South Kennedy Tract

A skinny sliver of land that is fitted between Highway 880 and the waterway that separates Alameda from Oakland, South Kennedy Tract is a bottom-of-the-barrel, lower-class Oakland community. It spans about 0.5 square miles of sparse residential terrain (about 1,000 residents). Of them, the neighborhood is predominately hispanic, with a rather large white minority. Aesthetically speaking, the community is overrun with eyesore buildings, repulsive housing accommodations and rundown communal spaces. It is, for the most part, a dump.

South Kennedy Tract’s terrain is a somewhat desolate area. It mostly a large industrial zone with old, decrepit houses mixed into its real-estate. Of the latter, homes are rather old, mixed between one and two stories and are constructed pre-WWII. As such, they don’t really amount to anything remotely livable. If you’re looking to rent, I’ll save you some time and tell you its overly priced at $1,300/month while houses are listed at around $215,000 (median listing). Also, the median household income is around $55,000/year.

While crime runs rampant, the community is, by no means, a family-friendly environment. It is cluttered with ragtag blocks, miserably unkempt front yards (usually having patches of dead grass, beaten down foliage and protected by ugly chain-linked fencing), anonymous depots and grungy-looking warehouses that store old machinery and wood.

For commuters, the Fruitvale Bart station is just two blocks north of the neighborhood’s bounds. There is a Home Depot that anchors the southern end of the neighborhood as well as a couple auto repair shops and anonymous commercial buildings that, I don’t see why you would ever go there.

Except from some very rundown looking houses in the small residential section, South Kennedy Tract is a basically an industrial area that straddles that small waterway that separates Oakland from Alameda.

In the northern end of this neighborhood, Union Point Park by the docks is an okay spot—pretty and quiet. Unfortunately, it is a bit on the desolate side and can be a little bit scary for that reason. There is not much there other than the docked sail boats and a statue of a Native American woman mounted in the middle of the a teardrop shaped cement area. Mostly it is just an empty green space—windy because of the bay.

There are a few dive bars and some businesses up on the northern end as well. The night spots tend to stay a bit and then go out of business. The exception to this being Nikko’s Café, a 24hour “family restaurant” right by the 29th street bridge that picks up a lot of late night traffic that opts for it in the wee hours instead of Denny’s. It is definitely a mainstay—its hard to screw up breakfast food, even if it is being eaten at 3am.

There are also some nice condos hidden away by the waterside of this neighborhood. This might be a good spot for bachelors, or guys who are really into sailing—but is not well-situated for family living.