In the summer of 1964, hybrid martial arts legend and Oakland resident Bruce Lee was just 24 years old when he founded his martial arts school at the corner of Broadway and Garnet Street.
Sixty years later, Oakland City Council is expected to approve a resolution to rename the intersection “Bruce Lee Way” and install a monument to recognize Lee's achievements and contributions to the Oakland community.
Oakland's Public Works and Transportation Committee on Tuesday first considered the resolution, introduced by Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan. The Special Rules and Legislation Committee voted Thursday to move the resolution forward to tomorrow's City Council meeting, where council members are expected to approve it.
Born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, Lee “lived, worked and created incredible cultural opportunities in the city of Oakland,” Kaplan said at the meeting last Tuesday. “By honoring and inspiring Bruce Lee, we also recognize and celebrate his contributions to inspiring the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community in Oakland and beyond,” Kaplan added.
Lee and his training partner, James Yim Lee (no relation), co-founded a martial arts school called the Junfang Gungfu Institute at 4157 Broadway, two blocks from Oakland Technical High School and located at a site now occupied by a Toyota dealership.
Prior to opening the studio, Lee had dropped out of the University of Washington in Seattle to open the university's first martial arts academy. The Junhuan Gung-Fu Institute in Oakland was Lee's second martial arts studio, but it is considered the birthplace and launch pad of his unique martial art, Jeet Kune Do.
Though Lee's Oakland studio was never particularly popular, it attracted many non-Chinese community members and fostered intercultural unity, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “The studio offered tolerance, health, discipline and the opportunity to build community,” Kaplan said, adding that Bruce “welcomed people from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, including Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.”
After the studio opened, James introduced Lee to martial artist and celebrity trainer Ed Parker, who invited Lee to a martial arts demonstration in Long Beach, where Lee demonstrated the “one inch punch” and two-finger push-up, which became legendary. In 1966, he moved to Los Angeles and appeared in TV shows such as “The Green Hornet” and “Longstreet,” and films such as “Enter the Dragon,” “Game of Death,” and “Way of the Dragon.”
Lee died in 1973 at age 32. His cause of death remains a matter of debate. An autopsy conducted shortly after his death determined that he died from “cerebral edema,” or swelling of the brain, but a 2022 study argued that he died from “inability of the kidneys to excrete excess fluid.” He is buried in Seattle.
“The martial arts community is still crazy about Bruce Lee,” said Oakland Port Authority Director Michael Colbruno, who spoke at Tuesday's Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting. “This will also be a way to bring martial arts to the city of Oakland.”
Colbruno said the idea to rename the intersection came from then-Oakland Mayor Ron Dellmuth in 2010. Dellmuth, himself a martial arts enthusiast, had trained under Lee. “He was very proud of his abs,” Colbruno said.
At the time, Dellums had been trying unsuccessfully to bring martial arts tournaments to Auckland, and he wanted the Junfan Gung Fu Institute to be recognised as part of the city's cultural heritage.
The city has a history of renaming other streets after Oakland icons, including Chauncey Bailey Way on 14th Street, Dr. Huey P. Newton Way on 9th Avenue, Peter Van Kleef Way on Telegraph Avenue and Too $hort Way on Foothill Boulevard.
“I don't know if there's anyone more famous in the entertainment world than Bruce Lee,” Colbruno said. “Everybody knows him.”
