Rancho San Antonio

The Rancho San Antonio neighborhood is working class neighborhood deep in Oakland. It is densely populated and filed with pre-WWII homes largely made of wood. They neighborhood has a rather squalid run-down look to it. In many parts of this area, you don’t quite feel as if you are north of the border—the buildings have the feeling of certain southwestern cities. In fact, you might say that this neighborhood feels more like San Antonio, Texas at times than it does San Antonio, Oakland. Along International Blvd., the major artery on the western end of the neighborhood, the squat one-story furniture stores and abandoned looking buildings are in the Mission style. You also get some wooden Victorian type buildings with an extra story added on, but if it were not for the fog and green hills in the background, you might think you are in another region of the US.

San Antonio Park is big and had tennis courts but the few times I’ve driven by it I’ve not seen anyone using it. Garfield Elementary is on the southern end of the neighborhood. The school is well liked by the community and boasts teachers who truly care about the students. Poor funding and second language problems however do not reflect this hard work in the schools test scores—where it ranks far below average.

To the western end of the neighborhood there are also a fair number of churches which are fairly well attended.

Unfortunately there is no getting around this being about as dangerous as it gets in terms of Oakland neighborhoods with the crime rate permanently fixed at about three times the national average. It is simply not a safe neighborhood.