Oakland is a town often misunderstood. As someone who\u2019s lived in the city and still spends a ton of time there, I\u2019ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly.<\/p>\n
And yet, there\u2019s no place like it.<\/p>\n
People who know the real Oakland \u2014 the ones who\u2019ve explored neighborhoods from Chinatown to Fruitvale to Temescal, who\u2019ve caught sunsets over the entire Bay from the Oakland hills, who\u2019ve admired art in downtown and watched films at the historic Grand Lake Theater \u2014 will tell you there\u2019s so much more to \u201cThe Town\u201d than it gets credit for. During her post-Olympics homecoming at Frank Ogawa Plaza, figure skating gold medalist Alysa Liu summed up Oakland with one word: \u201cSoul.\u201d Locals beamed. With her unapologetically funky style, zen-like confidence and YOLO mentality, this athlete had clearly been shaped by the city.<\/p>\n
Located on the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay, Oakland is a midsized city with an outsized reputation, having long served as a pressure cooker for grassroots activism. The Black Panther Party, the hyphy subgenre of hip-hop, official U.S. wildlife refuges \u2014 they all started in Oakland. Visit the city and you\u2019ll find that it\u2019s slower-paced than San Francisco but has all the cultural diversity. Its food scene is endlessly innovative \u2014 try the handcrafted zaru soba at Soba Ichi or some of the best Indigenous food on the West Coast at Wahpepah\u2019s Kitchen. And for those wanting to explore the outdoors, there\u2019s Lake Merritt in the center of town and redwood forests in the hills.<\/p>\n