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It would be nice to record less than 100 homicides every year but I'll take any improvement and agree that things are better as a technicality.
But I remember reading something Jerry Brown said when he was mayor, that Oakland is a dumping ground for parolees who come out of prison/jail(at any given time there are 3-4 thousand in town at once) and they can't find work or they don't want to work and if I recall correctly, he said they are responsible for the brunt of our crimes and homicides.
There are also some incredibly brazen and lawless folks out there who are unapologetic in their utter disrespect for the rule of law. I recently e recounted the story of something I experienced when leaving Target one night. I feel like I was at the right place at the right time in order to help a stranger but I think of all those who didn't have someone there just when they needed them.
Even more unacceptable is the fact that they even need some sort of special protection against people trying to rob, rape or kill them.
I agree that Oakland is used as a dumping ground on many levels and it is a hot button issue for me.
In the last few years I have heard of or seen people that don't live here do the following:
1. Dump unwanted animals on our city streets and even witnessed a car leaving kittens on Skyline Blvd.
2. Coming home a few weeks ago I made a sharp U-Turn when I saw a private company tree service truck open the gate and dump a huge load of brush on the Freeway right of way about Foothill Square... it was dark and I had no luck getting the plate... called CHP 911 and they would not send a CHP officer even though the dumping was on State Property?
Several days later I saw a CALTRANS crew of a dozen men, some with power saws manually loading all the fresh dumped debris on stake side flat-beds...
Stopped and spoke with the supervisor and he said it is becoming a real problem... the few that have been caught lived outside Oakland...
3. Dumping old vehicles was a real problem here before salvage price went up... Oakland had more abandoned vehicles per capita then any Bay Area City.
4. Trash Dumping... I caught and got the license number of a retired caucasian man with a San Leandro sticker dumping a dozen trash bags over the fence of a Foreclosed Home. I confronted him and he jumped into his mini-van and sped-away... the car was very clean... the officer ran the plate and it came back to Castro Valley.
5. For more proof of non-residents causing trouble one need look no further than the number of Occupy and Oscar Grant arrests that are not Oakland residents.
As you mention... Oakland is the release point for the criminal justice system... Those with records are released on our city streets... what's wrong with sharing these individuals with Fremont, Pleasanton, Livermore, etc?
The Santa Rita prison has a front gate... how bout letting them leave through that?
Instead of outside folks jumping on the criticize Oakland Bandwagon... they should be giving thanks each and every day there is an Oakland cleaning up the mess from their communities.
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 12-04-2011 at 05:31 PM..
I agree that Oakland is used as a dumping ground on many levels and it is a hot button issue for me.
In the last few years I have heard of or seen people that don't live here do the following:
1. Dump unwanted animals on our city streets and even witnessed a car leaving kittens on Skyline Blvd.
2. Coming home a few weeks ago I made a sharp U-Turn when I saw a private company tree service truck open the gate and dump a huge load of brush on the Freeway right of way about Foothill Square... it was dark and I had no luck getting the plate... called CHP 911 and they would not send a CHP officer even though the dumping was on State Property?
Several days later I saw a CALTRANS crew of a dozen men, some with power saws manually loading all the fresh dumped debris on stake side flat-beds...
Stopped and spoke with the supervisor and he said it is becoming a real problem... the few that have been caught lived outside Oakland...
3. Dumping old vehicles was a real problem here before salvage price went up... Oakland had more abandoned vehicles per capita then any Bay Area City.
4. Trash Dumping... I caught and got the license number of a retired caucasian man from San Leandro dumping a dozen trash bags over the fence of a Foreclosed Home. I confronted him and he jumped into his mini-van and sped-away... the car was very clean... the officer ran the plate and it came back to Castro Valley.
5. For more proof of non-residents causing trouble one need look no further than the number of Occupy and Oscar Grant arrests that are not Oakland residents.
As you mention... Oakland is the release point for the criminal justice system... Those with records are released on our city streets... what's wrong with sharing these individuals with Fremont, Pleasanton, Livermore, etc?
