book emphasizes the ways transportation networks, housing, industry, commerce, and civic and park projects together shaped a social and political terrain that continues to be defined by class and racial inequalities"--