Oakland in the media and Real Estate values (San Jose, London: transporting, crime rates)

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Just do some research on the property values in the East Bay. Compare Albany, Alameda, Berkeley, and Oakland. Compare similar properties, in general you will find that Oakland will always clearly be the cheapest option. Think about that for a second, it's not your imagination, you get what you pay for.

Depends on neighborhood in Oakland. On average, certainly, because most of Oakland is... uhh yah, not that parts of Berkeley aren't pretty bad as well.

It's the third most violent city in the country. That said, the media tends to sensationalize things. So it's kind of an unanswerable question whether it's as bad as the media says it is. The media is pretty universally reactionary and sensationalist, so I'd just look at facts and statistics in making that decision any not headlines. I grew up in Stockton, so high crime isn't anything I'm not used to. Oakland has a lot going for it that counteracts the bad at least to some degree, although that's always going to be a case by case situation. Plus it's not like the good and bad are evenly spread throughout anywhere, especially not somewhere with as much income stratification as Oakland.

[rkwalton]

Originally Posted by jade408

I have gone a few times since the beginning when it was Art Murmur and all about the galleries, to now when it was first Fridays. The last time was in January.

It is definitely way too crowded for me these days. I don't even go North of Grand or west of Broadway most of the time.

The city does need an action plan to handle the huge crowds First Fridays bring to downtown, it is extremely popular and packed with people attending from all over the region. Hopefully this incident encourages more formal organization and oversight.

Yeah, I agree about crowd control. When my guy and I went last month it wasn't bad at all. The colder weather cleared it out a bit. It was easy to walk around. We started at the intersection where Luka's Taproom is located, stopped at the art wall for a bit, walked over to Telegraph and up to 25th, then we cut down 25th stopping at those galleries (and I bought something), then walked back down Broadway to BART, and headed back to Berkeley.

Doing that same loop over the summer was a nightmare because there were just too many people, and I won't go again during the summer until they change something up.

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by Malloric

Depends on neighborhood in Oakland. On average, certainly, because most of Oakland is... uhh yah, not that parts of Berkeley aren't pretty bad as well.

It's the third most violent city in the country. That said, the media tends to sensationalize things. So it's kind of an unanswerable question whether it's as bad as the media says it is. The media is pretty universally reactionary and sensationalist, so I'd just look at facts and statistics in making that decision any not headlines. I grew up in Stockton, so high crime isn't anything I'm not used to. Oakland has a lot going for it that counteracts the bad at least to some degree, although that's always going to be a case by case situation. Plus it's not like the good and bad are evenly spread throughout anywhere, especially not somewhere with as much income stratification as Oakland.

I'm not saying all of Oakland is Rwanda, but the First Friday Festival was a public event in Uptown, supposedly an up-and-up area of Oakland, and someone was gunned down after attending the event. That doesn't just happen in places where crime isn't a problem.

Oakland's homicide count climbed, and so did it's violent crime rate, and the city has less and less resources to deal with it every year (down 200+ officers since 2010). It's gotten bad enough that the CHP, and Federal Marshalls are helping to staff Oakland as fill-in cops until they can hire some back. One council member has even commented that the National Guard should be brought in.

I think it would be blind to say "this is media sensationalizing", because Oakland has some big problems right now.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by jade408

It is definitely way too crowded for me these days. I don't even go North of Grand or west of Broadway most of the time.

Yeah it was super crowded. I parked by the Lake.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

I'm not saying all of Oakland is Rwanda, but the First Friday Festival was a public event in Uptown, supposedly an up-and-up area of Oakland, and someone was gunned down after attending the event. That doesn't just happen in places where crime isn't a problem.

Hmmm, so how do you explain similar incidents in SOMA, Fishermans's Wharf and Union Square?

[DocGoldstein]

Isolated incidents. Per capita, S.F's violent crime rate is half of Oakland's.

Just answer this. Did S.F's violent crime rate surge 23% year over year? Has the S.F.P.D lost over 200 officers since 2010 due to budget cuts?

No... no, I don't think that happened in S.F.

[DocGoldstein]

Exactly. If S.F had a surging crime rate, then I think a S.F comparison might have some weight, but violent crime actually dropped in S.F year-over-year. It did so in L.A as well.

In Oakland, it was up 23%. That's in stark contrast to the other two cities.

[Ultrarunner]

It's really simple...

Anyone that is all consumed by it should not come here...

[DocGoldstein]

So basically, they're turning things into a school yard fight, instead of actually addressing the facts or argument itself. That's par for the course.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

If Oakland is such a great city to live, that should be self-evident, one would think.

Many posters have laid out much evidence of the town's positive aspects, otherwise known as evidence, which is altogether ignored by those squarely intent on promoting a weird, undying smear campaign that does nothing to inform those who would consider relocating to the area.