The Santa Rita prison has a front gate... how bout letting them leave through that?
Instead of outside folks jumping on the criticize Oakland Bandwagon... they should be giving thanks each and every day there is an Oakland cleaning up the mess from their communities.
Very well said. Did that man who you caught doing the trash dumping ever get arrested/charged?
I don't know, the officer didn't share much information other than the vehicle was registered to a Castro Valley address.
Looking around there a many examples of what I call a double standard.
One example is the irrigation along the freeways is maintained along the Danville corridor...
Oakland's MacArthur freeway was fully irrigated and landscaped... the difference I have noticed is nothing here is repaired after a car plows through the sprinklers...
Common sense would seem to say that a city with nearly a 450k population would have at least similar per capita expenditures from Cal Trans compared to Pleasanton/San Ramon?
I recently served a week... well 4 days jury duty downtown. The jurors all took seriously the responsibility... speaking of those of us chosen for the trail.
I think I was the only one living in Oakland... it was interesting to hear some of the comments from the others...
One lady in her mid thirties said she is a lifelong Livermore resident and had never been to Oakland accept for the Coliseum and Airport.
Several others commented on how clean downtown is and how nice it is around the Lake... I mentioned the Lake was the first Wildlife refuge in the United States and that it is really a Tidal Estuary... that Children's Fairyland was in Inspiration to Walt Disney, that the University of California started in Oakland, the Zoo, Dunsmuir House, Chabot Space and Science Center, Parks, China Town, Jack London Square, Mills College, etc.
Seems unless you live in Oakland, the likelihood of spending time here is very low... I have friends in Livermore, Danville, Walnut Creek, Fremont, etc...
Come to think of it... my friends/co-workers have often said they don't get off the freeway anywhere in Oakland... just too dangerous is the reason I hear most often...
On occasion I have visitors from Europe... mostly Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They are eager to see Oakland and some are disappointed... all have said it is a nice city or a beautiful city and nothing like what they were expecting...
One wanted to meet the Hells Angels... he is a huge Harley Davidson fanatic... I took him to the club house on Foothill Blvd... have to say the guys were as nice as could be... even offered my visitor a chance to go riding with them.
What is obvious is there is a huge disconnect between those living here and those living elsewhere.
Oakland has a tremendous amount of high income households... many Oakland neighborhoods have very low crime and very good schools...
It is almost like the "Good" parts are a best kept secret because so few seem to know about them...
Take the redwoods up at Roberts Park... my friends thought they had to drive to Big Basin or Muir Woods to see Redwoods... they had no idea they were some a few miles from their San Leandro home.
I call it like I see it... I get the feeling you have spent less time in Oakland than the other cities mentioned. I'm in high crime neighborhoods in Oakland every day, and quite a few of them simply do not fit the mold of "slums" or "ghettos". They're vibrant, fully-realized neighborhoods that have high-crime. As I've said before, the true ghettos in Oakland are Deep East Oakland and sections of West Oakland. Areas like Fruitvale, New Chinatown, etc. have high crime but are not ghettos. A ghetto is an economically depressed, marginalized neighborhood occupied by a socially oppressed group of people (i.e. they would not choose to live there if they had a choice). They are not real neighborhoods, they are slums that exist solely for the purpose of housing the maligned segment of the population. I don't get what makes it so difficult for you to grasp the difference... high crime does not = ghetto
Not at all, I've spent far more time in Oakland considering I've lived near it for nearly 20 years. I worked there for several months earlier this year and drove through areas that I consider ghetto everyday.
I guess you just have a different definition of what is ghetto and I wasn't trying to say high crime automatically equals ghetto either. It doesn't make much of a difference to me whether it's vibrant or not necessarily. I just think areas that I consider to be run down and ghetto in Oakland you might not just because they're "vibrant".
It's not that people downplay violent crime in Oakland, its just that people try to understand violent crime in Oakland.
Knowing a crime rate within a city reveals next to nothing of how safe someone is. Knowing the factors that affect individual crime risk is a step torwards a complete analysis of crime statistics.
