I miss Oakland so much. (San Francisco, Vista: crime, house, law school)

[oakland89]

About 5 years ago, my mom and I relocated to Hartford, CT. ( I think they need to shut that whole state down..its horrible! ) But anyway I miss Oakland (california) so much. I hear people talking about it, saying its this nd its that, and how they wanna leave but truth be told, I have never had any ill feelings towards Oakland. I loved growing up there. But that could also have alot to do with the fact that I didnt grow up in east Oakland. I didnt live in the burbs by no means but in no way shape or form was it the ghetto. I grew up on Grande Vista Place. It was cool.

[18Montclair]

I miss it too. Terribly.

But I live just over in Marin so I go home quite frequently.

[City Boy]

What I love about Oakland is so many people are scared of it they stay away not realizing how unique and physically beautiful the city is around Lake Merritt and many other areas of the city. The Media loves to down play how violent our famous neighbor city of San Francisco is, while making Oakland seem like Baghdad when in Reality San Francisco has a large amount of murders that other crime that hardly gets noticed in fear of driving away tourists. I remember 16 people were shot to death in a two week span across the Bay in "peaceful" San Francisco.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by City Boy

What I love about Oakland is so many people are scared of it they stay away not realizing how unique and physically beautiful the city is around Lake Merritt and many other areas of the city. The Media loves to down play how violent our famous neighbor city of San Francisco is, while making Oakland seem like Baghdad when in Reality San Francisco has a large amount of murders that other crime that hardly gets noticed in fear of driving away tourists. I remember 16 people were shot to death in a two week span across the Bay in "peaceful" San Francisco.

My in-laws are in town from Missouri and we took them to my parents house for dinner...there were like 20 of us all together. Anyway, they had always thought Oakland would be a bigger version of East St Louis.

Anyway,
Let's just say they were pleasantly surprised.

[Lulu101]

Years ago I made the huge mistake of taking a greyhound bus cross-country. There were three individuals returning to "Oaktown" as they referred to it (how silly is that?) from a march on the east coast. They kept disrupting the bus and talking loudly (even late at night) the whole 3 day journey across country!

After that experience, I will believe anything good I hear about "oaktown"

Originally Posted by oakland89

About 5 years ago, my mom and I relocated to Hartford, CT. ( I think they need to shut that whole state down..its horrible! ) But anyway I miss Oakland (california) so much. I hear people talking about it, saying its this nd its that, and how they wanna leave but truth be told, I have never had any ill feelings towards Oakland. I loved growing up there. But that could also have alot to do with the fact that I didnt grow up in east Oakland. I didnt live in the burbs by no means but in no way shape or form was it the ghetto. I grew up on Grande Vista Place. It was cool.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Lulu101

Years ago I made the huge mistake of taking a greyhound bus cross-country. There were three individuals returning to "Oaktown" as they referred to it (how silly is that?) from an event called the million man march. They kept disrupting the bus and talking loudly (even late at night)the whole 3 day journey across country!

After that experience, I will believe anything good I hear about "oaktown"

Forgive me if convincing you isnt at the top of our to-do list.

Every tree has some bad apples, but that doesnt mean we cut down the whole tree.

[Lulu101]

Don't mean to offend anyone, I'm just sharing my one (awful) experience with the residents of "Oaktown".
I've also heard bad things about the place from other people as well.

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Forgive me if convincing you isnt at the top of our to-do list.

Every tree has some bad apples, but that doesnt mean we cut down the whole tree.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Lulu101

Don't mean to offend anyone, I'm just sharing my one (awful) experience with the residents of "Oaktown".
I've also heard bad things about the place from other people as well.

And that's fine...but guess what? There are folks out there who absolutely love the place, myself included.

So much so that I'm moving back from Marin County-one of the wealthiest and most well regarded places in the entire country, why?

Quite frankly, I miss the diversity, not just as far as race, but I miss being around people of different socio-economic classes as well as the different kinds of amenities each has available to them. Like a burrito truck, it just doesnt exist in Tiburon.

[Lulu101]

We all have a right to our opinion. But please understand that a nightmare 3 day bus trip trapped with 3 punks has closed my mind on the subject permanently--you can't understand unless you've been through something like that.

The funny thing was, they kept insulting San Francisco (I don't like that place much either, actually.), and it's hippies. They were making fun of some hippie with rich parents who had decided to live in a treehouse there. Then when bus passed by San Fran one of them sneered in an immature way that "he didn't even want to look at the city". Finally (and mercifully), the bus dumped them off in "Oaktown".

I can still remember what a terrible experience that was, after all these years.

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

And that's fine...but guess what? There are folks out there who absolutely love the place, myself included.

So much so that I'm moving back from Marin County-one of the wealthiest and most well regarded places in the entire country, why?

Quite frankly, I miss the diversity, not just as far as race, but I miss being around people of different socio-economic classes as well as the different kinds of amenities each has available to them. Like a burrito truck, it just doesnt exist in Tiburon.

[City Boy]

Originally Posted by Lulu101

Don't mean to offend anyone, I'm just sharing my one (awful) experience with the residents of "Oaktown".
I've also heard bad things about the place from other people as well.

So 3 people allows you to base your opinion on a city with over 400 thousand people. . Yes thats it, those 3 people represent the entire city and the 1 million plus in the immediate Oakland area. All Law School students are like Ted Bundy also.