Oakland, Richmond named among the most dangerous cities (San Francisco, Pleasanton: foreclosures, rent)

[bayarea-girl]

artemis78, thank you for being a bit more level headed then the other fans of mine. It is funny that I am being called a troll and yes I can comment on Oakland because unlike people who were defending it earlier I use to live there and have experienced crime first hand.

Unfortunately, most of the people that get affected by elections either don't vote or are not eligible to do so. Oakland's economy is weak and the crime situation doesn't help, and people who keep defending it instead of trying to improve it is just delusional. Besides the violent crime it has too many sex offenders as residents. At one point wasn't it referred to as the murder capital? Oakland has a bad reputation which isn't going to change until people do something about it. But call me a troll or whatever I am entitled to my opinion.

[FresnoFacts]

Reputations are hard to change, even when something is done people hold on to old images.

There are still people who consider Fresno to have a crime problem even though it is at its lowest level of crime in 4 decades. Crime in Fresno is lower than Omaha, San Francisco, and other cities but many people still refuse to believe it.

Just this year homicides in Fresno dropped by another 25%, there have been only 40 this year in Fresno vs. 52 last year. Fresno has not been in the top 10 auto theft cities in years but many people still think of it that way.

Unfortunately even if Oakland crime dropped by 90% there would be people who would still say it had a crime problem.

It will take years to eliminate the reputation some people have developed of the city even though it has a lot of good to offer.

[artemis78]

I think you'd be surprised to find that many of the people defending it are *also* working hard to improve it. Most of us don't *have* to live here---we choose to live here in spite of the crime and reputation because of the many wonderful things about Oakland, and we choose to be engaged in our communities. Oakland does have a bad reputation, but the reputation is much worse than the reality, by and large. I feel safe in my neighborhood, and I live in a very middle-income flatlands neighborhood. That's not to say that my neighborhood is crime-free, but I certainly don't live my daily life afraid that someone is going to murder me. You're right that many of the murders are gun-related deaths, but even more of them are youth/young adults and especially young adults of color in the rougher neighborhoods. Oakland has been plagued by endemic violence for years in some of those neighborhoods, and it's been very difficult to get a handle on it. But remember---Oakland is 56 square miles, bigger than San Francisco, Manhattan, and other "big" cities. Over 420,000 people lived here at last count. There's a lot of diversity from neighborhood to neighborhood, and some are safer than others. To write off the entire city based on the roughest neighborhoods is like walking through parts of Vis Valley or Hunters' Point or the Tenderloin and shaking your head, saying "Man, why would anyone ever want to live in SF?" [And incidentally, I know people who live safely in some of those SF spots and love it there, too. It's all about your comfort level.]

I encourage you to visit Oakland regularly and check out the many things that Oaklanders *are* doing about it. See what's happening in Temescal, where residents and businesses recently hosted ice skating and holiday parades, or in Uptown, where there's a brand-new business association and restaurants are still signing new leases. Check out the dramatic changes in the Dimond and Laurel districts over the last few years. See the new condos and restaurants on Piedmont Avenue (but hopefully you don't want to buy a condo, because the newest building sold out pretty fast this summer---yup, that's at the height of the housing bust). The city's economy is actually surprisingly strong given the depths of this recession; the East Bay as a whole is bleeding jobs (one in every six California jobs lost is in the East Bay), and yet in Oakland, dozens of new businesses are opening. (True, Oakland's unemployment rate is still quite high, but some of that has to do with a disconnect between the new jobs and existing worker skill sets that's exacerbated by the loss of industrial and manufacturing jobs, especially at the port. It's not a problem unique to Oakland, although the City is working hard to try to solve it through new programs like the Green Job Corps.)

I don't mean to say that everything is rosy here, but I can absolutely say that I have seen marked, measurable improvement in the quality of life in my little corner of Oakland every year that I've lived here. That's not been true in every city that I've lived in, and especially not in the two cities I lived in during the last two recessions. Whether this trend will hold remains to be seen, but here's hoping.

[Oh, and on your last two notes---right now Oakland has around 1000 registered sex offenders, with 32 classified as "high risk," according to OPD. Quite honestly, that really doesn't worry me. We're talking a quarter of a percent of the population. As for being the murder capital, while our murder rate is intolerably high, last year it was on par with Philly, Atlanta, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis, and others. If you talk to people who live in those cities, you'll find that, like Oakland, they have their very nice neighborhoods and their very tough neighborhoods, and generalizing about life in those cities based on the murder rates is not terribly productive.]

[Ultrarunner]

artemis78... well put... many of us do choose to live here... third generation native son in my case or fifth generation if you include my Great Great Grandparents that moved here in the 1800's

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by bayarea-girl

Did anyone check out this out on SFgate today regarding the crime rate in Oakland?
Homicides in Oakland 2007/2008
SFGate : Oakland: Plague of Killing
SF Gate: In 2006, Ron "Henneessy" Jackson Jr. spoke with The Chron... (Camera and editing: Lacy Atkins, Chronicle Staff) Multimedia (video)

What's new about this? Same areas are bad and the same areas are good.

I just spent a week in La and i can honestly say we may have more crime here but they can't drive a car to save their lives.

Why is that?

Why does LA have such terrible drivers that they cannot go 4 freeway exits without running into someone or something?

I chose crime i can avoid in the city rather than crime (yes traffic accidents are crime)on the freeways which i cannot avoid. Possibly getting killed while traveling to my destination.

PASS

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by artemis78

[Oh, and on your last two notes---right now Oakland has around 1000 registered sex offenders, with 32 classified as "high risk," according to OPD. Quite honestly, that really doesn't worry me. We're talking a quarter of a percent of the population. As for being the murder capital, while our murder rate is intolerably high, last year it was on par with Philly, Atlanta, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis, and others. If you talk to people who live in those cities, you'll find that, like Oakland, they have their very nice neighborhoods and their very tough neighborhoods, and generalizing about life in those cities based on the murder rates is not terribly productive.]

I agree with you totally! We know it is not all bad, but some trolls are dead set on pointing fingers at Oakland and instead of coming up with ideas on how to make it a better city.

There is always room for improvement. MANY cities in this country could use improvement.

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by artemis78

I think you'd be surprised to find that many of the people defending it are *also* working hard to improve it. Most of us don't *have* to live here---we choose to live here in spite of the crime and reputation because of the many wonderful things about Oakland, and we choose to be engaged in our communities.

You are RIGHT ON! IT is really no worse than those cities you mentioned.

Some trolls just want to put it down without offerring any ideas on how to get Oakland away from it's negative image.



Does anyone remember if Oakland was bad in the 70's?

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by Taboo2

You are RIGHT ON! IT is really no worse than those cities you mentioned.

Some trolls just want to put it down without offerring any ideas on how to get Oakland away from it's negative image.



Does anyone remember if Oakland was bad in the 70's?

Yes...

Anyone have a source for Oakland Homicides going back to the 60's?

Seemed to me there were more homicides, population wise, back then.

[bayarea-girl]

Taboo2, there is so much information about Oakland and its reputation in the '70's. Just google it. If you want to label people trolls because they point out the obvious ok. What are people who defend and pretend like the crime situation isn't a problem or isn't as bad as victims say it is?

Anyways, good point about LA traffic.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by bayarea-girl

Taboo2, there is so much information about Oakland and its reputation in the '70's. Just google it. If you want to label people trolls because they point out the obvious ok. What are people who defend and pretend like the crime situation isn't a problem or isn't as bad as victims say it is?

Anyways, good point about LA traffic.

Reality is based on perception...

Reading numerous posts about Oakland over the years makes it clear to me there are at least two distinct Oaklands...