Is it weird some life long Bay Areans never set foot in Oakland? (San Jose: real estate market, quality of life)

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by sera

RMEGMH, thank you for the correction about Fenton's location. Remember eating there when it was located on Howe Street.

Wow.

I was born close enough to when they they moved that if my parents took me to the Howe Street location, I would have been too young to remember that. I do remember the current location from a very early age. I wish I’d asked relatives who were adults then about the Howe location.

Heinold's First and Last Saloon, the original owner helped Jack London attend college. Knew about this, Wikipedia has article about Heinold's Buoy and Bell?, our neighbor was a waitress there. Overland House, Elegant Farmer was also in Jack London Square.

Is Piedmont still a nice shop area; remember a fine restaurant on Piedmont Avenue near MacArthur Blvd. Grand Lake, was a nice neighborhood. Remember the theatre.

I no longer live in the Bay Area either, but I do visit reasonably often, but the last time I walked around and browsed on Piedmont Avenue was 5 years ago (I’ve been to the cemetery more recently, but that doesn’t really count ).

Nice is relative . I don’t know if I would say nice, but I still enjoyed myself.

[sas318]

I grew up in Oakland. I hate that place.

Having said that, there are plenty of Bay Area cities I've never been to. I'm in Hayward and always go to Union City and Fremont. I never drive 880 North regularly because I hate passing Oakland because the lanes are old and broken. Then there's the maze, so I never go to Berkeley and north like Richmond. D Definitely won't go to Concord or Walnut Creek. I only go north if there's an amusement park or through it on the way to camping or the snow.

I don't go to San Francisco either, maybe Pleasanton, but only to Stoneridge Mall, but I don't go to malls anymore, so nope.

[sas318]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

People get stuck in a rut, I guess. They find things they like in their own town, and don't venture much beyond that, except on rare occasions, if ever.

Yep, I'm stuck in a rut. The older I get, the less far I want to drive.

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by sas318

Yep, I'm stuck in a rut. The older I get, the less far I want to drive.

Not me.

I don’t want to miss out on any place that I want to go.

Re the U.S. and Canada alone, I’ve been to all of the ‘lower 48’ and all of the Canadian provinces, and there is still more I want to see (in other parts of the world as well...on continents I’ve already been to, all well as those I haven’t).

My grandparents drove all over North America until they were in their mid 80s.

About 15 years ago I met a family in Canada, an somewhat older couple with their teenage kids. They were homeschooling their kids, and had homes in Beverly Hills, CA and London (they’re British). They said they’d been driving all over the U.S. and Canada for over 25 years (before they had kids as well), and they still hadn’t seen everything they want to see.

[Oakformonday]

I find it weird when west bay folks make a point to bash Oakland as if they have something to prove and the air of superiority is just a cover for a low self esteem or bad breeding. LOL Not trying to start a fight or convo here--just an observation. Carry on...

[TashaPosh]

Originally Posted by Oakformonday

I find it weird when west bay folks make a point to bash Oakland as if they have something to prove and the air of superiority is just a cover for a low self esteem or bad breeding.

Bad breeding or superiority? Um..you say that we bash ppl in Oakland but you just bashed ppl over here. Why can't everybody just like what they like tho?

[Oakformonday]

Originally Posted by TashaPosh

Bad breeding or superiority? Um..you say that we bash ppl in Oakland but you just bashed ppl over here. Why can't everybody just like what they like tho?

No, I am bashing bashers only. The Oak bashers bash everyone and everything. I love and hate Oakland and SF but I don't, unless making an observation in response, go out of my way to ever give my negative opinion of either. Cheers.

[CorporateCowboy]

Originally Posted by Oakformonday

I find it weird when west bay folks make a point to bash Oakland as if they have something to prove and the air of superiority is just a cover for a low self esteem or bad breeding. LOL Not trying to start a fight or convo here--just an observation. Carry on...

People 'bash' SF all the time, particularly in this forum - lol. This thread is even biased in Oakland's favor (as many are) i.e. painting those in the Bay Area who rarely find reason (or desire) to go to Oakland as somehow being 'weird', per the thread title.

[DeanoSF]

Originally Posted by CorporateCowboy

People 'bash' SF all the time, particularly in this forum - lol. This thread is even biased in Oakland's favor (as many are) i.e. painting those in the Bay Area who rarely find reason (or desire) to go to Oakland as somehow being 'weird', per the thread title.

In my experience, most of the people bashing SF on this site are doing so from afar, or through some political agenda. SF is rightly or wrongly, to many, the poster child of extreme Liberal and Progressive politics and, as such, is a popular target for those who wish to denigrate those viewpoints. The City certainly is not without its flaws, but it's nowhere near the place the parrots of Fox News would have you believe it is.

Oakland seems to suffer from being perceived as an afterthought by most of the wealthiest, best known and best regarded (by residents and visitors alike) areas of the Bay Area--SF, Marin, Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties.

Still, Oakland has certain charms. I generally liken it a bigger, more widespread version of SF's Mission district in a lot of parts--rough around the edges, a little seedy, but with sprinklings of art, culture, restaurants and nightlife all around. There's an entrepreneurial/artistic spirit in Oakland that seems to have been supplanted by a much more highbrow sense in San Francisco. Many like that gritty Oakland vibe better. They tend to live over there, though. And for the rest of us, it's still probably not worth a 30-40 minute drive across a bridge to get that.

So, outside the more suburban, exurban and fringe communities of the East Bay (Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano Counties) who are drawn to Oakland's nightlife, events, A's Baseball, live performances, etc. (nearly all of which are available on the other side of the Bay), there's not much reason to go to Oakland.

That all said, since my office moved to Oakland (JLS area) a couple years ago, I have been surprised how much I like Oakland. That said, I don't go far outside my bubble there, with Uptown, around 19th St. BART (pre-COVID) being about as far as I've gone with any regularity. I've also been dumbfounded by how hard it seems for Oakland to get its act together on issues that affect the quality of life there, like homelessness, urban decay, infrastructure, crime, etc. Oakland is much worse than any of the other medium-large urban areas in the Bay Area in this regard, in my opinion.

Finally, Oakland inexplicably seems to squander the advantages it receives due to its location in the region and proximity to larger cities, such as its public transit, international airport, transportation infrastructure, available land for development, access to professional sports, commercial developments, business climate, etc. By rights, Oakland deserves to be a "second city" to SF (though Oaklanders cringe at this) like Ft. Worth is to Dallas. Instead, it ends up being more like a Baltimore to DC.

[TashaPosh]

Originally Posted by DeanoSF

Oakland seems to suffer from being perceived as an afterthought by most of the wealthiest, best known and best regarded (by residents and visitors alike) areas of the Bay Area--SF, Marin, Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties.

I LOVE living in Marin...& Sf....BUT IMO when you bring wealth into it, you are kinda showing your own prejudice & bashing. Because you don't have to be rich to like Sf better IMO. I wasn't when I 1st moved to the BA.