Rant: Tired of people asking if it's safe in Oakland (San Francisco: minimum wage, buses)

[Natural510]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

Boy, 5, shot dead in Oakland - latest young victim

Oakland isn't safe. You don't see this kind of crap happening in most suburban parts of the Bay Area. Its a pervasive culture of violence by a certain demographic and if you want to label that racist so be it.

You also don't see it in North Oakland, downtown Oakland, the Lake area or the Oakland Hills.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

Boy, 5, shot dead in Oakland - latest young victim

Oakland isn't safe. You don't see this kind of crap happening in most suburban parts of the Bay Area. Its a pervasive culture of violence by a certain demographic and if you want to label that racist so be it.

You mean to say that you don't see people getting killed by stray bullets in Bay Area suburbs? Are you trying to say that these kids were targeted? I 100% agree that these events are terrible, but ever heard the adage "bullets have no names"? It's true. This stuff can just as easily happen in EPA (where it did a couple months ago), Redwood City, ESSJ, Hayward, Berkeley, Antioch, etc... where there's gun violence, the possibility for stray bullets killing children becomes greater.

And not to be slightly off-topic, but who fact-checks SF Gate? I didn't know 7th & Willow was in East Oakland.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

Boy, 5, shot dead in Oakland - latest young victim

Oakland isn't safe. You don't see this kind of crap happening in most suburban parts of the Bay Area. Its a pervasive culture of violence by a certain demographic and if you want to label that racist so be it.

Yes, the demographic is socio-economic, not racial.

Its a matter of upbringing or lack thereof, a matter of people NOT teaching their children to respect the law and respect the right others have to live--and this can happen to anyone of any race.

As far as labelling oneself as racist, well you did that to yourself.

@ NinetiesFlava, SFGate is an embarrassment to SF and the entire Bay Area. I can't believe that a world city like SF can tolerate having such a sophomoric, provincial and catty daily newspaper such as the COMICAL, I mean Chronicle.

[rah]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

Boy, 5, shot dead in Oakland - latest young victim

Oakland isn't safe. You don't see this kind of crap happening in most suburban parts of the Bay Area.

Yes you do. You see children getting murdered in Oakland, you see it SF, you see it in SJ, you see it in Hayward, Richmond, East Palo Alto, Vallejo, Daly City, South San Francisco, Antioch, Fairfield, Union City, Santa Rosa, Berkeley, San Pablo, etc, etc. Bad neighborhoods, shootings, murders (including murdered children) are not something unique to Oakland, at all. Oakland has the highest violent crime rate overall, and you may see the most young people getting murdered there on a yearly basis (Oakland probably has traded that stat with SF a couple times in the past) but that doesn't mean the city is "unsafe" as a whole. When it comes to crime it's more about neighborhoods. SF, Richmond, Vallejo, East Palo alto, etc, and plenty of other cities and suburbs around the nation all have parts that are as bad as what you can find in Oakland. And just like so most other cities, Oakland has many good parts in addition to the bad.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

Oakland isn't safe. You don't see this kind of crap happening in most suburban parts of the Bay Area.

Why are we comparing a city with suburbs anyway?

[Marv95]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

"Depending on the area you walk through"... How is that any comfort to a visitor who does not know what areas to avoid? If some areas are perfectly safe, then the extremely high violent crime rates the city has means the unsafe areas are deadly. Especially for anyone unfamiliar with the area who could easily stumble into one of them. The entire city is only 78 square miles in area, so its all those unsafe areas are pretty darn close to the so called safe areas. Why should I as a visitor want to bring my tourist dollars or business dollars to a city like this?

Oakland wasn't safe for the 90 people who were murdered there last year, or the 318 that were forcibly raped.

Haven't you heard a thing called research? If I'm a tourist who knows nothing about the city other than what the media tries to spoon-feed me, I would do some research on where to go and where not to go. That's what I did when I visited DC and Baltimore.

And many of those 90 people weren't random; they were caught up in the ghetto lifestyle I bet.

[mayorhaggar]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

@ NinetiesFlava, SFGate is an embarrassment to SF and the entire Bay Area. I can't believe that a world city like SF can tolerate having such a sophomoric, provincial and catty daily newspaper such as the COMICAL, I mean Chronicle.

SF is way more provincial than people there think it is. Newspapers in general suck anyway, other than a few like the New York Times. And even if the NYT was based in SF they'd still run fearmongering stories about crime in Oakland while ignoring crime in SF.

Originally Posted by Marv95

And many of those 90 people weren't random; they were caught up in the ghetto lifestyle I bet.

"Aspiring rappers."

[T. Damon]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

This is Oakland...


...and so is this

TrestleGlen



It's like night and day. It's pretty absurd to try to stereotype an entire city.

That 2nd neighborhood is absolutely gorgeous, like a hilly, windy Hancock Park but with even more approachable cottage architecture and density.

[CTC]

It is all about perspective. If you would have asked me back in in 1974 when I was a scared 12 year old riding the bus from Berkeley to Oakland for little league practice I would have said no (I did not feel that way in Berkeley because I was never robbed in Berkeley).

If you would ask my Dad today who lives near the corner of San Pablo and Stanford ( because that is where he can afford to live and he is involved with the Siddah Yoga Foundation), he would say yes very emphatically (he was knocked down and mugged in front of his house in broad daylight back in the '90's)

If you were to ask our friend who lives up in the Oakland hills his answer would be different-it is like a different world up there.

Oakland is a smorgasbord and patchwork of neighborhoods and people.And those who ask questions about safety and safe areas are just trying to figure things out and prepare for the worst. Nothing wrong with that. You can get into trouble FAST in Oakland if you are not on your game. Been there and done that.

I will end by saying that my Dad's area seems to be getting a bit better-there are some new businesses and San Pablo wasn't so bad the last time I visited-less gun shot/siren noises at night as well.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by jade408

"only" 78 square miles? FYI SF has 2x the people in 49 square miles. I don't know where you live, but that's pretty big geographically.

And yet San Francisco has less then half of the violent crime rate that Oakland has. Four times higher density but half the crime rate!