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I moved to the Bay Area, with my family, 8 months ago. We tried to make SF work (and did live in temporary housing in SOMA for three months), but SF is not a p

I moved to the Bay Area, with my family, 8 months ago. We tried to make SF work (and did live in temporary housing in SOMA for three months), but SF is not a place for young children (unless you are beyond financial constraints). I commute to SOMA every day from Rockridge. Rockridge is nice, except for Oakland's inability to provide an adequately sized police force! All the tech things antirez outlined are true, but the reality is, it took some commitment and blind faith to move out with a family and no friends or contacts. Its like moving to another country :). There is more of everything in SF (bay area really), success and destitution, beauty and ugliness, brilliant people and charlatans, opportunity and desperation. I'm loving it, but it's a balancing act.

Throwadev 13y ago
Can you elaborate on lack of police? Have you been affected by the crime in Rockridge? I thought it was a pretty decent area the last time I visited.
- dontAgree 13y ago
  No he's just being a typical transplant and talking out of his ass.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
    - dontAgree 13y ago
      No need to fear. The plebeians who worship HN will downvote me into oblivion to stick up for their fellow transient brother from flyover state Nowhere, USA.
  - pfarrell 13y ago
    Don't down vote the parents comment. He/she's right!
  - hyperbovine 13y ago
    Crime has gotten noticeably worse since I moved to Lake Merritt in 2005. Everyone I know who lives on Oakland agrees. For example, Oakland is currently the robbery capital of the nation (http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Oakland-is-Americas-Robbery-Capital--206663091.html http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Oakland-is-Americas-Rob...). OPD employs 20% fewer officers than it did ten years ago, and probably half as many as it should for a city with its size and crime figures. Pull your head out of your own ass and look at some actual data before you post things like this.
- pfarrell 13y ago
  Oakland has about 600 police officers for a population which requires around 1,100. There have been five robberies on my street in upper rockridge, where we rent. It's an incredibly beautiful neighborhood and we pay a pretty high rent to live there. In 2010, the police announced that for a long list of crimes (including burgularies) they will not come out. We have caught people casing our neighborhood, strangers sitting in cars for hours, "solicitors" checking for who is home, etc. One woman was abducted from her home, but managed to flee before being permanently maimed (I don't know which year this was, but it was mentioned at a neighborhood watch meeting. Combine a typical neighborhood of strangers with desperate criminal elements, as well as an understaffed police and you can have a bad situation. Hoping the governor will help out (it's his hometown) because Oakland could be an incredible town.
  - dontAgree 13y ago
    Oh typical petty crime. BRING ON THE POLICE! "Oakland could be an incredible town". It already is. If you don't appreciate it, then go elsewhere? Berkeley may be more of your taste (lots of granola for ya).
    - liveinoakland 13y ago
      in rockridge, they are pretty much in berkeley already. oakland "could be" an incredible town? coming from someone who moved here 8 months ago? this guy is trolling on the out-of-towner's ruining the bay meme, and we're falling for it
    - hack_edu 13y ago
      Rockridge is far, far more crunchy than any part of Berkeley these days...
  - rdouble 13y ago
    The abduction happened in Rockridge?
    - spikels 13y ago
- liveinoakland 13y ago
  rockridge is 100x safer and nicer than many of the places where people flock to in SF, as is grand lake, as is jack london square, as is piedmont, as is temescal... oakland has some of the nicest neighborhoods and most coveted real estate in the entire bay. drive around the hills sometime. the "oakland is dangerous" meme is laughable. you are in trouble in parts of west oakland and far east in fruitvale. just like in bayview/hunter's point in SF. welcome to oakland! now I can't compare it to suburbs in the midwest, but if you take it as a city, oakland is already an incredible place and one of the last places you can get good housing on a normal person's salary in the bay.
  - aashay 13y ago
    For someone who is considering moving to Oakland in less than 2 months, can you comment on the safety of the other Oakland BART station areas (12th & 19th)? I honestly can't get a good read on Oakland anymore. So many people (yourself included) say that there are plenty of safe places to live in Oakland but crime maps suggest otherwise, especially within walking distance to BART stations. I live in Berkeley now and I'm considering finding another place somewhere in Berkeley but it should would be nicer to be a little closer to SF, where I work...
    - rdouble 13y ago
      Its boosters will suggest otherwise, but Oakland is pretty sketchy. Everyone I know there has been jacked at one point. It's just a matter of time. That said, the only place I've personally been held up at gunpoint in the Bay Area was in Berkeley. (San Pablo and Dwight area)
      - aashay 13y ago
        Sorry you had to go through that. I live downtown now on University (and I'm probably gonna try and stay downtown) and I pretty much never go west of Sacramento, that area is pretty sketch.
- cellis 13y ago
  It's so bad, you could easily join the OPD or SFPD (as a presumably fit young male) and be making more than an avg. engineer in a year or two (overtime incl.)
- malyk 13y ago
  Apparently Oakland is running a handful of police academy's this year in an effort to increase the size of the force. Salary's start in the $80's I think before overtime. Might be a pretty lucrative position. And you get to shoot people at will! (ok, not really, but my cop friend says a lot of their "what not to do" case studies come out of oakland.) Hopefully more officers on the street will help the incidence of crime, but I'm not convinced. Time will tell.
dontAgree 13y ago
> Rockridge is nice, except for Oakland's inability to provide an adequately sized police force! You live in North Oakland. Duh. You think they're really focusing efforts on this area? Move to Piedmont if you want a dedicated police force.
- pfarrell 13y ago
  Piedmont is definitely very nice. We have made some great friends there. Unfortunately, nothing was available when we moved. Pro tip: don't relocate around thanksgiving/Christmas ;).
rdl 13y ago
Piedmont, however, is really nice. If I had a particular need for decent schools or a police force, I'd probably live there. There is a decent shopping area near Piedmont in Oakland (confusingly, on Piedmont Ave), similar to Rockridge. The problem with Piedmont is lack of BART vs Rockridge or Oakland Uptown. Around 19th st BART is ok if you have no kids; it is only particularly dangerous on the other side of Telegraph.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

