Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 11-08-2010, 03:10 AM
 
3 posts, read 9,497 times
Reputation: 19

Advertisements

Please help me (and thank you) : I'm interested in housing in Oakland for my masters research for cultural anthropology from Leiden (close to Amsterdam, Netherlands). I'm trying to find a class of housing in Oakland that houses people who have money to spend on separating themselves from anything they may see as 'bad' (streetcrime/violence, or people associated with these 'bad things'). I've been looking for gated communities, where walls and security employees seal off the neighborhood, but I can't find them in Oakland. Does Oakland have these kinds of gated communities? If no, what do you think would be the next form of housing that ranks highest in effort (within Oakland's borders) to keep out 'bad things' by spending money (perhaps security, or other solutions)? And where is this neighborhood? If you are willing to help me a bit more: who do you think lives there; what are the people like?

Thanks again
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 11-08-2010, 04:25 AM
 
2,340 posts, read 4,629,505 times
Reputation: 1678
There are no gated communities in Oakland. If you want to examine a gated communitiy, try Black Hawk. It's over the hill.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-08-2010, 07:43 AM
 
Location: Los Altos Hills, CA
36,653 posts, read 67,482,823 times
Reputation: 21229
First of all, there are plenty of very safe, upscale neighborhoods in Oakland without gated communities.

The one gated community in Oakland that I know of is a tiny development of 5-10 homes called LaSalle Estates, located in Piedmont Pines, which is a very upscale and safe area, its more like a Cul-de-sac with a securit gate(LOL), there is 1 home there currently for sale there:

$2,100,000

http://p.rdcpix.com/v03/l3fb8a942-c0o.jpg

the view...

http://p.rdcpix.com/v03/l3fb8a942-c24o.jpg

5616 Lane Salle Avenue Oakland CA Home for Sale - Real Estate Listings - MLS #40464336 - Realtor.com®

I would also recommend looking at Hiller Highlands if you want to feel removed but still in the middle of everything-and that area is made up of more manageable townhouses so you wont be spending all your time maintaining the house. The views up there are the best probably in all of Northern California!

Well, good luck!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-08-2010, 08:24 AM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,145,658 times
Reputation: 3631
In Oakland, most people who want to avoid street crime put geographic barriers between themselves and the 'undesirables.' That usually means hills and open space, sometimes freeways too.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-08-2010, 09:00 AM
 
Location: SW MO
23,593 posts, read 37,466,118 times
Reputation: 29337
"High class" in Oakland is when most of the words in your tattoos are spelled right!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-08-2010, 10:12 AM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,859,449 times
Reputation: 28563
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leidenuniversity View Post
Please help me (and thank you) : I'm interested in housing in Oakland for my masters research for cultural anthropology from Leiden (close to Amsterdam, Netherlands). I'm trying to find a class of housing in Oakland that houses people who have money to spend on separating themselves from anything they may see as 'bad' (streetcrime/violence, or people associated with these 'bad things'). I've been looking for gated communities, where walls and security employees seal off the neighborhood, but I can't find them in Oakland. Does Oakland have these kinds of gated communities? If no, what do you think would be the next form of housing that ranks highest in effort (within Oakland's borders) to keep out 'bad things' by spending money (perhaps security, or other solutions)? And where is this neighborhood? If you are willing to help me a bit more: who do you think lives there; what are the people like?

Thanks again
There are plenty of private homes in the hills that have individual private gates. Gated communities are less frequent in the Bay Area, especially in the inner ring suburbs. Gated communities are a fairly new construct and the build of the newer construction here is infill and not completely new. Most of the upscale homes were built in the early 20th century.

You can find a few left over neighborhood gates though. They never shut and are basically decoration. These are around Piedmont and Montclair. Well the ones I've seen at list.

On the other hand most of the condo's in town are in secure midrise and high rise buildings. There are quite a few upscale highrises near the lake and downtown with doormen as well.

There typically isn't an "oasis" surround by "bad parts" of town in Oakland. Upper class neighborhoods are mostly surrounded by similar ones on all sides. And it as you go up, the income level required to live there increases. So lower class neighborhoods tend to border middle class ones, and middle class ones neighbor upper class ones. Or there is recent development in the hills with newer homes, and these areas were well established as upper class areas.

Last edited by jade408; 11-08-2010 at 10:35 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-08-2010, 10:14 AM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,859,449 times
Reputation: 28563
Quote:
Originally Posted by Curmudgeon View Post
"High class" in Oakland is when most of the words in your tattoos are spelled right!
Feel free to ignore Curmudgeon. It is likely he has never been to Oakland.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-08-2010, 10:18 AM
 
Location: SW MO
23,593 posts, read 37,466,118 times
Reputation: 29337
Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408 View Post
Feel free to ignore Curmudgeon. It is likely he has never been to Oakland.
Au contraire, Jade. Don't let my present location fool you. Native Californian here who spent almost 20 years living in Sacramento and went to Oakland on a number of occasions.

I should have concluded my remark with a since it was made in jest. I know full well there's far more to Oakland than bad governance and riots. They just get the news.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-08-2010, 10:26 AM
 
Location: South Korea
5,242 posts, read 13,075,505 times
Reputation: 2958
Supposedly there's some kind of gated complex in the Tenderloin in San Francisco...not sure what it's like though, I just remember reading something about it in the paper several years ago.


Oakland is an older city in the Bay Area so you're not going to see new features like gated communities. If people don't like the crime in Oakland they usually move to further out suburbs where the housing is newer and they might have gated communities.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-08-2010, 10:34 AM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,859,449 times
Reputation: 28563
Quote:
Originally Posted by Curmudgeon View Post
Au contraire, Jade. Don't let my present location fool you. Native Californian here who spent almost 20 years living in Sacramento and went to Oakland on a number of occasions.

I should have concluded my remark with a since it was made in jest. I know full well there's far more to Oakland than bad governance and riots. They just get the news.
OK, I'll forgive you. I know the local papers like to over-staff their Oakland Bureaus.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top