Worst city in the Bay Area to live in? (Oakland: income, restaurant)

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

Agreed Bland Jose is extremely lacking for a city of its size and population.

I won't disagree with this, but that doesn't make it the worst place to live in. There's plenty of places in the bay area that are much smaller that are also bland for a city their size (i.e. pretty much the entire East Bay except for Berkeley & Oakland), and I'd much rather live in a bland city of 1M than a bland city of 200k.

[Taboo2]

I vote Richmond, any city who has a student get gang raped at their own prom and no one gave a crap (other STUDENTS that is) has a REAL serious problem going on.

[Stephen1110]

I didn't see anything about Oakland's murder rate being in the top ten.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Ah! There's an interesting observation.

In my experience, EPA's neighborhoods are all pretty working class and I don't know if there are any actual upscale neighborhoods there but maybe there's something a forumer more familiar with the area can share with us.

Otherwise, you may be on to something.

In the East Bay, the first city that came to mind was San Pablo, but upon further research, there are 2 neighborhoods there that are hilly with really nice views and have nicer homes. One directly East of 80 and one directly above Contra Costa College, up San Pablo Av towards the Pinole border.

Otherwise, I know all the usual suspects have at least one or more decent if not nice neighborhoods-EXCEPT EPA(in my experience, but I could be wrong).

EPA has the area east of the Ikea Plaza. EPA is tiny anyway and its sole purpose is to be the working class workforce in the upper income cities that surround it. Same with North Fair Oaks which is technically its own city but is more commonly known as East Redwood City. However, despite this, it still has plenty of local restaurants and shops (Back-A-Yard Jamaican, Mi Pueblo, Best Buy, IKEA, etc) that still make it better than some cities in the bay area that have absolutely nothing.


The area east of the Ikea:

East Palo Alto - Google Maps



A better contender for the worst city in the bay is Marin City. It has one ****ty retail area and its a glorified neighborhood (and a bad one at that). Unless you already live there, there's zero reason to move there. The argument for Marin City is that its next to some of the nicest cities in the bay area but if you're living in Marin City I doubt you have the money to enjoy the surrounding area.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Radical347

Yes, it is...
United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You can click to sort by each crime.

We are happy to see 3 solid years of decline in crime across the board as well as in our homicide rate, which is down around 50% from just 3 years ago.

Furthermore, even with its crime rate, Oakland still is NOT the worst city in the Bay Area.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

EPA has the area east of the Ikea Plaza. EPA is tiny anyway and its sole purpose is to be the working class workforce in the upper income cities that surround it. Same with North Fair Oaks which is technically its own city but is more commonly known as East Redwood City. However, despite this, it still has plenty of local restaurants and shops (Back-A-Yard Jamaican, Mi Pueblo, Best Buy, IKEA, etc) that still make it better than some cities in the bay area that have absolutely nothing.


The area east of the Ikea:

East Palo Alto - Google Maps



A better contender for the worst city in the bay is Marin City. It has one ****ty retail area and its a glorified neighborhood (and a bad one at that). Unless you already live there, there's zero reason to move there. The argument for Marin City is that its next to some of the nicest cities in the bay area but if you're living in Marin City I doubt you have the money to enjoy the surrounding area.

Interesting take on EPA. Great Info. In your experience how nice is their nicest neighborhood?

Marin City is another one that I didnt think of.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Interesting take on EPA. Great Info. In your experience how nice is their nicest neighborhood?

Marin City is another one that I didnt think of.

In my experience, while it experiences higher property crime than on the other side of 101 it tends to be made up of some people who work in IT and have a large family already but can't afford a big enough house on the other side of 101 or occassionally Stanford students who know they're going to stay in silicon valley after graduating. Its pretty firmly lower-middle to middle class but its surrounded by areas that are firmly working class.


Interestingly, though, EPA is made up of an equal amount of tiny craftsman homes and big million dollar 2 story houses that look like they belong on the other side of 101. EPA is slowly being gentrified... 10 years from now there will probably be a much larger population of silicon valleyites. Its somewhat of a fluke that EPA's lasted this long... its sitting on prime real estate, its in the heart of silicon valley and it connects to more SV jobs in the east bay. Its also home to plenty of IT offices.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

In my experience, while it experiences higher property crime than on the other side of 101 it tends to be made up of some people who work in IT and have a large family already but can't afford a big enough house on the other side of 101 or occassionally Stanford students who know they're going to stay in silicon valley after graduating. Its pretty firmly lower-middle to middle class but its surrounded by areas that are firmly working class.


Interestingly, though, EPA is made up of an equal amount of tiny craftsman homes and big million dollar 2 story houses that look like they belong on the other side of 101. EPA is slowly being gentrified... 10 years from now there will probably be a much larger population of silicon valleyites. Its somewhat of a fluke that EPA's lasted this long... its sitting on prime real estate, its in the heart of silicon valley and it connects to more SV jobs in the east bay. Its also home to plenty of IT offices.

Good info.

EPA also has a Four Seasons, only-in-silicon-valley would there be such a high brow hotel in a working class town-because as you stated it surrounded by Billionaires and Multi-millionaires.

I was comparing the income stats between EPA and Oakland and its very interesting cause Oakland has a slightly higher % of poor people than EPA, but it also has a much higher % of upper income people.

[Stephen1110]

Can anyone find data that shows Oakland's murder rate being in the top ten, and it being so for 20/24 years?

Or better yet. Can it be found? No. Because it doesn't exist.

For example:


Highest Murder Rate US Cities - Top 10 - Internet's definitive top list - best, most, greatest of everything ranked User Contributed Rankings - ShareRanks.com

2005 Murder Rate in Cities — Infoplease.com

Murder Rate in US Cities worst state city for shootings murders

[EastBayDefector]

Worst city is Bay Point, but everywhere there sucks.