San Leandro, CA

If you're looking for a great place to eat in San Leandro's downtown plaza area. Try Tequila Grill, it's a mexican restaurant for lunch and dinner. For Breakfast it's an all american good food diner. There is some mexican overflow on the breakfast menu and that's really a great thing.

I have the Huevos Divorciados with rice and beans and flour tortillas. MMMMM yummy. This dish comes with both Red and Green Enchilada sauce over eggs and tortillas. I order my eggs scrambled because I am not too much of a fan of mixxing the yoke with the two sauces.

The servers Chuy, Luis and Fatima are friendly and like family to all the customers.

My group of diners on Sunday mornings have been eating at the same table for about 10 years now. The restaurant has changed hands recently and was called Dino's International a few years back.

It's located in the building that was the Old Chuckburgers Diner on East 14th Street just a few doors South of the Estudillo Avenue intersection. Free parking is available at the back of the building in the city parking lot.

Harold Peary, a San Leandro native became a nationally known actor/comedian in the 1940s with his character Throckmorton P Gildersleeve or as he is best known as "The Great Gildersleeve".

The show the Great Gildersleeve was a spin-off of the Fibber McGee and Molly radio shows. While still a part of the Fibber McGee and Molly show, the location was set in the town of Wistful Vista. Summerfield became the location when the show was spun-off

Harold Peary went on after the Great Gildersleeve to voice acting in many classic cartoons for Rankin-Bass and Hanna Barbera. He also appeared in front of the camera in Pettycoat Junction, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Brady Bunch.

Harold Peary was born in July of 1908 and lived to the age of 76 until he passed away in 1985.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gildersleeve

San Leandro is located just South of Oakland and Alameda.

Interstates 880, 580 and 238 all run through parts of the town making San Leandro very commute friendly. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has two stations making access to San Francisco, SFO, Oakland International Airport and the Oakland Coliseum very easy.

Lake Chabot Regional Park borders the city to the East. The San Leandro Marina, San Francisco Bay and Monarch Bay Golf Courses border the city to the West. The marina has several water-front restaurants for casual dining.

Bayfair Center a large regional shopping mall and is located near the southern border of the city. Bayfair has Macy's, Target, Bed-Bath-&-Beyond, Kohl's and Century Theaters 16 mega-plex.

Beyond Bayfair Center to the South is an unincorporated area of Alameda County that has San Leandro, postal addresses. This area is generally considered to be the Ashland district of San Leandro.

In downtown San Leandro is the San Leandro Plaza Shopping center. This was the historic center of town and redeveloped in the 1970's to create an open landscaped shopping plaza. Downtown is also the home to San Leandro's City Hall, which has it's own community theater for live preformances.

San Leandro is home to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the area around 139th Avenue, you can smell the chocolate in the air.

Here are some links to the area that you may find usefull.

http://www.hiltongardeninn.com/en/gi/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=OAKSLGI

http://www.sanleandromarinainn.com/

http://bayfair.mallfinder.com/

http://www.prurealty.com/Michael.Greenslade/San%20Leandro%20Information.aspx

I want to put it out there that I am a big fan of mixed use development. I look around at commercial business districts, like Webster Street here in Alameda or Bancroft & Dutton in San Leandro, I see oodles of wasted space above each business establishment.

Places like Bayfair Center, San Leandro Plaza and Alameda Town Center should have condo units above housing thousands of people.

It drives me crazy that in someplaces "they roll up the sidewalks" after some of the shops close at 5pm. How cool would it be if people actually lived directly above these places and were there all the time.

Could you imagine waking up in the morning, getting ready for work and taking the elevator down to the street or plaza level and walking to a bakery, coffee shop or diner for breakfast.

Getting to work would be a matter of hopping on the public transport.

Coming home you can stop by the cinema, have a dinner at a nice restaurant and taking the elevator back up to your condo.

Imagine, adding a level of business offices above the retail and below the condos. Wow, you could, if you wanted to live close to work.

[edited 2/7/2008]

San Leandro is having some new construction around town. Most of the new construction is in the higher density row houses.

Cherry Park Square Built by JohnBenCo at the intersection of Superior Avenue and Mac Arthur Boulevard. 8 craftsmans style row houses. I was instrumental in naming of this tract. At the planning department meeting for this tract at city hall, I suggested the name "Cherry City Square" in relation to the older portion of Superior Avenue "Cherry City Tract".

Cherry Glen built at the interchange of Interstate 880, Interstate 238 and Washington Avenue. 43 row houses.

Then there's Toscani Place, the Portofino Italian Mediterranean styled row houses on Davis Street. 9 units in that complex.

There is Bayport Court off of Lewelling Avenue. 6 units in the complex.

There is a development scheduled for the corner of Broadmoor Boulevard and Mac Arthur Boulevards. So far, this is looking like it will be 20+ units in a building looking like the Grand Floridian or the Hotel Del Coronado. I like the design they have displayed on the sign at the location.

Just across the border on Durant Avenue and Mac Arthur Boulevard at the old location of Hambrick's 1/4 pounder Giant Burgers will be another smaller development.

On Mac Arthur Boulevard between Dutton and the San Leandro Creek, in the redevelopment zone is the Greenbrier Court. Single family detached homes. Great location for dining and Starbucks.

In the Ashland district near Bayfair Center is Citywalk San Leandro. Condos from Low $300,000.oo

On San Lorenzo's Bochman Road is Village Walk by Olsen Homes.

Liberty Pointe on Liberty Street in the Ashland District by Clarum Homes.