tell me about oakland, california

he's super stressed about the move, so i want to be all supportive and have lots of good stuff to tell him about the place.

I just moved here this month and live near Piedmont Ave. It's nice in a yuppish small-town kind of way; there are plenty of independently-owned shops, but the grocery stores are really expensive.

I just discovered The Berkeley Bowl (in neighboring Berkeley, obviously ) which is a former bowling-alley turned supermarket. They seem to have a really great selection at somewhat better prices. Also recommended for great deals on produce is the Farmer's Market on Sundays in Jack London Square.

Piedmont has a few used book stores and there are many in Berkeley also.

The Grand Lake theater on Grand Ave. is a wonderful place to catch a flick.

http://image1.frappr.com/pix1/i/20070106/3/5/f/35fe07f46d0648169bb9c229411d164d0_medium.jpg

A few months ago I had a dream that I flew to Oakland to see the Brian Jonestown Massacre and when I got there I had no fucking clue where it was, when it was, what time it was, etc. I think it seemed sort of ghettoish and empty.

if that helps at all.

ummm... no. :)

i've been told that it's a 'working class city' as opposed to SF which is apparently the 'hip city', and san jose (?) which is corporate. mostly i just want to know about cool little places that i can tell him about, obscure stuff that he might not find otherwise. he has a few friends there, but not close friends. also, he is really into mountain biking and hiking/camping, so anything to do with that would also helpful.

I live near Oakland, it's good. Piedmont is nice. There is new book/magazine store there called ISSUES, looks good. North Oakland/"Temescal" (ha!) is probably good too, some nice restaurants and little stores around there. I've also always been fond of Grand and Lake Merritt, I would live around there. Living downtown would be funny if you're that way inclined. There's galleries and art workshops like Rock Paper Scissors around there and there's 21 Grand for shows and Mama Buzz. Did you know Oakland has more artists per square mile than any other US city? Do you like artists? I do.

I'm actually going to miss Oakland, though it must be said I have more time for it than some of the other people I know who have lived around here longer! Some things about it are possibly more "hip" than SF but I'm no arbiter of that sort of thing, depends on how you define hip I suppose.

Oakland/Berkeley Hills and Tilden Park great for mountain biking, I would imagine!

Milton could help you out here too, maybe.

Milton Berle

thanks admrl. yes, i like artists too ;)
my friend collects books and weird art, so great book stores and art galleries are necessities.

Well, send him downtown. The "Oakland Art district" is a little too over-hyped but if people hadn't hyped it up too much in the first place, it would remain a perfectly great little collection of...concerns.

Bookstores - there's ISSUES (which I hear is very interesting and good) near Piedmont, Walden Pond on Grand, Black Swan (also Piedmont). The galleries all clustered around Broadway near downtown.

Then of course there is Berkeley where I live - the Berkeley Art Museum has some surprisingly good stuff and has an excellent (but expensive) bookstore and there's Moe's and Shakespeare & Co on Telegraph, Black Oak Books North on Shattuck, etc.

There's San Francisco only 20 minutes BART ride away, i hear that can be charming too.

East bay Neighborhoods:

http://sfgate.com/traveler/guide/eastbay/neighborhoods/

Black Swan - apparently that's called The Spectator, sorry. My wife corrected me (as usual).

Also if he likes pizza beer popcorn and couches and movies, there is the Parkway Theater.

There's a cool club in Oaktown called the Ruby Room that used to have the most danceable soul nights on Wednesdays. I haven't been there in awhile, so I dunno if it's still going on.

OK gotta go. Ask any more questions you want and I'll respond in time.

xp

you're awesome, admrl, thanks heaps. this is all very helpful.

vegan restaurants?

xxpost ruby room seems fitting ;)

Parts of Oakland are fairly ghetto, but it pales next to Detroit.

but i guess that goes for any decently sized city - there will always be dodgy areas.

Oakland has the highest murder rate of any cities in the SF Bay area, although Richmond might be getting close. Just FYI. I like Oakland, but I like Berkeley and Albany better, and even El Cerrito ain't so horrible.

Stay far away from points south of Oakland, however, especially on the east side. It's like a mixture of light industrial and suburbia on that side, and there's nothing interesting.

Oakland has the highest murder rate of any cities in the SF Bay area

yeah... didn't really want to know that :( i have enough death anxiety as it is. but thanks for the location tips.

