Lived in Oakland 2001 to 2012. I had to get out. It’s not that it has a bad local government, it really DOESN’T HAVE a local government. The elected people are paralyzed by fear of offending various “protected classes”, so it is a train wreck. Glad I left.
I'm a trucker who used to do west coast. I had to spend the night parked on the street in Oakland. All night I reminded myself that I did a year in Afghanistan . But in Afghanistan I had an M4.
I was raised in Oakland, grew up in the Maxwell Park neighborhood. I left California for the Northwest in the 1992, returned for a number of years and now I'm in Arizona, likely permanently. It hurts to see the Bay Area as it is now. My best memories remain there and I still love the city but... it's just not the same place anymore. I visited my old haunts in Oakland a few months ago and the homeless situation is unreal, many areas look run-down and poorly maintained. To think, I ran around that city on bike, bus, and BART as a teen and felt relatively safe... now I wouldn't even bother driving the streets. I miss the old Oakland. Loved reading the comments... Cheers, All.
Been in the SJ-SF for 30+ years. Oaktown was really the only place I was on highest alert. Freaky, run down, angry, ghetto-bangin', testosterone-slingin' individuals all over the place. Unfortunate? Yes. Resolvable? No. Not without a citywide nuke. 💪😎✌️
Oakland was much much worse in the early 1990s than it is now. You might perceive things as worse now because of the high visibility of the homeless. I promise you that if you look at the violent crime rate now versus then you'll be shocked. The Oakland you and I ran around in as kids was a nightmare.
The million dollar question. Did you go to the NW and vote Democrat? You are now in Arizona, do you vote Democrat? If the answer is ‘yes, I vote Democrat’, YOU are the F’ing problem, because you are spreading the cancer. If you vote Democrat, where will you run to when Arizona has been destroyed by the democrats?
I knew a former Oakland cop who said that he if saw a drunk driver, he would not bother pulling the drunk driver over because OPD is so understaffed that his colleagues can't have him tied up in a DUI stop for hours. And given that OPD has been under a federal monitor for decades and a community that hates them, most cops will just lateral to another agency once they gain enough experience and commendations. It's very similar to the Oakland A's - investing time and money into rookie cops only to have the rookie go to another team once their value goes up.
I am a native San Franciscan, will be 68 in a few days, but spent my teen years growing up in Oakland. You left out a very important part of Oakland's decline. That being the flight of jobs to far away suburbs after employment discrimination was made illegal, coupled with "White Flight" after housing segregation was made illegal. Yes, that happened all across the country, but Oakland was severely wounded by these two phenomenon and never really recovered. By the 80s, there were entire neighborhoods where almost none of the young men had ever had a legitimate job, mostly because there WERE no jobs to be had. Many had never ventured out of Oakland - Berkeley - San Francisco and had no idea where places like Orinda, Reem, Lafayette, Dublin, etc. were, and had no idea how to get there. Many didn't have cars, and those localities were poorly, at best, served by inter-urban transit. When you can't find a job as a young person, you don't acquire experience, and if you don't have any experience by the time you are in your late 20s, you are pretty much unemployable for all but the worse jobs, jobs that simply don't pay enough to allow you to afford even the most basic housing. Hence, the lure of illegal activities.
Get your head out of the sand. It was the voters who sanctioned one party rule that doomed Oakland and is now almost destroyed San Francisco. The jobs moved out because it wasn't worth keeping them in high crime areas governed by anarchists and hoodlums. Sodom and Gamora would be better names for Oakland and San Francisco!
Thank you. Too many people want to reduce the issues in our country to oversimplified, good vs evil, us v them, narratives. In reality, it is much more complex and nuanced, as you have shown.
Had no idea how to get to Orinda? Really? Its like 7 miles away. Oh and there's no jobs in Orinda, its a bedroom community of Bay Area professionals forced to drive through the Caldecott tunnel every day because Oakland is a shit hole.
I grew up in Oakland during the 50's and 60's. Back in those days we slept with our doors unlocked. Since then, I've been to about 50 countries around the world. I've been to the worst impoverished slums on Earth, sadly, parts of Oakland today make the list. What I've last seen of Oakland a year ago would have been unimaginable when I left 25 years ago.
I was born in Oakland, a block away from the Hells Angels clubhouse. my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents all lived there. my parents bought a house when I was 6 months old. I don't know why they bought one 20 miles away, but I am sure glad they did. Oakland has been a mess for years, a friend of the family was murdered in a robbery around 1965.
@@rickharnish6757 I believe it was on Foothill at one time. we lived on 39th. I went out there in the 80's to see our old house and our grandparents place across the street and it was in a different place than it is now
The City government allowed crime to over take the town an let go of all it's revenue. Bring in the National Guards an have them an city employees to clean an clear it up. No more outsiders buying up all land an raising rent an mortgages 3 times for a port city.
Oakland has been a violent cesspool for years, the mayor just recently asked for the National Guard for help. Huey Newton was murdered in Oakland, if he couldn’t survive The Cesspool, you-all in trouble.
So they defunded the police, blamed the police for all their problems, threw heaps of hate on them…and now they are begging the state to bring in soldiers of the national guard 😂 These woke politicians that inhabit Oakland are the most moronic hypocrites out there. Oakland deserves all the problems it has.
I worked in Oakland in 2006 -2007! The murder rate statistic was one and a half a day, ranking 10th most dangerous metropolitan in the country, only behind Richmond, just north, that ranked 4th! Recently professional sports championships resulted in looting and burning of many businesses along E.14th, International Blvd. On a recent visit, my cousin picked me up at the airport. We stopped at a nearby restaurant for a late dinner around 9:00 - 9:30! We had to hurry because they were closing at 10! When I asked why, the answer was because you risked getting robbed if you stayed open any later! My sisters mother-in-law was robbed at gun point riding BART. My nephew's teacher was beat to near death and couldn't get police or paramedics to respond to a 911 call. He was eventually transported to the nearest hospital by taxi! A friend was a construction manager. They were required to hire a certain % of local residents by law! Workers were late, drunk, high, under qualified and unproductive!
Oakland had 500+ murders a year all thru 1970s, 1980s, 1990's until slowed in 1995. At times it was the worst city statistic in the United States. Worse than Rip de Janeiro's drug gang murders by ten times. 500 murders per 500,000 pop is 1 murder per 1000. That's huge. I remember I was working for the railroad in West Oak on 7th St big yard, and the 1 st homicide of the year 1979 happened at 12:45 am at Esther's Orbit Room, a nightclub just across 7 th St from our railroad yard office. And the next year, 500++. And the next year, 500++.....
I've partied, hung out and driven around in Oakland a lot over the years living in the Bay Area. One thing I can say for sure is that the cops don't go to certain parts of Oakland, and there's almost no such thing as a parking ticket. It's a lawless land.
Or ANY ticket..I have lived in East Oakland for 14 years now. Almost No one stops for stop signs or had tags on their cars or probably carry insurance.The new Alameda DA pam price refuses to prosecute blk offenders and is going to get recalled. I hope. and the new mayor is asking for a raise in her pay. meanwhile oakland is the capitol of crime
Oakland has a lot of potential. Unfortunately there’s too many opportunists acting like community leaders and too many haters knocking shit down. You can’t have anything nice bc someone will either scam you out of it or destroy it.
There would be less scams by community leaders if the media did their job. Politicians are expected to be corrupt. It does not work if the media is also corrupt. That will happen if the DA does not prosecute the bad guys. Most crimes are done by a small number of people. I don't think someone should be locked up for a nonviolent first crime but if they do not learn, we need to be protected from them. I wish you well.
No it's not. You clearly don't drive through Oakland. I find it funny how many ppl sensationalize crime when crime at a macro level has been going down. I promise you unless you're wandering the streets of East Oakland on 182nd at 3AM you're fine.
Born and raised in a segregated West Oakland in the fifties. The area had stores, movie theater and clubs. Attended Willow Manor, Lowell Jr, High and McClymonds High School. All the schools were very segregated, but we did not care it worked out for us. Oakland was pretty nice until crack was introduced to the city in the eighties. Crack, guns, poverty and horrible mayors and city councils have been truly bad for Oakland. Most of the blue-collar jobs left. The sports teams became horrible, and the fans stop supporting them. Sanctuary city and state has not helped at all. Now you have a large influx of poor people from 3rd world countries. And I am not placing all the blame on them. A large amount of San Franciscan natives have poured into Oakland. Oakland has gotten the good, bad and ugly from San Francisco. Parts of Oakland are a filthy cesspool, like San Francisco. I do not feel safe anymore in Oakland. I am so glad I moved away years ago.
Born/raised "Deep East"" in the 50's 60's. Graduated Castlemont in '63. Knew some Panthers. Knew some Angels. Knew some Dragons. I survived. So did a lot of us.
You left out the destruction of many neighborhoods in the mid-twentieth century for the interstate system. Oakland got completely decimated, and those freeways are scars on the urban landscape today, dividing neighborhoods.
