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maeve66My nine-unit apartment building, built in the 1910s, has a stucco exterior. It used to be a really cool pink, with sort of mint green trim. When my landlord repainted it a few years ago, he opted for classy cream with black trim; I lament this.
The apartment is built on a block that is a small foothill (a block or two from Piedmont Avenue, in relevant fact), so there is a flight of steps up from the sidewalk. These are painted red, and since the building is next door to a very popular hipster breakfast joint, many people sit on these steps on the weekend. A few regular homeless folks sit on them the rest of the week.
I live on a busy thoroughfare, a part of one of Oakland's main drags which has four lanes. There are apartments and small businesses on my side of the street -- a Jamaican small grocery shop, a Jamaican/Rastafarian culture shop (though that may have closed...), a black hair salon called Ringlets, and a dive bar on the corner, one direction. Mama's Royal Cafe and a place that has some kinds of yoga and tai chi and other classes, the other.
Across the wide street -- which has a center divider with trees and also some agapanthus plantings -- there are several restaurants -- an expensive, and good, sushi place, a cheap burrito place (not a good, authentic one... one that sells weird wraps, etc.), a cheap Chinese delivery place, and a locally famous black-owned seafood restaurant/bar called Art's Crab Shak. It's famous for deep fried seafood and a bucket of crabs in garlic and butter. It has Xmas lights up all year round (and I think you all know how much I approve of that decorating theme -- a lot) and also years and years of Christmas cards in a sort of palimpsest on the walls.
I think Art owns the businesses on half of my side of the street, with the exception of the dive bar. There is also what used to be an Arab-owned corner store -- probably Yemeni owned -- where kids I used to teach in West Oakland worked with their relatives, and caught me up on other former students. Now it is a "health food and produce" store, which is patent nonsense. Their "produce" is crap -- a small selection and not the freshest -- and the rest of the "health food" is just whatever packaged junk proclaims itself such. It is no replacement for your basic corner store with alcohol, sodas, basic groceries, cigarettes and candy. This place has NONE of that. There is a 7-11 about a block away, but I prefer small family-owned and family-exploiting corner stores. Right outside the "health food store" there is a major bus-stop, and another major crossing route has a stop across the intersection.
Essentially, it's a very urban neighborhood, with no yards, no single family homes, pay parking on the main street and limited parking on the side streets. Since we're on a hill, sometimes walking towards my apartment in the evening you see the most amazing sunsets and gorgeously colored skies. I'm sure it is the effect of pollution, but it's awfully pretty.
The apartment is built on a block that is a small foothill (a block or two from Piedmont Avenue, in relevant fact), so there is a flight of steps up from the sidewalk. These are painted red, and since the building is next door to a very popular hipster breakfast joint, many people sit on these steps on the weekend. A few regular homeless folks sit on them the rest of the week.
I live on a busy thoroughfare, a part of one of Oakland's main drags which has four lanes. There are apartments and small businesses on my side of the street -- a Jamaican small grocery shop, a Jamaican/Rastafarian culture shop (though that may have closed...), a black hair salon called Ringlets, and a dive bar on the corner, one direction. Mama's Royal Cafe and a place that has some kinds of yoga and tai chi and other classes, the other.
Across the wide street -- which has a center divider with trees and also some agapanthus plantings -- there are several restaurants -- an expensive, and good, sushi place, a cheap burrito place (not a good, authentic one... one that sells weird wraps, etc.), a cheap Chinese delivery place, and a locally famous black-owned seafood restaurant/bar called Art's Crab Shak. It's famous for deep fried seafood and a bucket of crabs in garlic and butter. It has Xmas lights up all year round (and I think you all know how much I approve of that decorating theme -- a lot) and also years and years of Christmas cards in a sort of palimpsest on the walls.
I think Art owns the businesses on half of my side of the street, with the exception of the dive bar. There is also what used to be an Arab-owned corner store -- probably Yemeni owned -- where kids I used to teach in West Oakland worked with their relatives, and caught me up on other former students. Now it is a "health food and produce" store, which is patent nonsense. Their "produce" is crap -- a small selection and not the freshest -- and the rest of the "health food" is just whatever packaged junk proclaims itself such. It is no replacement for your basic corner store with alcohol, sodas, basic groceries, cigarettes and candy. This place has NONE of that. There is a 7-11 about a block away, but I prefer small family-owned and family-exploiting corner stores. Right outside the "health food store" there is a major bus-stop, and another major crossing route has a stop across the intersection.
Essentially, it's a very urban neighborhood, with no yards, no single family homes, pay parking on the main street and limited parking on the side streets. Since we're on a hill, sometimes walking towards my apartment in the evening you see the most amazing sunsets and gorgeously colored skies. I'm sure it is the effect of pollution, but it's awfully pretty.