Help me avoid the bad areas of Oakland/Berkeley please!! (Vallejo: apartments, renting)

[cpeed]

Ok, I have decided on Oakland/Berkeley (or surrounding nice areas). What areas should I avoid, and what areas should I look into (specifically).

I would like to stay around 800 with a roommate(s). I need to have fairly easy parking, but would like to be close to BART. Do any of these areas have a BART station with free parking, or easy parking nearby?

Basically I am going to start looking on craigslist in these areas. When you say avoid "East Oakland", could you give me some landmarks or say "east of a certain place, and south of another". I will be pulling the house up on Google maps, but I am not extremely familiar with the area so im not exactly sure what qualifies as "east Oakland".

Thank you to everyone who responded in my previous thread. This is a very helpful forum, and has made my life quite a bit stressful as far as looking for an area to live in goes!

[lainie]

In my opinion, you should look at Albany if you can afford the rent, and with roommates that should not be a problem. You would be near both the North Berkeley and El Cerrito Bart stations. Good luck with your search.

[BerkeleyCali]

I like Albany as well, however everyone will charge you up the nose because of our school district--it is outrageous--so if you don't have school-aged children, then I would look at Berkeley/Oak first.

Anything in the Berkeley hills is going to be nice/high-end/safer, but may also cost more. I would suggest looking at North Berkeley, between Hopkins and the North Berkeley BART, and on up between those locations. Nice neighborhoods, more affordable than Albany, and close to BART. Howver, as you start going down (toward San Pablo Ave0, there is more *activity.*

I would also look at places surrounding UC Berkeley, and this will also be a good way to find a roommate, if you don't mind a college student. Downtown Berkeley is not so bad--may actually be a little fun. The areas you may want to avoid are West/South Berkeley, and some neighborhoods surrounding Ashby & MLK, streets right off of University ave, and some neighborhoods near San Pablo ave, and between San Pablo and I-80. ... I don't like even saying that, because Berkeley also has pockets of really nice neighborhoods in areas that may be considered "undesirable."

For instance, the neighborhoods near Ashby BART, as in right near BART, seem pretty shady. Howver, right around the corner, between Ashby & Dwight, are all of these sweet vicotorian homes and it is pretty nice. Before renting anything, walk around the neighborhood for a while and get a feel for it.

As far as Oakland, well that is even bigger and more complicated than Berk. The 2 areas I would suggest for a newcomer with a roommate would be Rockridge and anything near College Ave--BART station, lots of very cute shops, safe. And also look at Lake Merrit--there are many nice condos and apartments around there and also, nice things to do.

I don't know everything that encompases "east Oakland," but I have been through there and I would say just avoid anything on the map that even seems east, is between I-880 and I-580 from 14th on over or actually near the freeeways, anything near International BLVD ... can anyone else speak better to this? I assume the OP is looking to aviod areas with violent crime, correct?

It is hard to generalize the cities. Even in Oak, there are some lovely neighborhoods that I would definitely live in, and only a few blocks away everything changes.

Best of luck!

[Dane Clark]

Take a look around Rockridge.

[BearBranch]

Adams Point in Oakland

[nooneknowsmyname]

Montclair, Piedmont, North Berkeley, Albany

[tabithaP]

]Montclair, Piedmont, Rockridge anything off of Highway 13 is nice. Redwood Heights and Glenview are also really nice areas of Oakland. Avoid the flatlands and you will be fine. Oakland is a great place to live. I’ve lived several places and Oakland is the friendliest, I know all my neighbors.

[jwd707]

Stay out of Richmond. I live in Vallejo which is considered a rough area, but Richmond is crack head central. I work off off cutting and South 23rd, last week there was something like 7 murders. Sheesh

[City Boy]

As for Oakland: Look into Downtown/Lake Merritt Area, Rockridge. Downtown is really being revitalized and lots of really nice condo's going up.

Avoid, most of North Oakland, West Oakland and East Oakland. South Berkeley is the only "Bad" part of Berkeley.

[Ultrarunner]

Oakland is a large and very diverse city and it is true that property values increase with elevation.

Here are several great neighborhoods in "East Oakland" ... Sheffield Village, Chabot Park Estates, Grass Valley, Skyline, Elysian Fields, Keller, Oak Knoll... etc with parks, golf courses and riding stables in the area.

The one thing they all have in common is that they are geographically located above the 580 freeway.