It's a shit-hole bc whenever someone wants to build new homes or shopping centers, the locals cry out "gentrification". Fine, keep your run-down house that was built 100 years ago that you can't afford to maintain.
I'm Oakland born and raised since 2001. I've lived in the city's low income neighborhoods and have seen gentrification with my own eyes, I went to Oakland public/charter schools, I'm a pupil of one of the longest running non-profit organizations in Oakland, my church is in Oakland, and was also an intern for one of Oakland's sports teams one summer when I was in college. I'm very proud to say that Oakland is my hometown but it disappoints me very much to see the current state of the city with the dysfunctional leadership in city hall, the rise in homelessness and crime, the decline in the city's education system, and the sports teams that have left or are planning to leave. I also say that the cost of living does not match with the value for what Oakland has to offer as a city at the moment. I estimate this to if a city has decent parks and recreation, low crime, entertainment, a properly ran education system, and the cleanliness to the standards of a large city. Right now, Oakland is lacking in most of these areas if not all. I'm not saying that it needs to be perfect but at least to the level where everyone is content. These areas being below standard with the lack of proper leadership within our city demonstrates why Oakland can't have nice things. I'm hoping that these changes can be made for the sake of future Oaklanders and for calling Oakland my hometown. "Even though Oakland will always be the bridesmaid to San Francisco doesn't mean we should give up on trying to catch the bouquet at the reception." -My Quote
I am 60 years old and was born and raised in Oakland. After 4 years of living in Redding, I divorced my husband and moved back home to East Oakland. My kids got to experience growing up in a neighborhood where the neighbors knew each other. They also paid attention to local politics and would attend town meetings. Yes, in the flats of ESO my kids born in 1989, 91 and 92 got to know this. But the reality of the shortcomings where already evident. The neighborhood schools were not up to par, so my kids attended school across town in Trestle Glen. The local little league was plagued with too few parent volunteers and coaches. The lack of youth based programs is appalling. What happened to this city that was on an upswing in the 90's? Lack of leadership and an in-balance of redevelopment in the city. We have the oldest people serving as councilmembers and running for Mayor that lack any experience in commercial real estate, business development and urban planning. We also have a police force that cannot get out of its own way of causing problems. Younger residents of Oakland need to become more involved in the development of this city. We Boomers cannot continue to try and plan for something that we will not be here to see completed. As much as I love baseball and the Athletics, let them go to the desert. We have bigger problems and more can be done with that very expensive and expansive property known as the Coliseum Complex. I personally want to see a return of Below Market Housing for purchase by first time homebuyers and a decent transit hub.
Your best comment in here is "doesn't have to be perfect but at least to the level where everyone is content".... right... that should be the goal with governing anything. I don't live in Oakland... San Leandro just south of it. The thing that's saddest is the potential Oakland has with what it does have to offer is very high and even with all of the negatives it's still got some area's that are great to visit and hang out at and some good neighborhoods. The homelessness and crime is unacceptable and what's stopping further development. Let me say something tho as a fellow Bay Arean.... at the moment Oakland >>>> SF. SF has been driven into the toilet lol which is even more sad because at one point for a decade or two it was likely the best city in America.
@@fourthgirl West Oakland guy here. I loved Oakland until the crack era hit. That drug has destroyed our city. And it still has not recovered. The seventies were very good to me. West Oakland alone with East Oakland was segregated but they were both nice areas. Crack was the pandoras box for our black communities. I no longer live in Oakland, and I will never move back. But I will always be proud of growing up and living in West Oakland. Lived in the projects, but now I own a home and is retired. Growing up poor more made me a better and more humble person.
As a frequent visitor to the Bay Area, I’ve found that Oakland suffers from being in the shadow of its more glamorous and coveted sibling SF that sends its dirty work across the bay for disposal.
Thank you! I'm sufficiently old to recall living in Navy dependent housing at Hunter's Point and taking the Oakland ferry to go shopping in the huge department stores there. This was in 1951.
We lived there too. I was about 2-3 then. Harbor homes. That drunk man drove his car a into the shore line rocks. Hunter's Point came next, then my parents purchased their first home. Wow the memories. 😁
Oakland is about to become the first city to lose a team in all of the 'big four' major league sports, so clearly something is wrong. They have lost the Seals (NHL), Raiders (NFL), and Warriors (NBA), and the A's are soon to join them. It's sad that a once great sports city is going to be left with no major league teams.
I’m ok with losing the teams. Oakland paid a lot of money to bring the Raiders back only to have them leave again. I am opposed to paying any public money for professional teams. I was an A’s fan, but they are now owned by real estate developers, not baseball people, who have ruined the team. I want them to go away if they aren’t going to be sold to someone who wants to run a baseball team. The Warriors just went across the Bay to SF. They aren’t really gone because they were a Bay Area team, not an Oakland team, and they still are.
One thing that happened was a switch to ranked choice voting. There is no better argument against it than the fact that it allowed the election of our current Mayor, Thao.
As a Haywarder (10 miles south from Oakland), I can tell you that some areas of the city look really rough. From rusted buildings to human shit on the streets. And if you try to leave, try not to get struck by a stray bullet on 880 or 580. It’s a beautiful city but it also deserved its reputation for being ghetto and chaotic.
What happened to Oakland is the same dsmn thing thst happened to: Detroit, South Chicago, Baltimore, South, Southwest and West Philadelphia, Milwaukee, South Central Los Angeles and the Northeastern and Southeast part of San Francisco. Not employed, not educated, slothful and criminal intentioned. 😟
All by choice. I am black, born and raised in East Oakland (the worse part of DEEP EAST) where the services for poor people like me growing up are and have been in place to get out of it. Even today, our local junior colleges are literally free. There is no excuse with the exception of having to dodge these low-lifes who have no regard for other people as City Hall / the legal system have gone far to easy on criminals. I grew up in the crack era, where people were actually put and kept in jail for robbing and stealing.
@@its-all-good I agree about the legal system and local colleges, but you can't ignore the flight of good paying jobs to all-White suburbs and think that it doesn't play a big part.
About 7 years ago I went to a conference in downtown Oakland. I live in the south bay. Before the conference, during lunch and after the conference I walked downtown. You can feel the grandeur of the place. I went to college in the 1970s and had some older friends (they were in their 30s). They had a small house in the Oakland hills, 1920s/1930s vintage. It was my dream house. As a side note my friend was 1/2 black (very lite skinned) while walking in his neighborhood he got jumped by 2 black guys and beaten, not robbed. I agree with what others have said. The main cause of the decay is the lack of jobs along with bad government. It i so sad to see what Oakland is as compared to what it was and still could be
I used to go to downtown Oakland around 1977 while in the Navy. The subway was there and good book stores open all the time, seemed very safe walking the streets. One day I walked out of the subway downtown and a St Patrick's day parade was passing by with Ms. America riding in a convertible. I guess those were the good ole days.
We all know,it’s not Oakland it’s the people that live there. People always blame a City when it’s really the messy people that live there.PERIOD!👏🏽Messy people,means messy locations…
It's not the people, it's the city officials and the state, you under fund a city and you blame the people for not having resources, you must be a racist, because everyone knows Oakland is a minority city, so it's easy to blame the people.
I was born and raised in Oakland and I love the place. I must admit I live in the suburbs now and life is a little easier- the streets here are clean, I don't have to worry about my car windows getting smashed. But I can't rude my bike everywhere. I can't randomly find an incredible jazz band playing at a small bar for no cover on a Tuesday. I can't see a clasic movie at a true movie palace. The weather just isn't as nice. Oakland is a special place. I trust it will enter another golden age.
I love Oakland with all my entire being. I’m a 38 year old black female and been was born and raised here. It’s so so heartbreaking how my city isn’t the same anymore.
I grew up going to Raiders games in the early 2000s. I vividly remember coming across a man who said his home in Oakland was in a quiet neighborhood until the 1980s when people got addicted to crack and it went downhill from there.
Oakland has a long history of dysfunction: excuses, blame, no accountability, nihilistic attitudes. Combine that with high crime, political enablement, bad policies, self destructive attitudes. It’s a shame. So much potential. As a Black building manager recently told me, “If I call the police when crimes are being committed, my condo owners get upset because they’re anti-police and woke.”
A lot like Detroit was,the wrong people got elected and they brought in their good old boys. I get it ,it happened down South with us whites too. A good politician is rare.
I literally just watched a video about how the East Oakland Home Depot is blaring classical music to keep vagrants and homeless squatters away. The moral? ANYTHING classy keeps the garbage out. And I watched all the white people saying how much they disagreed with Home Depot for the “nuisance” the “noise” was! Absolutely ZERO STANDARDS full of garbage woke people. The city has become what it has voted for, and they whine about it. You can’t make this up!
I lived in Oakland for 10 years in the 1990s. The first five on High Street just above MacAuther Blvd nea St. Lawrence O'Tool. The second 5 years on 64th Ave just above MacAurther near Mills College. I loved the weather, it was just about perfect. I liked the hills and the parks off Skyline Blvd and liked going to A's games. The crime was tough to handle, but I really loved my neighbors, good people. I was always rooting for Oakland, still am.
