OT does anyone know

I am thinking about taking a job offer in the Oakland area.  I am not originally from CA and have never lived in the bay before.  I have been to the bay for work, but need advise if anyone has any ideas of places and areas to live.   I am not afriad to move, i have done it many times.  It would be nice to get some locals opinions and ideas of where to look.   Thanks guys. RK

Oakland hills is nice, though pricey. Avoid most of the San Pablo area. Emeryville has great condos and lofts, most houses there are in the ghetto though. Berkeley is nice but very very liberal.

You really need to take a drive down and explore the different areas, because Oakland has some really nice areas, and some VERY scary areas.

I want t live close to  work within reason.  I plan on driving there to look around.  I know there are good and bad parts of Okland.  I wanted to have an idea of the good and bad parts, so i can start looking before i go down next week to look.  I have no problem with liberal people, so Berkeley is not out of question.  Like is East or West Oakland good and so forth. 

If you are willing to commute, the Central Valley is pretty great. We like it here. It's about 1 hr to Oakland from Modesto/Turlock/Ceres area. Or the Tracy area is pretty good, and it's about 30-45 min from the Oakland area, not too bad at all. Modesto is more of a "big small city" than Tracy, so we have more going on (or so it seems to me). Welcome to CA!!!

Rents are very high over there (for good locations).  The further from Oakland/SF you are, the cheaper rents will be.  Look into Livermore, Dublin, Contra Costa County.  For further cheaper rents look at Tracy.  The problem with Tracy is the commute will kill you after awhile.  The commute gets old real fast.  Brian

Help to know where in Oakland you are going to be working.

I lived in the bay area for many years. Piedmont Ave area in Oakland is nice along with the Montclair area. Also parts of East Oakland are quite nice. Up around Mills College and the Seminary area above 580. Oakland gets a bad rap a lot. However in the years since Jerry Brown the city has been cleaned up quite a bit. Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville have some cool places. It is all a matter of how much you want to spend and how close you want to be to work.

I will be near Jack London Square.  I am not sure how much i want to spend.  I dont want to blow my whole paycheck, but i want a nice place to live with the average ammenities.