Is the area around Mills College in Oakland safe? (Sacramento: crime, house)

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by micmac99

I could have sworn they tried to change the name to Eastmont Town Center in an effort to clean up its image. Hard to do when your two anchor tenant department stores bail out. Didn't they put a welfare office in the JCPenney?

No one calls it that lol... it's still Eastmont Mall. And yeah there's a social services office now.

[runner456]

I know a guy who was security guard at Mills for a couple of years and they have had quite a bit of attempted rapes, robberies, and thefts. He said the criminals around Mills see Mills students as a goldmine from which to "take" from. He said Mills tried their best to keep crimes against students and professors covered it up and out of the media's hands. He said the campus is beautiful but once you step one foot outside Mills, it is a horrible jungle of crime.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by runner456

I know a guy who was security guard at Mills for a couple of years and they have had quite a bit of attempted rapes, robberies, and thefts. He said the criminals around Mills see Mills students as a goldmine from which to "take" from. He said Mills tried their best to keep crimes against students and professors covered it up and out of the media's hands. He said the campus is beautiful but once you step one foot outside Mills, it is a horrible jungle of crime.

Lol something tells me your guard friend probably worked on the Seminary side of campus. That Valero across from campus on Seminary & MacArthur is by far the single worst corner in the entire Mills area. The area between 55th and the 76 gas station on the other hand is one of the nicest areas of East Oakland and is not a "jungle of crime" in any way shape or form.

[Bushrod King]

Originally Posted by runner456

I know a guy who was security guard at Mills for a couple of years and they have had quite a bit of attempted rapes, robberies, and thefts. He said the criminals around Mills see Mills students as a goldmine from which to "take" from. He said Mills tried their best to keep crimes against students and professors covered it up and out of the media's hands. He said the campus is beautiful but once you step one foot outside Mills, it is a horrible jungle of crime.

Another Mr. Fantastic Alias.

[micmac99]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

Lol something tells me your guard friend probably worked on the Seminary side of campus. That Valero across from campus on Seminary & MacArthur is by far the single worst corner in the entire Mills area. The area between 55th and the 76 gas station on the other hand is one of the nicest areas of East Oakland and is not a "jungle of crime" in any way shape or form.

I'm used to Valero stations here in Houston but it seems kind of weird that they're "back home" in Oakland. The Valero you're referring to was a Chevron station back in the day at least since I was a little kid, I had no idea Chevron sold it. That is right where I waited every morning for the MacArthur bus to go to school (changed buses across from Kaiser Hospital most days and some days in front of the Grand Lake theater), and sometimes the N bus to SF. That bus was a haul and probably still is.

I clearly remember that 76 since early childhood on into my high school years.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

Lol something tells me your guard friend probably worked on the Seminary side of campus. That Valero across from campus on Seminary & MacArthur is by far the single worst corner in the entire Mills area. The area between 55th and the 76 gas station on the other hand is one of the nicest areas of East Oakland and is not a "jungle of crime" in any way shape or form.

It's not a jungle of crime, but that's where I live. Again, attempted break in, car break ins and some weird dude creeping around my place last night. Having said that, I just came back from the store and went on foot and so were some others. Personally I feel safe but I watch my belongings like a hawk!

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by micmac99

I'm used to Valero stations here in Houston but it seems kind of weird that they're "back home" in Oakland. The Valero you're referring to was a Chevron station back in the day, I had no idea Chevron sold it. I clearly remember that 76 since early childhood on into my high school years.

They have THE BEST hamburgers at that station!

[micmac99]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

They have THE BEST hamburgers at that station!

Which one, the Valero (former Chevron) or the 76? And are they real burgers or just the nasty kind wrapped in plastic that you have to microwave?

Another recollection on the neighborhood that the OP and others might find amusing:

On Outlook Avenue (near Majestic Avenue, the street I lived on summer of 1987 through 1990), just at the corner of Seminary, on the east side of the street was a large house with a huge heavily wooded yard, I think that house was owned by some Hells Angels people. I recall many Harleys in the yard as I would walk past the house. I just looked up the area on Google Maps and it looks a LOT different now.

Also, on Seminary, which rises in elevation and curves to the right as you travel eastward, there is a heavily wooded path called the Short Cut which leads to Majestic. I would walk up and down this path, which is basically a bunch of concrete steps, to get from my house to Seminary and the (Valero) station and the bus stop at MacArthur, faster. One of the houses backing up to this path had three large black Dobermans on the patio, a good few yards away but scary, because they would bark like crazy if they were on that porch and you walked past.

Many people in the neighborhood knew my brother and I were A's fans and loved to go to the games. Once, the guy who lived at the top of the Short Cut on Majestic had two tickets to a game he didn't need and came to our house to give them to us, but we couldn't go that night because our mom was at some meeting at our church, and we were home alone. Man was I p***ed.

The view from our backyard was AWESOME. You could see to MacArthur and the (Valero) below, and clear on all the way to the Estuary, Alameda and across to the Peninsula.

Our mom moved from that house to Dublin after I transferred to the University of Arizona in the early fall of 1990. I missed that house and the neighborhood, but our mom got tired of the thugs and gangbangers around Eastmont Mall. One night we were in the drive-through at the McDonalds across from Eastmont Mall (looks from Google Street View to be abandoned now, LOL!) and she was clearly p***ed at the loud thumpin' bass from all the modified Chevy Impalas in line.

[micmac99]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

No one calls it that lol... it's still Eastmont Mall. And yeah there's a social services office now.

Looks from Google Street View that they put a police station in the former Mervyns and a DD's Discount in the Pay N Save.

[Gentoo]

Which one, the Valero (former Chevron) or the 76? And are they real burgers or just the nasty kind wrapped in plastic that you have to microwave?

The 76 on Pierson and MacArthur. Their burgers are flame broiled. Their Salmon Steak and Broiled Chicken Sandwiches are good too. Haven't tried the Chinese Food yet. And they deliver