Does anyone still remember all the nice stores ( JC Penny, Liberty House, Smith, Sears, Capwell, etc.) in the 60's & 70's? They are all gone or moved out of Oakland because the city could not handle prosperity, and poorly managed the city. No one else to blame but the state & city officials.
Oakland is being held hostage by its local regulations. This is why the A’s left. They were willing to pour hundreds of millions into revitalizing the city, but the city held their project for ransom. SF is currently in the same death spiral.
How you failed to mention the closing of the Oakland shipyard and the surrounding collapse of government-provider supply economy is mind boggling. This is one of - if not the - biggest component for the downfall of Oakland, a loss for which it's never recovered. Come on, man. Do your research.
There is no personal accountability ethic in Oakland- every criminal is a victim, every victim is a villain if they complain. Large areas look like war torn cities- no viable streets, open garbage pits, unregulated food vending amid the open garbage pits, and no police presence. Ruins the adjoining cities, too, with criminals stealing cars, robbing people, robbing businesses in Berkeley, Albany, Piedmont, etc, then sliming back into Oakland to sell their goods, dump stolen cars, and buy more guns to do it again. Put it under state management.
According to most Bay area locals, Oakland has come up in the world, while San Francisco has really hit the skids. My Dad was a traveling salesman, and in recent years he always stayed in Oakland, cause he felt safer there than in SF. I have also heard that many celebrities now live in the hills around Oakland.
Oakland hills are a different place entirely compared to other parts. Some of Oakland is totally fine, just like some of SF is totally fine. Both are really bad when they are bad.
I just came from Oakland and San Francisco and my experience was the exact opposite. I went down the tenderloin area of San Francisco and all through the town and didn't think it looked as bad as some cities while I'm over at Oakland it was a complete dump and we felt very unsafe.
I grew up in Crocker Highlands, still a nice place to live but to shop down the street on Lakeshore... that's risky... verrry risky. even during a crowded busy weekend day.@@eneveasi
Yea most the comments here are probably out of towners or haven't lived in the Bay for 10-20 years. Oakland is mad different than what it used to be even 10 years ago
A couple years ago I was in Emmeryville, just north of Oakland. Wildfires just north of the city had set a grey haze so thick the sun was an angry red looking back toward Oakland and the dilapidated neighborhood right there looked like a Mad Max dystopian scene.
Yeah the wildfires were rough that year, they happened to be in Contra Costa county, which is the next county over from Alameda county, which Oakland is in
I’ve been in LA for 15 days and am realizing how bad it really is in the Bay Area. There is plenty homeless in so-cal but the mental illness and drug addiction is not as bad.
Fun Fact: My daughter was living in Oakland and working in Frisco. She moved to Medellin, Columbia in 2021. Says she feels wayyyyy safer now...and she's a gringa.
I never have lived there but i have visited many times either to see friends in sf or surrounding areas. The couple of times i flew and took bart under the bay, it looked like the mist run doen place i have ever seen, and i grew up in north long beach/bellflower/compton area and it looked way worse than anywhere here. And i finally actually visited the city for sone, lets say nefarious reasons, man, what a dump. The city leaders 5:38 / government whoever really let this place go.
Blue collar town = Oakland / white collar town = SF -- and the drugs / gangs hastened Oakland's (Cokeland's) decline. Oakland Raiders always attracted a rough crowd. The finesse of the SF 49'ers stood in sharp contrast.
@@MrHobo71Not really. Recent years SF crime rate is 54 per 1000. Oakland is 70 per 1000. Via FBI crime data. And most of SF's crime is concentrated in the downtown area while Oakland's crime is basically everywhere but the hills.
Both of yall wrong. Crime has reached the Oakland hills. Most of Oakland is NOT pretty safe most of the time. @TheMilpitasguy...you can't compare the todays Levi's crowd to the old 'Stick crowd. Rams fans used to get stabbed in the parking lot and beatup in the stadium. Same for Dodger fans when Giants still played at the Stick.
My daughter and her family moved to Oakland recently, so we got to visit a few places (e.g. Woodminster Cascaes in Joaquin-Miller Park) that clearly remind us about the city's glorious past ..... I presume the force of de-industrialization seem so overwhelming, and the story of urban decay gets retold time after time.
I am proud to be born and raised in Oakland but I am happy to not live there anymore. It has evolved n continually gets worse. It's beauty is ever so buried beneath the guise, trying it's best to reveal itself again.
Oakland native here. Sonny Barger said that Oakland is an East Coast city on the West Coast. That's an interesting perspective if your view is that industrial decline typifies an East Coast City. And yes, there was an Angels clubhouse down the street from me when I was a kid, I used to buy firecrackers from them
Grew up 10 minutes from Oakland and it gets annoying reading comments and how much people who have never been here think they know. See, if you’re really going to talk Oakland you have to talk about both the flatlands and the hills. The Oakland Hills are like the Hollywood Hills-multimillion dollar homes with views of the Pacific to San Francisco. Outsiders tend to focus on West Oakland and the more industrial and economically depressed parts of the city. But it’s far from a forgotten city and if you’ve never heard of Piedmont, Rockridge and Montclair you don’t know Oakland. Grab a deep dish at Zachary’s and dig into the other part of the story.
Dude that's always with everything represented about California in general in the media... only the dump area's and bad spots are represented. Overall Cali is still an amazing place to live even with all of the issue's. People can't sell me on some flyover state with nothing over the overall Bay Area experience and I do of course acknowledge the problems and horrible governance in Oakland, SF and elsewhere that have caused the stuff that people represent in the media and etc... There's a thing about being the biggest individual state economy and biggest cultural influencer and being subject to the most amount of ridicule. The crime for example cited about Oakland and SF and LA... media doesn't seem to discuss the crime wave in Nashville with SF like smash n grabs everywhere like they do about SF and I agree SF has been driven into the ground compared to what it used to be but in fairness discuss a whole picture.
The first thing is, you got no leadership.. No transparency. The mayor is very evasive.. Alameda DA is very evasive.. She's being recalled.. Oakland City council. Do nothing But collect their payroll check.. Worst run city in America. You ask me everybody should resign.!!!!!!!!!! Everybody who works for that city is done a horrible job.. Streets are trash.. Lawlessness 0 accountability.. We need leadership we need resolve. Obviously, we need more police. But these are the same people who defund the police. The whole political system in Oakland is garbage..
Finally, another smart person. Maddening that so many nowadays just refuse to accept this and run to by yet another Datsun or Toyota instead of an American car, and insist on using self checkout at the grocery store.
I remember going up to San Francisco and Oakland as a little kid. I didn't like it when my parents drove up to Oakland, but loved going up to San Francisco. Why? There's nothing there there! I figured out what Gertrude Stein said before I ever heard of what she said. I'm 69.
Oakland has struggled with growth compared to other California cities with similar population (Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield) bc those 3 cities mentions all have over double the land area of Oakland. By the time the 80's and 90's snd early 2000's suburban boom happened Oakland was already out of space to build new homes. So, similar to San Francisco there's no more space to build making the housing stock that is available highly unaffordable.
Not true. Modern cities these days are putting in high density housing. I live in Bend Oregon. The new developments going in house 1600 people per acre of land. They are tearing down all buildings but they are putting in seven story apartments. And please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think that’s a good thing.
@@kayak1613 Same with Oakland. They're counting on the the tax revenue that will come with the new housing. I could stand on a corner in the Lower Bottom and look two blocks in any direction and see new condo's going up....and new homeless camps.
It's a different struggle in Oakland there are no jobs and high rents in those cities you mentioned only problem there is dope fiends you can't compare the 2 dummy
Local politics didn’t destroy Oakland. Oakland, like most of the country, has been on the decline since the Reagan administration. It’s not really a Republican be Democrat problem, it’s way more complicated.
@@Lance-Oakland You couldn't be more wrong. All you have to do is drive into Orinda which is so close to Oakland you can hit it with a rock. And most of the USA is far from being "on the decline" as you have written. You really need to get out of major west coast metropolitan cities as most of the country is booming right now. I am black, born and raised in Oakland, and I live here right now with a Glock by my side most of the time cause I am not leaving. The crime will ease when we as black people, stand up to City Hall and admit that white people are NOT our problem including the Reagan administration.
Crime drives poverty. And speaking of crime, what was the events that led to the segregation during WW2? Because of lack of workers due to the draft and war recruitment, industry in the north and west coast recruited workers, mainly blacks, from the deep south. Large black populations grew in LA, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago and other war industry areas. Cities that had very few blacks suddenly had large numbers. The slave subculture common within the southern black community is a likely source of some of the hatred.
@@ajohn502 crime can create poverty as if you take all my stuff and I have to buy more then yes the crime hurt me and my business. So it can. But mostly it’s culture that makes crime acceptable, not being poor.
@@trentbateman crime does not drive poverty. If you go steal something from someone who has more than you (more wealthy), then that person with more resources isn’t going to commit a crime and steal from someone else. Can you imagine going to a gated community and stealing some items from a home and then the homeowners decide to go steal from someone else to compensate. You’re making absolutely no sense.
