We got down there about nine for the first 'official' presentation. Many hundreds of people there when we arrived - many hundreds more by the time we left.
Looks to me like the best way to get there from anywhere very far away is to get off BART at the 12th Street station - you come up in the middle of the crowd. [Until they close that station, of course...]
A few pictures below the fold/Kos croissant.
Here's the crowd in the intersection around 10 o'clock:
It was interesting, the intersection was closed by the crowd but there were no police down the block any direction directing traffic - the cars were coming towards the crowd and then realizing what was up and making U-turns and leaving.
There were quite a few dogs helping occupy:
This guy was sending up a balloon to take crowd shots - the pix should be on publiclaboratory.org later on
There were also at least ten big media trucks with their antennas - a huge CNN truck was showing up as we left.
Here's a list of what the occupiers need for general maintenance
I'm thinking of going back down there some random quiet morning later in the week and bringing some hammers, nails, gloves and duct tape. There are lists of other things they need on the occupyoakland.org site - in fact there's a place you can buy from their wish list at amazon and I'm guessing they'll have it delivered.
Walking home I ran across some folks from Occupy Richmond on their way to Occupy Oakland.
Maybe you should go too.
2:35 PM PT: just talked on the phone to someone down there - I asked how big the crowd had got - answer: 'hella'