Oakland - not just in the shadow of the city by the bay

Born as a working class suburb of SF, Oakland is not just a city in the shadows of our better known neighbor to the west. Oakland is a wonderful thriving city full of diversity and wonderful places to visit and enjoy.

In fact it does have crime. But every major city does and in all my years living in the Bay Area I have always felt safer in Oakland than SF. So just to clear the air let that be known.

The cool thing about Oakland is that thousands of us that live here know and treasure the fact that most people don't know about the wonderful neighborhoods, wonderful parks, and cool hangouts that exist in this city. We quietly go on acting like there is nothing special all the while enjoying our treasures.

Do we go to SF all the time for our fun. Heck no we don't. Too much hassle and the fun is right here in our hood.

I will have to go and find the link to one of Oakland's big boosters. This guy sells Oaklandish shirts down at the farmer's market by the Lake every week. He loves the city is always promoting it. Plus he sells cool shirts.

Here you go: Oaklandish.org Jeff Hull

Check it out.

So where should you go?

Well lets see how about a list to start:

Chinatown

Korea town

Lake Merritt

Jack London Square

The waterfront

Redwood Park (yes there are redwoods in Oakland)

Piedmont Ave

Park Blvd

The Parkway Theatre

The Paramount Theatre

An A's game

A Raider's game - if you go in for that sort of thing

Moma's Royal Cafe - for breakfast

Zza's - for Italian by the lake

Le Cheval - for Thai downtown

Barney's - for great hamburgers on Piedmont Ave

The Bay Wolf - delectable dining

Easy - for great cocktails on Lakeshore Ave

OK that is the start of my list. Now let's hear your contributions of what makes Oakland great. Leave a comment today!

The Earthquakes are coming back to won. Yes soccer fans the Quakes are back this year. The new Quakes that is and they are playing several games in Oak land this year. April 12th they kick off their home opener against the Chicago Fire at the McAfee. Time to get tickets and head out to root for the Earthquakes again. (now for usre they will not be a good or great team out of the gate but we shoudl root them on anyways).