Why is Oakland the most dangerous city in Calif? (Stockton: violent crime, neighborhoods)

[Heatherme]

Is the reason poverty?

[DocGoldstein]

You're kind of opening up a can of worms here. Lots of sensitive people and a sensitive topic for some who live there. I hope you have your flame suit on.

In general though, I think it's a mix of poverty, and racial tension. The poverty causes some youth to pursue "easier" ways to make money, coupled with racial tension, especially between hispanics and blacks, drives a lot of the gang warfare. You can also add a crumbling infrastructure, and a huge deficit, which all hurt the management of public services like schools, and law enforcement. Somewhat incompetent politicians have not helped either.

[aslowdodge]

DocGoldstein hit it on the head. Is oakland really that much more dangerous than Stockton, East palo Alto, parts of LA?

[sonarrat]

The majority of violent crimes are black on black, as they are in many inner city areas, and typically gang related. And yes, these days, it is more dangerous than EPA or Stockton.

[Glenview94602]

I agree that Oakland poltical leadership has been lacking since Jerry Brown left and what is happening now in Oakland neighborhoods is sad. That being said, Oakland is a spread out city with many different distrcits. Oakland has a mix of very rich districts up in the hills, middle class ones in the lower hills and lake area, trendy ones like Temescal that are starting get lots of young artists from SF, and wealthy districts like Rockridge, along with very poor ones in East Oakland (actually south beacuase east is the hills). So the homicide rate is sad becuase most of the murders take place in two or three areas of town so if you compare that area with the state or Oakland itself, the number is very high. But, if you compare Oakland above of 580 (and even even more, above 13) there is a drastic difference.

We do need better leadership and more police though. No one will argue that. But, Oakland is a spread out city and South Stonehurst is not the same as Rockridge.

[fashionguy]

Exactly. The distance between downtown Oakland and South Stonehurst is longer than the distance between downtown Hayward and downtown Castro Valley, also longer than downtown Oakland to downtown Berkeley. South Stonehurst is much closer to the center of San Leandro than downtown Oakland. While I admit Oakland has its significantly bad areas, I don't think it is fair to count crime by city limits and generalize it to the entire city. One has to look at exactly where the bad areas are. Is it better to be in a city with safer reputation but geographically closer to the bad areas, or in a city with worse reputation, but in a nice part farther away from the bad areas?

Originally Posted by Glenview94602

I agree that Oakland poltical leadership has been lacking since Jerry Brown left and what is happening now in Oakland neighborhoods is sad. That being said, Oakland is a spread out city with many different distrcits. Oakland has a mix of very rich districts up in the hills, middle class ones in the lower hills and lake area, trendy ones like Temescal that are starting get lots of young artists from SF, and wealthy districts like Rockridge, along with very poor ones in East Oakland (actually south beacuase east is the hills). So the homicide rate is sad becuase most of the murders take place in two or three areas of town so if you compare that area with the state or Oakland itself, the number is very high. But, if you compare Oakland above of 580 (and even even more, above 13) there is a drastic difference.

We do need better leadership and more police though. No one will argue that. But, Oakland is a spread out city and South Stonehurst is not the same as Rockridge.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

You're kind of opening up a can of worms here. Lots of sensitive people and a sensitive topic for some who live there. I hope you have your flame suit on.

In general though, I think it's a mix of poverty, and racial tension. The poverty causes some youth to pursue "easier" ways to make money, coupled with racial tension, especially between hispanics and blacks, drives a lot of the gang warfare. You can also add a crumbling infrastructure, and a huge deficit, which all hurt the management of public services like schools, and law enforcement. Somewhat incompetent politicians have not helped either.

You have zero idea what you're talking about.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

You have zero idea what you're talking about.

Yeah, that was laughable.

I think some people took 1990s South Central LA gang movies a bit too seriously.

[Dood912]

i think the poorer it gets, the more dangerous/desperate

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Yeah, that was laughable.

I think some people took 1990s South Central LA gang movies a bit too seriously.

He probably thinks there's bloods and crips up here too lol. Literally all it takes to know that his statement is BS is spending 5 minutes anywhere in East Oakland. Clearly he hasn't even spent that amount of time here and yet thinks he can speak authoritatively about Oakland crime rofl.