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Population: 397,067 (2006 estimate)
Percentage of retirees: 11.3% in 2006
Cost of living index: Substantially above average
Public libraries: 17
Public transportation: Oakland Buses and regional subway
Access to airports: Served by Oakland International Airport, 4 miles south of downtown and linked to by shuttle bus service (AirBART).
Tax breaks: In California, Social Security and Railroad Retirement benefits are exempt. There is a 2.5% tax on early distributions and qualified pensions. All private, local, state and federal pensions are fully taxed.
Number of museums: 11
Number of cinemas: 10
Cultural Highlights: Art scene reflects the city's rich cultural diversity.
Access to Healthcare: Good, with a number of local medical centers and UC Berkeley medical facilities close by.
Climate: Moderate temperatures year-round and much more sun than much of the San Francisco Bay area.
Annual precipitation: 25.2 inches
Cost of Living: About 50 percent above the national average but below that of nearby cities.
Nearby Attractions: Neighboring San Francisco and Berkeley, the Pacific coast and San Francisco Bay in the immediate area, Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley wine countries about an hour's drive.
Useful link: Official Web Site Of The City of Oakland California
In the Know: "It's a happening place. We enjoy going to the farmer's market on the weekends, and we have the choice of three, all within walking distance. The Saturday market is really fun. It's just kind of a nice scene, to take your kids, have a little breakfast, do a little shopping, talk to your neighbors. I think it's the best thing we've ever done, to move to Oakland."
- Dianne Fristrom, retired UC Berkeley genetics researcher
For decades Oakland has been the gritty working-class cousin to nearby San Francisco and Berkeley. It's still not as picture perfect as those two, but it's also more affordable, and it's attracting more and more urban pioneers who understand the city's main attractions—affordability, weather (far more sun and less fog than other Bay locations), great public transportation and a wealth of ethnic diversity, reflected in its cultural fusion of arts and cuisine.
The big push for city planners has been reinventing downtown Oakland. That's thanks to the "10K initiative" announced by high-profile Mayor Jerry Brown in 1999. He wanted to bring 10,000 new residents downtown, and he succeeded. With them have come more restaurants and retail, art galleries and nightlife, all centered on a very 20th-century high-rise-style downtown. Lake Merritt defines the northeast side of downtown, the parks and trails surrounding it creating a green oasis. The Oakland Museum of California is a first-rate history museum. At the south end of downtown, the hotels, restaurants, and shops of popular Jack London Square overlook the Oakland Estuary, and frequent Alameda-Oakland ferries make the run across the bay to San Francisco's Embarcadero in just over 30 minutes. An Amtrak station is serviced by trains headed inland or down the California coast.
The efficient BART subway crisscrosses downtown Oakland as well, making it easy to access the superb Art Deco Paramount Theater, the city's major performance venue and home of the Oakland Symphony, or almost any other major destination in the Bay area.
North of downtown, the charming old neighborhood of Montclair Village occupies the high ground of the Oakland hills, with views of the bay. Its style is decidedly more small town, though it has plenty of upscale restaurants and shops. Another pleasant neighborhood centers around College Avenue, whose two-mile stretch connecting Oakland and Berkeley boasts some 50 restaurants featuring acclaimed local chefs.
A graduate of UC Berkeley and a near 40-year resident of the Bay Area, my only regret is that Berkeley has always remained just a bit out of my financial grasp as a place to own a home. Oakland has always been -- and remains -- a study in broad contrasts, the opulence of Montclair and the Oakland hills contrasting sharply with the "gritty" (to put it kindly) flatlands. Downtown Oakland has improved in fits and starts, but due largely to former California governor and Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, real progress has been and continues to be made. Add to the areas described in the article the neighborhoods on the north side of Lake Merritt, where unique homes from the 1920s and 1930s in various states of upkeep co-exist harmoniously with more modern single-family and apartment residences. The atmosphere and cultural offerings are there, in Oakland/Berkeley locally and a short half-hour drive across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. Make no doubt about it, though. This is the Bay Area, so if you want to live in and enjoy the upscale Oakland, bring money -- boatloads of it.
Posted by Garry Holman on April 3,2008 | 10:25PM
As the article details, there IS a plethora of arts and culture to enjoy in Oakland, you can find any kind of food imaginable, the diversity is wonderful and the weather is near-perfect, but having lived here for 25 years, I can't imagine retiring here. It's a very expensive place, and living on a fixed income would be very difficult unless you have a whopping pension. Once you pay for basic expenses (housing, food, utilities), you'd need plenty more in order to enjoy leisure activities. I'm fortunate to own my own home (no mean feat for a single woman here), but property taxes alone are staggering. And the services those taxes are supposed to go to seem to be getting worse, even though rates keep going up. Oakland is trying, but seems to take one step forward and two steps backward when it comes to improvement. I myself plan to move in a couple of years, even though I'm quite a few years away from retirement. I love Oakland and the Bay Area, but have become disillusioned by the expense, the noise, the traffic, the rudeness (mostly from drivers), and the ever-rising crime rate. As Garry mentions in the previous comment, bring boatloads of money. I suggest you bring a lot of patience as well.
Posted by Johanna Anders on April 21,2008 | 11:04AM
OAKLAND ??? They must be kidding. Yes there are some very nice, rather high end, parts of Oakland.....but there are just too many streets you had better never walk down. There are more murders each week in Oakland than the US killings in Bagdad. You want a nice pleasant happy place to retire, the cost of living is low and the air is filled with music and you can walk everywhere because the people are very friendly. The place is named Puerto Vallarta.
Posted by Al on June 21,2008 | 01:40PM
Oakland like many other cities suffer from loss of buisness district, crime and a few bad neighborhoods. However, it is no where near the comparison that Al makes. I think he need to travel the world and visitother cities of equal population. for me, and I've been to a lot of cities, Oakland is home. It compares well with Hong Kong, Rio de Janero, and Santiago.
Posted by Richard on July 2,2008 | 02:10PM