Oddly enough, when Jerry Brown was mayor, Oakland seemed to be on the rise. Since then, they’ve had Ron Dellums, Jean Quan, Libby Schaffer and, now, Shang Thai. Dellums was too lazy to do anything. Anything Quan touched was a disaster. Schaffer was scared of her own shadow. Don’t know much about Thao. But they took a city that was slowly getting better and ran it, not into the ground, but subterranean. At this point, you’d be better off bulldozing the entire city and starting from scratch.
Good point. I thought I was the only one who realized that. Female mayors were supposed to be so much better. It doesn't look like that has panned out.
It really is a shame that's it's gotten even worse over the years. The one thing I dreaded about being stationed (at NAS Moffett Field) was that we had to go to Oaknoll Naval Hospital for major things. My son was born there in 92 and even then, we dreaded making the trip. Seems drastic, but maybe they should relocate people and start over after cleaning things up. A real shame and hard to believe it's surrounded by such affluence yet remains in such poor condition. It's like the Wild West.
It's not at all like the Wild West... it IS the Wild West. The police don't respond... justice lies only in the hands holding a .45. Are you still in the area? Moffett and Oak Knoll were gone a long l-o-n-g time ago.
hispanic. Mostly foreign born. Or one generation away from foreign born. But it has more to do with the changes in mindset & the economic policies. People back in the day weren't acting the way they do now & the jobs market was better.
In another video about the blight of downtown Oakland,I commented that had a lot to do with the Raiders leaving a second time,I also predicted the Warriors & Athletics would follow them.Tbe Warriors moved back to San Francisco in 2019,the A's are following the Raiders to Vegas.
@@kxkxkxkx Oakland was never a "Communist" city. Berkeley fits that description, and is doing much better than Oakland. Oakland was a republican city when it started declining.
@@michaelbenardo5695 And Democrats finished the job, like they're doing in S.F., L.A., and elsewhere. One-party oligarchy is never good, and Californians still haven't figured this out.
Oakland had it going on. They had the Oakland raiders which are very iconic team and the Oakland A’s. And also lost the Oakland warriors and went to San Francisco. They lost all teams. Oakland is really hurting with all the crime going on. They just shut down an inn and out and a Wendy’s do to the crime. Even a gas station shut down this month and other local businesses are going out of business and going to other cities due to crime.
It seemed like Oakland was going through gentrification. Did it suddenly stop? The soft on crime seems to have set back not only Oakland, but San Francisco too.
@@michaelbenardo5695 Eat shit, if your party can't course-correct with thirty goddamn years of uniparty rule and support you have no right to blame the other side. That's like if I get a house with a broken window and then I blame the previous owner because I let it become a den for meth addicts for three decades.
I was born in Oakland and I hope to die there to one day. It’s a great city and a melting pot. I was a scrawny little shy white kid skating around jack London square looking to make friends and I did everywhere I turned. Shop owners.. randos, other kids at skate parks. There was community and a shared pride we all had. I didn’t even realize I had it to til I first moved. I always miss the bay when I’m gone. Sacramento and LA this last decade but Oakland is home. I learned all the important stuff there.
"What happened to Oakland?" can be summed up in 1 word. Democrats. I lived in the Bay Area for 48 years and saw the decline of Oakland starting in the 70s, ramp up into the 2000s and now it's a serious Shithole.
Lived in Oakland 2001 to 2012. I had to get out. It’s not that it has a bad local government, it really DOESN’T HAVE a local government. The elected people are paralyzed by fear of offending various “protected classes”, so it is a train wreck. Glad I left.
Where did you go?
@@BORN-to-Run She probably feels safer in deep Mississippi which I, as a black man from Oakland who lives here now, cant blame her to be honest 🥲
Exactly. BLACKS
Ah - the classic "glad I left comment"
Black people are untouchable so the ones that are bad get away with anything. Watch how the murder each other. oh but It's because of racism... right?
I'm a trucker who used to do west coast. I had to spend the night parked on the street in
Oakland. All night I reminded myself that I did a year in Afghanistan . But in Afghanistan I had an M4.
Oakland 1940....95% white...growing town
Oakland 2022....33% white....dying town
you still need it
@@pigdroppingsSurprised you did not get your truth censured
@@pigdroppings And almost all of the white people now residing in Oakland are woke, uptight, angry leftists.
Best comment hands down
I was raised in Oakland, grew up in the Maxwell Park neighborhood. I left California for the Northwest in the 1992, returned for a number of years and now I'm in Arizona, likely permanently. It hurts to see the Bay Area as it is now. My best memories remain there and I still love the city but... it's just not the same place anymore. I visited my old haunts in Oakland a few months ago and the homeless situation is unreal, many areas look run-down and poorly maintained. To think, I ran around that city on bike, bus, and BART as a teen and felt relatively safe... now I wouldn't even bother driving the streets. I miss the old Oakland. Loved reading the comments... Cheers, All.
Been in the SJ-SF for 30+ years. Oaktown was really the only place I was on highest alert. Freaky, run down, angry, ghetto-bangin', testosterone-slingin' individuals all over the place. Unfortunate? Yes. Resolvable? No. Not without a citywide nuke. 💪😎✌️
Old Bay Area was great. Pretty much before 2000ish it was a great place.
Oakland was much much worse in the early 1990s than it is now. You might perceive things as worse now because of the high visibility of the homeless. I promise you that if you look at the violent crime rate now versus then you'll be shocked. The Oakland you and I ran around in as kids was a nightmare.
There's a difference between the poor neighborhoods /the rich neighborhoods
The million dollar question. Did you go to the NW and vote Democrat? You are now in Arizona, do you vote Democrat? If the answer is ‘yes, I vote Democrat’, YOU are the F’ing problem, because you are spreading the cancer. If you vote Democrat, where will you run to when Arizona has been destroyed by the democrats?
I knew a former Oakland cop who said that he if saw a drunk driver, he would not bother pulling the drunk driver over because OPD is so understaffed that his colleagues can't have him tied up in a DUI stop for hours. And given that OPD has been under a federal monitor for decades and a community that hates them, most cops will just lateral to another agency once they gain enough experience and commendations. It's very similar to the Oakland A's - investing time and money into rookie cops only to have the rookie go to another team once their value goes up.
Rookie cops leave SFPD as well once they gain experience.
That’s bullshit. He got lucky. I got a DUI in 2010
Oakland: death by WOKE!!!☹️
@@leechjim8023 - Oakland was on a death spiral way before woke became popular in our politics.
I am a native San Franciscan, will be 68 in a few days, but spent my teen years growing up in Oakland. You left out a very important part of Oakland's decline. That being the flight of jobs to far away suburbs after employment discrimination was made illegal, coupled with "White Flight" after housing segregation was made illegal. Yes, that happened all across the country, but Oakland was severely wounded by these two phenomenon and never really recovered. By the 80s, there were entire neighborhoods where almost none of the young men had ever had a legitimate job, mostly because there WERE no jobs to be had. Many had never ventured out of Oakland - Berkeley - San Francisco and had no idea where places like Orinda, Reem, Lafayette, Dublin, etc. were, and had no idea how to get there. Many didn't have cars, and those localities were poorly, at best, served by inter-urban transit. When you can't find a job as a young person, you don't acquire experience, and if you don't have any experience by the time you are in your late 20s, you are pretty much unemployable for all but the worse jobs, jobs that simply don't pay enough to allow you to afford even the most basic housing. Hence, the lure of illegal activities.
Get your head out of the sand. It was the voters who sanctioned one party rule that doomed Oakland and is now almost destroyed San Francisco. The jobs moved out because it wasn't worth keeping them in high crime areas governed by anarchists and hoodlums. Sodom and Gamora would be better names for Oakland and San Francisco!
You're not native.
Thank you. Too many people want to reduce the issues in our country to oversimplified, good vs evil, us v them, narratives. In reality, it is much more complex and nuanced, as you have shown.
I lived in the bay area my whole life and I never heard of "Reem". Where is that? What is that?
Had no idea how to get to Orinda? Really? Its like 7 miles away. Oh and there's no jobs in Orinda, its a bedroom community of Bay Area professionals forced to drive through the Caldecott tunnel every day because Oakland is a shit hole.
I grew up in Oakland during the 50's and 60's. Back in those days we slept with our doors unlocked. Since then, I've been to about 50 countries around the world. I've been to the worst impoverished slums on Earth, sadly, parts of Oakland today make the list. What I've last seen of Oakland a year ago would have been unimaginable when I left 25 years ago.
i know....
I was born in Oakland, a block away from the Hells Angels clubhouse. my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents all lived there. my parents bought a house when I was 6 months old. I don't know why they bought one 20 miles away, but I am sure glad they did.
Oakland has been a mess for years, a friend of the family was murdered in a robbery around 1965.