Crime in Oakland isn't any different or unique than other high crime cities is one of my points, it belongs in the same tier and discussion as other high crime cities.
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Maybe it has something to do with the age of cities. The Eastern and Southern US was established long before the West. Cities there are older, thus much more susceptible to urban blight. "Ghettos" in the West are not ghetto's by Eastern or Southern standards.
For example, a New Orleans man, that I know, came to live in West Oakland. He said, " The Acorns are not projects. You got maintanence, green grass, low vacancy, pools, etc."
What makes some cheap 70's tract housing and duplexes less susceptible to urban blight? Like I said before, just because it doesn't "look" as bad doesn't mean it's any better in the end. Whether or not the "projects" in Oakland have green grass, low vacancy, and pools doesn't change the fact that it's affected by the same poverty issues, crime issues, and poor trashy people like projects in places like NOLA.
A man was also shot a a bus stop in San Francisco does it make that a violent city too? or maybe its buses that are dangerous.
To be fair, the overall crime rates of San Francisco vs Oakland are worlds apart... every city has its share of crime, but some have bigger shares than others.
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Originally Posted by Ceece
Parts of Oakland are violent and dangerous.
Yeah, that. There are many NICE parts of Oakland, so I'd hardly label the whole city as "violent and dangerous" - but it also has some really dangerous neighborhoods, and it seems to be getting even worse as of lately. Not sure what to do about that, but it's especially sad when an innocent child (or adult, for that matter) is caught in the crossfire. My thoughts go out to that little boy's family.
What is scary is now a days these kids will shoot you over nothing. At least back in the 90's if some one shot at you, they usually had a reason.
At the bears-raiders game me and my friend from Chicago talked with a latino youngster who got robbed for his puppies and Jordans in east oakland. Had to walk barefoot in east oakland with out his dogs.
1. You've obviously never gotten a parking ticket for street sweeping then. I live in the 'ghetto' and they ticket like clockwork if you don't move your car.
2. Just because you state your opinion like it's a fact, it doesn't mean it's reality. Believe whatever you want, but don't come into a thread about Oakland, talking about how violent and dangerous it is, and not expect people who actually live here to call you out.
In Oakland no I haven't, but I have gotten them before in other cities. And I never claimed that Oakland doesn't have street sweeping either. Nineties Flava tried to claim that ghettos in other areas don't have public services like Oakland, which is complete BS imo, and I was saying how it doesn't really appear PARTS of Oakland have these services either such as street sweeping. There is a lot of trash on streets in areas of Oakland. You really don't see it?
I clearly expressed it as an opinion adding the "IMO" just to clarify for those that don't recognize it as one because they're too sensitive to criticism of Oakland such as yourself. What's funny is Nineties Flava said the same thing to you with regards to violence compared to those other US cities as I did yet you're getting on my case only. I never claimed Oakland was anymore dangerous that it is nor did I claim it didn't have plenty of safe areas. You, and some others as well, are just sensitive to the issue clearly. It's like a little clan really, ha.
What is scary is now a days these kids will shoot you over nothing. At least back in the 90's if some one shot at you, they usually had a reason.
.......... At the bears-raiders game me and my friend from Chicago talked with a latino youngster who got robbed for his puppies and Jordans in east oakland. Had to walk barefoot in east oakland with out his dogs.
Seems unless you live in Oakland, the likelihood of spending time here is very low... I have friends in Livermore, Danville, Walnut Creek, Fremont, etc...
It all depends on the kind of person you are.
Suburban minded people looking for big box stores and national chain sit down restaurants(Outback, Red Lobster, Elephant Bar) are not coming to Oakland because Oakland doesnt have those kinds of places. And its perfectly acceptable that they dont want to come here cause its a matter of preference.
However, People looking for art galleries, nightlife, higher quality restaurants, a more urban experience are actually flocking to Oakland in droves and we know that basd on the fact that Downtown's population has soared by 30% in the last 10 years. We know that based on articles we've read in the tribune which state that approx half of patrons at our hottest eateries and trendiest art amenities do not live in Oakland.
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