Need a room in SF? Hope you have $1000+ (Oakland, Richmond: transplants, homes)

[ExeterMedia]

Originally Posted by Obamadon1

Of course you can also move 15 min away to West Oakland, where currently I don't see any rooms for rent above $1,000 on craigslist.

Yeah I wonder why people don't do this. West Oakland seems like a classy place.

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by ExeterMedia

Yeah I wonder why people don't do this. West Oakland seems like a classy place.

Actually, they are!

Gentrification transforming face of Oakland - SFGate

[ExeterMedia]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

Actually, they are!

Gentrification transforming face of Oakland - SFGate

Cool article thanks. Lots of useful info.

It's called gentrification, and those most adversely affected - the poor and working class, African Americans and Latinos - are suffering financially as well as physically, according to the report, "Development Without Displacement: Resisting Gentrification in the Bay Area."

Oakland lost almost half of its African American population from 1990 to 2011, and fewer African Americans own homes, says the report from Causa Justa, an Oakland housing advocacy group, and the Alameda County Public Health Department. Rents in neighborhoods that were once predominantly African American, such as North Oakland and West Oakland, have risen so high they're now closing in on those in Rockridge and Montclair.

In fact, Oakland had some of the country's highest rents and rent increases in 2013, real estate data show.

"The housing market conditions are completely out of control, with no real accountability to the people who are being displaced," said Robbie Clark of Causa Justa. "These stark rent increases, people being forced to move far away and commute longer - these are not signs of healthy communities."

Jon Bean, 31, is among those displaced. A longtime resident of North Oakland, he moved to 94th Avenue in East Oakland in 2004 for cheaper rent. But last year he was forced out of there, as well, when his rent for a two-bedroom apartment jumped from $1,100 to $1,800, despite the neighborhood's high crime rate.

Now he and his three kids live in a $945-per-month apartment in Antioch, and he commutes about three hours round-trip daily for his job at a nonprofit in Oakland.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by ExeterMedia

Cool article thanks. Lots of useful info.

You realize this is a Bay Area wide problem right. We (collective here) refuse to actually create new housing, particularly in a place convenient to work? In addition to pushing out the middle class that helps to keep communities stable. It is really about to implode.

I heard a hilarious acronym for it. The Bay Area is full of BANANAs
Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone

That sums it up quite perfectly, and is the reason we have people who live in Antioch, Los Banos, Stockton, Roseville, Auburn etc commuting to Silicon Valley and other parts of the immediate Bay Area.

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by ExeterMedia

Cool article thanks. Lots of useful info.

Oh, you're most welcome. It's pretty amusing how some people denied, denied, denied that gentrification was even happening in Oakland or that people were moving over in droves from SF. Obviously those people were either sorely mistaken, or deliberately spreading half-truths and misinformation because they have nothing better to do with their boring lives. Good thing this article clears everything up for everyone!

[ExeterMedia]

Originally Posted by jade408

You realize this is a Bay Area wide problem right. We (collective here) refuse to actually create new housing, particularly in a place convenient to work? In addition to pushing out the middle class that helps to keep communities stable. It is really about to implode.

I heard a hilarious acronym for it. The Bay Area is full of BANANAs
Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone

That sums it up quite perfectly, and is the reason we have people who live in Antioch, Los Banos, Stockton, Roseville, Auburn etc commuting to Silicon Valley and other parts of the immediate Bay Area.

Stockton to SV? Wow, that does sound bad.

[ExeterMedia]

Originally Posted by Ho_Lee_Phuc

so like, brah, is gentrification a good or bad thing? are we encouraging gentrification?

Depends on which side of the equation you are, the people commuting from Auburn/Los Banos/Stockton to SV as jade408 claims, or the people swooping in who displaced all the blacks and latinos (according to the article) in West Oakland to those exurbs.

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

Good thing this article clears everything up for everyone!

Yeah it really does. According to your article it has not created a healthy community.

It's called gentrification, and those most adversely affected - the poor and working class, African Americans and Latinos - are suffering financially as well as physically, according to the report, "Development Without Displacement: Resisting Gentrification in the Bay Area."