E. 14th Street? I live in Oakland 81-82 and played football at Laney College. Live at 30th and Telegraph.
@@rickharnish6757 I believe it was on Foothill at one time. we lived on 39th. I went out there in the 80's to see our old house and our grandparents place across the street and it was in a different place than it is now
Bruh still stuck in the 60's bruh go touch some grass
@@michaelmacpherson-wm6mhput down the pipe and walk away
What thay murdutt his ass fuh?
The City government allowed crime to over take the town an let go of all it's revenue. Bring in the National Guards an have them an city employees to clean an clear it up. No more outsiders buying up all land an raising rent an mortgages 3 times for a port city.
Oakland has been a violent cesspool for years, the mayor just recently asked for the National Guard for help. Huey Newton was murdered in Oakland, if he couldn’t survive The Cesspool, you-all in trouble.
So they defunded the police, blamed the police for all their problems, threw heaps of hate on them…and now they are begging the state to bring in soldiers of the national guard 😂
These woke politicians that inhabit Oakland are the most moronic hypocrites out there. Oakland deserves all the problems it has.
Newton was killed in the 1980s.
Give it a rest troll.
@@DemPilafian So your saying Oakland has always been a cesspool for crime and murder. Since the murder happened in the 1980s.
Lol the national guard 😂😂😂😂😂
@@DemPilafianhe never said he wasn't. Troll
I worked in Oakland in 2006 -2007! The murder rate statistic was one and a half a day, ranking 10th most dangerous metropolitan in the country, only behind Richmond, just north, that ranked 4th! Recently professional sports championships resulted in looting and burning of many businesses along E.14th, International Blvd. On a recent visit, my cousin picked me up at the airport. We stopped at a nearby restaurant for a late dinner around 9:00 - 9:30! We had to hurry because they were closing at 10! When I asked why, the answer was because you risked getting robbed if you stayed open any later! My sisters mother-in-law was robbed at gun point riding BART. My nephew's teacher was beat to near death and couldn't get police or paramedics to respond to a 911 call. He was eventually transported to the nearest hospital by taxi! A friend was a construction manager. They were required to hire a certain % of local residents by law! Workers were late, drunk, high, under qualified and unproductive!
How do you kill half a man?
@@thebeastwithin6978 it was the statistical rate of murder based on a 24 hr period!
Oakland murder rate in 2006 was 148 and in 2007 it was 127. You really should work on your math.
Oakland had 500+ murders a year all thru 1970s, 1980s, 1990's until slowed in 1995. At times it was the worst city statistic in the United States. Worse than Rip de Janeiro's drug gang murders by ten times. 500 murders per 500,000 pop is 1 murder per 1000. That's huge. I remember I was working for the railroad in West Oak on 7th St big yard, and the 1 st homicide of the year 1979 happened at 12:45 am at Esther's Orbit Room, a nightclub just across 7 th St from our railroad yard office. And the next year, 500++. And the next year, 500++.....
@@marlenemetcalf8498 Esther's Orbit Room, oh yeah. Ribs chicken and white bread.
I've partied, hung out and driven around in Oakland a lot over the years living in the Bay Area. One thing I can say for sure is that the cops don't go to certain parts of Oakland, and there's almost no such thing as a parking ticket. It's a lawless land.
Or ANY ticket..I have lived in East Oakland for 14 years now. Almost No one stops for stop signs or had tags on their cars or probably carry insurance.The new Alameda DA pam price refuses to prosecute blk offenders and is going to get recalled. I hope. and the new mayor is asking for a raise in her pay. meanwhile oakland is the capitol of crime
Here let me help you with the correct definition. It's called anarchy.
Are drugs free?
@@Halcon_Sierreno only till they get you hooked.
@@muzikizfun So just don't get hooked and you get unlimited drugs.
Oakland has a lot of potential. Unfortunately there’s too many opportunists acting like community leaders and too many haters knocking shit down. You can’t have anything nice bc someone will either scam you out of it or destroy it.
There would be less scams by community leaders if the media did their job. Politicians are expected to be corrupt. It does not work if the media is also corrupt.
That will happen if the DA does not prosecute the bad guys. Most crimes are done by a small number of people. I don't think someone should be locked up for a nonviolent first crime but if they do not learn, we need to be protected from them. I wish you well.
Oakland is not what it once was... It's a Toilet now.. I should have never came back here.
What do you mean Mama
Driving in Oakland has gotten out of control, in some cases it’s like mad max
You meant Mad Max?
@@michaelb41 yes lol
No it's not. You clearly don't drive through Oakland. I find it funny how many ppl sensationalize crime when crime at a macro level has been going down. I promise you unless you're wandering the streets of East Oakland on 182nd at 3AM you're fine.
@@IsmaelChamu ain't no 182nd. He's talkin the Town, not NYC
Makes the movie look like a cartoon.
Born and raised in a segregated West Oakland in the fifties. The area had stores, movie theater and clubs. Attended Willow Manor, Lowell Jr, High and McClymonds High School. All the schools were very segregated, but we did not care it worked out for us. Oakland was pretty nice until crack was introduced to the city in the eighties. Crack, guns, poverty and horrible mayors and city councils have been truly bad for Oakland. Most of the blue-collar jobs left. The sports teams became horrible, and the fans stop supporting them. Sanctuary city and state has not helped at all. Now you have a large influx of poor people from 3rd world countries. And I am not placing all the blame on them. A large amount of San Franciscan natives have poured into Oakland. Oakland has gotten the good, bad and ugly from San Francisco. Parts of Oakland are a filthy cesspool, like San Francisco. I do not feel safe anymore in Oakland. I am so glad I moved away years ago.
The Liberals came.
@@salvadorperez9147 Its not just a liberal, conservative problem. It's a human problem.
Born/raised "Deep East"" in the 50's 60's. Graduated Castlemont in '63. Knew some Panthers. Knew some Angels. Knew some Dragons. I survived. So did a lot of us.
@@salvadorperez9147 how can you blame them when they have the richest states red states are the most poorest
@@YntstaxHighest income inequality and cost of living. That’s why so many are fleeing blue states for red states.
You left out the destruction of many neighborhoods in the mid-twentieth century for the interstate system. Oakland got completely decimated, and those freeways are scars on the urban landscape today, dividing neighborhoods.
BS, Violence started to go out of control late 60s with a peak in 90s and going back to those numbers.
@@tokyowarfare6729 so the mid twentieth century??
It's a shit-hole bc whenever someone wants to build new homes or shopping centers, the locals cry out "gentrification". Fine, keep your run-down house that was built 100 years ago that you can't afford to maintain.
I'm Oakland born and raised since 2001. I've lived in the city's low income neighborhoods and have seen gentrification with my own eyes, I went to Oakland public/charter schools, I'm a pupil of one of the longest running non-profit organizations in Oakland, my church is in Oakland, and was also an intern for one of Oakland's sports teams one summer when I was in college.
I'm very proud to say that Oakland is my hometown but it disappoints me very much to see the current state of the city with the dysfunctional leadership in city hall, the rise in homelessness and crime, the decline in the city's education system, and the sports teams that have left or are planning to leave.
I also say that the cost of living does not match with the value for what Oakland has to offer as a city at the moment. I estimate this to if a city has decent parks and recreation, low crime, entertainment, a properly ran education system, and the cleanliness to the standards of a large city. Right now, Oakland is lacking in most of these areas if not all. I'm not saying that it needs to be perfect but at least to the level where everyone is content.
These areas being below standard with the lack of proper leadership within our city demonstrates why Oakland can't have nice things. I'm hoping that these changes can be made for the sake of future Oaklanders and for calling Oakland my hometown.
"Even though Oakland will always be the bridesmaid to San Francisco doesn't mean we should give up on trying to catch the bouquet at the reception." -My Quote
I am 60 years old and was born and raised in Oakland. After 4 years of living in Redding, I divorced my husband and moved back home to East Oakland. My kids got to experience growing up in a neighborhood where the neighbors knew each other. They also paid attention to local politics and would attend town meetings. Yes, in the flats of ESO my kids born in 1989, 91 and 92 got to know this. But the reality of the shortcomings where already evident. The neighborhood schools were not up to par, so my kids attended school across town in Trestle Glen. The local little league was plagued with too few parent volunteers and coaches. The lack of youth based programs is appalling. What happened to this city that was on an upswing in the 90's? Lack of leadership and an in-balance of redevelopment in the city. We have the oldest people serving as councilmembers and running for Mayor that lack any experience in commercial real estate, business development and urban planning. We also have a police force that cannot get out of its own way of causing problems. Younger residents of Oakland need to become more involved in the development of this city. We Boomers cannot continue to try and plan for something that we will not be here to see completed. As much as I love baseball and the Athletics, let them go to the desert. We have bigger problems and more can be done with that very expensive and expansive property known as the Coliseum Complex. I personally want to see a return of Below Market Housing for purchase by first time homebuyers and a decent transit hub.
Your best comment in here is "doesn't have to be perfect but at least to the level where everyone is content".... right... that should be the goal with governing anything.
I don't live in Oakland... San Leandro just south of it. The thing that's saddest is the potential Oakland has with what it does have to offer is very high and even with all of the negatives it's still got some area's that are great to visit and hang out at and some good neighborhoods. The homelessness and crime is unacceptable and what's stopping further development.
