Unpopular Articles about Oakland - Oakland

2012-01-06: "The 45 Places to Go in 2012." Surely you've seen something about this NY Times article because this is the one that put Oakland as the #5 place to visit in 2012 (the city loves this - it's been plastered all over everything!). The tagline for the Oakland section is "New restaurants and bars beckon amid the grit." and let's just say that it goes downhill from there. This examiner article has a nice line-by-line breakdown of why this very short piece is sad-making.
2012-08-01: "Oakland, the Last Refuge of Radical America" New York Times. Extremely patronizing tone that's fairly characteristic of the Times.
2013-01-02: "A Beginner's Guide to Oakland" by the Bold Italic. Oyyyy the Bold Italic. This one has actual one-to-one analogs for things that are popular in San Francisco with things in Oakland...for example, do you like fancy pizza place flour + water in San Francisco? Why you'll feel right at home at Boot and Shoe Service in Grand Lake. oyyyyyy....
Even though this is a kickstarter, it gets to be honorably included for being so goofy. It's a kickstarter for a book called "This is Oakland: A Guide to the City’s Most Interesting Places" So it's good to see that it has good representation of the entire city: "The book is divided into 7 chapters- each chapter highlighting a different neighborhood. Neighborhoods being highlighted are Temescal, Uptown, Downtown & Old Oakland, Jack London Square, Rockridge, Piedmont Avenue, and Grand Lake." And that it's getting down to what really makes Oakland interesting: restaurants and stores!: "This book is of course for anyone who lives in or is visiting the San Francisco Bay Area and wants to know where to go for food, drink, shopping or just plain fun. Perhaps more importantly, though, this book is for anyone, across the country, who is inspired by creative thought and the pioneering spirit. Oakland's restaurants are trend-setting, and its shops are getting national attention. People who want to know what's next are looking to Oakland. We want to offer them a glimpse inside."
2013-05 "Why are all my friends moving to Oakland?" by Broke Ass Stuart in Bold Italic. Not sooooo bad.
2013-11-20: "A San Franciscan's Guide to Living in Oakland" published by KQED, detailed here (notorious for telling people to stay out of East and West Oakland)
2013-12-03: "California: Oakland - Meet San Francisco’s cooler cousin" published by the Independent (UK) which includes such gems as Gertrude Stein's "there, there" quoted without context in the beginning of the article and misrepresented at the end; saying that Oakland is California's "answer to Brooklyn," and saying that West Oakland is "a desolate stretch of the city yet to get the gentrification lick of paint." Good to know that Tonya Holland of Brown Sugar Kitchen "chose down-at-heel West Oakland for her lauded venture because, as she explains, 'location equals concept'." At least she's honest. (gk notes: after looking into this further, it appears that Holland probably said something like this, word-wise but meant nothing like this, concept-wise, making the article even crappier.) More highlights: "And for decades, there really wasn’t anything of note in this shabby port city" and "there’s a sense that the counter-cultural vibe intrinsic to San Francisco’s DNA – Ginsberg poetry jams, Haight-Ashbury hippie love-ins and gay liberation – is resurfacing in Oakland"
2013-12-19:Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean Oakland Isn't Building a Terrifyingly Orwellian Surveillance Center (San Francisco Magazine) contains such gems as "But if there's a silver lining for civil liberties advocates it is this: The City of Oakland isn't exactly as brutally efficient as, say, North Korea." I feel better, don't you?
2013-12-21 Is Oakland The Most Exciting City in the US? - Article in Hebrew, from Haaretz, one of the major Israeli news publications. Talks about cool restaurants and bars. Article interviews former SF residents who've moved to Oakland because "there are no more real people in SF. All the real people are in Oakland".
2013-12-25: "Another City by the Bay Comes Into Its Own" - NYTimes again, this time in the business section. The purpose of this article seems to be something like "Are you a developer with money to throw around? Well have we got some news for you! Despite blemishes like crime & protest, Oakland is now safe for you to pour your money into it!"
Jan/Feb 2014: "Occupy left a mark on Broadway. But Business People Defied the odds to Bank on Oakland" in Oakland Magazine. Wow: "Police evicted the protesters from the plaza at Broadway and 14th Street on Oct. 25, 2011, after weeks of violent confrontations with police in the streets, leaving one protester dead and scores injured." Oakland Magazine's fact checkers seem to have been missing the day this went to press.
2014-01-11: "Across the Bay: A Beginner's Oakland Guide" in Virgin Atlantic's "Our Places" blog. Did you know that Oakland has been nicknamed "Oaklandia" for its "indie spirit, quirky boutiques and rabid craft cocktail scene" or that Oakland "mimics the hipster world portrayed on TV in Portlandia"? The article isn't so good on facts, replaying the tired urban legend that those cranes were the basis for George Lucases' AT AT Walkers (they weren't) and saying that people can watch baseball games at "Oracle Arena (more commonly called Oakland Coliseum)." We're pretty sure they mean O.Co.
2014-01: "Oakland Steps Out" in US Airways mag. We're the "epicenter of cool," guys.
2014-01-25: "District southeast of Lake Merritt organizes to create neighborhood of their dreams (Community Voices)." Oakland Local published a "Community Voices" piece by a newly arrived resident of the Clinton neighborhood about how wonderful Clinton would become now that he and his husband had arrived. He described it as a food desert and how his work to beautify the neighborhood had led to kids playing and people riding their bikes! OL subsequently took the article down at the writer's request, but kept the comments live at the original URL. This - Oakland Local post with comments.pdf- is a PDF screengrab of the article as it was before it was taken down, including numerous responses and comments (taken from a Google cache of the site). Oakland journalist Susie Cagle published this blog post on Jan. 30 with more information about the author and his involvement in real estate.
2014-02-28 "10 Oakland Stereotypes That Are Completely Accurate" written by a girl from San Francisco for the real estate website Movato. The subtitle of the article is, "Grab your skinny jeans, a protest sign, and some black and silver face paint, because we're taking a look at 10 Oakland stereotypes that are hella true." Oy.
2014-03-10: "Travel: The top 5 things to do in California." For this UK publication, "grubby little Oakland" is apparently a hot hot hot destination in California. Next thing you know they'll be recommending a fascinating journey to the slums of Nairobi! Although I guess one shouldn't expect to much from a publication that has a section called "Guilty Pleasures."
2014-04-30 http://www.movoto.com/oakland-ca/only-people-from-oakland-understand/ A post about things only people in Oakland understand? What's up with that?
2014-08-01: "The Bay Area's Worst Bike Ride Is Also Its Best" Come on man.....we LIVE here.
2014-08-19: "11 underground spots in Oakland to check out before they go mainstream" >_<