I wouldn't worry too much about Oakland. If you have an ounce of street-smarts, it's as safe as any place. I used to practice in downtown Oakland, and now I practice in Bayview, which is the worst neighborhood in SF. I didn't feel unsafe in Oakland, and I don't feel unsafe in Bayview (although the people who jump out in the street in front of my car when I'm driving on 3rd probably should).

The major point here is that the SF Bay area is the greatest place to live in the US, bar none. I have a condo in SF because there's no other place in the world I'd rather be a homeowner.

awww... now i want to move there too! hopefully i'll be visiting by the end of the year.

There's quite a few vegan places and everywhere is quite vegan-friendly. Someone else might help you there though...

I've lived here since 1996 and can probably help with any specific questions. I think most of the basics are covered: you'll want to live in Berkeley, Piedmont, Rockridge, Temescal, Albany, Grand Lake, Berkeley or Alameda, or maybe downtown near 14th/Webster. El Cerrito is also getting pretty livable with the introduction of Mod Lang, the new Parkway Theater and some decent restaurants. Stay away from West Oakland, Emeryville (for the most part), East Oakland, the Mills College area, Fruitvale, and anything south of that. If you have some money, Montclair and Kensington/Berkeley Hills are pretty nice, if more remote.

Those areas are also where you'll find the majority of the good restaurants, shops, etc., although there are noteworthy exceptions.

We had one of the biggest earthquakes since I've lived here last night. The epicenter was 2 miles from my house, on the Hayward Fault.

I lived in Oakland from 1989-2004 and miss it like crazy -- I'm exiled in the Central Valley now (my wife's job, not even mine!)

It's impossible to even start with restaurants and what to do in Oakland, but I'll put in a plug for the bars in my old Temescal neighborhood, both the dive bars that have been there for ever (Silver Lion at 49th & Telegraph and Connolly's at 48th & Telegraph) and also the Pizza & pub that just looks like it's been there for ever, Lanesplitter, which actually opened a couple months before I left in 2004.

The Jack London Farmers Market on Saturday and Sunday mornings is the place to shop if you cook and care about real produce, artisan breads, etc.

Most of the live rock is in San Francisco -- worth living near BART for that alone -- but the Stork Club is still going at 25th and Telegraph and I think some other community places opened around there while I was having a kid and not able to go out nights all the time anymore. For old R&B, soul, and blues, there's a couple places in the Grand Lake area, one on Lakeshore I went to for a while, and another on Lake Park. I'm completely blanking on their names -- it's been a while. Yoshi's at Jack London Square is the place for jazz, but is very expensive even for a jazz club.

Nearly every neighborhood has a decent independent bookstore -- Walden Pond on Grand in the Grand/Lake area is the best. But there are good ones in Rockridge, Piedmont Ave., Laurel, Dimond, and West Oakland.

For Art Galleries I want to plug Pro-Arts, near Jack London Square on 2nd St west of Broadway. Somewhere in between the more "official" Oakland Art Gallery sponsored by the city, and the punker ones gathered in and around uptown, it has the largest constituency of actual Oakland-based artists.

I could go on and on.

Hey Kenny, you mention Lanesplitter for pizza. I saw that while driving the other night and have to give it a shot.

Have you tried Zachary's? Is it worth the exorbitant prices?

try not to get shot

It's pretty good. Also good - Gioia in Berkeley and Cheeseboard and Pizzaiola in North Oakland. All expensive to varying degrees.

xp

Lnesplitter is a place to hang out. The pizza is good and fairly cheap and the beer is great. Zachary's has the best pizza for a lot more money and it is completely impossible to get a seat unless you get there at 2:30 or want to wait an hour. In the last few years I was in town I'd sometimes call Zachary's and order a half baked pizza and take it home and finish baking it, but I probably haven't sat in the restaurant for a decade.

Yeah, I've had Cheeseboard before. That was a good slice.

Issues is a new shop in Oakland specializing in global media and experimental music/art.

so i've heard.

What is the address of Issues again? I always forget

It's on Glen Ave. right off of Piedmont.

try not to get shot

This kind of shit is just ignorant. Try not to get killed in a car accident -- you're far more likely to die that way then with a bullet in Oakland unless you really are in the underground crime economy.

Does Issues have a website? I've always wondered if they have any web presence.

I'm just sayin.... I've seen more guns pointed at people in Oakland than any other place in the world. Coworker shot outside his house by kids with a BB gun. Other coworker threatened and robbed at gunpoint on the bus, etc.

I've never seen a gun in Oakland.

then there was the time I saw two cops pull a guy over next to the Coliseum BART station and point shotguns at the driver in the middle of the afternoon.

good times

I once ate 7 courses of beef with this young Scottish couple. It was like a scene in a film.

