On a sunny Monday afternoon in Oakland’s Jack London Square, bartender Chris Strong pours whiskey shots and cracks beers at Merchants’ Saloon. The dim, weathered dive opens weekdays at 7 a.m. and caters to the area’s many blue-collar workers.

“The postal sorting facility guys, the dock workers, people who want to drink before they go into their crummy jobs,” Strong said.

Jack London Square clings to this gritty identity. The cries of freight trains and the rumble of container trucks echo through the warehouse-lined streets. The neighborhood is one of the oldest parts of Oakland, where in the 19th century sailors and fishermen worked the waterfront and a young Jack London wrote stories about his adventures.

While the industrial history of the neighborhood and views of the Oakland Estua

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