The city of Oakland does not play about its legends. Someone snatched the honorary Too $hort Way street sign in East Oakland, and the city already put a new one up. Per KTVU, the marker at Foothill Boulevard and High Street was gone when cameras rolled on Oct. 21. By Thursday morning, Oct. 22, Oakland said a replacement was installed.
Oakland dedicated the three-block stretch of Foothill between High Street and 47th Avenue to Too $hort in December 2022. Stealing a street sign is a misdemeanor under California law, but the Oakland Police Department told KTVU it had no “incident details” on the reported theft. In addition, they could not confirm what happened. No suspect has been named publicly.
The honor itself is not new. When Too $hort Way was unveiled in 2022, Ice Cube, Mistah F.A.B., and Sway Calloway were among those on hand at Fremont High. Then-Mayor Libby Schaaf declared it “Too $hort Day.”
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Someone Stole Too $hort's Street Sign
The honor itself is not new. Oakland has been putting Too $hort on the wall for years, including a mural that placed him side by side with Tom Hanks near the Greyhound station as two very different city legends. When Too $hort Way was unveiled in 2022, Ice Cube, Mistah F.A.B., and Sway Calloway were among those on hand at Fremont High, and then-Mayor Libby Schaaf declared it “Too $hort Day.”
HNHH previously logged the naming in a street-honors roundup, where Too $hort said at the ceremony, “Y’all celebrating Too $hort. I’m celebrating Oakland.” That same strip later came up in coverage of his brother Wayne Shaw’s 2025 killing nearby, which underscored how close the sign sits to family history in the neighborhood.
For now, it's impressive that the city of Oakland was able to replace the sign so quickly.
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