It was a short and sweet little move, up the road a few miles and into the apartment of my co-worker, Nachelle. In fact, it was such a short drive that I made multiple trips! Technically, however, Nachelle lives in Berkeley, which is a whole different animal, so I thought I would write a quick post about Oakland before I leave it behind for good.
I have to be honest with you- I didn't shed any tears as I drove away. East Oakland has a pretty lousy reputation, and West Oakland isn't much better. Central Oakland, around Lake Merritt, is becoming quite desirable and, as you wind your way up into the hills, there are some really very nice parts- but where I lived wasn't one of them. I don't mean that it was terrible or that I felt really unsafe, but I've never been so vigilant about taking everything out of my car when I parked it, and I never went for a run right from my front door.
When I lived in Pismo Beach, I was awoken by shaggy-haired guys living a homeless variation of the surfer lifestyle going though my dumpster. In Oakland, I would walk out to my car and find elderly, apron-wearing Asian ladies pushing little carts and fishing through trashcans with gloved hands. Both were looking for the same things: glass bottles and aluminum cans. Because in California, you get a 5 cent rebate for each one.
My current hospital, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, has regular issues with the local homeless population. As in, they come in to use the bathrooms, take the applesauce-that-makes-pills-go-down-more-easily from the fridge, and try to sleep on the therapy mats at night. One of my patients was wheeled back to her room after her therapy session, and the physical therapist discovered two homeless women using her bathroom to shower. They said they were getting cleaned up to go to a funeral....
Apparently riots and protests are regular occurrences here, too. I've never seen so many police in one place as when I ducked out early from a bar that was live-streaming the Golden State Warriors (our local pro basketball team) in this year's NBA finals. The police were there to stave off the sort of celebratory rioting that occurred when the Warriors won the NBA finals in 2015- I'm told that more than one car was set on fire. A few weeks ago, one of my local freeways was shut down by protestors as part of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement- although they were courteous enough to alert the local authorities ahead of time, so that commuters could make alternate plans for their drive home.
On a positive note, however, I've never been privileged to such a concentrated collection of street art- it runs the gambit, of course, from tags and graffiti to commissioned murals, but a lot of it is really, really good. Oakland (and probably the whole East Bay) also has easy access to a number of state parks up in the hills. These parks offer some great day hikes and a multitude of vantage points for really beautiful views across the whole San Francisco Bay. I've hiked to a number of them and I'm constantly surprised to discover that San Francisco is swathed in fog while Oakland enjoys sunny skies, so the weather seems pretty consistently better on this side of the Bay!
There is a good chance that none of these things are exclusively 'Oaklandish,' but they helped frame my experience there. Berkeley seems to have its fair share of can-collecting Asian ladies and tent cities under freeway overpasses, but at least I'm on a street now with bikers and joggers and dog-walkers, and I've even gone for a run leaving right from my own front door.
