Besides Crime...What's Wrong with Oakland? (Alameda, Lincoln: magnet school, voucher, income)

[jsba]

it is a very nice building. have you ever seen the facade under the current one. its absolutely gorgeous. It has the bart entrance in the basement too. that building is not being used to its full potential.

[bigdumbgod]

For one who visits...the $35.00 parking at the arena is absurd. And the teams on the property need to leave the losing behind.

Then again, the Amtrak Sacramento Corridor line goes straight from San Jose to the Coliseum. BART goes there too, but only goes as far south as Fremont, and gets very crowded on gamedays.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

For one who visits...the $35.00 parking at the arena is absurd. And the teams on the property need to leave the losing behind.

Then again, the Amtrak Sacramento Corridor line goes straight from San Jose to the Coliseum. BART goes there too, but only goes as far south as Fremont, and gets very crowded on gamedays.

Is that how much they charge for Raiders games? Because A's and Warriors games are not nearly that much. I think it's like $16 or 17 for baseball and basketball games.

[daepro]

Besides being a great city with lots to do and see, I think a drawback for young families is the struggling public school system. It has a bad reputation. Although many of the teachers try hard, the scores are low and there is some motivation/discipline issues in the classroom that makes things difficult.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by daepro

Besides being a great city with lots to do and see, I think a drawback for young families is the struggling public school system. It has a bad reputation. Although many of the teachers try hard, the scores are low and there is some motivation/discipline issues in the classroom that makes things difficult.

It ultimately depends on where you go. I agree that the public school system should be a hell of a lot better but it's getting like that everywhere that isn't 100% upper middle class... the a lot of the schools in Redwood City (where I'm from) were worse than what I've seen in Oakland.

That being said, there are plenty of good public schools in Oakland (albeit mostly elementary) and a ton of great private ones. In my own vicinity, there's:

Sequoia Elementary (one of the best public elementary schools I've seen anywhere; diversity of the student body and parent involvement is unmatched)
Head Royce School (one of the top 50 private schools in the country; K-12)
Redwood Day (great private K-8)

And pretty much all of the schools in the Oakland Hills are great.

[aoeuhtnsi]

I moved here from New York City. It's SO boring, here. I can't wait to complete my lease and move to San Francisco.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by aoeuhtnsi

I moved here from New York City. It's SO boring, here. I can't wait to complete my lease and move to San Francisco.

I'm assuming you're talking about the nightlife. San Francisco is by far the best nightlife city in the Bay so I wouldn't blame you for finding Oakland's comparatively small scene boring. If you're talking in general though then I'd sooner argue that Oakland is what you make it. There's an abundance of concerts, open mics, festivals, theater groups, art events, etc. and Oakland has its fair share of interesting museums and other attractions. If you don't participate in anything then it's not going to be any better for you in San Francisco which has an equally activity-driven social scene. That's not to mention neighboring Berkeley, which obviously caters a lot to the college scene.

What in particular about Oakland do you find extremely boring?

[llowllevellowll]

Originally Posted by daepro

Besides being a great city with lots to do and see, I think a drawback for young families is the struggling public school system. It has a bad reputation. Although many of the teachers try hard, the scores are low and there is some motivation/discipline issues in the classroom that makes things difficult.

I complete left this out, which is in some ways tied obviously to Oakland's poor politik, but I think of special note are Oakland's poor high schools, especially.

In some neighborhoods, Oakland has one hell of a set of elementary schools, and in some cases, really good middle schools too, but the public high school situation is a mess. To go to 900+ scoring API elementary schools, to be in 800+ middle schools, and then drop down to 500-600+ high schools when probably that's where children progress or regress the most is beyond troubling.

Of course, Oakland isn't unique in that - in fact, it's more true to the state than anything, but it's certainly readily apparent here.

[04kL4nD]

I moved here from New York City. It's SO boring, here. I can't wait to complete my lease and move to San Francisco.

When you move to SF can you complain about how boring it is there too, and how much you want to move back to NYC?

[jman650]

Originally Posted by aoeuhtnsi

I moved here from New York City. It's SO boring, here. I can't wait to complete my lease and move to San Francisco.

You took the time to create an account and your only motivation so far was this lame, unhelpful post. Hmmm, something tells me this isn't the first time you've done this...