Sunday, January 11, 2009

Oakland Sucks

Today's tribune has an article "The Plight of being Oakland" that lifts up some of the realities that we face every day as residents: fears of safety, suspicion of intentions, expectation of crime, struggling/failing public schools, limited shopping options and overwhelmed civic structures. When I meet new people and say where I'm from, often I'm asked if I've been robbed and how many times it's happened. There is a negative vision of our city from "outsiders" who are often pleasantly surprised to discover for themselves how great the city is through the experience of local parks, the people, shopping options, going out opportunities and the views/weather.

I wonder if the problem isn't more people within Oakland who give our community a bad rap. No, I'm not placing the blame on the BART police officer, but on many of us who live here (at least at night when we're home) but live anywhere else during the day. A majority of people that live in the Dimond and Laurel districts have never been there. They do all their shopping non-locally in Montclair (which is actually Oakland - not another city or inner-east-bay-suburb), Emeryville or Walnut Creek. It's one of the things I've noticed when shopping at Trader Joe's by the lake, or hanging out (as I often do) at the Peet's Coffee in the Dimond. I see a lot of people that I didn't use to see. I had a heated (at least on my side) e-debate with someone last year who was really upset that I was talking about an event on the border of the Laurel/Maxwell Park in a Redwood Heights forum even thought it directly concerened a majority of RH community members. They kept saying, that's not my neighborhood, that's not our context. I argued that it is. Maybe that's our problem. We're so often - at least if we can, or think we can, move socio-economically up the hills to the golden land of Montclair - quick to move up, to bigger and better, to go elsewhere to find what we think we want as opposed to helping make it happen where we wish we could be. It's even in our language. I ate at Bellanico's (great find) last night on Park Blvd. On yelp, it's described as being located in Oakland's "lower hills" neighborhood. I'm not sure that exists....but it sure seems to be a vocabulary twist aimed to get people to eat there as opposed to simply keeping the car in 4th gear and driving up to Montclair. Maybe the perception that Oakland sucks, is perpetuated (at least in part - I admit it's complicated) because we just might actually think it does suck.

5 comments:

Oz said...

I have to say when growing up in Arkansas, Oakland was one of those 'bad towns', a place to avoid. How I ended up moving out here, I have no idea, BUT I will admit my viewpoint on Oakland changed. Unfortunately our smaller communities and neighborhoods that are being choked by the generalization of Oakland in the press. I'm very quick to correct anyone back home, or anyone that doesn't know any better when they try to assume they know something about Oakland and give it a bad rap.

Monte said...

You've got a good point about the smaller communities, or sub-areas or "quartier" of the city being overlooked and overwhelmed by bad press. Forum had a great discussion about Oakland today...I'll post links when it's on the web.

dbanoff said...

When I moved to Oakland 16 years ago, I tried to shop locally but soon gave up. I regularly shop outside Oakland because of a lack of parking. Many of our business districts are older and lack available parking. An exception is the Dimond district, and I do shop and eat there. Otherwise, I can drive to San Leandro as quickly as most parts of Oakland, and San Leandro provides ample free parking! It's not much harder to get to Walnut Creek, which could teach Oakland city government some lessons about keeping the downtown business district vital.

Monte said...

David - I completely agree. Infrastructure, transportation and parking are key - and not in good shape here. I go to the YMCA downtown and find it difficult to park on the street on Broadway - right smack in the middle of the supposed epi-center of the construction zone for new uptown living in condos. Not a good sign for sustainable development. I too shop often in SL - the parking is a lot easier....and some things you just can't find in Oakland. There isn't a Target.

I heard a great show on Forum on Kqed yesterday...will try again to find an online version and post it. It echoes what you've said.

Oz said...

I'm with David as well. I might preach about our neighborhoods getting choked, but I often find myself going as far as Pleasanton, Sunnyvale, Fairfield to take care of shopping, car maintenance, etc. Oakland provides VERY FEW shopping options.