r/OaklandCA

At first, I was confused why Oakland has an astronomically high population of sex offenders compared to anywhere else in California (per the Megan's Law website).

Then, I learned that it is the only place where it is illegal to run a background check for housing rentals. We are one of the few places welcoming them into our community with open arms.

Did you discover that the man renting the room down the hall from your teenage daughter is a sexually violent predator? Tough luck, you must continue to provide that room to him. Denying his housing needs is a violation of his rights.

The r/oakland brigaders will find some reason to say I'm being racist or classist for pointing this out.

Lovely.

As locals know but visitors are so often surprised to find out, SFO isn’t in San Francisco, either. The airport of the city that is seven miles in either dimension is a solid twelve miles from that city’s nearest edge, in an area of San Mateo County so remote that the land is unincorporated. For that reason alone, San Francisco’s insistence that it and only it could ever use the phrase “San Francisco”—let alone the phrase “San Francisco Bay”—was legalistic without being grounded in reality. In that sense, it was also only the latest attempt to undermine OAK’s geographic advantage with some chintzy bullshit. 

San Francisco boosters may laugh at it, but in its earliest days, OAK was one of the most important and most advanced airports in the world. The history isn’t irrelevant to the current strife. At a time when air travel was new, and one could still shock people by saying that it was on its way to becoming a daily affair, Oakland Airport positioned itself to take advantage of the new era. Blessed with weather so perfect that flying was reliably safe for all but five days of the year, the airport added features like long, tarred runways and flood lights so that planes could land at night. By 1931, the 845-acre Oakland airport was the largest facility in America, and the busiest in the world, handling more than a million passengers per year. Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, then the busiest airport in Europe, took in slightly more than 650,000. 

Across the Bay, aviators derided Mills Field, the bucolic airport named after the cow pasture it was leased from that would become SFO. As one flight attendant of the era put it, the whole place was a “mudhole.”

I just noticed it's happening, I'm not associated

Admitting your ideology is nonsense quietly and just for your own political gains is shameful cognitive dissonance.

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Hi r/oakland,

Recently, we were saddened by the loss of one of Lakeside Park’s most remarkable Coast Live Oaks near the Edoff Bandstand—possibly among the oldest and certainly one of the largest in the Park. Its canopy once stretched nearly 50 feet in diameter, supported by an extraordinary branching structure, but in recent years, more than 90% of its evergreen foliage had disappeared. 

Back in December 2024, before our organization, Lake Merritt Conservancy, had formally received its 501(c)(3) status, we first observed severe canopy decline in this tree and in several Cork Oaks along Bellevue Avenue. These inspired the creation of our tree care stewardship initiative in summer 2025, with strong support from Oakland Public Works. 

Unfortunately, this past winter, mushrooms and cankers associated with heart rot and structural instability were discovered growing at the base and within the trunk of the tree. It was ultimately determined to be beyond saving and a safety concern. Attached are a few images documenting its condition and the day of its demise. 

This Memorial Day weekend, we hope you will join us again in supporting the health and resilience of Lakeside Park’s remaining California native oaks—arguably the most important keystone tree species in the region's ecosystem. 

We will gather at the Snack Shack patio, uphill from the Bandstand, on Saturday, May 23rd, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. As many of you know from past stewardship days, volunteers will help remove some invasive weeds and apply sheet mulch around the trees out to the drip line. One of the trees we will focus on this month is another at-risk Coast Live Oak worthy of heritage tree recognition. 

Together, the day’s work will help improve habitat conditions for wildlife, strengthen soil health for the vulnerable trees, and create a visible ecological improvement at one of the symbolic heart spaces of the Park. 

Consider joining us—even for part of the morning—RSVP with us by Thursday, May 21st. Lakeside Park’s trees, and the future resilience of Oakland’s urban forest, depend greatly on community stewardship efforts like yours. Future dates and updates will be shared through our Instagram page, Reddit/Oakland, OPRF’s calendar, and Nextdoor.

Please feel free to reach out anytime with questions, comments, or thoughts about the upcoming event or Lakeside Park’s trees more broadly.

Thank you!

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After two incredible years, our deeply loved nanny Silvia will be looking for two new nanny share families as my daughter and the other girl we share with are graduating to daycare. Silvia is a true standout in terms of the incredible care she provides our children, her easy-going professionalism, her enthusiasm for her role, and her high EQ.

