Oakland As Bad As San Francisco?

I received a job offer in the Bay Area that I am accepting. I know shit's gotten crazy there, but is it THAT bad if you have some street smarts in Oakland? For comparison, I'm living in Phoenix right now. I'm living comfortably but it's hot as balls, so Oakland seems like a sweet deal. Pay is decent even with the cost of living. It's just I don't want to get shanked while going about my day.

8 Comments
 

Just depends on the area of oak as is with most cities. Oak has traditionally always had a rough rep due to it's super high violent crime rate due to gang-related activity but good old gentrification starting with higher earners who still got priced out of SF over the last 10 years has allowed for many parts of the city to be pretty nice and not dangerous. Matter of fact, there are some really affluent areas there now, particularly in the foothills / on the hills.

 

ArizonaIce

I received a job offer in the Bay Area that I am accepting. I know shit's gotten crazy there, but is it THAT bad if you have some street smarts in Oakland? For comparison, I'm living in Phoenix right now. I'm living comfortably but it's hot as balls, so Oakland seems like a sweet deal. Pay is decent even with the cost of living. It's just I don't want to get shanked while going about my day.

Depends, Oakland hills is nice but not all areas of Oakland, I would want to get lost at night.

SafariJoe, wins again!
 
Most Helpful

As others said depends where in each. Lots of great parts of SF. Oakland on average is much worse, there's only a tiny area that's walkable (basically area around 12th st bart stop + lake Merritt) and Temescal but getting between parts of Oakland makes you walk through really sketch areas.

TBH unless you need to be in Oakland I would advise against it. Berkeley is way nicer and you still get access to great restaurants and bar scene, plus can bart or uber over to oakland for the occasional blackout.

 

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