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I live in Oakland and I am a self admitted cheerleader. Contrary to the news reports it can be a great place to live for lots of types of people.
One thing I find, especially online, is that there are an extraordinary number of "haters" that like to bash Oakland.
Our local paper's comment section is full of racist comments from people who live thousands of miles away. In the city section here on c-d there are new spammers daily who dug up old threads to add a thinly veiled racist comment or a news story that is several years old. I don't have that kind of time to devote to something I hate.
Oakland is a super diverse place, and probably very representative of the future of the US. It is nearly evenly mixed ethnically, there is not an ethnic majority in the city, dozens of languages are spoken, many neighborhoods are ethnically mixed, and the city is fairly evenly divided between rich, middle class and poor.
I think this diversity is very scary to some people and represents a future they do not want so they feel compelled to bash the city.
I don't think it has anything to do with the diversity of the city at all. Being from Sacramento we get news stories from the Bay Area on a daily basis, and unfortunately an overwhelming majority of the stories out of Oakland are negative. If we are this close, yet mainly seeing negative stories, I can only imagine what the rest of the country is seeing. I mean they made not one but two TV shows called Gang Wars: Oakland lol. Until I got a little bit older, I thought San Francisco was where all the affluent socialites lived, and all the poor people lived in Oakland. Now that I'm older, and have spent a lot of time in the Bay, I see that both cities are a lot more similar than I ever realized. San Francisco has plenty of "ghetto" areas, and Oakland has some very nice affluent neighborhoods believe it or not . Unfortunately all anyone outside of the bay hears about, is how nice and wonderful San Francisco is, and how gang-infested, and poor people in Oakland are. It's somewhat similar to what happens with Sacramento. We're so close to cities such as: SF, SJ, Vallejo, Berkeley, Lake Tahoe, Reno and even LA and SD that it's like it becomes a competition and cities are judged based on where they rank next to those cities.
Oakland has a crime problem that is necessary for California's prison industrial complex. There will always be high crime in Oakland because those prisons need young men and women to fill them. Prisons are America's cash cow, and California greatly benefits. The public schools use to prepare people for local factory jobs. Now, the public schools are preparing people for local prisons. This is happening all over the U.S., but especially CA.
Are you satisfied with the level of crime and the living conditions in Oakland?
I want less crime of course. But does it impact my daily life? No. I live in a middle class + area. We don't have crime often. In my building someone's ladder was stolen. I feel fine walking around etc.
What I do worry about is the small businesses downtown hit by "protesters" for no reason and that sort of thing.
Oakland is not the only place in the country that has crime. And positive stuff happens all the time. Of course that isn't the narrative about the town.
Oakland has a crime problem that is necessary for California's prison industrial complex. There will always be high crime in Oakland because those prisons need young men and women to fill them. Prisons are America's cash cow, and California greatly benefits. The public schools use to prepare people for local factory jobs. Now, the public schools are preparing people for local prisons. This is happening all over the U.S., but especially CA.
That's very considerate of the thugs for keeping the prison system in operation. They should be commended.
I want less crime of course. But does it impact my daily life? No. I live in a middle class + area. We don't have crime often. In my building someone's ladder was stolen. I feel fine walking around etc.
What I do worry about is the small businesses downtown hit by "protesters" for no reason and that sort of thing.
Oakland is not the only place in the country that has crime. And positive stuff happens all the time. Of course that isn't the narrative about the town.
I am on my phone, please forgive the typos.
So, because you aren't directly affected, those that are directly affected don't deserve to have the thugs in their community criticized?
there are an extraordinary number of "haters" that like to bash Oakland.
Really? More than dozens (hundreds?) of other towns? How do we know your assertion is true? Do you have any evidence of data that Oakland is bashed more than (most) other towns? How do we know this isn't simply an assumption on your part?
The extraordinary numbers of "concerned" citizens seem to be pretty far removed from Oakland. Sometimes as close as 300 miles away. And sometimes as far as 2000 miles away. It does seem a little strange so many people are concerned about things really far from their own backyard.
I am well aware there are plenty of things in Oakland that need improvement. There are lots of things that are good.
But i am very skeptical that the "concern" and criticism of Oakland is coming from an honest place. Something else is going on.
I want less crime of course. But does it impact my daily life? No. I live in a middle class + area. We don't have crime often. In my building someone's ladder was stolen. I feel fine walking around etc.
What I do worry about is the small businesses downtown hit by "protesters" for no reason and that sort of thing.
Oakland is not the only place in the country that has crime. And positive stuff happens all the time. Of course that isn't the narrative about the town.
I am on my phone, please forgive the typos.
I've not read anywhere about Oakland being the only place with crime.
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. Unfortunately all anyone outside of the bay hears about, is how nice and wonderful San Francisco is, and how gang-infested, and poor people in Oakland are. It's somewhat similar to what happens with Sacramento. We're so close to cities such as: SF, SJ, Vallejo, Berkeley, Lake Tahoe, Reno and even LA and SD that it's like it becomes a competition and cities are judged based on where they rank next to those cities.
