mwg

Lakeshore Avenue towards Piedmont, not toward Lake Merritt is an ideal location for families with kids. We moved here in 1992 based on it's easy access to I-580 in order to commute to Silicon Valley. At the time, there wasn't much to do in the shopping district and we didn't have kids. But now! The area has been so revitalized!!!

When the Grand Lake theatre won their lawsuit to get first run movies, it improved the area immensely. Then the Splashpad park in front of the theatre was renovated based on an effort started by our neighbor Ken Katz. This neighborhood has a very very strong and active community involved in improving the area. There is now an incredible Farmers Market at Splashpad, right off the freeway, every Saturday.

More and more restaurants and now clothing stores are opening on Lakeshore. Most recently is an upscale barbeque place that has excellent reviews. We also have Indian, pizza, fast food Chinese, Arizemendi Bakery, etc etc.

On the walk from our house to the shopping area is a small park at Mandana. This park gets an incredible amount of use. My kid loved it!

The local elementary school, Crocker Highlands, is great. The PTA raises money and provides all the extra classes that the city doesn't fund but that you would find in a private school. My son went to private school for 3 years and we switched him to Crocker and he is much happier. He didn't want school to end.

Lakeshore Ave. was recently restriped - based on a neighborhood traffic committee doing a lot of work with our city council person. It went from 4 lanes to two lanes and two large bike lanes. This has improved traffic immensely - very little speeding now, where before it was a significant problem. This makes it even better for families.