Visited Lake Meritt, RR, Piedmont Ave, Temescal... Questions (Oakland, Berkeley: apartments, home)

[jupiler]

As some of you know from my previous posts, I will be moving to the area soon and am considering living in Oakland. I visited a few nabes this week and would like to confirm my observation.

I walked around Lake Merritt on a week day afternoon. I didn't see many Asians. Supposedly Oakland overall has about 16% Asian population. What I saw was less than that. What I saw was more like 90% white and black. I found this about the same in Adams Point, Grand Lake, and Cleveland Heights, with Lakeshore north of the lake and Trestle Glen the whitest.*Is what I saw an accurate representation of the population in that area?

I didn't see any major outdoor recreational space in Rockridge, Piedmont Ave, or Temescal. Is this indeed the case?

[Natural510]

There are Asians in the Lake neighborhoods, just not as high in percentage as the black & white populations. The neighbors I had tended to stay home and weren't part of the cafe or bar scenes in the area. The most Asian area of the Lake is around E. 18th, where you start to get into little Saigon, but it's also the poorest.
At the bottom end of the Piedmont business district, when you get to the Kaiser hospital buildings, you're a couple blocks away from Broadway & Macarthur where Mosswood Park begins. Otherwise yeah, the park space is lacking in those districts you mention.

[jade408]

What sort of recreation are you looking for? There is of course the Lake, that has trails, boating, a bird sanctuary and a bonsai garden. Mosswood Park has tennis courts and basketball courts. There is a mini park that is hidden called Glen Echo on 29th St in Adams Point. There is a mini park in Piedmont Ave that I never remember the name of on Monte Vista. There is the city Rose Garden that Is between Oakland Ave and Grand, near Monte Vista.

The city of Piedmont has a dog park, and tennis courts that are really close to the Rose Garden. Further away, there is Lake Temescal, kinda above the residential area in Rockridge.

In my building, there are a couple of asian "families." A chinese women in her 80s, a Korean couple in their 20s, and a Chinese women in her 50s. The 2 older people don't go out as much, obviously the younger people do.

You'll find more younger people in "Koreatown" just below Temescal, since there are a bunch of restaurants that are open late and some places with karaoke. When you are out at night you'l definitely see some other younger asian people. And of course there are lots of student-age asian kids in and around Berkeley. And then of course more older people in Oakland's Chinatown.

If you are looking for a social scene dominated by Asian people, then move to SF.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by jupiler

As some of you know from my previous posts, I will be moving to the area soon and am considering living in Oakland. I visited a few nabes this week and would like to confirm my observation.

I walked around Lake Merritt on a week day afternoon. I didn't see many Asians. Supposedly Oakland overall has about 16% Asian population. What I saw was less than that. What I saw was more like 90% white and black. I found this about the same in Adams Point, Grand Lake, and Cleveland Heights, with Lakeshore north of the lake and Trestle Glen the whitest.*Is what I saw an accurate representation of the population in that area?

I didn't see any major outdoor recreational space in Rockridge, Piedmont Ave, or Temescal. Is this indeed the case?

The neighborhoods with the largest asian population in Oakland outside of Chinatown are the Eastlake and Lower Hills areas of East Oakland. This includes neighborhoods ranging from poor (Rancho San Antonio, Oak Tree, Clinton below Foothill) to working class (Merritt, Clinton above Foothill, Highland Park, Meadow Brook) to middle class (Bella Vista, Lynn, Reservoir Hills, Dimond, Laurel) to upper middle class (Redwood Heights, Leona Heights). That being said, they are not a majority in any of the above neighborhoods... they generally comprise anywhere between 20-35% of the population with the lowest being Redwood Heights and the highest being Clinton. It's also worth mentioning that in the flatlands most of the asian population is SE Asian (Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, etc.) and in the hills most of the asian population is east asian (Chinese and Japanese); in the lower hills it's about equally split between both. In all of the above though, they're interspersed with everyone else... there's no enclaves within the neighborhoods where blacks live and asians live and latinos live and etc, they live on the same streets in the same apartments and etc.

