Post #49476 by tikivixen on Wed, Aug 27, 2003 9:44 PM

I think Oakland needs a new ad campaign:

"VISIT OAKLAND, LAND OF THE DRIVE-BY MAI TAI!!!"

Whoops. Forgot about the drinking/driving laws. Oh well. It would have gone over magnificently around 1960!

In any case, I lived in Oakland for years and have an abiding fondness for the place. (Perhaps ironically, the only city I've ever been mugged in is Berkeley. Go figure.)

As far as Oakland crime goes, well, the average Tiki Centralite is not the sort of individual who gets shot in Oakland, statistically speaking. Gang members kill each other (and each others' friends and family members, along with innocent bystanders) within just a couple of quite tightly circumscribed areas. You don't go there, you're fine. And Oakland is so big, geographically speaking, that it hardly matters; you can spend your life there and never once enter a nasty zone.

I lived in the same Broadway--Piedmont--Grand Lake--Lakeshore--Park Blvd. continuum currently haunted by AquaZombie and his ilk, and I loved it there. Exquisite architecture, interesting people, cool culture.

My one real gripe with Oakland is that, as a whole, she allows herself to be dragged down in the eyes of the world by a few pathetic low-lifes. Years of crappy, corrupt government didn't help (a city of this location, size and diversity should NEVER be in such financial low spirits as she was for years.)

I'd love to see Oakland have a HUGE renaissance, and with folks like AZ and his Tiki Goddess, Otto, the Conga Lounge fellows, et al (to name but a few!) doing their best for the cause, I'd say she's well on her way.

--tikivixen, writing from vallejo (another underrated burg)