Oakland business leaders created the Oakland Merchants’ Leadership Forum in 1991 to provide a cohesive voice for the now 40+ neighborhood business districts in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Oakland, California. Comprised exclusively of volunteers throughout the city’s business community, OMLF promotes neighborhood business districts as a key element of the city’s economic development strategy. It is not a membership organization, but rather represents most Oakland businesses.

By providing a coordinated and consistent voice, OMLF has enjoyed a long history of working with the mayor, city council, city manager, and city staff to address issues important to neighborhood business districts. Specifically, OMLF has partnered with the city, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and others to provide leadership in the areas of marketing, business improvement districts, business attraction and retention strategies, promotional events, financing, community partnerships, and developing merchants' associations.

Thanks to additional funding from the Oakland City Council, OMLF’s Shop Oakland campaign now features a comprehensive new website; multilingual spots on a local television channel, various cable stations, and in movie theaters; outdoor advertisements on bus benches, bus shelters, and buses citywide; and colorful new shopping bags, in addition to holiday lighting, street banners, and décor in Oakland's six business improvement districts.

The ShopOakland.com website features a searchable database of shopping districts and individual retail stores as well as gifts and products. The merchants associations and individual stores supply the listings, with new information posted as soon as it's received. Over time, OMLF hopes that every Oakland retail merchant will submit listings to include in the database.

As an ongoing collaboration between OMLF and Oakland Unwrapped! (an allied organization that promotes local artisans), the Shop Oakland holiday campaign has recently expanded and will continue year-round to encourage Oakland residents to buy locally, highlight shopping options citywide, and promote Oakland as a local/regional shopping destination.

OMLF has also recently launched its Passport Program, which provides participants with a coupon book and blank pages to receive stamps for visiting each of Oakland’s 40 business districts. 

OMLF’s mission is to improve the quality of life for Oakland’s residents and small business owners by strengthening and unifying their neighborhood business districts. By bringing together the efforts of Oakland’s many small business associations to develop policies and strategies that benefit neighborhood business districts, OMLF strives to increase economic development, community pride, and civic participation.

For more profiles of local BALLE networks, click on the links below:

Local First Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Sierra Business Council, Truckee, California

Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Sustainable Business Network of Portland, Portland, Oregon

Sustainable Connections, Bellingham, Washington

Vest Pocket Business Coalition, Salt Lake City, Utah