Response to Sam's post on Oakland

            I heard in Mr. Sutherland's class that there were some blog posts on Oakland, so I looked at a few and decided to respond to Sam's post.

I happen to live in Alameda, but I still can see the frustration that people who live in Oakland have.  Just because things happen, doesn’t mean that it will happen to you.  This is of course connecting to what she said about there being shootings on occasion, but her never actually being shot at.  No matter where you live people will assume things about you and your community based only on where you come from.  I admit that I do this sometimes. Sometimes seriously, and sometimes as a joke.  I am sure that people in Oakland have plenty of stereotypes about people living in Alameda.

          The part where Sam says that things happening could or couldn't happen to you. My stepdad is a firefighter in Oakland, and he always says that Oakland has a lot of poverty and violence and stuff like that. Of course he works near Fruitvale, so that is obviously a place where there's just a lot of trouble. I heard that some places aren't so bad, and are actually considered nice parts of Oakland. So the people who live in more peaceful areas not in Oakland probably judge that if some parts in Oakland are bad, then all of Oakland is bad. People who don't know a lot about things usually depend on stereotypes for knowledge so they can sound smart.
          The part where Sam says that Oakland most likely has stereotypes on people in Alameda is the next part I want to talk about. I've been to my sepdad's fire station sometimes and I've heard some of the other firefighters say that Alameda firefighters are lazy and get paid for doing nothing. You can get a lot out of that sentence right there. They think that since Alameda barely has any problems that the firefighters in Alameda are bums that sit on a couch all day at their fire station and don't get any calls. This makes me wonder if some people who live in places like Fruitvale think people in Alameda are wimps and people who can't deal with anything because they don't have any problems.
           The last thing I want to say is not exactly a response to what Sam said, but just more something I want to point out. Alameda and some of the nice areas around Oakland will get a bad reputation at some point in time. I've heard that there's a nice part in Oakland called Mont Claire (I think that's what it's called), so it's probably one of the places that is peaceful. Well I saw on the news a while ago that a lady that was in Mont Claire or some other really nice part of Oakland left her 6 year old daughter take care of 2 or 3 of her baby siblings for an entire day. The lady came back the next day and the police came and arrested her (I don't know how they found out). That's just an example that some nice places turn out to get a bad reputation, so these peaceful places and Alameda will probably get that. The shooting in Alameda 3 years ago is another example. A little girl got shot by some kids at a park in Alameda, so that's another sign. I heard that all of Oakland used to be a nice place, but it just slowly turned into a bad place. I predict that Alameda and the rest of Oakland will share the same fate. It's only a matter of time.