Here's what Oakland natives want newcomers to know about The Town

"We take pride in being the underdogs. In sports, but also there's a strong blue collar culture and there are a lot of working class people here," Pendarvis Harshaw, a 30-year-old journalist who moved to Oakland at age 3. less "We take pride in being the underdogs. In sports, but also there's a strong blue collar culture and there are a lot of working class people here," Pendarvis Harshaw, a 30-year-old journalist who moved to ... more Photo: Travel Images/UIG, Getty Images/Universal Images Group Photo: Travel Images/UIG, Getty Images/Universal Images Group Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Here's what Oakland natives want newcomers to know about The Town 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

Miguel Montil, a 25-year-old Oakland native, said that if there was one thing he'd want newcomers to the city to know, it's this:

"It's something unique," he said. "I've been in other places in the world and I've never seen somewhere so diverse as Oakland is. You can meet Puerto Ricans, Polynesians, Dominicans, Central and South Americans, Polish people and more all in the course of a day. That's very positive."

Oakland was recently ranked as the second-most diverse city in America, behind Vallejo, by the ranking and review site Niche.

It's not the first time that The Town has earned such a distinction, either. It was ranked as the third-most diversity city in the country by WalletHub in 2016 and was named the most diverse city in the world by Priceonomics in 2014.

"It's the city I grew up in. It's a city that I love," said Patty France, a writer who was raised and lives in Oakland.

"One of the things that I love is that there are so many different kinds of people. We were black, Latino, Asian and working class, and were comfortable living here. That's changing."

According to data from the U.S. Census, Oakland's population has risen by 8.8 percent since 2010; California's Department of Finance reported earlier this year that the city's population has reached 428,827 people, which is an all-time high. At the same time, the city's racial and socio-economic demographics are, as France said, changing.

Since the turn of the century, Oakland's black population has declined by 26 percent, according to census data, while the number of white, Asian and Latino residents in Oakland has risen. And from 1999-2017, the median household income in Oakland has risen by 44 percent.

With that in mind, SFGATE asked Oakland natives – some whose families have been in The Town for over a century – what they want newcomers to know about their city.

Shamezo Lumukanda, who grew up in West Oakland, said that he understands people move to Oakland from all over the world in search of opportunity, but he wants newcomers to know that there is already community in Oakland to learn about and tap into.

"We all came here for upward mobility," he said. "No people moved to the Bay Area without seeking a better opportunity for themselves and their families."

Bijou McDaniel, a friend of Lumukanda's who grew up in East Oakland, said many people don't understand much of Oakland's history outside of the fact that it's place where the Black Panther Party was founded.

"This was damn near the black mecca for a while, and people don't know that," she said. She also said that newcomers should know about the diversity of dining options in Oakland.

"We have the best taco trucks," she said. "We also have the best variety of cuisines because there's so many different people here. You can eat Cambodian food, Salvadoran food, Ethiopian food.... I think that's another thing that people don't realize when they come here.

"Yes, there's San Francisco and there are Michelin-star restaurants here, but there are also hole-in-the-walls ... where you can get amazing food that's still affordable."

But that's not all that Native Oaklanders want you newcomers to know about their city. Click through the slideshow above to see what other wisdom they have to impart to Oakland newbies.