6131 Baker St, Oakland, CA 94608

People are keenly interested in making sure their neighborhood has a name. But what about those streets that could be Rockridge or Temescal? Try calling it Baja Rockridge! And those boundaries between the Golden Gate and Santa Fe districts can be hard to define. For those who live between downtown Oakland and Berkeley and just want to avoid the debate, you can just proudly proclaim that you live in North Oakland. North Oakland includes such well-known neighborhoods as Rockridge, Piedmont Avenue, Temescal and Golden Gate. There are some neighborhoods that are so specific, like Idora Park, that the public at large isn’t even aware of them. What is great about using North Oakland is that catches the best of each of those neighborhoods, and all the good stuff that falls in between. North Oakland includes such unique places as green sustainable Nomad Café on Shattuck, the wonderfully eclectic Ace Ellis Hardware on Martin Luther King, Sweet Adeline Bakeshop for decadent delectables, longtime favorite Lois the Pie Queen (try the chicken and waffles!),and the White Horse Inn on Telegraph, which is the second oldest LGBT bar in the country. And there are street fairs and farmers markets galore! A great way to keep up with everything going on in North Oakland is to bookmark OaklandNorth.net, a project of the journalism school at UC Berkeley. Their up-to-the-minute coverage often rivals the major dailies, especially on stories of great interest to North Oaklanders. From its Mediterranean climate, with warm days cooled off by bay breezes, North Oakland is situated perfectly within the Bay Area. Not only is it close to Berkeley and Emeryville, but San Francisco is a quick BART ride away. And Highways 580, 80 and 24 point you in the right direction when you need to get out of town. North Oakland is quite flat in most areas, making it very bike-friendly, and there are car-sharing programs when your bike-basket isn’t big enough.