Oakland is a city in the Bay Area of California in the United States of America. While it neither has the concentration of tourist amenities present in its glamorous neighbor San Francisco nor the suburban safety of sprawling San Jose to the south, the visitor can easily spend a few pleasant days here. The often negative opinions of those who have neither lived in nor even visited Oakland should not deter you from exploring what is the Bay Area's and probably America's most diverse city and undervalued cultural center. If nothing else, you can simply enjoy what Rand McNally rated as the best weather in the country. Travel guides to Oakland, by long-standing tradition, often start off with that quote by famous Oakland resident Gertrude Stein, who said of the city, There is no there there. The quote takes Stein's rumination out of context, as she was describing how upon returning to Oakland after many years away, she found that the house in which she grew up no longer existed. Although Oakland is often overshadowed by tourist-friendly San Francisco across the bay, and politically famous Berkeley to the north, Oakland exemplifies both the best and the worst of the Bay Area in general. For the visitor, There is most easily found in one of Oakland's beautiful neighborhoods and interesting, if somewhat eccentric, shopping districts. Oakland, like New York, is constituted of a number of very distinct, village-like neighborhoods, all of which play host to a heady mix of cultures and peoples. Since the 1960's, Oakland has been a hub of radical culture, and is known as the birthplace of both the Black Panther Party and the Hell's Angels. Oakland's history in the arts and entertainment arena is notable as well, as Oakland has nurtured or been a second home to novelists Jack London, Gertrude Stein, Amy Tan, and Maya Angelou; actors Mark Hamill, Bruce Lee, and Tom Hanks; architect Julia Morgan, classical conductor Calvin Simmons, rapper Tupac Shakur, graphic-novel author Daniel Clowes, and many more notables in the...