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People who arent familiar tend to be shocked. They come here expecting Compton from the 1990s and instead often find the complete opposite.
From Niche:
Resident Population of Neighborhoods that Scored A+, A or A- as Places to Live:
Oakland: 176,045(40% of city total)
Providence: 38,191(22% of the city total)
Resident Population of Neighborhoods that Scored A+ as a Place to Live:
Oakland: 43,234
Providence: 0
So a full 40% of Oaklanders live in trendy, and or affluent, and or established, and or very posh districts and neighborhoods that score an A as far as livability. Not bad.
This doesnt even include Piedmont, the small town I live in, completely surrounded by Oakland on all sides.
My sister's husband worked as a guidance counselor at the middle school in Piedmont. He said the parents there were super entitled and intolerable. He had previously been at a school in San Mateo where the vast majority of kids were Hispanic and poor and most parents could barely speak English. He said that it obviously had its challenges but he liked it so much better than the Piedmont school.
People who arent familiar tend to be shocked. They come here expecting Compton from the 1990s and instead often find the complete opposite.
From Niche:
Resident Population of Neighborhoods that Scored A+, A or A- as Places to Live:
Oakland: 176,045(40% of city total)
Providence: 38,191(22% of the city total)
Resident Population of Neighborhoods that Scored A+ as a Place to Live:
Oakland: 43,234
Providence: 0
So a full 40% of Oaklanders live in trendy, and or affluent, and or established, and or very posh districts and neighborhoods that score an A as far as livability. Not bad.
This doesnt even include Piedmont, the small town I live in, completely surrounded by Oakland on all sides.
This speaks volumes about which city is better. Because its. coming from the residents. No control variable would account for such large differences.
Oakland is a city with half the poverty and 3x the housing costs of Prov obviously its more desirable .
If I were to keep the New England comparisons -Oakland seems like if you combined the mystic Valley cities (Chelsea Revere etc) and Cambridge. Or if you mushed Cambridge and Providence together.
Or perhaps Oakland is just Boston without the downtown and universities. Boston south of Massachusetts Avenue. Providence is just not fairly comparable imo
This speaks volumes about which city is better. Because its. coming from the residents. No control variable would account for such large differences.
Oakland is a city with half the poverty and 3x the housing costs of Prov obviously its more desirable .
Yes, Oakland is definitely much wealthier. I don't think that makes the two uncomparable, though. San Francisco and Philadelphia have a larger difference in % living in poverty than Oakland and Providence. The former comparison happens all the time.
You also make it sound like Providence has absolutely no nice and trendy areas. 18Montclaire's post already refutes that (22% of residents living in "A- or above" neighborhoods). I know College Hill at least is quite nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade
The most common Asian group is Laotian, not Chinese m, Filipino, Vietnamese or Korean.
Per wiki, Providence's most dominant Asian ethnicity is Cambodian not Laotian. Do you have a source that says differently?
Last edited by Boston Shudra; 05-01-2020 at 08:10 AM..
Yes, Oakland is definitely much wealthier. I don't think that makes the two uncomparable, though. San Francisco and Philadelphia have a larger difference in % living in poverty than Oakland and Providence. The former comparison happens all the time.
You also make it sound like Providence has absolutely no nice and trendy areas. 18Montclaire's post already refutes that (22% of residents living in "A- or above" neighborhoods). I know College Hill at least is quite nice.
Per wiki, Providence's most dominant Asian ethnicity is Cambodian not Laotian. Do you have a source that says differently?
Idk I knew it was one of those two. Couldn’t remember. Cambodian makes more sense .
And no, I like Providence. Fox Point, college hill and federal hill are trendy and nice, even Elmhurst. But it’s not really on Oakland’s level imo. I like Providence mainly because I have relations there, it feels similar to Boston and it has good food and had good nightlife. It’s never really been that there’s any neighborhood I love in Providence or would call an IT neighborhood
My sister's husband worked as a guidance counselor at the middle school in Piedmont. He said the parents there were super entitled and intolerable. He had previously been at a school in San Mateo where the vast majority of kids were Hispanic and poor and most parents could barely speak English. He said that it obviously had its challenges but he liked it so much better than the Piedmont school.
It's not my responsibility to explain someone else's experience. San Mateo is more her speed and good for her, Piedmont is much wealthier and the school district is much more highly regarded. To each his own. #thatslife
And no, I like Providence. Fox Point, college hill and federal hill are trendy and nice, even Elmhurst. But it’s not really on Oakland’s level imo. I like Providence mainly because I have relations there, it feels similar to Boston and it has good food and had good nightlife. It’s never really been that there’s any neighborhood I love in Providence or would call an IT neighborhood
This is sort of my thought on the comparison between these two places. I can see some of the similarities, but I do see Oakland as being on a different level. I haven't gone back through all of the pages so this has likely been said, but Providence is significantly smaller than Oakland. I know Providence is a small physical space, but Oakland is also urban well beyond its borders as well. There's no way that someone who has been to either place wouldn't easily identify Oakland as the larger city by a good margin. On top of that, Oakland is far more connected to San Francisco than Providence is to Boston. You can see downtown Oakland from the waterfront in San Francisco and vice versa.
So naturally, there's going to be a lot more spillover from San Francisco's workforce and cultural influence into Oakland than from Boston to Providence. And while Providence is cool it's own right (in some ways, more so than Boston), It feels much more like a small independent regional hub than Oakland does. Oakland is more of a big city player in terms of food, entertainment, etc. than Providence is because it's larger and it's inextricably connected to San Francisco. I love Providence, and my personal ties to the area would lead me to pick it over Oakland. But objectively speaking, it's hard not to pick Oakland.
What are some examples of cities that are on the same playing field as Oakland? What would a similar list look like for Providence?
Quote:
Originally Posted by lrfox
And while Providence is cool it's own right (in some ways, more so than Boston), It feels much more like a small independent regional hub than Oakland does.
I’ve always thought of Oakland as having a very distinct/unique culture compared to the rest of the Bay Area. Is this not the case?
Is Oakland really more culturally similar to San Francisco than Providence is to Boston?
Last edited by Boston Shudra; 05-01-2020 at 10:25 AM..
Boston and Providence are extremely culturally similar . Essentially it’s the (relatively recent) economic success that the differentiator.
Probably just as much as Oakland and San Fran. Maybe more. Oakland is meant more as a yin to SFs yang. Providence and Boston historically are siblings.
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 05-01-2020 at 10:55 AM..
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