Oakland lost almost half of its African American population from 1990 to 2011, and fewer African Americans own homes, says the report from Causa Justa, an Oakland housing advocacy group, and the Alameda County Public Health Department. Rents in neighborhoods that were once predominantly African American, such as North Oakland and West Oakland, have risen so high they're now closing in on those in Rockridge and Montclair.

In fact, Oakland had some of the country's highest rents and rent increases in 2013, real estate data show.

"The housing market conditions are completely out of control, with no real accountability to the people who are being displaced," said Robbie Clark of Causa Justa. "These stark rent increases, people being forced to move far away and commute longer - these are not signs of healthy communities."

Jon Bean, 31, is among those displaced. A longtime resident of North Oakland, he moved to 94th Avenue in East Oakland in 2004 for cheaper rent. But last year he was forced out of there, as well, when his rent for a two-bedroom apartment jumped from $1,100 to $1,800, despite the neighborhood's high crime rate.

Now he and his three kids live in a $945-per-month apartment in Antioch, and he commutes about three hours round-trip daily for his job at a nonprofit in Oakland.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by ExeterMedia

Stockton to SV? Wow, that does sound bad.

It has been happening for a while. Even in the 80s but back then there was no traffic. My dad has plenty of friends who made that commute over the past 20-30 years. And I have plenty of acquaintances who have coworkers doing the same. A friend of my sister'a drives from Antioch to SF daily. It really doesn't matter if you are going from Antioch to Oakland or San Jose or SF. It is all really far with a very congested commute. 2.5 hours, 3 hours? It is all the same. Santa Clara County has about a 4% super commuter rate, people driving 50 miles or more daily each way to get to work.

Black people in the Bay Area core are leaving for Antioch, Stockton and out of state to the South or east coast for lower home prices and potentially other quality of life issues.

[04kL4nD]

I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure someone earlier said that no middle class people were moving into Oakland. In any event, you left out some really important parts of the article:

The movement of middle-class people into low-income neighborhoods is profoundly and rapidly reshaping the urban core of the Bay Area, from San Francisco's Mission District to the farthest reaches of East Oakland, according to a sweeping report released Tuesday.

Good for some

But for some, gentrification has been a blessing. Rising home prices and community investment have played a role in lowering crime, improving schools and bringing more amenities like grocery stores and banks, said Councilman Larry Reid, who represents East Oakland.
"Change is always good," he said. While gentrification once meant only more white people moving in, today many Latinos are part of the incoming middle class. Reid noted that his district is increasingly Latino as African Americans continue to move away. "Where we once had vacant storefronts, we now have Latino businesses. And in the hills we're seeing young families from San Francisco. It's definitely shifting."

I don't think you were deliberately trying to cherry pick the negative aspects of Oakland's double-edged sword of gentrification, but by not quoting the rest of the article, it looks kinda disingenuous. Here's more you left out:

Kate Phillips, a real estate agentreal estate agent who specializes in Maxwell Park, an East Oakland neighborhood near Mills College, said open houses these days are packed with 100 people or more, and most homes receive multiple offers. The threat of crime is outweighed by the relatively low prices, good weather and proximity to parks and cultural amenities, she said.
A 558-square-foot cottage listed for $299,000 is currently in escrow for "well over" the asking price after receiving eight offers, she said. The buyers are a couple from San Francisco with a baby.
"It's a mob scene," she said, describing interest from San Francisco buyers. "Maybe once this was considered the hinterlands, but now? No. Absolutely not."

All in all, it really looks like Oakland is becoming a more desirable place to live. Indeed, it's unfortunate that poor people are being displaced, but the exact same has happened in SF and other nice cities and they're coping, so I'm hopeful things will turn out ok.

[Tulemutt]

I'm up in the NW near Seattle for a month or so helping a friend repower and refit a boat that we will bring back down to San Francisco for him to live on. I just caught this in a local write up about the cost of rentals in downtown Seattle compared to the Mission District SF.

The real-estate website Trulia.com recently reported rents in South Lake Union (Seattle) now top $2,250 per bedroom — more than the Mission District in San Francisco.