Let me say something tho as a fellow Bay Arean.... at the moment Oakland >>>> SF. SF has been driven into the toilet lol which is even more sad because at one point for a decade or two it was likely the best city in America.
Saying you re proud of oakland is like saying you are proud of being sexually challenged (gay).
@@englishsteel-nz6imI agree it's the best comment
@@fourthgirl West Oakland guy here. I loved Oakland until the crack era hit. That drug has destroyed our city. And it still has not recovered. The seventies were very good to me. West Oakland alone with East Oakland was segregated but they were both nice areas. Crack was the pandoras box for our black communities. I no longer live in Oakland, and I will never move back. But I will always be proud of growing up and living in West Oakland. Lived in the projects, but now I own a home and is retired. Growing up poor more made me a better and more humble person.
As a frequent visitor to the Bay Area, I’ve found that Oakland suffers from being in the shadow of its more glamorous and coveted sibling SF that sends its dirty work across the bay for disposal.
Thank you! I'm sufficiently old to recall living in Navy dependent housing at Hunter's Point and taking the Oakland ferry to go shopping in the huge department stores there. This was in 1951.
We lived there too. I was about 2-3 then. Harbor homes. That drunk man drove his car a into the shore line rocks. Hunter's Point came next, then my parents purchased their first home. Wow the memories. 😁
Oakland is about to become the first city to lose a team in all of the 'big four' major league sports, so clearly something is wrong. They have lost the Seals (NHL), Raiders (NFL), and Warriors (NBA), and the A's are soon to join them. It's sad that a once great sports city is going to be left with no major league teams.
I’m ok with losing the teams. Oakland paid a lot of money to bring the Raiders back only to have them leave again. I am opposed to paying any public money for professional teams. I was an A’s fan, but they are now owned by real estate developers, not baseball people, who have ruined the team. I want them to go away if they aren’t going to be sold to someone who wants to run a baseball team.
The Warriors just went across the Bay to SF. They aren’t really gone because they were a Bay Area team, not an Oakland team, and they still are.
What happened to Oakland " people happened " the virus of stupidity thats spreading throughout California leaving it to die
You Get What You Vote For!
After seeing Oakland, I will never vote for a Democrat again.
blacks and liberals. that's what happened to oakland. and seattle. and portland. and LA. we need a real government for real solutions.
DEFINITELY a correlation…
What happened is it got exactly what they voted for. Hold those responsible for their failed policies.
One thing that happened was a switch to ranked choice voting. There is no better argument against it than the fact that it allowed the election of our current Mayor, Thao.
As a Haywarder (10 miles south from Oakland), I can tell you that some areas of the city look really rough. From rusted buildings to human shit on the streets.
And if you try to leave, try not to get struck by a stray bullet on 880 or 580. It’s a beautiful city but it also deserved its reputation for being ghetto and chaotic.
Completely agree. Also, I'm sorry you live in Hayward.
What happened to Oakland is the same dsmn thing thst happened to: Detroit, South Chicago, Baltimore, South, Southwest and West Philadelphia, Milwaukee, South Central Los Angeles and the Northeastern and Southeast part of San Francisco.
Not employed, not educated, slothful and criminal intentioned. 😟
All by choice.
I am black, born and raised in East Oakland (the worse part of DEEP EAST) where the services for poor people like me growing up are and have been in place to get out of it. Even today, our local junior colleges are literally free. There is no excuse with the exception of having to dodge these low-lifes who have no regard for other people as City Hall / the legal system have gone far to easy on criminals. I grew up in the crack era, where people were actually put and kept in jail for robbing and stealing.
All run by Democrat mayors.
All those cities are in blue states. Democraps don't care.
Pretty hard to be employed when there seems to be no jobs.
@@its-all-good I agree about the legal system and local colleges, but you can't ignore the flight of good paying jobs to all-White suburbs and think that it doesn't play a big part.
About 7 years ago I went to a conference in downtown Oakland. I live in the south bay. Before the conference, during lunch and after the conference I walked downtown. You can feel the grandeur of the place.
I went to college in the 1970s and had some older friends (they were in their 30s).
They had a small house in the Oakland hills, 1920s/1930s vintage. It was my dream house. As a side note my friend was 1/2 black (very lite skinned) while walking in his neighborhood he got jumped by 2 black guys and beaten, not robbed.
I agree with what others have said. The main cause of the decay is the lack of jobs along with bad government.
It i so sad to see what Oakland is as compared to what it was and still could be
"Diversity is our Strength" - that was and is the problem.
If you give a criminal one inch they'll take a mile.
I used to go to downtown Oakland around 1977 while in the Navy. The subway was there and good book stores open all the time, seemed very safe walking the streets. One day I walked out of the subway downtown and a St Patrick's day parade was passing by with Ms. America riding in a convertible. I guess those were the good ole days.
We all know,it’s not Oakland it’s the people that live there. People always blame a City when it’s really the messy people that live there.PERIOD!👏🏽Messy people,means messy locations…
It's not the people, it's the city officials and the state, you under fund a city and you blame the people for not having resources, you must be a racist, because everyone knows Oakland is a minority city, so it's easy to blame the people.
Exactly Generation's are so different, they don't care ? 🇦🇺
Okay but how do you think people get that way in the first place? We’re all products of our environment
Obviously we’re talking about the people who live there. Did you think we were blaming the buildings for all the crime?
@JR12991
The people are the city, professor.
We think the people who actually cared are gone .... RIP
I am. Florida now
When will someone stand up in Government and say "Enough?"
These places are doomed, even the uber wealthy tech people are doomed due to their fantasy based lifestyle.
I was born and raised in Oakland and I love the place. I must admit I live in the suburbs now and life is a little easier- the streets here are clean, I don't have to worry about my car windows getting smashed.
But I can't rude my bike everywhere. I can't randomly find an incredible jazz band playing at a small bar for no cover on a Tuesday. I can't see a clasic movie at a true movie palace. The weather just isn't as nice.
Oakland is a special place. I trust it will enter another golden age.
Ain’t no jazz on random Tuesdays In Oakland period. Not in decades. The place is the take of two extremes, gentrification and homelessness.
@@enriksouls6636nearby Berkeley works
It MIGHT enter another golden age but LONG after both of us are gone.
I will happily sacrifice little jazz concerts for the peace of mind that my rig won't be vandalized.
@@kabysummit5801 care to elaborate??? cuz I doubt it.
As a kid growing up in the 60's in Alameda, it was great, but I remember nobody wanted to go to Oakland and it's only gotten worse
Another triumph for Progressive politics, a vision for the future of America.
Yes you got that right
A legacy of where Kamala Harris is from
I love Oakland with all my entire being. I’m a 38 year old black female and been was born and raised here. It’s so so heartbreaking how my city isn’t the same anymore.
Please, what is your advice to anyone who wants to relocate to Oakland?
It's because of your people
@@etyjack4226 Don't
Its because of your kind
@@cristhianyadhir5888it's because of your meth head kind
I grew up going to Raiders games in the early 2000s. I vividly remember coming across a man who said his home in Oakland was in a quiet neighborhood until the 1980s when people got addicted to crack and it went downhill from there.
Yep
The meth & fentynol are more addicted. And there's little or no punishment to do it in plain site.
That's disgusting and that's one of the reasons why I left. @@richardmorris7063
it's so sad to see the recent decline of California's Bay Area.. :/
Oakland has a long history of dysfunction: excuses, blame, no accountability, nihilistic attitudes. Combine that with high crime, political enablement, bad policies, self destructive attitudes. It’s a shame. So much potential. As a Black building manager recently told me, “If I call the police when crimes are being committed, my condo owners get upset because they’re anti-police and woke.”
A lot like Detroit was,the wrong people got elected and they brought in their good old boys. I get it ,it happened down South with us whites too. A good politician is rare.
let those condo owners deal with the crime when it Kicks there door Open
I literally just watched a video about how the East Oakland Home Depot is blaring classical music to keep vagrants and homeless squatters away. The moral? ANYTHING classy keeps the garbage out. And I watched all the white people saying how much they disagreed with Home Depot for the “nuisance” the “noise” was! Absolutely ZERO STANDARDS full of garbage woke people. The city has become what it has voted for, and they whine about it. You can’t make this up!
A Black manager would know what woke means and not use it in that manner.
I lived in Oakland for 10 years in the 1990s. The first five on High Street just above MacAuther Blvd nea St. Lawrence O'Tool. The second 5 years on 64th Ave just above MacAurther near Mills College. I loved the weather, it was just about perfect. I liked the hills and the parks off Skyline Blvd and liked going to A's games. The crime was tough to handle, but I really loved my neighbors, good people. I was always rooting for Oakland, still am.
My friend Alan Erickson lived on 64th above the cemetery. Did you know that John Lee Hooker lived off 64th?
Oakland: "Vote Democrat and Defund the Police"
How's that working out for ya...You got exactly what you voted for.