Here are some facts about Silvia:

• 20+ years of experience and spryly keeps up with 2 year olds
• Has never EVER been late. Always shows up a few minutes before 9 to set up and leaves after giving us a rundown of the day at 5.
• Has a magical ability to make juggling two children look like a breeze
• Is 100% trustworthy (and we are both first time parents!)
• Is cherished by our daughters and by us
• Sends us frameable quality photos every day
• Exceptional communication in both English and Spanish

Silvia has tangibly helped our daughters flourish by

• Immersing them in Spanish at our request
• Seamlessly aligning their schedules
• Facilitated dropping naps and bottles as developmentally appropriate
• Supporting milestone attainment like crawling and walking
• Developing them into well-rounded and polite eaters
• Promoting positive sleep habits
• Reinforcing social skills like sharing
• POTTY TRAINING at 25 months
• Encouraging their enthusiastic love of the outdoors by spending most of the day in nature or parks

For questions or for Silvia's contact info, please DM me!

https://archive.ph/wip/agHkr

Borenstein is boggled by Mayor Lee's push for a strong mayor reform, seeing it as far too susceptible to corruption and political manipulation.

>But Oakland’s problem is not the lack of a supreme leader. It’s the lack of objective financial guidance from an independent professional administrator, and leaders willing to put the city’s long-term good ahead of their immediate political ambitions.

That first sentence is certainly correct. It's questionable if the second one is correct, at least when stated as "this is Oakland's problem." You can get objective financial guidance and ignore it, as Oakland "leaders" have for many years.

Personally I'd say the main problem(s) with Oakland government are a toxic culture, and the fact that Oakland itself is full of deep political conflicts and wildly varying views about what the direction of the city should be. I think we're assuming that changing the form of government is going to fix things that it's not able to fix.

>"The city of Oakland aims for Measure E tax funds to pay for services already funded by Measure NN, the tax voters approved in 2024. It also diverts Measure NN funds to fire equipment."

Before you vote for yet another tax increase, read this article.

Hi! I'm going to a concert in Oakland at the beginning of next month and I am a little concerned about our safety since this will be my first time going to Oakland and this stadium. I'm assuming the concert will be ending late. Can I get some feedback from anyone who lives here or is familiar with the area?

Is it better to drive there and park in the parking garage close to the Arena? Get dropped off at the dropping location? Is bart a better option? Is the Oakland Arena well patrolled by security inside and out? Is my anxiety setting in and am I just being too paranoid? Please help a girl out 😅😬

Got my first real, non-warning speed ticket for driving more​ than 20mph on Grand. No one is realistically going to drive that slowly on that big a road in broad daylight with no traffic.​​​ It feels absurd. Are we going to have to mutiny until they​ raise it to at least 25mph​, or...?

Rant

Old proverb: teach a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

The city has a massive problem with not maintaining the equipment they already have. This has been pointed out by many including insiders at the DOT and council public works committee. The city is not maintaining equipment or vehicles, or hiring vacancies for mechanics, that Public Works relies on to operate critical services. The city should have spent this money in the right ways over many past Measures and previous COVID era federal funding. Where did the money go? One time programs, ballooning pension costs, police overtime, and expensive rentals. Instead of hiring more police, refinancing pension costs, and investing in mechanics and maintenance of existing equipment, the City perpetually blows millions on one time expenditures, rentals and third parties that endanger its fiscal health.

And what capacity we do have for service delivery is distributed unevenly. Jestin Johnson once admitted at a D5 budget forum that the city focused on the areas that generate the most tickets- not the poorest areas hit hardest by illegal dumping. And the police distribution across the city is wildly imbalanced.

One example I keep coming back to is after two library funding measures, in 2018 and 2022, the city renovated the main branch and rockridge branch while trying to defund east oakland branches including Fruitvale. Likewise, after a windfall in Measure income for parks and federal funding, the city matched the DOGE playbook and defunded many of our parks and cultural amenities. The parks by me are literally bootstrapped by community volunteers and private capital, I hardly ever see the city do anything but maybe cut grass in 1/10 of the park at a time. I doubt they have many working lawnmowers. Got to any other east bay city below 580 or even 880 and the difference is shocking.

The city has failed in developing an economic development plan to complement the General Plan. The city needs to attract tax paying private, for profit and nonprofit, and public institutions to sustainably raise its tax base, or at least recover from the institutions that fled since 2015. Over the past ten years the city has ratcheted up regressive sales and property taxes on regular working citizens and we’re getting less services than when the city had smaller budgets not long ago. Average neighbors are also being squeezed by utilities and federal austerity. We’re becoming a suburban bedroom community with a lack of jobs in our own borders with all the social problems of a large city.

We need to hire and elect leaders that are laser focused on investing in service delivery - I.e. maintaining what we have and expanding - and economic development. Asking for one time increases isn’t benefitting QOL for average citizens.

I'm grateful for this community and keeping it real about the town we care about.

There have been a number of posts and comments criticizing other communities. This subreddit is a place for free expression. However, it is not a place to talk bad about other subreddits.

Just a reminder that there is moderation here and posts that are uber critical or go off the rails will be locked or removed.

Let's be civil to one another and other communities. Basically, if you don't have something nice to say...

Have a great day and think about the great things about this town in addition to areas of improvement.