Of course, one can't talk about the asian population in Oakland without mentioning Chinatown, which is by far the most asian neighborhood in Oakland. It's much larger than just the business area... it takes up the entire SE area of downtown Oakland between 880, 11th, Broadway and the lake. 10th street is the connector between Chinatown and Eastlake.

EDIT: There's also quite a few chinese families all along Telegraph Avenue between Uptown and 580, but again they're interspersed with everyone else. Chinatown is the only asian enclave in Oakland.

[Gentoo]

You may have just been there on a low Asian day. Lake Merritt isn't far from Chinatown which is on the west side near Laney College and as someone mentioned Little Saigon which is on the south side. As far as the other areas you were in, true, Asians tend to be lower in number but IMO you will see Asians almost anywhere you go in Oakland. I've lived in places where you hardly saw them at all even though you knew they were there.

It's all perspective too, where you're moving from may place a role in your own perception.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

The neighborhoods with the largest asian population in Oakland outside of Chinatown are the Eastlake and Lower Hills areas of East Oakland. This includes neighborhoods ranging from poor (Rancho San Antonio, Oak Tree, Clinton below Foothill) to working class (Merritt, Clinton above Foothill, Highland Park, Meadow Brook) to middle class (Bella Vista, Lynn, Reservoir Hills, Dimond, Laurel) to upper middle class (Redwood Heights, Leona Heights). That being said, they are not a majority in any of the above neighborhoods... they generally comprise anywhere between 20-35% of the population with the lowest being Redwood Heights and the highest being Clinton. It's also worth mentioning that in the flatlands most of the asian population is SE Asian (Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, etc.) and in the hills most of the asian population is east asian (Chinese and Japanese); in the lower hills it's about equally split between both. In all of the above though, they're interspersed with everyone else... there's no enclaves within the neighborhoods where blacks live and asians live and latinos live and etc, they live on the same streets in the same apartments and etc.

Of course, one can't talk about the asian population in Oakland without mentioning Chinatown, which is by far the most asian neighborhood in Oakland. It's much larger than just the business area... it takes up the entire SE area of downtown Oakland between 880, 11th, Broadway and the lake. 10th street is the connector between Chinatown and Eastlake.

EDIT: There's also quite a few chinese families all along Telegraph Avenue between Uptown and 580, but again they're interspersed with everyone else. Chinatown is the only asian enclave in Oakland.

Great post as usual.

[mayorhaggar]

Lots of Asians in the Chinatown area west and SW of the lake, like around the Lake Merritt station, it's kind of a grubby area though. But if you lived north of the lake you'd be very close. There are a lot of Chinese restaurants there but Spices 3 on 12th is a great little trendy Chinese food place there, also Battambang on Broadway is a great Cambodian restaurant. If Korean is more your thing there is the Korean area Jade mentioned on Telegraph around 40th, lots of Korean restaurants though I don't know if many of them live around there. There's also a big Korean grocery store, Koreana, on Telegraph at 24th, it's a grubby neighborhood but it's probably a good place to get Asian groceries.

[tanglenet]

Originally Posted by jupiler

I didn't see any major outdoor recreational space in Rockridge, Piedmont Ave, or Temescal. Is this indeed the case?

What kind of activities are you looking for? There is the East Bay Regional Parks system with Claremont Canyon for hiking and Temescal Lake for swimming.

Parks

Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve

Temescal Regional Recreation Area

Tilden Park has hiking, golfing, horse back riding, fishing, picnicking et al

Tilden Regional Park

These three parks are within a short distance 3-10 min by car from the neighborhoods you mentioned.

There are also organized groups such as bicycling, baseball and soccer clubs / groups. Runners usually are on their own; weight lifters go to gyms; and it's not to hard to find basketball and volleyball games.