Never believed in defunding the police, (Oakland needs MORE police), but Oakland started declining in the late 60s, if not before then.
@@michaelbenardo5695 The point is, plenty of Democrats foolishly believed in defunding the police...aiding in Oaklands slow decline over many decades.
Does anyone still remember all the nice stores ( JC Penny, Liberty House, Smith, Sears, Capwell, etc.) in the 60's & 70's? They are all gone or moved out of Oakland because the city could not handle prosperity, and poorly managed the city. No one else to blame but the state & city officials.
no one under 50 remembers the 70's you guys ruined CA with your prop 13 and not allowing dense housing. its your fault things are so bad
I remember Montgomery Wards at 2825 East 14th St.
Sears, at Telegraph and Broadway
I live in the seventies 👍🇦🇺 Generation's Have changed
No one else to blame but democrats THERE I FIXED IT FOR YA 😉😉
LMAO What happened? It's preety obvious. It's now controlled by gangsters and is a Gangsters Paradise
And still expensive to live there. Ridiculous
Oakland is being held hostage by its local regulations. This is why the A’s left. They were willing to pour hundreds of millions into revitalizing the city, but the city held their project for ransom. SF is currently in the same death spiral.
I'm putting most of the blame on the ownership, not the city, for this one.
How you failed to mention the closing of the Oakland shipyard and the surrounding collapse of government-provider supply economy is mind boggling. This is one of - if not the - biggest component for the downfall of Oakland, a loss for which it's never recovered.
Come on, man. Do your research.
There is no personal accountability ethic in Oakland- every criminal is a victim, every victim is a villain if they complain. Large areas look like war torn cities- no viable streets, open garbage pits, unregulated food vending amid the open garbage pits, and no police presence. Ruins the adjoining cities, too, with criminals stealing cars, robbing people, robbing businesses in Berkeley, Albany, Piedmont, etc, then sliming back into Oakland to sell their goods, dump stolen cars, and buy more guns to do it again. Put it under state management.
According to most Bay area locals, Oakland has come up in the world, while San Francisco has really hit the skids. My Dad was a traveling salesman, and in recent years he always stayed in Oakland, cause he felt safer there than in SF. I have also heard that many celebrities now live in the hills around Oakland.
Oakland hills are a different place entirely compared to other parts. Some of Oakland is totally fine, just like some of SF is totally fine. Both are really bad when they are bad.
I just came from Oakland and San Francisco and my experience was the exact opposite. I went down the tenderloin area of San Francisco and all through the town and didn't think it looked as bad as some cities while I'm over at Oakland it was a complete dump and we felt very unsafe.
I grew up in Crocker Highlands, still a nice place to live but to shop down the street on Lakeshore... that's risky... verrry risky. even during a crowded busy weekend day.@@eneveasi
Oakland is a shit hole now
Yea most the comments here are probably out of towners or haven't lived in the Bay for 10-20 years. Oakland is mad different than what it used to be even 10 years ago
A couple years ago I was in Emmeryville, just north of Oakland. Wildfires just north of the city had set a grey haze so thick the sun was an angry red looking back toward Oakland and the dilapidated neighborhood right there looked like a Mad Max dystopian scene.
I lived in Emeryville when the sun was blocked out too - agreed it looked liked the end of the world.
Was this in 2019?
Yeah the wildfires were rough that year, they happened to be in Contra Costa county, which is the next county over from Alameda county, which Oakland is in
Grab a deep dish and go back to your vehicle with broken out windows. Sounds great!
What happened to Oakland, Democraps.
I’ve been in LA for 15 days and am realizing how bad it really is in the Bay Area. There is plenty homeless in so-cal but the mental illness and drug addiction is not as bad.
Fun Fact: My daughter was living in Oakland and working in Frisco. She moved to Medellin, Columbia in 2021. Says she feels wayyyyy safer now...and she's a gringa.
I got outta Dodge and now live in Costa Rica. Don't miss the USA at all. Pura vida.
Oakland, CA to Frisco, TX is a very very long commute!
@@briancastro8973 San Francisco...not Frisco, TX
Most Latin America is safe as long as you’re not involved in bs. Honduras and Brazil is definitely to be avoided though
Keep voting the same, expect the same results
I never have lived there but i have visited many times either to see friends in sf or surrounding areas. The couple of times i flew and took bart under the bay, it looked like the mist run doen place i have ever seen, and i grew up in north long beach/bellflower/compton area and it looked way worse than anywhere here. And i finally actually visited the city for sone, lets say nefarious reasons, man, what a dump. The city leaders 5:38 / government whoever really let this place go.
Yep.
Corruption, ignorance, & crime.
Blue collar town = Oakland / white collar town = SF -- and the drugs / gangs hastened Oakland's (Cokeland's) decline. Oakland Raiders always attracted a rough crowd. The finesse of the SF 49'ers stood in sharp contrast.
“Finesse” of the 9ers…. Lmao
the crime in sf is just as bad
@@MrHobo71Not really. Recent years SF crime rate is 54 per 1000. Oakland is 70 per 1000. Via FBI crime data. And most of SF's crime is concentrated in the downtown area while Oakland's crime is basically everywhere but the hills.
@@oakblaze433 It's about the same. Most of Oakland is pretty safe, most of the time.
Both of yall wrong. Crime has reached the Oakland hills. Most of Oakland is NOT pretty safe most of the time. @TheMilpitasguy...you can't compare the todays Levi's crowd to the old 'Stick crowd. Rams fans used to get stabbed in the parking lot and beatup in the stadium. Same for Dodger fans when Giants still played at the Stick.
My daughter and her family moved to Oakland recently, so we got to visit a few places (e.g. Woodminster Cascaes in Joaquin-Miller Park) that clearly remind us about the city's glorious past ..... I presume the force of de-industrialization seem so overwhelming, and the story of urban decay gets retold time after time.
This is what happens when poverty, mental illness, and addiction go unaddressed.
I was born in Oakland in 1947. And Haven't been back since unless I have to
I am proud to be born and raised in Oakland but I am happy to not live there anymore. It has evolved n continually gets worse. It's beauty is ever so buried beneath the guise, trying it's best to reveal itself again.
And doesn't Oakland have a chapter of the notorious Hells Angels? Could there be a big drug market there perhaps?
Glad to see many businesses moved out of Oakland to a safer location.
Oakland native here. Sonny Barger said that Oakland is an East Coast city on the West Coast. That's an interesting perspective if your view is that industrial decline typifies an East Coast City. And yes, there was an Angels clubhouse down the street from me when I was a kid, I used to buy firecrackers from them
Grew up 10 minutes from Oakland and it gets annoying reading comments and how much people who have never been here think they know. See, if you’re really going to talk Oakland you have to talk about both the flatlands and the hills. The Oakland Hills are like the Hollywood Hills-multimillion dollar homes with views of the Pacific to San Francisco. Outsiders tend to focus on West Oakland and the more industrial and economically depressed parts of the city. But it’s far from a forgotten city and if you’ve never heard of Piedmont, Rockridge and Montclair you don’t know Oakland. Grab a deep dish at Zachary’s and dig into the other part of the story.
Dude that's always with everything represented about California in general in the media... only the dump area's and bad spots are represented. Overall Cali is still an amazing place to live even with all of the issue's. People can't sell me on some flyover state with nothing over the overall Bay Area experience and I do of course acknowledge the problems and horrible governance in Oakland, SF and elsewhere that have caused the stuff that people represent in the media and etc...
There's a thing about being the biggest individual state economy and biggest cultural influencer and being subject to the most amount of ridicule. The crime for example cited about Oakland and SF and LA... media doesn't seem to discuss the crime wave in Nashville with SF like smash n grabs everywhere like they do about SF and I agree SF has been driven into the ground compared to what it used to be but in fairness discuss a whole picture.
i dig zachary's, but i think pizzaiolo or a16 are a bit more special
Growing up in Lamorinda is not Oakland, buddy. Go raise your kids in East Oakland and get back to me.
@@TheBigBigSean The problem with that is the kids might not make it in East O.
@@persiancucumber9255- That is the point. You got people like OP claiming Oakland is some paradise but they don't even live there.
The first thing is, you got no leadership.. No transparency. The mayor is very evasive.. Alameda DA is very evasive.. She's being recalled.. Oakland City council. Do nothing But collect their payroll check.. Worst run city in America. You ask me everybody should resign.!!!!!!!!!! Everybody who works for that city is done a horrible job.. Streets are trash.. Lawlessness 0 accountability.. We need leadership we need resolve. Obviously, we need more police. But these are the same people who defund the police. The whole political system in Oakland is garbage..
This is what imported products do to a manufacturing area , basically destroy it.
Finally, another smart person. Maddening that so many nowadays just refuse to accept this and run to by yet another Datsun or Toyota instead of an American car, and insist on using self checkout at the grocery store.
This clip seems to imply that a growing population is what determines its sucsess. Any region with too many people is bound to collapse.
