8th St, Old City / Produce & Water

The big attraction to this section of 8th Street in Oakland is the Trappist Bar--good eats, nice selection of beers and a good place to chill with friends. It is one of those pubs that actually looks like a pub with brick walls and nice mahogany bar, except that they have an amazing selection of beers and pretty cool bartenders as well.

If you happen to live in the area you also might like the Go Sports Bar--which is not really my scene but I can imagine other people liking. You are also close enough to Chinatown that you get some East Asian businesses here, such as Kai’s Japanese Restaurant and the New Star Chinese Restaurant. There are also a number of offices and other businesses here.

Mixed in with these businesses and often housed in the floors above the storefronts are apartments and condos. Many of these are the typical 3-story Victorians that anyone who lives in SF or the East Bay is quite used to and some are those new fangled 3-story buildings in dark stucco pastel colors. (These newer constructions have become emblematic of the gentrification that has been taking place in Oakland for the last 20 years.)

I took a quick look at one of these newer condos one block over on 9th to see about what one costs and this what I found. A 770 ft. one-bedroom will run you $1800. At those prices you almost are better off living in the city.

Or you could buy one of these newer condos for about $300,000. (The older ones are about $200,000.)

I don’t know if any of that is really typical--that is just what I found when I took a look at some of the rental boards.