Oakland...a violent dangerous city (San Francisco, Richmond: crime rates, neighborhoods, living)

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by sav858

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".

Here, why don't I put it this way...


Places I consider the ghetto

Hunters Point
North Richmond
(some of) West Oakland


What do all these places have in common? Black people were forced to live in these neighborhoods... at one point in Oakland, they literally could not live east of what is known today as MLK Jr. Way. By the 1980's, even as Oakland became integrated, the legacy still remained and the neighborhood became stagnant as BART ripped through the heart of West Oakland's premiere business corridor and the crack era happened. The population was largely ignored for the 20 year period between 1980 and 2000 until they started to "redevelop" it for a newer and whiter crowd.

Hunters Point was never a real neighborhood, it was created by the SF HUD to house poor black people. It's built on top of the most toxic waste dump in the entire Bay Area... its literally hazardous to your health to live there. The projects are among the most dilapidated in the entire country.


THOSE are what I consider ghettos... places where the oppressed segment of the population are/were forced to live in and denied access to even the most basic of services. I saw plenty of these kinds of places in Baltimore and in New Orleans, which are effectively still segregated...

Calling a neighborhood like Fruitvale a ghetto is changing the definition of a ghetto... I'm aware that a lot of people use it to mean any relatively poor neighborhood that has a lot of minorities in it, but that's not what the word itself actually means. If you want to have a conversation about the shameful crime-rate in the neighborhood though then I'd be right there with you... obviously I don't think the murder rate is something to gloss over either.

[KRISTINsf]

Oakland is a very dangerous city and a good number of the neighborhoods compromised within the city are virtual dumps. They're dumps becuase of the way the residents of these neighborhoods behave. I mean, I really wouldn't call drive by shootings and drugs dealers on the corner of your 'hood exactly "vibrant." To each their own!

[KRISTINsf]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/us...pagewanted=all

In the Fruitvale Section of Oakland Merchants are Armed and Wary

At Esparza’s Jewelry in the Fruitvale section of Oakland, the owner, Rodolfo Perez, works the counter with a .38-caliber revolver strapped to his belt.

Mr. Perez acquired the weapon after thieves stole $20,000 in merchandise in May 2010. That August, with Mr. Perez elsewhere in the store, robbers took a $2,500 ring and beat up an employee. After the second incident, Mr. Perez said, the police waited five months to take a report.

Still, when someone who Ms. Jimenez thinks looks suspicious walks in to her business, she said she walks out rather than risk a confrontation, because criminals in Fruitvale “aren’t afraid of the consequences.”

Like much of East Oakland, Fruitvale has long been plagued by crime. But merchants say their frustration is boiling over because of an increase in lawlessness, including shootings for money and armed robberies in broad daylight.

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[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by KRISTINsf

Oakland is a very dangerous city and a good number of the neighborhoods compromised within the city are virtual dumps. They're dumps becuase of the way the residents of these neighborhoods behave. I mean, I really wouldn't call drive by shootings and drugs dealers on the corner of your 'hood exactly "vibrant." To each their own!

We get it, you hate black people and any city they happen to be in, and you will go to any length to express your hatred for them. Good for you.

[KRISTINsf]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

We get it, you hate black people and any city they happen to be in, and you will go to any length to express your hatred for them. Good for you.

I never once said I did not like black people on this thread topic. Here I am only exposing the very real dangers of some exceptionally unsafe neighborhoods in Oakland and here you are pulling out the race card. Excuse me but not everyone sees a neighborhood as "vibrant" and "cool" with drive by shootings and corner drug dealers. These are very real things many people see as dangers.


Police lockdown Oakland elementary school - YouTube

Anyways, what do you think about that Fruitvale article? Shop owners are so in fear of their lives they have to come to work strapped with guns. So "vibrant!"

[NorCal Dude]

Well this thread seems to have run its healthy corse, complete with another black vs asian debate

[Boompa]

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

Well this thread seems to have run its healthy corse, complete with another black vs asian debate

Agreed, everyone seems to have set forth their agenda

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by KRISTINsf

I never once said I did not like black people on this thread topic. Here I am only exposing the very real dangers of some exceptionally unsafe neighborhoods in Oakland and here you are pulling out the race card. Excuse me but not everyone sees a neighborhood as "vibrant" and "cool" with drive by shootings and corner drug dealers. These are very real things many people see as dangers.


Police lockdown Oakland elementary school - YouTube

Anyways, what do you think about that Fruitvale article? Shop owners are so in fear of their lives they have to come to work strapped with guns. So "vibrant!"

Pardon me for putting two and two together rofl. Your comments in the SF Racism thread make it obvious that the crime is far from the main reason you dislike Oakland.


And point out a single instance where I glossed over the crime in Fruitvale. Point it out. Oh wait, you can't.

And is your criteria for a neighborhood not being vibrant that there can't be armed robberies of businesses? I guess that disqualifies the entire city of SF then. It's a wonder that you live there.

[NorCal Dude]

Originally Posted by Boompa

Agreed, everyone seems to have set forth their agenda

Yup, all ya need is love brah.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

Calling a neighborhood like Fruitvale a ghetto is changing the definition of a ghetto... I'm aware that a lot of people use it to mean any relatively poor neighborhood that has a lot of minorities in it, but that's not what the word itself actually means.

It's a subjective term than can be different things to different people but calling Fruitvale "ghetto" is not changing the meaning of the word at all. Look up the definition of ghetto and Fruitvale can certainly fall in that category. You seem to have your own definition and seem to feel it's a the only correct one, clearly we have differing opinions on what's ghetto.