Why I love living in West Oakland’s Prescott neighborhood
By: West Oakland
Tags: Bay Area, San Francisco, Housing, Oakland, East Bay

When I first moved to West Oakland from San Francisco, I did so mainly for the cheaper rents and easier commute to work. But I’ve come to love the neighborhood I call home for many reasons. Here’s why.

Location, Location, Location (and easy access to jobs)

West Oakland’s Prescott neighborhood is centrally located, and just minutes away from 3 major job centers (SF, Oakland, and Emeryville). From West Oakland BART, it’s just 7-minutes to San Francisco’s financial district, 6-minutes to downtown Oakland, and 9-minutes to MacArthur BART near Emeryville. You can’t beat those commute times!

Prescott is also flat, making it very walkeable and bikeable (e.g., it’s about a 10 min bike ride to downtown Oakland). And it’s just a 7–10 minute drive to many awesome Oakland neighborhoods such as Temescal, Jack London Square, and Uptown.

(Relatively) Affordable Housing

Compared to San Francisco and many other more expensive parts of Oakland, West Oakland’s Prescott neighborhood is relatively affordable. Per Red Oak Realty, the median sale price of a single family home in West Oakland is $772,500. Compare that to the $1,700,000 median sale price in San Francisco.

For example, as of the time of this post, you can currently buy a brand new, solar all-electric town home with 2br, 2ba, 1683 sq ft in Prescott for $774,990 (and only a $200/mo HOA). That’s obviously still a lot of money, but it’s not a bad price for a new construction home in the Bay Area.

Beautiful Architecture

Speaking of housing, Prescott has some seriously gorgeous homes. They range from hyper modern cubist homes to regal Victorians and everything in between. I love walking around the neighborhood and enjoying the wide variety of architecture.

The Weather

Oakland is sunnier and several degrees warmer on average than San Francisco, but not too hot like some of the further inland cities (such as Walnut Creek). I think Oakland has some of the best weather hands down in the Bay Area.

Community

Prescott is a neighborhood with a strong community feel. People are friendly, say hello, and smile at one another walking down the street.

The Arts Scene

Prescott and West Oakland have an amazing arts scene (for example, lots of industrial art made here is used at Burning Man). From American Steel art studios on Mandela Parkway to The Crucible industrial arts school on 7th Street and many other local independent art shops, there’s something to check out for everyone.

Restaurants, Breweries, and Community Gardens, oh my!

Prescott and West Oakland have some pretty awesome local businesses and nonprofits (currently and in the works). For restaurants, there’s Soba Ichi (handmade artisan Japanese soba noodles), Horn BBQ is opening in February 2020 (headed up by renowned BBQ pitmaster Matt Horn), and Pretty Lady (an amazing local diner). I hope even more restaurants will open in the future.

There are also several breweries in or near Prescott. Laughing Monk is actually opening up a new brewery in 2020 on Mandela Parkway!

And there are several community gardens and parks. I personally love City Slicker Farms community garden and farm park on the outskirts of Prescott.

Largest Climbing Gym in the Country

This one deserved its own bullet point. A warehouse at the corner of Mandela Parkway and West Grand Avenue — which was vacant for well over a decade — is currently being restored and developed into the largest rock climbing gym in the country! It’s expected to open in 2020.

Historic 16th Street Station

The historic 16th Street Station in Prescott is a community jewel. It’s currently a bit dilapidated (but still beautiful), and is currently used for weddings and other functions. The nonprofit group that owns the 16th Street Station is working towards selling the station to a developer that will restore the station into a project that’s also beneficial to the community.

7th Street area near BART being Redeveloped

The 7th Street area around West Oakland BART is a bit rough around the edges — there are lots of empty parking lots and vacant commercial space. 7th Street used to be a renowned jazz area known as the Harlem of the West. Unfortunately, lots of those jazz clubs and other businesses shut down after BART was built due to all of its noise.

But all that is about to change. Given all the underutilized parking lots near BART, there are several large developments that will be transforming this area in the years to come. For example, 500 Kirkham Street (a block from BART) received permit approval this year to build 1,032 housing units and over 40,000 sq ft commercial space. The developer is aiming to break ground by June 2020!

The West Oakland BART station is similarly planned to be completely redeveloped in a project that would add nearly 800 housing units, 400,000 sq ft of office space, and 75,000 sq ft commercial space. This project has received preliminary permit approvals, but is awaiting final permit approvals (currently under review). The developer is also hoping to break ground in 2020.

Safety and Air Quality

West Oakland has changed quite a bit and become much safer over the past 10 years. Prescott in particular currently has crime levels similar to that of Emeryville, but it takes some time for perceptions of a neighborhood to change. And the neighborhood will only continue to get safer, particularly as new housing is built around the BART station.

As for air quality, the port does add pollution. Thankfully, air quality has also gotten dramatically better over the past 10 years and many new policies and regulations are being passed to continue making the air quality even better (e.g., ships are not allowed to idle their engine when docked and must plug into electric power). Air quality in West Oakland is at similar levels as SOMA in San Francisco, and will only continue to get better.

Come visit or join West Oakland’s Prescott neighborhood!

These are just some of the things that I love about West Oakland’s Prescott neighborhood, and I welcome others to come discover Prescott for themselves!