Piedmont is a city located in Alameda County, California. It is completely surrounded by the city of Oakland. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 10,952.

Piedmont is a small, primarily residential community with fine architecture, tree-lined streets, and competitive city schools. As far as education, low crime, and property value, it is regarded as one of the most desirable residential communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Piedmont is an affluent community with the average land value being markedly above the already high Bay Area real estate costs. Piedmont is notable for its minimal amount of commerce when compared to its statistically similar counterparts; however, since it is right in the center of the Oakland Hills there is plentiful shopping in adjacent Oakland neighborhoods such as Piedmont Avenue, Montclair, Grand Lake, and Rockridge.

Piedmont is largely zoned for residential use. It has one small commercial district in the center of town consisting of a gas station, three banks (including Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America), some professional offices and has a small number of commercial enterprises along Grand Avenue at the Oakland border. Piedmont is served by two local weekly newspapers; the citizen run Piedmont Post, and the Piedmonter, a neighborhood newspaper organized under the Contra Costa Times news organization.

Piedmont is primarily known for its excellent public school system with three elementary schools (Wildwood, Beach, and Havens), a middle school, a high school, and a continuation high school (Millenium). Piedmont High School matriculates a high percentage (over 98 percent) of students bound for college. A large number of Piedmont High graduates go on to attend prestigious private universities such as Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown. Many also attend UC Berkeley, a University of California school renowned for its cutting edge research.

The Piedmont Unified School District is is one of very few California public school systems to achieve such success. This may be attributed to the dedicated and affluent population of parents who choose to pay higher prices for housing so that their childen may attend Piedmont schools instead of private schools.

Witter Field, home of the Piedmont Highlanders, was rebuilt over a period of years (1998-2000) improving it from the older facility to a newer (and markedly improved) facility. Similar improvements have been made to the fields adjacent to the Beach Elementary School.

Piedmont also has several parks and a community center. Recent community efforts have raised funds to improve Dracena Park, in which construction for a new play area began in 2005.

The city itself is entirely surrounded by Oakland's north-eastern section. It is situated almost centrally in regards to the Bay Area's fuller shape, putting it nearly directly across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, California, and very close to Berkeley, California.

(Thanks to wikipedia.org and their contributors)