I lived all over Oakland for well over 15 years and live up the road in Berkeley now. I also have a recording studio (that you rolled right by in your tour - but you wouldn't know it's there, very much on purpose!) Believe me when I say it's painful to see the massive inequity in the Town, because it really is a beautiful gem of a city in many ways. The dichotomy between a neighborhood like Temescal / N. Oakland where I lived for about 3 years and the neighborhood in E. Oakland / Fruitvale where my studio is heartbreaking. Every time I go, there are more and more unhoused folks essentially building an unsanctioned tent city all along 12th street and surrounding sidestreets. Lots of open air drug use and mental illness, as you'd expect. The thing that really sucks for me though is the underage prostitution. At any hour, there are dozens of girls, some - no kidding - that can't be more than 13-14 years old, stationed on corners wearing nothing but lingerie, even when it's freezing cold out. Sometimes I'll hand out a little money to them, just to try to help, but it's a horrible situation and the cops have totally given up. The OPD is both underfunded and mismanaged, and this is well known if you live here. I know this isn't the only city experiencing this. Our society is broken and it's a complex situation, but I believe it starts at the top. It shouldn't cost $2, 500 a month to live in a modest 1-bedroom apartment, but here the landlords and the market rules. It's shameful that in a country with such immense wealth, we all basically accept that so many people will just fall through the cracks. Charity can't fix this, only better policies can. You can't force billionaires to help, but you can make them pay a fair share of the burdens in the society that made them embarrassingly rich. If there's another solution, I can't think of it. Any and all solutions start with economic decisions made at every level of government. Ignoring it will only lead to increasing dystopia and despair. I hope we can collectively choose a better way forward. Vote your conscience. Vote for real change and justice. Most of all, just vote, and help where you can.
djdksf
As a Oakland resident of 35+ years I appreciate this video It wasn't sensationalized for clicks It was just a honest view of someone observing it unbiasely.
AlexGrateGaming
One problem with Oakland gov't is nepotism. They keep hiring all their incompetent relatives.
terry_willis
Oakland is the perfect example of the “Broken Window Theory.”
You allow the small crime to be tolerated and the big crime follows.
mikeb
No city in America should ever look like this 😢
jennifermiller
500 cameras, for what? For video of people they won’t lock up.
Zak
You nailed this headline. Over 14, 000 ABANDONED cars in 78 square miles; the third world city….City of Oakland. And companies in downtown telling employees “do not leave your building for lunch.”
OneHungLee
I’m from Fresno and I drove through Oakland a year ago after taking a wrong exit. It was shocking even for someone used to Fresno.
marcbenjamin
I'm an old timer born in Oakland in the 1930s. The town was beautiful, not crowded and very low crime rate. In fact, if a criminal committed 1st degree murder, they were executed at San Quentin. After the end of World War II, things started changing and slowly went downhill. People kept voting in the same city politicians that they were complaining about, and somehow, expecting positive changes. Today, with a very high crime rate, and of course including 1st degree murder, they can still receive the death penalty, but they know they won't get executed because we have a governor that refuses to sign the death warrant, even though it's the law! And yet . . . people still vote in a clown like "Gruesome Newsom", and expecting another positive change. Don't you folks want better people in office to try to get back some of our old time living standards? Get your heads out of your cell phones for some research before you vote in a few days. Good luck.
I moved out of Oakland and never ever looked back. It was the worst place I'd ever lived in my life. Absolutely terrible and the people were equally as bad. The place is horrific.
valeriebrown
The Warriors left there a few years ago. The Raiders followed suit and now the A’s are the last to go. No professional sports teams left here.
JD-mhrl
Just recently, four Walmarts closed down in Chicago because of shoplifting, and other crimes.
KamikazeJustice
I lived in Oakland for over 20 years and never seen it this bad. One of the reasons I left. Oakland City Council should be ashamed.
jj_k
My granddaughters husband is a young police officer in this town, Oakland, Ca. He said it's the city government, and especially the mayor that is the problem. Police officers in the San Francisco bay area, where Oakland is, are understaffed. Not too many men and women want to be a police officer in these cities where crime is not punished by the court systems. The criminals are brought in, they go to court and are back out on the streets within days.
I live 20 minutes from Oakland, these criminals are making their way into the more affluent cities near Oakland. I've lived here for 72 years, this is has become our worst nightmare ever.
susanne
Home Depot in Oakland hires two official Oakland PD to stand out the door to stop robberies they are like the only people that can stop a shoplifter
krl
Our company no longer acceps jobs in Oakland. After the loss of a service truck and an employee beaten up and in the hospital, none of our crews will work there. The last project was near the former Dennys you showed. We had to hire private security to protect the job site. Each evening, 100% of our equipment was hauled away. If we didn't, it would be gone/looted/burned by morning.
bobc.
Love the pauses and the style of narration. This is what a commentary should be like.
nutmegkicker
The thing you notice about any city in California are the junky RV’s lined up on every curb.
Fitinfifties
Man the shots from the streets as the above-ground train passing over are straight out of an 80s Arnie or Sly dystopian sci-fi flick.
thecandyman
Calif spend 17.5 BILLION annually on less than 200, 000. Homeless.
Someone is getting rich, and its NOT the homeless.
