How's Oakland?

[SeymourSparechange]

...Is it as dangerous as I've heard? How's the spange? How're the laws regarding homelessness? If Oakland is not a great idea, are there any better places in NorCal you'd reccomend, and why?

 

[Deleted member 24782]

Oakland is great town.

 

[Laski North]

I like Berkeley more, good spot for travelers , lots of friendly homeless and travelers

 

[BradKajukenbo]

My friend Red lives in Oakland. He says its not as bad as people think. Then he told me that a few days ago he watched a pizza delivery guy get shot over a large sausage pizza.

 

[Django]

I thought Oakland sucked. I mean, it lacks the coolness of San Francisco and is way shittier than Berkeley or Union City

But why don't you find out yourself and come back to tell us how you liked it? We are, after all, a bunch of strangers from the internet

 

[BradKajukenbo]

Last year I only passed through Oakland on my way to Pacifica. My son wanted to see Raider Nation. I'm not in the Bay Area much. Too many people. I'm going down to Santa Cruz in a couple weeks to pick up a friend. Hayward is good when Day on the Green is going on.

 

[train in vain]

My friend Red lives in Oakland. He says its not as bad as people think. Then he told me that a few days ago he watched a pizza delivery guy get shot over a large sausage pizza.

Sounda about right. Its like new orleans kind of. Good people there lots of exploring to do but shit can go south real fast and guns are usually involved. One of the times i was in oakland we were waiting for a friend to get home and some dude sitting in a car across the street hollered at my boy for a lighter so he walks over and when he gives the dude the light he raises his shirt and shows him a pistol in his lap. Why? No fuckin clue.

 

[Hudson]

I'm a small town veteran in northern California. My opinion is I'd avoid Oaksterdam at all costs. But that's just my opinion.

If you were traveling why not head further north where there's less people and less violence?

But again my opinion. The only large cities I actually enjoyed were Portland and Seattle in the late Summer.

 

[Laski North]

I like Berkeley more, good spot for travelers , lots of friendly homeless and travelers

On top, I made a lot of more money busking in Berkeley than Oakland

 

[sd40chef]

lake merritt and desert yard are dope! oakland is mellow for the most part , way more relaxed than san francisco i thought.

 

[Charlene Jank]

Oakland is the best place in the Bay for community in my opinion. People are generally real and friendly (sometimes real first before friendly tho) and it's not as ritsy and weird as SF or Berkeley... For busking, or kick downs, etc you might do better in the richer cities, but for actual human connection, Oakland takes the cake. It really depends what you're looking for.

SF- touristy, great dumpsters, exceptionally easy access of drugs, hoity toity rich fuckers, and kinda feels like an open air asylum at times :/ (literally was once on a muni bus that somebody was shitting on bc they were soooo far gone).

Berkeley- Rich hippy and friendly old activist vibes, naive college kids saving the world, streets get weird and a lil sketchy at night (at least downtown). I honestly have the least experience w Berkeley, so don't wanna talk too much shit.

Oakland- More dirty and grimey but people are more down to earth and generally acknowledge each other while out and about, lots of free food hook-ups through community orgs (at least in west oak/downtown), great urban exploring. Definitely a bit rougher, but as long as you've got your head on straight you shouldn't get into too much trouble.

 

[Tif138]

Oakland's not as bad as people make it out to be, things can go wrong fast though(like basically anywhere you go), as long as you use your wits and street smarts you should be fine. There's lots of free resources too and super close to Berkeley and SF, like a few stops away on BART, which both cities also have a ton of resources; every Saturday there's free vegetarian lunch at people's park in Berkeley(last I was down there for a bit they were doing it everyday but idk if it's still everyday rn). I always found it super easy to find a spot to sleep and not get harassed, never went hungry(dumpsters with lots of goodies are abundant)and felt relatively safe being a lady on my own. Sometimes some crazy shit goes down, but I feel like that happens everywhere you go, ya know? I'd say take the chance and go and if you don't like it you can always cut to somewhere else that's close by until you decide where to go from there. Safe travels.

-EDIT-oh jeez I originally didn't see how old this thread was...I hope you had a good time if you made it there