Oakland is also persistently near the top of the list of most dangerous cities in the US.
This comes up every time Oakland appears on HN. Oakland is a large city, and there are dangerous portions, and most of the violent crime happens there. The downtown area, where I've worked for 13 years, is relatively safe. I saw more crime in Berkeley in my 13 years working there.
Many people in the suburbs in the outer Bay Area are actually afraid to come to downtown Oakland. I only found out about this because many of the people that I work with told me, years after my company moved from Berkeley to Oakland. They also said that none of their fears came true and they were surprised.
Oakland has a rep. A bad one. It's a pretty safe place, but as always, the situation is complex and you can't distill it down to a sound bite.
Btw, I've walked to work (2 miles each way) through city streets for 13 years. Never had a problem, nor have I seen any problems. In my relatively few visits to SF, though, I saw a homeless person almost beaten to death near Golden Gate park. I've seen other stuff there, too. SF feels much more dangerous to me. But, maybe that's just my fear of the unknown, eh?
This comes up every time Oakland appears on HN. Oakland is a large city, and there are dangerous portions, and most of the violent crime happens there. The downtown area, where I've worked for 13 years, is relatively safe. I saw more crime in Berkeley in my 13 years working there.
Many people in the suburbs in the outer Bay Area are actually afraid to come to downtown Oakland. I only found out about this because many of the people that I work with told me, years after my company moved from Berkeley to Oakland. They also said that none of their fears came true and they were surprised.
Oakland has a rep. A bad one. It's a pretty safe place, but as always, the situation is complex and you can't distill it down to a sound bite.
Btw, I've walked to work (2 miles each way) through city streets for 13 years. Never had a problem, nor have I seen any problems. In my relatively few visits to SF, though, I saw a homeless person almost beaten to death near Golden Gate park. I've seen other stuff there, too. SF feels much more dangerous to me. But, maybe that's just my fear of the unknown, eh?