The move from SF to Oakland: What's it really like across the bay?

Stephanie Wells 52, professor What do you like about living in Oakland? I like the greenery and the space, and the creativity that feels like it's flourishing here that seems to be lost to the city I remember from the 90s. And I love how much more diverse it is than the city feels now. And it's not so sickeningly wealthy — feels more real. What do you dislike? Honestly, I miss the urban walkability of the city. And the crime feels worse here, though it might not actually be.

What do/don't you miss about SF? [I miss] the dense business neighborhoods. Restaurants and rock shows. I still go all the time because there aren't enough choices in Oakland. I don't miss the parking or tight apartment living.

Do you plan to move back? Maybe.

less Stephanie Wells 52, professor What do you like about living in Oakland? I like the greenery and the space, and the creativity that feels like it's flourishing here that seems to be lost to the city I ... more Photo: EddieHernandezPhotography/Getty Images Photo: EddieHernandezPhotography/Getty Images Image 1 of / 50 Caption Close The move from SF to Oakland: What's it really like across the bay? 1 / 50 Back to Gallery

Oakland's like having a "really hot sibling," says longtime resident Mike Woolson.

"Your sibling gets all the attention and more dates and everything seems to come easy. Whereas you have to work harder to make yourself interesting," he said.

Yet, "in the long run, you'll probably end up getting to do more interesting things with more interesting people."

Woolson, 56, moved to Oakland from San Francisco 10 years ago. He wanted to be closer to the Burning Man community (it looked different then, he says), the all-night-into-day warehouse parties and the "real people."

"San Francisco is like living in Disney World," said Woolson, a writer and designer. "There's no place like it, and if it were affordable, I'm sure I'd move back."

"But there's tradeoffs," he continued. "Everyone knows about the city already, they're so high on themselves."

The Town, on the other hand, is less "showboat-y," he said.

"Oakland is not out to impress anybody."

A short BART ride separates San Francisco from Oakland, but for many on both sides of the bay, the quick trip feels like a voyage into a different universe.

Oakland has long been thought of as the hipper, grittier sibling of San Francisco. It's where the artists live, the Burners party, the people not in tech cluster. Whether such characterizations are true or not is up for debate, but that perception accounts for what some consider a gaping distance between the cities.

Indeed, there are glaring differences between the two. Oakland housing is more affordable (just barely), and spacious backyards are more commonplace. There's greater racial diversity in Oakland compared to San Francisco (though Oakland is experiencing rampant gentrification and the white-washing that comes with it). And there's the weather; without the obstruction of San Francisco's mythic fog, sunshine reigns.

What's it actually like making the jump across the Bay, from Oakland to San Francisco? And how can one manage the move thoughtfully? We spoke to San Francisco expats to find out.

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When interviewing people for this story, one of the most common complaints was transit.

"I miss public transportation," said Sierra Camille, 31, an office manager. "I don't miss the boring white people."

San Francisco is an undeniably walkable city; Oakland generally requires a car or bicycle. Many said they must commute to San Francisco, where jobs are clustered, for work.

Such is the case for George Ferris. The 61-year-old hotel suite coordinator spent more than three decades in San Francisco. He left in 2012 after purchasing a condo in Oakland. What once was a walk to work now requires a 20-minute-or-so BART ride. But the tradeoffs for a packed morning BART car are justified, he said.

"I could have probably afforded to buy a condo in San Francisco," he said, though likely in one of the western neighborhoods, like the Outer Sunset.

"I knew I'd rather BART than take Muni," he said, citing the local transit system's reputation for tardiness.

Though he can no longer walk to work, Ferris says he makes up for the lost mileage with strolls around the neighborhood.

"It's less dense, more forested," he said. "It's got somewhat of a small-town feel."

After having kids, it was that down-to-earth neighborhood vibe that compelled Deepak Gupta, 35, to move to Oakland.

"Having grown up the East Coast, I had a big backyard and space to play. I knew my kids weren't going to get that on this side of the tunnel," he said. Raising kids in a Hayes Valley condo left him and his wife "ripping at the seams."

So they looked east, where they found the same exact things they loved about San Francisco, though in admittedly smaller concentrations.

"I realized I didn't need hundreds of different restaurants, bars, coffee shops," he said. "I just needed five."

Gupta and his wife, who work in business operations and education, purchased a home in the Grand Lake neighborhood. A smaller conglomerate of city amenities meant a larger living space and a homier neighborhood for the kids, where they can ride their bikes, tumble about the yard, spread out.

"It's hard to find things I don't like about it," he said.

Woolson, who's spent a decade in the city, could name a few frustrations. Namely, what he calls a sometimes "corrupt and incompetent local government."

He recalled an incident in front of his West Oakland home in which his neighbor, a mother, was shot and killed.

"I called Oakland police twice before the shooting, just 15 minutes before, when I saw a fight breaking out," he said. "They never sent anyone."

More violent crimes take place in Oakland, on a per capita basis, than San Francisco. About 5,600 violent crimes occurred in Oakland (pop. 425,195), compared to San Francisco's 6,334 (pop. 884,363), according to crime statistics published by local police departments. Oakland saw 77 homicides last year; San Francisco tallied 56.

Clusterings of crime vary by neighborhood, as does affordability, amenities and access to transit. For proximity to bars and nightlife, live downtown. For access to excellent restaurants within walking distance, there's Temescal. And for those inclined to the warehouse lifestyle, it's West or East Oakland.

Making the move to Oakland comes with a moral quandary for many, however, who see themselves speeding up gentrification in a city that has already changed immensely over the last decade. San Francisco has already changed, they say, meaning moving in feels less treacherous. Oakland, though, is in the midst of transformation.

Between 2000 and 2010, the city's population of black people dropped by a staggering 25 percent. This is the city where the Black Panther Party was founded, where congresswoman Barbara Lee got her start, where pivotal moments in hip-hop history were born.

Today, the population of black people is about 25 percent (San Francisco's is 5.4 percent). A city that was 47 percent black in the 1980s is now 38 percent white.

(To read more about what Oakland gentrification looks like when it's knocking on your door, read The Chronicle's East Bay columnist Otis Taylor here.)

"There are many different worlds here, but communities aren't overlapping, integrating as much as I wish they were," Woolson, the West Oakland resident, lamented.

He acknowledged it's "an interesting time" for the city, when new residents must be conscientious of those who have been there longterm, and the history they carry with them.

"Keep your mind open, and don't expect things to happen on your terms," he said. Instead, "check out the terms they're already happening on, and embrace them."

By doing so, Woolson said Oakland opens itself up in unexpected ways.

"I met more neighbors on my block in West Oakland in six months than the 10 years I lived in my old San Francisco neighborhood," he said. "This is a very real, very warm, very welcoming community."

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.