Four miles long, but four lanes wide most the way. A long lean strip, leading from the touristy fare at Jack London Square and slicing through the growing, sometimes gritty and always entertaining downtown, where people work, eat, shout out and occasionally break into interpretive dance. The route runs through Auto Row, and up toward the fancy foothills.

It's on Broadway in Oakland, and however you go — by foot, car or bus — there's a lot to see, do and eat.

Buy a hat. Join the Army. Tour historic buildings. Suck meat off some ribs. Get gold teeth. Pray at a church. Get a tattoo. Sip some coffee. Give blood. Crack some crab.

All this backdropped by old buildings and new bus shelters. Art installations and farmers markets. Business people and tourists. Homeless folk and city hall big-wigs.

The estuary laps against Jack London Square, named after the author. Lots of restaurants. Jack's, Scott's, Kincaid's — all with dining rooms with views of sunsets and sails. Seagulls and swells.

There are small shops. Farmers markets Sundays and Wednesdays. Tour the USS Potomac, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's beloved "Floating White House." Jack London's grass-roofed Yukon cabin is in the square.

Next door is Heinhold's First and Last Chance Saloon, a tiny old wooden bar where it doesn't really matter if you drink or not. The floor is crooked anyway, bent low long ago by the great quake — in 1906.

Outside, freight trains shake the ground and often keep you waiting to cross the street.

There's Urban Blend. Once a gas station, now a funky coffee house. Old roll-up doors and art on the walls. There's Oakland Metro, once a blues club, then Greek tavern, then cabaret. Now a performing arts venue.

Skip on past the coroner's bureau. Give a nod to a recent art installation under Interstate 880 overpass. Skip on past the police department too, especially if you're wanted. There are bail bonds places. There's Sacred Tattoo. A Starbuck's.

Broadway skims the edges of Chinatown and Old Oakland. The Oakland Marriott rises up at 10th Street. At 13th is the City Center shopping plaza. Much of this center closes down about 7 p.m.

Check out Oakland's historic City Hall at 14th Street, a proud white building and the city's first skyscraper, once dubbed "Mayor Mott's Wedding Cake" because he married the year construction began in 1911.

You can see DeLauer's newsstand from there, on the other side of Broadway. It's older than City Hall. Been in operation since 1907, starting as a wagon on 12th Street. Always open 24 hours. Here you can get a New York Times or a Des Moines Register. La Gazzetta dello Sport. Racing forms, books, magazines, Swisher Sweets or Twinkies.

Charlie DeLauer, 88, son of the original owner, is upstairs in the office in his sweater-vest and glasses, doing the books and listening to an A's game on the radio. A foot-thick slab of a ledger sits on his desk. Must weigh 20 pounds. A computer flickers nearby.

"I put everything in here first in writing," he said patting the ledger, and giving the computer an evil glance. "Then I put it in the computer. I don't trust those things."

He can tell stories for days. Oakland history. Changing crowds. The newsstand business, changing too thanks to computers (another evil glance).

Cross the street again, step into the Rotunda Building and behold the cavernous architecture, white columns and gold filigree rosettes leading up to a dramatic dome. Next door is the Oakland Art Gallery. A free, quiet space. The current display, a mixture of paintings and photos.

Up the road a patch you'll find The Hat Guys — Rusty Watson, 62, and Corrie Oranje, 64. Been there for nearly 17 years. They love hats. They wear hats. They talk hats. Some of the few these days who can tell you the difference between a panama and a snap-brimmed fedora. They carry 21,000 hats and caps. Full service too — restoring, cleaning.

In the shop is a wall of fame. Framed 8-by-10 signed photos from famous customers: There's former San Francisco mayor and fedora-fiend Willie Brown, Santana, rap stars.

"We have a lot of potential customers out there," Oranje said. "Anyone with a head."

There's the Christian Science Reading Room. Pray. Regroup.

Next block, the Paramount Theatre in all its art deco glory. Tours are available the first and third Saturday mornings of the month.

There's the Best Music Co., since 1934. The big showroom has cellos and saxophones. Clarinets and accordions. Someone's running scales on a trumpet somewhere in the back, "trying out a new horn," said Jeff Walton, who has worked there about a year. He plays the trombone himself.

Up the block some more, and there's the historic Sweets Ballroom, a postmodern dance hall, but only open for special events.

Then Broadway starts to peter off into residential mode. You're exhausted by now. Go home.

You can join the military at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center between 21st and 22nd streets. If you chicken out, go get some at Louisiana Fried Chicken around the corner. Or stop in Luka's Tap Room. Or buy a goldfish at Lucky's Pet Shop.

Then begins Auto Row, a huge expanse of car dealers and car-related businesses, auto detailers, tire shops. Oakland once was known as the Detroit of the West, according to historian Beth Bagwell. The row now broken occasionally by the YMCA, God's Gym or First Presbyterian Church, built in 1913.

Near the Interstate 580 overpass are various buildings for Kaiser hospital. Next door is Moler Barber College at 3500 Broadway, which has been in business 95 years. "Most of the barbers in the Bay Area went to this school," said owner Elsia Curry. But it may soon have to move, because of a Kaiser expansion.

Just up from that is the former King's Daughter's Home, a building designed by Julia Morgan as a home for older women. It was purchased by Kaiser, and now houses the hospital's psychology offices.

There's Moss Park at MacArthur Boulevard. The American Red Cross. The Oakland Masonic Center. Mama's Royal Cafe. Popular for delicious breakfasts, and crowded to boot — especially weekend mornings. People line up outside.

Facing that is Art's Crab Shak. A place to wear a bib and crack some succulent crab without fear. It's old-style. A long bar with dark brown walls made of cork panels. A glowing fish tank. You pay first for your meal. Sit at Formica tables. A regular bucket of 35 ounces is $25.95. Tasty crab cakes too, in little plastic baskets. You don't even need the tartar sauce. Killer garlic fries.

Waitress Jamie White, who has been working there for about six years, recommends the bucket of crab. "That's our No. 1 seller," she said. "We have crab season all year long here."

There's another Art's facing the shak. But it's Art's Jamaican market. Buy Solomon Gundy smoked herring paste or green pigeon peas with coconut milk. Have a beer next door at George Kaye's. Drive by Oakland Technical High School. If you sew or craft, Poppy Fabric is the place for you. Up from there is the California College of the Arts. The 4-acre campus is home to undergraduate programs in art, with studios and residence halls.

Then Broadway starts to peter off into residential mode. It's about time. You're exhausted by now. Go home.

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