Is Oakland,CA really THAT bad?

Question

i've heard theres a murder every week and many drivebys near the freeway. is it really that horrible? or is it just parts of Oakland? does it effect the cities nearby, like Emeryville?

Answer 1

there are lots of crime and homicide in oakland, not every though. there are a few areas that are safe, like the hills( crimals dont like to run uphill) but other that that oakland is a terrible city to live in. the schools are really really poor unless you go to a charter school like baytech. its definetly not safe to raise children in that city. the crime actually does not affect nearby cities very much. emeryville for example disatracts crimals since it is kind of a mall city and also most of the shopping centers are across the railroad . another reason is that most of emeryvilles crime hot spots have been removed and replaced with hightech or bio companies , which infest the area with decent pay workers who occupy the area. furthermore , the shopping in emeryville is generally for rich people , and the malls have a ample amount of security. also emeryville does not have a bart station so there is no cheap and short way to get there if you dont have a car. criminals may not have cars ( police could possible track them down using there registration info and other stuff.

in a nother city like berkeley, there was once places that offered cheap rents for crimals , but that nolonger exist becuase of gentrification andt the dot com boom that attracted wealthy workers who wanted to live in a urban neighborhood. also the university in berkeley might also provide a physcologicall repellent to crimanals. since crimals basically were not able to get a higher education and became low lifes they feel guilty to enter berkeley .

if you looking to make lots of money , oakland might be a good place to buy cheap homes and wait for the land value to rise . oakland recently got a new mayor who is dedicated to good things , so oakland could become a deluxe place in bout 5 years.

my parents bought there home in berkeley ( west) in 1989 for a 150K and now it is worth around a million dollars. Also wait for earthquakes that lower value of homes by half some times. my parents bought the home right before the loma prieta quake and after words the homes around became even cheaper like 90K

oakland was once a very wealthy city however. the west oaklnad area was once full of wealthy residents and the hills were empty. in 1906 the earthquake damaged many of the homes which were on loos soil ( the area of the cyprus freeway) and the those rich people moved to the hills where the soil was better.this left a cheap neightboorhood in oakland and soon many poor residents moved in.in the 50s highways were built every where in oakland , dividing neighboord hoods and ugly fying the area. since the city had so much on there hands they also did not focus muchon education. around the 70s west oakland was home to black panthers and many affrican americans. it was depicted as a safe place for affricans , with out discrimination by white people. back then many affricans had buisnesses on 7th street that brought income to the area and for the people there. when bart was built , imminent domain was used to take all the land where the shops and resturants were and used to built tracks and stations. now the african americans lost there source of income. soon crimals emerged , trying to find a way to make money. drug dealing is extremly popular since you can make the money you would make in a low wage job in three months , in just a few minutes or seconds.
also since many fathers of the area had to take this new life style of drug addiction or dealing , they were suceptible to police arrest . many children in the area now have there fathers in prison and mothers either disturbed or working for hours and hours doing a low wage job to surrvive.
hopefully gentrification will bring new light to oakland

Answer 2

You honestly can't go by what you hear. Even though the majority of those who answered state that Oakland has it's bad areas and good areas, the bottom line is where do you feel safe? If you plan on moving into Oakland near Emeryville, I suggest you drive through the neighborhood during the day to check things out then do the same at about 7 or 8 pm. That way you will see both sides of the neighborhood. I also suggest you do it on a Friday or Saturday night, just because people tend to be a little more loose on the weekends.

I currently live on the boarderline of West Oakland and Emeryville and haven't encountered any problems what-so-ever, but then again I'm Black and that may not be your case. But I'm still a woman with a small child and as I've mentioned no problems. I've been here for almost 3 years now. I moved from Richmond which actually seems to have a worse reputation than Oakland. You need to remember that the media is going to hype up anything that will sell newspapers - the good and the bad. Another thing is you could move into the quietest neighborhood and have a "Scott Peterson" living next door to you, so as I recommended:

Decide what will make you feel safe
Drive through the neighborhood both day and night to check it out
Don't believe everything you read in the papers- the story is usually one-sided

Answer 3

Oakland has some parts that are pretty bad. But there are a lot of areas that a VERY nice, like JLS and the Oakland Hills and the Grand Lake area. But on the other hand it has a very high murder rate. There are usually a few every month. But that's how big cities are, Oakland has a lot of people in it. The Bay area is HUGE, what happens in Oakland has nothing to do with Emeryville or the surrounding areas.

Answer 4

Like any fairly large city, there are good parts and bad parts in Oakland. Rockridge, Montclair and Piedmont, for example, are quite nice. Many lovely neighborhoods up in the hills near the redwoods. You just have to invest some time learning your way around, ideally with the help of a local, so you know what areas to avoid.

Answer 5

It's not as bad as you might think. There are bad parts, it has a bad repuation, this gets exaggerated over the years. For the most part, gang members kill each other, not innocent bystanders. And plenty of parts of town are very safe, Piedmont as was mentioned, also rockridge, lakeshore, chinatown/jack london, oakland hills to name a few. The places you might want to avoid are neighborhoods around coliseum, west oakland and macarthur bart. I haven't seen any evidence of a spillover into the commercial areas of emeryville and I worked there for 2 years.

Answer 6

depends on what neighborhoods. the cities nearby are not as bad. Though I have to say, my family refers to Oakland as murder capital, lol.

Answer 7

Depends on what part of town and what race/social class one is.
There are gangs, but there are plenty of safe parts of Oakland. My sister and her husband live in the Piedmont Avenue area and it's definitely safe there

Answer 8

Depends on where you are in Oakland...Oakland Hills are beautiful, but if you venture out of the hills it can be bad. wATCH OUT! DON'T GET SHOT! IT HURTS!