Oakland's Uptown (Greg Linhares, City of Oakland)

Oakland’s Uptown has landed on the American Planning Association’s list of “Great Neighborhoods” this year, a list which included San Francisco’s Chinatown in 2013.

While Uptown appears atop the list on the APA’s site, however, it’s not actually “the number one “great neighborhood” in the country” as reported on SFGate, as the order of the APA’s list is simply alphabetical by state rather than ranked.

Keep in mind that the APA’s list is based on submissions for consideration versus an objective, or even subjective, evaluation of all neighborhoods in the U.S.  And with respect to “no other neighborhoods in California having made this year’s list,” the APA selected only one “great neighborhood” per state.

18 thoughts on “Oakland’s Uptown Neighborhood Is Great, But It’s Not Number One”
  1. I’m sorry not a single neighborhood in your wonderful city made the list, but a sore looser is the worst kind. Go find your tattered designer blanky and take a nap until you feel better.

    1. We’re not knocking Uptown in the slightest, nor are we sore that not a single neighborhood in San Francisco made this year’s list.

      Believe us, our headline and the body of our piece would have been exactly the same last year with respect to a report of San Francisco’s Chinatown being “number one” atop the APA’s (alphabetically arranged) list.

      And to be honest, we’ve never thought of San Francisco and Oakland as “us versus them.”

      1. Maybe we Oaklanders a bit too sensitive, but I also interpreted the Socketsite post as bit of sour grapes. Thanks for the clarification.

      2. SocketSite didn’t post bully for Uptown, congratulations! It posted, “Uptown Neighborhood Is Great, But It’s Not Number One”. Then the post made sure everyone was aware the criteria wasn’t satisfactory to SocketSite. I wish Socketsite would make these same declarations about other much more dubious lists more often.

    2. I think it is a response to SF Gate’s headline that it was the #1 neighborhood in the U.S., which has since been redacted by the “news” site.

      1. Well that’s a first, personally I’ve never seen an inaccurate SF accolade redacted on SFGate… or criticized on SocketSite. I could be wrong.

      2. that’s the key here, I think: Matt missed the point that the post was referencing, and trying to clarify, the sfgate article. (so did I, at first, and while I didnt sense sour grapes in the first place, the post makes more sense now)

    3. It’s pretty clear from the thread here that Matt is what makes Uptown great. What a guy.

      Personally I’m always rooting for Oakland to become as cool as it has the potential to be. SF residents don’t gain anything by having a crime-ridden cesspool as their largest suburb. Hopefully one day it will happen.

  2. This city resident loves Uptown Oakland and agrees with the conclusion that it’s a great neighborhood, regardless of made-up lists with dubious methodologies. Uptown is as good as the majority of San Francisco’s nightlife districts.

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