West End

West End Alameda, of course, doesn’t have much to do with its namesake on the British Isles, beginning of course with the fact that not even the residents of this area of Alameda think of themselves as living in West End. At least, I have never heard anyone from this area say, “Yes, I live in West End.”

West End is a huge neighborhood stretching from one end of the island of Alameda to the other.

On the far northern end is the leftover homes of what looks to be the residential quarters for former officers of the Alameda Naval Air Base just to the west in now abandoned Alameda Point. The grass is now overgrown and the homes and the place is sort of a ghost town—frozen in time. (I don’t know if there is an effort to make this into part of the historical preservation zone that some want the former base to become.) There is also a shipyard up there that I used to see tugboats coming out of—perhaps a coast guard station?

Just to the south of that and surrounding Island High School is one of those planned communities with the houses that look almost exactly alike. Some of these have a worn grayish look to them, others have the brighter red tiles of their faux Mediterranean style. The homes have a nice classical quality to them, with very walkable streets. They keep this walkability by having traffic breaks midway through residential blocks where they place small squares of green space.

These newer homes on the northern section of this neighborhood run in the $800K range.

As you get south of Pacific, you get a lot of homes dating from before WWII. These old wood beam homes are a lot cheaper than those in West End overall (where the median home price is around $500 K). Here in this older section of West End, the median home price drops to $350 K. This is largely because of the dingy, worn out look of this area.

On the eastern end of West End, the older wooden houses give way to old bungalow style homes and walk-ups which also typify the pre-WWII period. This is only slightly better than its neighbor on the west but because these homes are better kept and on better streets, this neighborhood just seems a bit better. This is reflected in the prices as well, with the median price here climbing to $500 K. The feel in this location is not unlike the Berkeley flatlands, actually.

West End is also home to the College of Alameda, the local community college (part of the Peralta organization of colleges).
This is a complete community college offering a full range of classes.

As far as other conveniences, such as supermarkets and that sort of thing, you do have most of those locally, though you may have to go up to Marina Village area to get your groceries from a Lucky’s. Except for an Indian place that is pretty much where you have to go restaurants and that sort of thing as well.

West End is a close-knit, middle to lower middle-class Alameda terrain. There is really nothing aesthetically pleasing about this neighborhood. It is a pretty dense residential community encompassing around 15,000 residents, living within 2.3 square miles of each other. Also, the residential demographic is a melting pot of white, asian, black and hispanic residents.

While a large body of land, West End is split between two distinct housing developments. One of them is located closer to the College of Alameda, and offers an intricate arrangement of close-knit, neo-Mission Revival housing. these homes (or condominiums) are fairly new, two-stories in size and tightly packed into streets. The area is accommodating to young families because of its family-friendly ambiance and its strong sense of community. However, it can be a bit noisy, with residents sharing walls, lawn space and backyards.

Houses outside of this community are rather drab and unappealing. Most of them are old, dating back from WWII and are plotted on small, narrow properties. They are mostly just one-story (although there are a few two-story homes) in size and exceptionally small. In fact, they don’t even have garages nor much driveway and lawn space to appeal to young families. As a result, many residents have to park along the roads, which can make for difficult street parking during peak hours. For prospective residents, the median household income is around $55,000/year, a little less than the typical Alameda community. moreover, house values tend to cost around $500,000, but can rise to as much as $750,000.

This terrain is also, as you might expect, pretty boring. West End only has a few complimenting accommodations for residents. For one, the area lies adjacent to the Jack London Square tourist trap, offering plenty of dining amenities and entertainment. also, it encompasses the College of Alameda, a two-year community college for locals looking to gain access to the UC system that is so heavily praised in California.

West End Alameda is not the best neighborhood in Alameda. However, it's still Alameda, and much better than the neighboring towns of Oakland, San Leadro, etc. When compared to the east end alameda, the houses are smaller and cheaper, schools are not as good, and crime is higher. There are less smaller parks scattered across the west end. There is Washington park, a large park by the bay, with plenty of picnic areas and tennis courts and a dog walking park. There is fantastic Chinese food in the west end on Webster street. There are two dimsum restaurants that are always fantastic. So be sure to show up early on the weekends or be prepared to stand in line. There are also new houses in the area as well. Bayport development community is absolutely stellar, with some of the best new house communities in all of the SF Bay area.

This is a great place to live, and its affordable too! The houses here looks new and they are big, mostly one story houses. It's a great place for singles and retirees to live. The streets are wide and clean, and there is a lot of green in this neighborhood too; with two big parks in this area, and one of them is Washington Park. It's a nice place to take a walk in or walk your dog on a sunny afternoon.
However, there are two downsides to living here. One, is that there isn't really any big malls or shopping centers to go to for shopping, and two is that the Bart don't pass through here, so traveling to and from the bay area is a bit troublesome.