edwardw1

Shattuck Avenue is a well known Berkeley street that goes all the way up to the Gourmet Ghetto, through downtown Berkeley and down to North Oakland. It is of course a busy road, but provides easy access to a lot of great things, including the freeways at it's south end. It only has a single lane in each direction over the north Oakland part with lots of parking either side and wide dedicated cycle lanes. The 18 bus runs regularly and goes up and down Shattuck (as far as Lake Merritt BART and Albany). The west side of Bushrod Park is bound by Shattuck Avenue.

We moved to Bushrod last year after a long 6 months of searching for a home to buy and being unable to find anything that met our requirements and price range in North Berkeley where we previously rented, we haven't looked back since! What drew us to the area was it's close proximity to Berkeley, Temescal and easy access to SF and beyond, that we were familiar with the area having driven down Shattuck Avenue countless times and the awesome Bushrod Park.

Before buying we spoke to several residents and folks and dog walkers in the park, all of whom said they loved living here and felt very safe. We read about the history of the area including Idora Park, Dorsey's Locker and Patrick McCullough. After getting familiar with the area we were confident enough to put in a bid on some homes in the area. Of course, as an up and coming neighborhood you get a little more for your money than Rockridge and most of Berkeley, although the gap seems to be narrowing and I can see why.

After moving here we love the laid back nature of the area and have discovered many hidden gems. The park has a great recreational center that is professionally run with all sorts of activities. There's almost daily little league baseball in the park and ultimate frisbee/soccer in the park most evenings. The tennis courts are great and well used. The basketball courts were recently refurbished (funded by Chase) and were opened by none other than Steph Curry! Johnny's Donuts is a great go to for pastries, donuts and sandwiches. Nick's Pizza is one of the best pizzerias in the Bay Area. Nomad Cafe and Jump'n Java are great places to grab a coffee and get some work done.

Our neighbors are friendly and there's a strong sense of community. We went to one of the neighborhood watch meetings (http://shattuck.oaklandncpc.org/) that was attended by the Oakland police who are responsible for the 11X beat. It was a pretty active group and it was reassuring to hear that the area is considered very safe, one of the safest in the whole of Oakland and that there is very little crime beside car smash and grabs which are apparently an epidemic across the bay area right now.

All in all, I can definitely recommend living here!