Hayward (/ˈheɪwərd/; formerly, Haywards, Haywards Station, and Haywood) is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population in 2014 of 149,392 Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 37th most populousmunicipality in California. It is included in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont Metropolitan Statistical Area by the US Census. It is located primarily between Castro Valley andUnion City, and lies at the eastern terminus of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. The city was devastated early in its history by the namesake 1868 Hayward earthquake. From the early 20th century until the beginning of the 1980s, Hayward’s economy was dominated by its now defunct food canning and salt production industries.
Economy
See also: List of companies based in Hayward, California
Manufacturing
Hayward has a large number of manufacturing companies, both corporate headquarters and plants. This includes some high-tech companies, with Hayward considered part of a northern extension of Silicon Valley. Manufacturing plants in Hayward include Annabelle Candy, Columbus Salame, the Gillig bus company, Impax Laboratories, the Shasta soft drink company, and a PepsiCo production and distribution center.
Retail
Southland Mall is the largest shopping center in Hayward.
Former businesses
Hunt Brothers Cannery
The economy of Hayward in the first half of the twentieth century was based largely on the Hunt Brothers Cannery. The cannery was opened in Hayward in 1895 by brothers William and Joseph Hunt, who were fruit packers originally from Sebastopol, California. The Hunts initially packed local fruit, including cherries, peaches, and apricots, then added tomatoes, which became the mainstay of their business. At its height in the 1960s and 1970s, Hunt’s operated three canneries in Hayward, at A, B, and C Streets; an adjacent can-making company; a pickling factory; and a glass manufacturing plant. From the 1890s until its closure in 1981, Hunt’s employed a large percentage of the local population. The air around Hayward was permeated by the smell of tomatoes for three months of each year, during the canning season. The canneries closed in 1981, as there were no longer enough produce fields or fruit orchards near the cannery to make it economically viable. Much of the production was moved to the Sacramento Valley. The location of the former canneries is marked by a historic water tower with the Hayward logo. A housing development now occupies much of the former cannery site.
Other former businesses
Much of the Bay coastal territory of Hayward was turned into salt ponds, with Oliver Salt and Leslie Salt operating there. Much of this land has in recent years been returned to salt marshes. A 1983 image of the ponds appears on a 2012 U.S. postage stamp. The Mervyns department store chain was headquartered in Hayward, until it declared bankruptcy in 2008.
Top employers
| # | Employer | # of Employees |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaiser Permanente† | 2,500 |
| 2 | California State University, East Bay† | 2,207 |
| 3 | Hayward Unified School District† | 2200 |
| 4 | Alameda County | 1200 |
| 5 | City of Hayward† | 800 |
| 6 | Gillig† | 700 |
| 7 | St. Rose Hospital† | 700 |
| 8 | Pentagon Technologies | 650 |
| 9 | Berkeley Farms | 600 |
| 10 | Impax Laboratories† | 594 |
Hayward service organizations indicates employers wholly located or headquartered in Hayward
Two businesses which had significant employment in fiscal year 2006, Mervyns (1,300), and Pacific Bell (940), no longer operate in Hayward.
Infrastructure
Hayward maintains the Hayward Fire Department (with 9 stations) and the Hayward Police Department. Hayward has its own water and wastewater system, but a small northern portion of the city’s water is managed by the East Bay Municipal Utility District.The Hayward Public Library opened at the intersection of C Street and Mission Boulevard in 1951. As of 2013, plans were under development to construct a $60 million library across the street from the existing building, with funding uncertain.
Transportation
Aerial view of San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. Foster City in foreground, Hayward across San Francisco Bay, Mount Diablo in background (left)
Hayward is served by Interstate 880 (also known as the Nimitz Freeway), State Route 92 (Jackson Street) and State Route 238 (Mission Boulevard/Foothill Boulevard). State Route 92 continues west as the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. The intersection of 880 and 92 was reconstructed over a four-year period, with completion of the project in October 2011. Mission Boulevard has been long known for chronic traffic congestion. Past proposals to convert Mission Boulevard to a freeway or build a 238 bypass have been controversial. One proposal, to build a freeway parallel to Mission Boulevard, extending a freeway south from 580 where it turns east towards Castro Valley, and connecting to Industrial Boulevard, had land purchased, but was cancelled after years of debate. The land is now scheduled for sale and zoning. Mission, Jackson, and Foothill all converge at one congested intersection south of downtown, known historically as “Five Flags” for a line of flagpoles located there. To alleviate congestion in the downtown area, the city has converted the A Street, Mission and Foothill triangle to one-way thoroughfares (counterclockwise), and is adding road improvements, landscaping, and telephone/cable undergrounding to Mission Boulevard south to Industrial Boulevard, and to Foothill Boulevard north to 580. The plan, the Route 238 Corridor Improvement Project, broke ground July 2010, completed rerouting in 2013, and has an expected full completion date in 2013.
Hayward Public Art Program mural detail (Jean Bidwell, artist)