(...near chinatown in Oakland).

then there was the time I saw two cops pull a guy over next to the Coliseum BART station and point shotguns at the driver in the middle of the afternoon.

Ah, yes, getting shot by the cops ... that's a real risk. Though the only place a cop ever pulled a gun on me (come to think of it, the only time anyone has pulled a gun on me) was in Knoxville, Tennessee.

It was like a scene in a film.

Love, Actually?

and YES issues does have a (great!) website here:

http://www.issuesshop.com/

that is really nice to be totally honest.

I also have never seen a gun in the bay area (other than in a cop's holster). I'm sure they're out there, but I've never seen one.

The Lanesplitters on San Pablo is considerably better than the one on Telegraph, in my opinion. Also of note in Temescal is La Calaca Loca, a great new upscale boho tacqueria. I am way addicted to that place.

Also, Zachary's is totally worth it. The other fancier places (Pizzaiola and Gioia) are good too, but Zachary's is more fun.

i don't see them but i sure hear them.

I want to try La Calaca Loca and Dona Tomas. I have about...ten days.

Eh.... The best Mexican food in SF rates very low compared to LA's (which is much, much cheaper than Dona Tomas).

here we gooo

I loved living in Oakland.

Most inaccurate taqueria reviews anywhere: http://www.burritoeater.com/

honestly I think the best mexican food I ever had was in Gonzales.

inaccurate, maybe. but funny nonetheless.

I just moved out of Oakland, and definitely miss the parking, the scenery around Lake Merritt (where I lived) and Piedmont, the way better apartments for the money than in SF -- Oakland was a very comfortable place. (except that one time I thought someone was going to mug me)

However, I did get bored a lot near the end, and now I live in SF.

...and I *majorly* miss Lynn & Lu's, a little breakfast place on Grand

Eh.... The best Mexican food in SF rates very low compared to LA's (which is much, much cheaper than Dona Tomas).

I'm sure you could find a similarly-upscale Mexican restaurant in LA with similar prices.

I will never stop being bored of the LA/SD vs. SF/Oakland Mexican food wars. They're different, they're both good, LA/SD's is cheaper ... end of story.

ILX voted Oakland 11th best city in the world.

Now I'm hungry for a burrito for dinner. Thanks a lot, ILX.

The best burrito I have had since moving to California was purchased in a strip mall in Santa Clarita and eaten while watching E! in a sketchy hooker motel by a railroad track.

How were the hookers?

quiet

juuuuuuust the way I like 'em

I mean, when I'm trying to watch The Soup or Sunset Tan.

my friend just found a place, 4mins from the parkway theatre, near lake merritt. he's seems pretty happy with it, and was also incredibly impressed by my knowledge of cool places in oakland, so THANX YOU GUYS RULE ;)

great!

The Parkway . . . that's some memories for me too . . . but I won't start, you know what happened last time I did :) Best to your friend -- hope he loves it.

Gertrude Stein famously dissed Oakland, saying "There is no there there", even though she was a native daughter. Then she died. Payback's a bitch, huh?

i'll be sure not to mention that to my friend...

Gertrude Stein famously dissed Oakland

According to this Gertrude Stein fansite:

When Stein returned to California on her lecture tour to the United States in the 1930s, she wanted to visit her childhood home in Oakland, CA. She records that she could not find the house. Hence, "there is no there there."

I've heard a few variations on this explanation, but Stein scholars seem to be quick to refute the dissage.

chicken and waffles. also, as commercial as emeryville is... it's where your friend can get his trader joe's on and... the public market has the best $5-6 tikka masala i've ever had.

i miss the kite festival.

the issues shop may be the ONLY place in north america that sells both ranger rick magazines alongside sealed throbbing gristle cassette tapes. perfect for a noise dad.
m.

once again, YOU GUYZ RULZ ;)

MAYBE I AM MOVING HERE IN A FEW MONTHS!!!

well, that's the plan. depends on visas and stuff - new work scheme just introduced in nz allows us kiwis to work in the US for up to a year.

if oaklandian ilxors would like to offer me a job, that would RAD (i'm practising my americanisms).

ok, just realised this is the totally wrong time to have revived this thread, since all the oaklanders are fast asleep. i will have to bumpity-bump it in a few hours.

I take it this is the exciting news you were avoiding tempting fate about?

kind of :) much has been happening of late. decisions have been made, souls have been bared.. i'll sign on to aim and give you the details!

BUMP!

oaklanders, are you out there?