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View Poll Results: Besides San Francisco, which Norcal city has the best downtown?
Sacramento 15 30.61%
San Jose 8 16.33%
Oakland 13 26.53%
Monterey 2 4.08%
Berkeley 6 12.24%
Other 5 10.20%
Voters: 49. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 02-28-2011, 05:20 PM
 
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Old 02-28-2011, 08:34 PM
 
Location: East Bay Area
1,993 posts, read 3,548,122 times
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Oakland!!!!


http://create.realestateshows.com/sh...39/orig/04.jpg


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/48/16...166ac1c2_b.jpg

http://trsullivan.mlblogs.com/golden%20moon.jpg (broken link)
http://trsullivan.mlblogs.com/golden%20moon.jpg (broken link)
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Old 03-01-2011, 12:48 AM
 
Location: Piedmont, CA
36,392 posts, read 65,767,477 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pistola916 View Post
Sacramento is Nor Cal's Second City.
I have never heard that one before. Even when I lived in Sac.

Anyway, Downtown Oakland:

http://www.openaircinema.us/blog/wp-...b3a5df9d34.jpg

http://www.hereorthere.com/images_library/p_big2_2310.jpg?1185631095 (broken link)
http://www.hereorthere.com/images_library/p_big2_2310.jpg?1185631095 (broken link)


http://sf.streetsblog.org/wp-content...n_shopping.jpg


http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.co...pg?w=450&h=337


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2605/...62dfe30b4c.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1195/...80c40e6cdb.jpg


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fpXfXkgaV7...California.jpg


http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/...re0119_01x.jpg


http://www.rofo.com/content/building...c7b285c0a5.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/...122bb87bc8.jpg
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Old 03-01-2011, 02:31 AM
 
Location: San Leandro
4,576 posts, read 8,996,077 times
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Downtown SF is the only real down town in Nor Cal, anything after that is a crap shoot.
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Old 03-01-2011, 04:09 AM
 
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
1,482 posts, read 5,116,089 times
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Where's the lively part of downtown Oakland? Every time I've gone through in the evening or weekend it has practically been a ghost town. Every time we're down there we think what a shame it is that the area has nothing going on. Lots of interesting buildings but nearly empty streets.
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Old 03-01-2011, 06:26 AM
 
Location: West Coast
1,308 posts, read 4,061,806 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ImRandy View Post
Where's the lively part of downtown Oakland? Every time I've gone through in the evening or weekend it has practically been a ghost town. Every time we're down there we think what a shame it is that the area has nothing going on. Lots of interesting buildings but nearly empty streets.
This is my feeling on Oakland. Obviously the economy is crap in most places, but even Jack London Square seems to have been very hard. I could imagine it much more lively in a stronger economy. Though it is a good start. Like I said, I think Oakland's skyline looks the best, but street level can be debated.

Oakland seems more multinodal in terms of areas of interest. The best in terms of food/bars is the Rockridge section in North Oakland, in my personal opinion. But that is the nice thing, you have Downtown, JLS, and Rockridge to choose from.

The picture with the hyena's is awesome.

Last edited by vdy1985; 03-01-2011 at 06:44 AM..
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Old 03-01-2011, 09:10 AM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,587 posts, read 26,757,380 times
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Appearance-wise, I'd have to go with Oakland. As mentioned though, it's a ghost town at night but I'm going just on appearance. I love my hometown like anyone else but Berkeley scarcely has a downtown at all. However it's livelier than Oakland's. Not sure what those people are doing or where they're going though.
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Old 03-01-2011, 09:35 AM
 
Location: Piedmont, CA
36,392 posts, read 65,767,477 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ImRandy View Post
Where's the lively part of downtown Oakland?
During the day there are approx 80,000-100,000 people in Downtown Oakland and its plenty vibrant in the civic center area down through the area around the Cathedral and Kaiser HQ. Oakland's Chinatown, located in Downtown, is the most vibrant Bay Area neighborhood outside of San Francisco. Hello?

Quote:
Every time I've gone through in the evening or weekend it has practically been a ghost town.
In this respect, Oakland is no different from 9/10 downtowns that are trying to recreate the magic it had decades ago.

On the other hand, Uptown is really quite active on weekends. Places such as Pican, Ozumo, Luka's, Cafe Van Kleef, the Den, Flora, not to mention the various art galleries, night clubs and the Fox Theater itself have all collectively created a very fun place to go to on weekend nights.

As a native Oaklander who moved around the world and then came back, I couldnt believe how jumping the area is on a friday night-that was unheard of in my day as a kid. LOL

Furthemore, Oakland has attracted a subset of hipster that is NOT the martini-sipping, gucci clad wannabe. No, we have artists who like to play with metal and fire, musicians who fuse jazz with rock, fashion desginers who use rubber and lace. Its really cool to be honest and Im glad we arent evolving into North Beach or the Marina.

No, if you are looking for the Marina District or North Beach, go to Rockridge, Lakeshore-Grand or Temescal.

Downtown Oakland's scene is more alternative and edgier and I really like that.

Quote:
But that is the nice thing, you have Downtown, JLS, and Rockridge to choose from.
Jack London Square is part of Downtown and has struggling to stake a place for itself now that Uptown has taken so much of its thunder as far as bars and restaurants. On the other hand, JLS has probably seen more new housing projects in the past 10 years than anywhere else in the city. I am confident that its vibrancy will pick up as more amenities come online. Still, you have Yoshi's, Everett and Jones, Kimball's Carnival and the Jack London Cinemas and a bunch of other things you can do.

As far as areas outside of Downtown:
Rockridge, Temescal, Lakeshore, Grand Av, Piedmont Av, Montclair Village all have their own vibrant night activities. To a lesser degree, Dimond, Laurel.

And if I think about vibrancy overall, the Fruitvale/Foothill/International Corridor is quite vibrant for most of the day and into the evenings as well. I think that corridor is actually tops in Oakland during the day after Chinatown and the Downtown core.

New Chinatown also has vibrancy, heck International's only real drop in noticeable vibrancy is that strip between New Chinatown and around 23rd Av.

In other words, whether in Downtown or out, Oakland always exudes a big city feel to it that I dont think is lacking in either San Jose or Sacramento, but is less evident.
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Old 03-01-2011, 01:03 PM
 
1,094 posts, read 2,134,858 times
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San Jose has the worst downtown? The joke is on you.
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