Moving to Rockridge (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley: apartment, lease, crime)

[lucillenyc]

I want to thank jade408 and mayorhagger for all the info about Oakland they've shared here. If not for them, I would have never considered leaving SF. My fiance and I signed a lease on an apartment in Rockridge today and I'm excited!

I'm also nervous about giving up our apartment in Mission Dolores (we'd never be able to get another place here with the current market!) - but for almost the same price, we're getting 3x the space, an in-unit washer and dryer, easier parking, and some peace and quiet. We're 5 blocks from BART, so getting to SF won't be bad either.

Please tell me we made the right decision!

[jade408]

You'll enjoy it! Lots of cute places to check out. I'd start with Bittersweet. It is a chocolate cafe on College Ave. Hot Chocolate, chocolate bars, coffee and a little bit of food. Also check out Bica. It is a lovely coffee shop and excellent espresso drinks.

[mayorhaggar]

5 blocks from BART is gooood...just far enough from BART so the train noise shouldn't be too annoying, and close enough so your commute will be easy. Check out these places:

- Sabuy Sabuy (thai)
- Noodle Theory (general asian food)
- Market Hall for general deli stuff
- Genova Deli for sandwiches
- Filippo's (decent Italian)
- Cactus (mexican)
- Soi Four (slightly upscale Thai but their prices are pretty reasonable--nice place to go for a fancy outing)
- Becky's Chinese (really cheap and tasty lunch menu)
- Zachary's (duh)
- Barney's (burgers)
- Christopher Burger
- Rikyu (sushi--probably the best sushi I've had in the Bay Area)

Also you'll be near the Piedmont Ave area which is way longer than the Rockridge shopping strip on College, plus it has a theater.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

5 blocks from BART is gooood...just far enough from BART so the train noise shouldn't be too annoying, and close enough so your commute will be easy. Check out these places:

- Noodle Theory (general asian food)
- Soi Four (slightly upscale Thai but their prices are pretty reasonable--nice place to go for a fancy outing)

These are definitely 2 of my favorite restaurants.
- Nathan and Co (in Rockridge and On Piedmont Ave) is a really cool home/gift store. They even have a few Oakland t-shirts too
- Rockridge Home: excellent home store, so much great stuff
- Uzen: very Japanese sushi
- La Farine: great croissants
- Southie: east coast sandwiches with a california spin (seasonal ingredients), subs and other stuff (pastas, salads)
- Wood Tavern: Southie's more expensive upscale brother, no sandwiches




On Piedmont Ave: head over to Geta for takeout sushi. It is really small so it is hard to get a table, but it is super cheap and fresh. Spend $15 and you'll be stuffed.
- Also Xyclo: upscale Vietnamese, yummy cocktails
- Adesso: great cocktails, housemade salumi. Oh and free food for regular and late night happy hour. A must visit.
- Dopo: yummy italian (and I don't really like going out for italian)

[tanglenet]

Welcome to the neighborhood!

You may also want to subscribe to the following Yahoo groups. These will keep you updated on crime and community items. Depending on where you live, you may have a local or block Yahoo group too. On a monthly basis, you should also receive a free Rockridge Newsletter which will be delivered to your doorstep. If you are commuting to SF, you will want to locate the Casual Carpool pickup spots.

RockridgeNeighborhoodWatchNetwork
RockridgeCommunityOnline
RockridgeNCPC

Casual Carpool Sites East Bay and San Francisco

[lucillenyc]

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody! I'm excited to explore the neighborhood and Oakland in general.

How is cab service in Oakland? Is it easy and cheap enough to call a cab if we stay out late in other neighborhoods (and don't want to drive)?

[jade408]

Easy to call a cab. Not enough cab stands at all. So save a few numbers in your phone.

To be honest, I usually end up driving, walking or taking transit. Let's see last time I took a cab from BART to my house is was $7 (for around 1.25 miles)

Coming from Uptown is only 1 mile for me, so it it totally a reasonable walk. But I have suck a low tolerance, that I rarely have more than one drink so I am the DD.

[Glenview94602]

If /when you decide to have children, Rockridge kids is a must. When Brad Pitt was in town filming Moneyball Angelina Jollie and her kids went there. Its a really big store full of young kids stuff. Also Snips is a special, but extremely fun kids haircut place. They have arcade games and it only serves kids. It was very popular when I was younger.

I recomend Zacharys (get the Spinach Mushroom Pizza deep dish and preferably with olives). Its worth the wait, but you can get a half baked pizza and bring it home to cook in the oven....so good!

If you want to walk up into Elmwood (Berkeley), it just a very short walk up College Avenue and eventually the street ends at UC Berkeley. Rockridge has so many different restaurants, you could try a different one each day and it would take a long time to get to all of them. There is a really good Burmese Restaurant next to Super Cuts that I really like.

Also if you just moved, try the Bread Garden, just a little bit into Berkeley (across from Claremont Hotel). Its so amazing and their scones /muffins are world class. Sadly, the owner is moving to Paso Robles to retire and so it will close soon after like 30 or 40 years of amazing service. Go there before its too late (its right next to Rick and Anne's as a point of reference).

Basically Rockridge (Oakland), Elmwood (Berkeley), and Claremont (Berkeley) are three neighborhoods that are very intertwined and are quiet, but have lots of good restaurants and fun places to try. They are very walkable and close to transit, also being near the hiking trails of the Oak/Berk hills.

[mayorhaggar]

You can't really get a cab on the street in Rockridge like you can in parts of SF, maybe in downtown Oakland but not reliably. Just get a few cab company numbers on your phone, also there's usually cabs at the BART stations.

Biking is the best way to get around Oakland, it's a little too spread out to walk anywhere but around and near your neighborhood, and if you bike you don't have to worry about the crappy AC Transit schedule. BART is good but doesn't go everywhere. Also there's a ton of bike lanes in Oakland and Berkeley and they link up well. From Rockridge it's like 15 to 20 minutes to downtown Oakland or downtown Berkeley which are both good destinations.

[Ira9]

Rockridge turns into a crime jungle at night, be careful!