I love me some Oakland. This is the other city by the Bay, with San Francisco about 13 miles across the Bay Bridge. Of course, I’m a fourth-generation San Franciscan (have I said that before?), but like most SF-natives, I can’t afford to live in the town of my birth.
In a town where you pay $4 bucks a gallon for gas, there aren’t a lot of amenities to help you strive, especially not housing. So Oakland has become my home next to my home. Folks here are as fiercely devoted to this city as the other; but sometimes, I really, really, worry about where we’re headed as a city.
Granted, every urban area has it’s unique cultures and peri-cultures (i.e., cultures that skirt the main one …”sub”-culture assumes there’s a “superior” culture), but my folks in the “O” (for Oakland, not Oprah) have their mark on some of the best peri-cultural rituals I’ve ever come across…and that’s okay!
Oakland is a car-culture city, probably only second to Los Angeles. Anything you can do to a car, Oakland’s probably already discovered it, or done it. Oakland is filled with history and epic political sagas, but for some reason the Sideshow and how annoyingly loud you can make your vehicle seem to be the major highlights of Oakland’s charms.
This is a clip from our local KRON-TV station featuring Bubb Rubb and Lil’ Sis.
The What is Oakland like…? Whoo-whooo! by Adrienne Anderson, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
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