My Recent Visit to Downtown Oakland

         This February, my mother and I had to drive my sister and her friend to a Panic At The Disco concert in downtown Oakland. Since driving back home and driving to a friend’s house were both unavailable to us, my mother and I were granted with the opportunity to explore downtown Oakland around midnight while my sister and her friend attended the concert.

         Oakland isn’t exactly the best of neighborhoods to begin with. According to numerous polls and surveys, Oakland has gained the distinction of being one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. Luckily, nobody in our group ran into any trouble during our visit.

         After dropping off my sister and her friend, my mother and I began to look for places to eat. My cousin (who attends college not too far from Oakland) recommended we try a place called Forge Pizza, in Jack London Square, right by the bay. After having to wait in the wind and rain, we finally got seated and got our food. The place was designed sort of like an off-the-beach style pizza place, and if I recall correctly, even had seafood options as toppings for your pizza. Overall, I liked the food and the laid-back atmosphere at the Forge

         After we left, we found one of those telescopes where you have to put money in them to work. We put some of our parking meter change in and began to look for stuff across the bay. I found the new span of the Bay Bridge, as well as AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. However, we were unable to locate Candlestick Park, the now former home of the San Francisco 49ers.

         When it was finally time to leave, we were surprised that there was very little traffic for how big of an event the concert was. My mother and I found my sister and her friend within 10 minutes of the concert ending, and quickly got back on the road. The freeway system in the Bay Area is already very confusing, but when rain and idiots who can’t drive in it are added to the equation, it becomes a much more frustrating experience. Eventually, we made it through the maze of freeways and got ourselves home in one piece.

         Overall, I would say the experience wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. On first thought, downtown Oakland late at night sounds like a very shady place to go. After going down there, it still is, but as long as you keep yourself out of trouble, you should be fine. I still wouldn’t go back there late at night, maybe if it were earlier in the day I could be convinced to go back. If I were given a ticket to anywhere in the world, I would probably use it to go to North Carolina or Indianapolis, because there is a lot of racing history in both places. Indianapolis is one of my choices because of the Indianapolis 500, one of the most prestigious IndyCar events, is held every year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. North Carolina is my other choice because it is basically where NASCAR began, and there are many NASCAR race teams as well as NHRA race teams that call North Carolina home.