Where to Live? East Bay/peninsula/elsewhere??

Alameda is a wonderful family friendly place to live...There is very little crime and neighbors watch out for each other. It is close to the city (a 20 minute ferry ride), has beautiful tree lined streets, good schools, nice parks..

Good Luck

Hi AR,

Don't listen to the media so much. I live here in Oakland all my life. Thirty six years. I am also a realtor who knows Oakland like the back of my hand. Everywhere you go. There will be crime. Whether it is a big one or a petty one. There is always something.

The most desireable neighborhoods in Oakland are:

Glenview district
Lincoln Heights
Joaquin Miller
Montclair (has a wonderful park for toddlers and kids)
Rock Ridge
Broadway Terrace
Adams Point
Oakmore
Haddon Hill
Lakeshore/Grand
Crocker Highlands

Our weather is wonderul here and always something to do. I hope you would consider Oakland to be your next home. Good luck!!!

Albany, just north of Berkeley, is a great place for families - a little quiet but very safe, walkable, good restaurants, cute little houses that easily rent for under $3k for a 2- or 3-bedroom. The public schools have some of the highest ratings in the area, so there are lots and lots of families with young kids here.

I recommend Pacifica. My husband and I moved here from the City. It takes me 15 minutes to get from my house to downtown. No bridges. We have an ocean view and live right by the trail to Mori Point, excellent for hikes with little ones and it's dog friendly too, if that's a factor. We have a two bedroom with a backyard and a garage, are 50 feet from the beach, and pay $1,400. (It's an apt., not a house, in a 3 unit bldg.) There's an excellent mom's club here too, Pacifica Mother's Club. They are very active and have separate play groups depending on your kid's age. I'm not sure about the schools, since my dude's only 15 months, so you'll have to ask someone else or go online for that information. Pacifica gets a lot of fog, but we also get a lot of amazing sunny gorgeous days. Far less sunny days than the E. Bay gets, it's true, but it's sleepy and quiet and I've never heard gun shots here. Our friends (with a 5 year old) live in Oakland and we saw someone get shot in the stomach right at the base of their stoop. Another time we saw someone get shot across the street. They've also been broken into several times WHILE THEY WERE AT HOME no less. If fog really bums you out, look for homes in the Linda Mar area of Pacifica. They get better weather than the rest of the town. Good luck!

I would check out Alameda -- great schools; great living setup.. etc.. great luck

A R,

I understand the desire to reside outside of a big city. I currently live in El Sobrante, a small city between Richmond :( and Pinole. I would recommend Albany, El Cerrito or Hercules. Albany is located between Berkeley and El Cerrito. There is a small town feel and the school are good. El Cerrito is located between Albany and Richmond. I lived there for several years. There are two BART stattions and many shopping locations. It is a nice place to live and there is a since of small city community. Hercules is located past Pinole and just off Highway 4. It is a nice city and there is new development. I hope this helps with your city search.
- T.

Consider Alameda. It is a little island off of Oakland, with a great "old town" feel and wonderful community activities, many for free. Crime rate is low, and there is plenty of public transportation to SF or BART. There is a beach with and amazing view of the SF bay. Best of all, you are centeral to everything from this little city. There is even a year round farmers market on the West end every Tuesday and Saturday morning. Plus, plenty of Art and Wine fairs throughout the warmer months! Alameda is only 10 - 12 miles outside of SF. Just take the Bay Bridge and enter either via the Posey Tube (off of Broadway exit) or any of the 3 bridges.

My family and I are looking to move to Vallejo. Low crime, family friendly and it has a ferry to the city which I will be using to commute. Housing prices have dropped a lot there however property tax is probably going to go up since the city filed for bankruptcy last year.

This weekend they're having a pirate festival at the waterfront. We went to it last year and it was a lot of fun. You may want to check it out.

You might want to try to Albany or Emeryville areas. also, a little further out Pinole and hercules are wonderful places to live, but quite a bit quieter than Berkeley and Oakland. No big city feel - more small town. I love it!

Maybe Burlingame near Broadway? The food scene on the Peninsula is nowhere near as good as in Rockridge or Berkeley, but it is quite walkable, and there are plenty of places to eat, etc., on Broadway. They're just more likely to be low-key places. It's definitely a kid-friendly area. The drive to SF is also pretty quick.

Hi
We lived in Rockridge for about 6 years (4 of them with our now-7YO twins). It was certainly convenient as far as being able to walk to transit, two library branches, the pediatrician's office, and a number of toddler parks but the crime issue is certainly a concern, esp. in the current economy. Whether or not there's "A lot" of crime probably depends on how you define "A lot" - more than outer suburbs for sure, but some families will decide that the other aspects of the neighborhood (walkability, greater family diversity, etc.) make up for the higher crime risk vs. suburbs, while others will decide they prefer the suburbs so it's a matter of personal preference IMO.

There's a Rockridge Neighborhood Watch yahoogroup where residents keep each other updated on break-ins, suspicious activity, etc. - I don't know if they field questions from folks considering moving to the area but the URL is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RockridgeNeighborhoodWatchN... if you want to contact them.

Having said all that, I'll add that we opted to move to the Lamorinda area when our kids reached school age, and although I was initially quite reluctant to move to the suburbs (having grown up in one that was very mono-cultural), we've actually been quite happy with the move. Our kids love their school, there are a couple great parks and libraries nearby, they have friends within walking distance, and since we're in a quiet cul-de-sac they've got plenty of space to play outside with the neighbor kids. And it's definitely more ethnically diverse than the suburb where I grew up (where if you saw another Asian you automatically assumed you knew their family) - come to think of it, it's more diverse than the block we lived on in Rockridge.

Feel free to email me if you have any more q's regarding Rockridge vs. Lamorinda. I'm guessing that with the real estate market being pretty slow right now, you could probably find a good rental in your price range over on this side of the tunnel.

Crime is part of city living. If you want to live in an interesting place, you just have to learn to deal with it. If I had $4k to spend on rent, I would move to the Oakmore, Laurel, or Redwood Heights neighborhoods in Oakland, or the Berkeley flatlands. In addition to these places, I have lived in East Oakland, West Berkeley, and in Rockridge and North Berkeley, and have been pretty comfy everywhere. I refuse to live in fear, and I won't have bars on my windows, or burglar alarms on my house or car. Of course it doesn't hurt that I love Rottweilers, and usually have one.