East End

The difficult part of assessing the East End of Alameda is it’s really several neighborhoods within one school district. Unlike Gold Coast and Fernside, which are architecturally and demographically very consistent, East End is a mixed bag, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

First the good. Like Fernside, East End is (obviously) on the east side of Alameda, the island’s most desirable area. It also has excellent schools. Although Otis Elementary is technically not as highly rated as Fernside’s Edison, the difference in scores is largely trivial, and both neighborhoods share Lincoln Middle and Alameda High, the island’s best.

East End also has a nice assortment of Craftsmans, Tudors, and Victorians, a number of waterfront homes, a large park with playgrounds, tennis courts, and ball fields, a small shopping center with a well-appointed gourmet grocery and a few restaurants, and quick access to 880, BART, the Oakland Airport, and the island’s Southshore Shopping Center.

So what keeps it out of the top tier? A few things. For one, while Gold Coast and Fernside have traditionally been professional neighborhoods, East End has more blue-collar roots. This manifests itself is several ways. Some of the homes have been pretty beat up over the years, and a few are in rough shape. Others have been “remodeled” by their owners with inexpensive materials and little regard for the aesthetics of the house, so you’ll find some formerly lovely homes with boxy ‘70s additions, sliding Plexiglass windows, crappy stucco over woodwork, bolted-on carports, paved yards, and other unpermitted eyesores.

It can be pretty hit-or-miss—you never know what any street has in store. The area framed by Encinal, High, Fernside, and Otis has everything—good and bad—scattered randomly throughout, and College between San Jose and Calhoun is a schizophrenic mash-up of old and new, big and small, meticulous and trainwreck—it makes NO sense.

And while it’s not a rental community per se like Southshore, there are far more apartments and rental units here than in either Gold Coast or Fernside. Some are attractive and well-maintained, but many others are neither. Briggs Avenue and many of the streets closest to Park have quite a few buildings that no one would be upset to see go.

Finally, the area is oddly devoid of trees. I’ve heard many theories—the water table is too high, the groundwater is too salty, it was once a farm, it was once a marsh—but once you reach Encinal, the trees largely disappear, and those that are there just don’t thrive like those in Gold Coast or Fernside. It’s not a huge deal, but it can make what’s cute and cozy in Fernside seem a bit harsh and sparse by comparison.

The area with the most consistent quality is probably the rectangle formed by Central, Mound, High, and Fountain. Here you’ll find a mix of lovely and well-maintained Craftsman bungalows, cozy tudors, and Spanish-influenced pre-war homes, with the odd Victorian, Cape Cod, Deco adobe, or ranch—and one converted firehouse. (There is also a block of what I’ll call “Art Dexican” homes off of Central between Mound and Court that were built in the ‘70s. They’re absolutely bizarre, but oddly charming.) The area framed by Calhoun, Mound, Broadway, and Otis is quite nice as well, as are Encinal, Sterling, and Central Streets between High and Fernside.

If you’re less concerned with architecture, the neighborhood framed by Fernside, Central, Encinal, and the bay is Alameda’s best mid-century modern neighborhood. Most of Alameda’s “Brady Bunch”-era neighborhoods are absolutely hideous, but this one features large, attractive, very well-built and maintained homes. Factor in some waterfront, extremely wide streets and almost no traffic, and this is a terrific option, particularly if you like privacy and quiet. Finally, the tiny, relatively new neighborhood on Washington Court features spacious, attractive waterfront homes— some with marina views—a semi-private path system, and almost gated privacy.

Full disclosure: I live in this area. So what I can tell you is that while the aesthetics and demographics aren’t quite as ideal as Gold Coast or Fernside, this is probably the best value on the island. And since it was one of the few good, affordable neighborhoods close to San Fran during the real estate bubble a few years back, it’s loaded with a really interesting mix of city diaspora, both professional and artsy—a lot of really cool people live here.

So if you can’t quite swing the top two neighborhoods, but still want the best of Alameda (albeit with a few minor hiccups here and there), there is no better neighborhood than this.

East End, Alameda—not to be confused with the London neighborhood of the same name—is another older Alameda neighborhood, though it suffers by comparison to both Fernside to the north and South Beach to the south.

Though there are some nicer older homes here like in Fernside, the East End homes are simply not as well kept as those to the north. They show more signs of age than the Fernside homes. They tend to look a lot more like they have been around since before WWII.

Now, this is not to say these are ramshackle shacks or anything like that, but rather that the homes here are simply not immaculately kept. They are still pretty nice, for the most part.

The southern end of East End is home to the Aeolian Yacht Club, which is basically just a big dock packed with sail boats, mostly.

Just to the north is grouping of newer homes around Washington court, with a path surrounding it.

Then there is Lincoln Middle School, which is the only middle school I have ever heard of that faces out onto a bay this way. Kind of a cool spot to have a middle school. That is definitely one of the strengths of this neighborhood—the strong schools.

Much of the rest of East Side, however, is made up of those older pre-WWII homes. The median home price here is around $475 K with prices ranging from $375 K to $650 K.

Overall, it is an okay neighborhood but not all that exciting compared its neighbors.

Framed by the San Leandro Bay, Central Avenue, Park Street and Otis Drive, East End is a flat, modest and traditional-looking Alameda community. The neighborhood is almost exclusively residential and is firmly gripped in old, middle-class suburbia. It spans about 0.7 square miles of rather dense residential terrain. In fact, the total population is around 7,000 residents, most of whom come from a white and/or asian background.

While one of the largest Alameda neighborhood’s in the city, East End’s residential terrain offers a variety of housing options. Homes are rather old (1940‘s), boxy in shape and mixed between one and two stories in size. They are tightly packed into neat little rows along residential streets, leaving little room for each lot. As a result, most homes don’t afford a garage, just a narrow driveway that runs deep into the sides of properties and a small front lawn. Also, most homes have a small little walkway that leads up to a small staircase and to an elevated first floor. There are a number of eyesore houses with decrepit front lawns, but also a plethora of remodeled homes towards the southeastern end of the neighborhood. You just got to look for them.

For numbers sake, most house values tend to be within the range of $500,000 to $750,000, while median household incomes (according to the 2009 city data census) is around $70,000/year. Somewhat expensive for a traditional look, but with its 5-7 rooms of living space coupled with the neighborhood’s family-friendly appeal make it a rather decent deal. Also, rents can be a bit better if you’re looking to stretch a dollar, circling around 1,300/month.