Throwadev 13y ago

Can you elaborate on lack of police? Have you been affected by the crime in Rockridge? I thought it was a pretty decent area the last time I visited.

dontAgree 13y ago
No he's just being a typical transplant and talking out of his ass.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - dontAgree 13y ago
    No need to fear. The plebeians who worship HN will downvote me into oblivion to stick up for their fellow transient brother from flyover state Nowhere, USA.
- pfarrell 13y ago
  Don't down vote the parents comment. He/she's right!
- hyperbovine 13y ago
  Crime has gotten noticeably worse since I moved to Lake Merritt in 2005. Everyone I know who lives on Oakland agrees. For example, Oakland is currently the robbery capital of the nation (http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Oakland-is-Americas-Robbery-Capital--206663091.html http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Oakland-is-Americas-Rob...). OPD employs 20% fewer officers than it did ten years ago, and probably half as many as it should for a city with its size and crime figures. Pull your head out of your own ass and look at some actual data before you post things like this.
pfarrell 13y ago
Oakland has about 600 police officers for a population which requires around 1,100. There have been five robberies on my street in upper rockridge, where we rent. It's an incredibly beautiful neighborhood and we pay a pretty high rent to live there. In 2010, the police announced that for a long list of crimes (including burgularies) they will not come out. We have caught people casing our neighborhood, strangers sitting in cars for hours, "solicitors" checking for who is home, etc. One woman was abducted from her home, but managed to flee before being permanently maimed (I don't know which year this was, but it was mentioned at a neighborhood watch meeting. Combine a typical neighborhood of strangers with desperate criminal elements, as well as an understaffed police and you can have a bad situation. Hoping the governor will help out (it's his hometown) because Oakland could be an incredible town.
- dontAgree 13y ago
  Oh typical petty crime. BRING ON THE POLICE! "Oakland could be an incredible town". It already is. If you don't appreciate it, then go elsewhere? Berkeley may be more of your taste (lots of granola for ya).
  - liveinoakland 13y ago
    in rockridge, they are pretty much in berkeley already. oakland "could be" an incredible town? coming from someone who moved here 8 months ago? this guy is trolling on the out-of-towner's ruining the bay meme, and we're falling for it
  - hack_edu 13y ago
    Rockridge is far, far more crunchy than any part of Berkeley these days...
- rdouble 13y ago
  The abduction happened in Rockridge?
  - spikels 13y ago
liveinoakland 13y ago
rockridge is 100x safer and nicer than many of the places where people flock to in SF, as is grand lake, as is jack london square, as is piedmont, as is temescal... oakland has some of the nicest neighborhoods and most coveted real estate in the entire bay. drive around the hills sometime. the "oakland is dangerous" meme is laughable. you are in trouble in parts of west oakland and far east in fruitvale. just like in bayview/hunter's point in SF. welcome to oakland! now I can't compare it to suburbs in the midwest, but if you take it as a city, oakland is already an incredible place and one of the last places you can get good housing on a normal person's salary in the bay.
- aashay 13y ago
  For someone who is considering moving to Oakland in less than 2 months, can you comment on the safety of the other Oakland BART station areas (12th & 19th)? I honestly can't get a good read on Oakland anymore. So many people (yourself included) say that there are plenty of safe places to live in Oakland but crime maps suggest otherwise, especially within walking distance to BART stations. I live in Berkeley now and I'm considering finding another place somewhere in Berkeley but it should would be nicer to be a little closer to SF, where I work...
  - rdouble 13y ago
    Its boosters will suggest otherwise, but Oakland is pretty sketchy. Everyone I know there has been jacked at one point. It's just a matter of time. That said, the only place I've personally been held up at gunpoint in the Bay Area was in Berkeley. (San Pablo and Dwight area)
    - aashay 13y ago
      Sorry you had to go through that. I live downtown now on University (and I'm probably gonna try and stay downtown) and I pretty much never go west of Sacramento, that area is pretty sketch.
cellis 13y ago
It's so bad, you could easily join the OPD or SFPD (as a presumably fit young male) and be making more than an avg. engineer in a year or two (overtime incl.)
malyk 13y ago
Apparently Oakland is running a handful of police academy's this year in an effort to increase the size of the force. Salary's start in the $80's I think before overtime. Might be a pretty lucrative position. And you get to shoot people at will! (ok, not really, but my cop friend says a lot of their "what not to do" case studies come out of oakland.) Hopefully more officers on the street will help the incidence of crime, but I'm not convinced. Time will tell.

dontAgree 13y ago

> Rockridge is nice, except for Oakland's inability to provide an adequately sized police force! You live in North Oakland. Duh. You think they're really focusing efforts on this area? Move to Piedmont if you want a dedicated police force.

pfarrell 13y ago
Piedmont is definitely very nice. We have made some great friends there. Unfortunately, nothing was available when we moved. Pro tip: don't relocate around thanksgiving/Christmas ;).

rdl 13y ago

Piedmont, however, is really nice. If I had a particular need for decent schools or a police force, I'd probably live there. There is a decent shopping area near Piedmont in Oakland (confusingly, on Piedmont Ave), similar to Rockridge. The problem with Piedmont is lack of BART vs Rockridge or Oakland Uptown. Around 19th st BART is ok if you have no kids; it is only particularly dangerous on the other side of Telegraph.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]