Fortunately, I have a full range of run routes with the house as a starting point. I can run into Berkeley towards the College or the hills, I can run towards Emeryville (and then into Berkeley or Oakland), I can run into the foo foo Oakland neighborhoods like Rockridge, I can run through the 'hood, I can run towards Lake Merritt, or I can run to downtown Oakland.
Running downtown into Oakland requires me going down Telegraph or Broadway.
What I've noticed, or thinking:
- There are a lot of condos and I mean a lot of condos popping up in downtown Oakland.
- The art deco buildings in Oakland are gorgeous and some just need to be polished. I hope some of the new buildings get some character too instead of looking San Jose-ish.
- A lot of people seem to be coming back to urban centers from the boonies. The commute I think has just been killing people.
- There needs to be a few more grocery stores in downtown Oakland. I'm guessing the new Ferry Plaza like market in Jack London Square will be it. But hopefully something pops up near the Sears building.
- Downtown Oakland was hit pretty hard with the '89 earthquake. I think we're just turning the corner.
- Temescal is really nice. People will start taking notice as more businesses pop up. Temescal is like an early phase Rockridge/Elmwood/Piedmont Ave.
- Every store in Emeryville should also be in downtown Oakland. And Downtown Oakland needs a few anchor tenants — Sears is not it. We need to go the urban boutique route to make some inroads. The Sean Johns and the Ecko need to set up shop downtown.
- Not downtown but new. Trader Joe's just opened up in Rockridge near Zachary's Pizza. Very cool.
Clearly, I love Oakland. Probably because, like me, we've got a chip on our shoulder to prove that we're actually not bad. We got a lot more going on than people think.