Some of Oakland is super ghetto and other parts not so much. I was shocked to see while I was there the amounts that people were paying to live there. I felt uneasy in some areas, but was fine. I was only there to visit and stay with friendly, but did notice because of Berkeley there are a lot of young people which are building the area up!

I was elsewhere for most of my business trip, but did spent one night in Oakland! Yes there is a rough side but I can see that the city is trying to re-vamp! I was not too impressed but I will say that the newest side to Oakland looks nice and very different to the down trodden part I was in. Sorry Raiders fans but your stadium S*** with a capital S. It's hard for me to look at this team with anything but pity!!! Your pride is nowhere to be found and to be honest it's not the Raiders stadium but the Oakland A's!!! (You guys rent it for the winter!!!)
I see why Oakland get's allot of bad words but to be honest they can only blame themselves! If they put half as much effort into the down town suburbs as they did in and around the stadium area, then the rap would not be so bad!!! The Jack London area is very nice but it's right in the middle of hell and it‘s very expensive!!!!!!!! Hopefully the next time I return for work, things will have improved!!!

I've changed my tune a little bit about Oakland after having spent some more time there visiting a friend. If you work in the East Bay, you almost have to live across the Bay Bridge at least in the Oakland vicinity because the commute from SF would really start to annoy you. Not to mention, the rent is much cheaper. The problem with Oakland is what makes it appealling to many - there are no class segments or pockets in this city. Everyone is blended in together, and that makes no one safe from crime no matter what your location is. You have to actually try and break down where you live by street - my friend just did that - people at her company highlighted on a map exactly which streets she could and could not live on. There are some very nice places like the Hills, Lake Merrit is pretty good and Rockridge and Piedmont are on the outskirts. You also have Berkeley minutes away. Of course there are areas that you definetely want to avoid, like near the Coliseum. I think probably the main thing if you were in Oakland is to make sure you find out what the right path is and stay on it.

A TOTAL trash heap of a city!! Avoid downtown unless you want to get shot, i'll never go here again.

Now ignore what these people are saying about Oakland being violent and bad to live in. You will see that if you go there again, there are many improvements there and the crime rate had decreased significantly. Many places that were once ugly had changed to nice archetecture. I believe that the future is great for this city.

The Baltimore of the west coast

Nice homes in the hills with views of the SF bay, otherwise, avoid Oakland at all costs, unless you enjoy getting shot and/or robbed. I've stayed downtown a couple of times- scary.

Lotsa nice basketball yards there. ... Hey, doesn't my friend Charlie Manson live in an Oakland prison? Gotta visit him before he dies.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

4 years ago I would have given Oakland 1 star. I just got back from the bay area and found Oakland looking much better from 4 years ago. Excellent downtown revitalization taking place in downtown Oakland. To my surprise Oakland is looking quite nice.