"This time around I decided to focus in on three of the more popular neighborhoods in Oakland - Lakeshore, Grand Lake & Adam's Point - and arguably three of the most beautiful. This is the Oakland that most who have visited are familiar with."
-Nineties Flava
Well, you know I'm a big fan of Oakland (and your photo threads, too). But I must respectfully disagree that Lakeshore, Grand Lake, and Adam's Point are "arguably" the most beautiful Oakland districts.
Indeed, here's my argument: Lakeshore, Grand Lake, and Adam's Point
do not have any thing near the number of sculpted gardens, pristine lawns, English-style streets, and quaint mansions that grace Oakland's Crocker Highlands/Trestle Glen.
The three neighborhoods in question neither boast the heady mix of grand estates and impeccable, albeit smaller, homes that make west Montclair (Piedmont side) so patrician in feel, nor the mix of maga-size mansions and quirky, modernist woodsy retreats, ensconsed in the forested and vertiginous hills that define Oakland's upper/new Montclair as so undeniably bourgeois
and yet so cool.
Upper Rockridge with its mix of mansions, post-fire architectural experiments, and sprawling grand old estates is truly impressive and beautiful, and relatively accessible;and lower Rockridge, perhaps too precious for us all (great restaurants, though), is nevertheless a picture post-card of quaint.
The highest points of Upper Oakmore, what with their hillside mansions and estates clinging to the precipices, set off by manicured gardens, against the backdrop of stunning views, present the very definition of beautiful neighborhood.
By contrast, Lakeshore and Grand Lake feature a quirky, sometimes unnerving riot, of gracious homes and occasional mansions, which sometimes pop up amidst gritty streets and long archipelegos of potentially beautiful but somewhat dowdy homes that await their deserved rejuvenation.
Adam's Point fares much better, in my view. It does boast a number of very impressive old mansions (kudos to your photographer's eye for catching a few of them), and stately apartment buildings.
But the imposition of second-tier modernist apartment buildings, circa late 1950s to early 1960s, breaks up Adam's Point undeniable grace. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE Adam's Point; my wife and have stayed at the Bates House, a beautiful old Adam's Point mansion turned into a charming B & B. And perhaps Adam's Point's mix of beautiful old mansions, gracious early 20th century apartment buildings, and the garish, sheet-rock palaces-cum mid-century apartment complexes provides fertile ground for a bohemian take-over (it seems that is where the neighborhood is going). More power to a multi-hued, multi-cultural invasion of artists and other members of the boho brigade's settling in Adams Point. Such a quirky neighborhood could counter-balance Rockridge and Montclair's sometimes overstated preciousness
Still, even though they are a bit exclusivist
, Crocker Highlands, Montclair, Panoramic Hill, lower/upper Rockridge (Claremont Pines) are nonetheless true contenders for the title of Oakland's most beautiful neighborhoods. I would also give mention to Haddon Hill, a gorgeous pocket neighborhood, and parts of Chabot Park, Sequoyah Highlands (modernism done right!). The high suburban chic of wealthy Ridgemont probably should get its shot at the title, but the neighborhood seems a bit too nouveau riche for my taste (although it is impressive, and very diverse racially, if uniformly affluent, of course).
Anyway, that's my riff. Love the thread, though, and I must say I hope you keep posting these post-cards from the big O: brilliant stuff!
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