Oakland Attractions, Entertainment & Things to Do

Introduction

Often overshadowed by San Francisco's beauty and Berkeley's offbeat antics, Oakland's allure lies in its amazing diversity. Here you can find a Nigerian clothing store, a beautifully renovated Victorian home, a Buddhist meditation center, and a lively salsa club, all within the same block. Oakland's multifaceted nature reflects its colorful and often tumultuous history. Once a cluster of Mediterranean-style homes and gardens that served as a bedroom community for San Francisco, the city became a hub of shipbuilding and industry almost overnight when the United States entered World War II.

A renovated downtown area -- including one of the most vibrant arts scenes in the Bay Area -- and the thriving though sterile Jack London Square have injected new life into the city. Despite economic disparities between its separate parts, Oakland is held together by a strong sense of community. Everyday life here revolves around the neighborhood, with a main business strip attracting both shoppers and socializers. In some areas, such as high-end Piedmont and Rockridge, you'd swear you were in Berkeley or San Francisco's Noe Valley or Cow Hollow. These are perfect places for browsing, eating, or just relaxing between sightseeing trips to Oakland's architectural gems, rejuvenated waterfront, and numerous green spaces.

Between Rockridge and Piedmont and to the west, the Temescal district, along Telegraph Avenue just south of 51st Street, is starting to attract a small but diverting collection of eateries and shops. Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, the radical hub of the 1960s, the home of arguably the nation's top public university, and the city whose government condemned the bombing of Afghanistan -- Berkeley is all of those things.

The city of 100,000 facing San Francisco across the bay is also culturally diverse, a breeding ground for social trends, a bastion of the counterculture, and an important center for Bay Area writers, artists, and musicians. Berkeley residents, students, and faculty spend hours nursing various coffee concoctions while they read, discuss, and debate at any of the dozens of cafés that surround the campus. Oakland may have Berkeley beat when it comes to cutting-edge arts, and the city may have forfeited some of its renegade 1960s spirit, as some residents say, but unless a guy in a hot-pink satin body suit, skull cap, and cape rides a unicycle around your town singing, you'll likely find that Berkeley remains plenty offbeat.

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