I remember going up to San Francisco and Oakland as a little kid. I didn't like it when my parents drove up to Oakland, but loved going up to San Francisco. Why? There's nothing there there! I figured out what Gertrude Stein said before I ever heard of what she said. I'm 69.
Oakland has struggled with growth compared to other California cities with similar population (Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield) bc those 3 cities mentions all have over double the land area of Oakland. By the time the 80's and 90's snd early 2000's suburban boom happened Oakland was already out of space to build new homes. So, similar to San Francisco there's no more space to build making the housing stock that is available highly unaffordable.
Oakland has tons of old abandoned buildings that can be rebuilt for affordable but no one cares
Not true. Modern cities these days are putting in high density housing. I live in Bend Oregon. The new developments going in house 1600 people per acre of land. They are tearing down all buildings but they are putting in seven story apartments. And please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think that’s a good thing.
@@kayak1613 Same with Oakland. They're counting on the the tax revenue
that will come with the new housing. I could stand on a corner in the Lower Bottom and look two blocks in any direction and see new condo's going up....and new homeless camps.
It's a different struggle in Oakland there are no jobs and high rents in those cities you mentioned only problem there is dope fiends you can't compare the 2 dummy
@dmutant2635 those new condos go for $3,500 a month
Wokeland? Just look at who they have been voting for.
Faith and logic don't go together. Your god is dead.
Local politics didn’t destroy Oakland. Oakland, like most of the country, has been on the decline since the Reagan administration. It’s not really a Republican be Democrat problem, it’s way more complicated.
@@Lance-Oakland You couldn't be more wrong. All you have to do is drive into Orinda which is so close to Oakland you can hit it with a rock. And most of the USA is far from being "on the decline" as you have written. You really need to get out of major west coast metropolitan cities as most of the country is booming right now.
I am black, born and raised in Oakland, and I live here right now with a Glock by my side most of the time cause I am not leaving. The crime will ease when we as black people, stand up to City Hall and admit that white people are NOT our problem including the Reagan administration.
I love Oakland. As it broke down the people who built it must have been sick. It's a sad sad situation. And it's gettin' more and more absurd.
Crime drives poverty. And speaking of crime, what was the events that led to the segregation during WW2? Because of lack of workers due to the draft and war recruitment, industry in the north and west coast recruited workers, mainly blacks, from the deep south. Large black populations grew in LA, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago and other war industry areas. Cities that had very few blacks suddenly had large numbers. The slave subculture common within the southern black community is a likely source of some of the hatred.
Poverty drives crime.
@@ajohn502plenty of poor areas in the world with little crime. Culture drives crime.
@@trentbateman so we’re both in agreement that crime does not drive poverty as stated by the author.
@@ajohn502 crime can create poverty as if you take all my stuff and I have to buy more then yes the crime hurt me and my business. So it can. But mostly it’s culture that makes crime acceptable, not being poor.
@@trentbateman crime does not drive poverty. If you go steal something from someone who has more than you (more wealthy), then that person with more resources isn’t going to commit a crime and steal from someone else. Can you imagine going to a gated community and stealing some items from a home and then the homeowners decide to go steal from someone else to compensate. You’re making absolutely no sense.
We acting like Oakland hasn't always been bad!! The highest murder and crime rate was 1992, so why we acting like it's worse now. It's been horrible
Oddly enough, when Jerry Brown was mayor, Oakland seemed to be on the rise. Since then, they’ve had Ron Dellums, Jean Quan, Libby Schaffer and, now, Shang Thai. Dellums was too lazy to do anything. Anything Quan touched was a disaster. Schaffer was scared of her own shadow. Don’t know much about Thao. But they took a city that was slowly getting better and ran it, not into the ground, but subterranean. At this point, you’d be better off bulldozing the entire city and starting from scratch.
Good point. I thought I was the only one who realized that. Female mayors were supposed to be so much better. It doesn't look like that has panned out.
Just call it the new wasteland...probably a good area to film a true mad max reality show...but with no actors...just current residents 😂😂😂
Oakland is San Francisco's Newark (NJ) A metropolis in its own right, but overshadowed by its larger neighbor.
Hay, if Huey Newton couldn’t survive Oakland, who can ?
What happened to Oakland? Progressive Democrats. That's what happened.
It really is a shame that's it's gotten even worse over the years. The one thing I dreaded about being stationed (at NAS Moffett Field) was that we had to go to Oaknoll Naval Hospital for major things. My son was born there in 92 and even then, we dreaded making the trip. Seems drastic, but maybe they should relocate people and start over after cleaning things up. A real shame and hard to believe it's surrounded by such affluence yet remains in such poor condition. It's like the Wild West.
Agree
It's not at all like the Wild West... it IS the Wild West. The police don't respond... justice lies only in the hands holding a .45. Are you still in the area? Moffett and Oak Knoll were gone a long l-o-n-g time ago.
My family said it was beautiful ❤️
Very clean town and very respectable and it was a delight to live in the San Francisco Bay area.
_..."was."_
Oakland looks like a post apocalypse
What exactly is the racial breakup of Oakland? There is your answer.
Very true
Plague.
hispanic. Mostly foreign born. Or one generation away from foreign born. But it has more to do with the changes in mindset & the economic policies. People back in the day weren't acting the way they do now & the jobs market was better.
it's pretty mixed. Black, White, and Hispanic, are equally represented, with less % of those having Chinese heritage.
It’s about 25% black, 25% white, 25% Asian, 25% Hispanic
In another video about the blight of downtown Oakland,I commented that had a lot to do with the Raiders leaving a second time,I also predicted the Warriors & Athletics would follow them.Tbe Warriors moved back to San Francisco in 2019,the A's are following the Raiders to Vegas.
What happened? 80 years of one party rule.
They will NEVER understand that either. The same thing has happened to Detroit and Chicago.
That being the Communist party 🚩
It was a republican city when it started declining.
@@kxkxkxkx Oakland was never a "Communist" city. Berkeley fits that description, and is doing much better than Oakland. Oakland was a republican city when it started declining.
@@michaelbenardo5695 And Democrats finished the job, like they're doing in S.F., L.A., and elsewhere. One-party oligarchy is never good, and Californians still haven't figured this out.
Born and raised in Oakland brings a tear to my eyes to see certain areas has gone down
Grew up in Oakland 1939 - 1963. . Left in 1963 for Dublin, Ca. The Oakland schools were too unsafe for my kids. Live now in Nevada.
Unsafe in 63? 73 maybe, but in 63, Oakland was prosperous.
Oakland had it going on. They had the Oakland raiders which are very iconic team and the Oakland A’s. And also lost the Oakland warriors and went to San Francisco. They lost all teams. Oakland is really hurting with all the crime going on. They just shut down an inn and out and a Wendy’s do to the crime. Even a gas station shut down this month and other local businesses are going out of business and going to other cities due to crime.
It seemed like Oakland was going through gentrification. Did it suddenly stop? The soft on crime seems to have set back not only Oakland, but San Francisco too.
when your city has a greater share of the 13%..
Berkeley used to have a significant share of that 13% you hate, yet never experienced the crime that Oakland has.
@@michaelbenardo5695 so it’s a political issue then.. let’s go brandon! Trump 2024 🇺🇸
Your comment is spot on.
Too bad, if Managed with foresight, the two cities could have been an amazing Sister City Metropolis
Born and raised in giggle town, can't believe how bad Oakland has gotten, live in San Francisco now, but getting ready to leave California for good
Why
what's giggle town?
Jingle town?
What happened to Oakland is that it was graced by the fascinating and multifaceted African American culture and the wonderful people who comprise it.
The work of Henry Kaiser
@@kirbywaite1586what did he do?
@@ionnoe3209 Wartime shipyards
@@leeswetnika3325 witch brung more AA culture or what?
i’m only 20 so maybe idk what it used to be like but i absolutely love oakland for what it is now. i hope it never changes
What happened to Oakland California? DEMOCRAT voters and DEMOCRAT "leadership".
A certain, specific demographic happened.
Who has run Oakland for the last 30 years? You’re welcome
Oakland was a republican city when it started declining. You're welcome.
@@michaelbenardo5695 when did it start declining?
@@michaelbenardo5695 Eat shit, if your party can't course-correct with thirty goddamn years of uniparty rule and support you have no right to blame the other side.
That's like if I get a house with a broken window and then I blame the previous owner because I let it become a den for meth addicts for three decades.
@@SixTenVisualswhen all the jobs good jobs left people started to become poor. Shocking right?
I was born in Oakland and I hope to die there to one day. It’s a great city and a melting pot. I was a scrawny little shy white kid skating around jack London square looking to make friends and I did everywhere I turned. Shop owners.. randos, other kids at skate parks. There was community and a shared pride we all had. I didn’t even realize I had it to til I first moved. I always miss the bay when I’m gone. Sacramento and LA this last decade but Oakland is home. I learned all the important stuff there.
Oakland has always been a dangerous mess.
"What happened to Oakland?" can be summed up in 1 word.
Democrats.
I lived in the Bay Area for 48 years and saw the decline of Oakland starting in the 70s, ramp up into the 2000s and now it's a serious Shithole.