Where Do I Live? Survey Responses

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	AA	AB	AC	AD	AE	AF	AG	AH	AI	AJ	AK	AL	AM	AN	AO	AP	AQ
1	What city do you live in?	What neighborhood?	How old are you?	Are you a parent?	What are your other demographic identifiers that you think are relevant to share?	What is your annual income?	How would you rate your satisfaction with life here?	Is it important to you to feel connected to where you live?	Do you feel settled in your life here?	Are you from the Bay Area originally?	Did you leave and come back?	Job	Grad School	Friends	Family	Intuition/feeling of possibility	Other	Are you still in the program you moved here for?	Would you consider living here if you weren't here for school?	Why did you decide to stay?	When did you move to (or back to) the Bay?	Are the qualities that brought you to the Bay still in your life?	Do you consider Covid to be a major factor in whether this is the case?	What do you think are the major influences?	In what ways was life already losing the qualities that drew you to the Bay, even before Covid?	Do you think Covid had a positive or negative effect on your life here?	What positive effects did it have?	What negative effects did it have?	What are the positive and negative effects?	Do you think Covid has had a positive or negative effect on building your life here?	What positive effects has it had?	What negative effects has it had?	What are the positive and negative effects?	Are you in an industry that requires you to live in the Bay?	What industry do you work in?	What form of work do you do?	Where do you do the work when you're remote?	Where do you go when you socialize? Be specific if you can -- i.e. rather than saying "out to eat," are there places in particular you go to a lot? For hiking, what parks?	How would you describe the Bay's way of handling the pandemic?	When did you stop masking indoors regularly?	How often do you leave your neighborhood?	What are some important features of your life in the Bay that didn't get touched on at all in the preceding questions?	Thank you for answering all those questions! Now here's the space to speak your unvarnished truth. If you have any takes, analyses, inputs, reflections, etc on what it feels to live here please share.

2	Oakland	Laurel District	40	0	white, lesbian, married, dog parent	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No		Job		Friends			nature, weather, queer community				Before Covid	Yes				Positive	introduced me to new friends, got me a remote work position							0	non-profits / government	Hybrid	at my house, in Oakland	queer country western dancing, Alameda movie theater for $5 Tuesdays, Redwood regional park	properly concerned	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week
3	Oakland	Adam's Point	39	0	Mixed race, Latino and White, able-bodied, straight	$105,000-144,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Nope, I've been here my whole life!	Job	Grad School	Friends	Family	Intuition/feeling of possibility		No, but I decided to stay		Good energy, similar values, community of art and dance and joy and justice	Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								1	Local government	Hybrid	Home	Bars, salsa dance parties, restaurants, the Lake, parks	Fine	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Daily	It's hard to make ends meet here, it's pushing out a lot of people that made this place special.	The Bay is the best... people give it hard time but there's no where else I'd rather be. We got stuff to work on it, but a lot of energy and people to keep moving us all forward.
4	Berkeley	West Berkeley	51	0	white heterosexual cis-gender woman	$75,000-104,999	Neutral	Yes	Somewhat	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	fitness and wellness	Fully in-person		all east bay parks for walking & hiking, shotgun players & oakland theater project for theater. the back room & fifth st farms & the greek for music, small wine bars & east bay wineries for libations	feel like it was fine - at times too strict, and there was a lot of virtue signaling, but I could abide and ignore as needed	Other	Daily		i take issue with the progressive talking and yet the closemindedness with which people actually live and approach others in the community. the CA "it's all good" mindset seems to have created individualism rather than a cohesive whole
5	San Francisco	Duboce Triangle	36	0	36, female, asian, heteorsexual, partnered, able-bodied	$200,000-$300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job									After Omicron									Neutral				1	Software	Hybrid	At home	Events and bars in the city. Hiking in the Marin Headlands	Too hypervigilant	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Weekly
6	Oakland	Rockridge	32	0	White male, married (straight)	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Yes					Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	Yes, the main factor			Negative		Friends moved away City services deteriorated Crime increased Cultural vibrancy declined (restaurants, street events and public joy, etc.)						0	investment	Hybrid	home	Hike in Claremont Canyon or at Skyline Gate, eat out on College Ave or on Telegraph (Temescal)	Too chaotic and needed to be clearer-eyed about tradeoffs. Specifically, I think the early lockdowns were appropriate, but went on too long and should have prioritized getting students in classrooms by fall 2020. Although it wasn't official policy, Downtown Oakland has not yet recovered from the shift to remote work. I think, we would have benefited from a cultural consensus around in-person work and returning to offices.	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week		I have always felt that the Bay and Oakland have amazing and resilient community spirits, but I've felt less connected to that spirit ever since Covid. I'm never quite sure if that's because the spirit is lost or diminished, because my life or perspective has diverged from that spirit, or because I've just lost the local friends who kept me attuned with it.
7	Oakland	Lake Merritt	33	0	Cis-gendered Woman, Bisexual, black	$75,000-104,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Nope, I've been here my whole life!					Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	No	In the Bay Area, the hyphy movement. Latino, black, and Asian culture		Positive	Allowed me to find housing at a decent price since rent prices have dropped. And I’ve appreciated the exodus of tech and folks deeply into tech culture. Nothing inherently wrong with tech culture but at times it’s so consumerist that it disregards the value of other cultures and non tech centered values							1	civic engagement - public sector	Hybrid	Home/coffee shops	I mainly hang out in the mission district in San Francisco. I lived there for 6 yrs and a lot of my community and artistic interests are in that area still.	I think in relation to the rest of the country we did pretty well with responding to the imminent danger it presented and did our best to get ahead of it. There was a lot of community support networks happening during that time that were really taking care of people with dignity.	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	Transportation!! Appreciate how robust our transportation is in comparison to other larger metropolitan areas. It could definitely be better but considering the country standard we do well. I also think a question asking how many different cities/neighborhood of the Bay Area have folks lived in would be interesting. A lot of us who are natives/long time residents have lived in lot of different parts of the Bay Area.	I am deeply grateful as someone with my identify to have grown up in the Bay Area. I consider myself fortunate to have been a young person growing up here and now an adult that still can live here. I hope that this place can be a place where many different types of people can say that.
8	San Francisco	Haight Ashbury	45	0	Female. Queer. Partnered.	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No							School				Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		The housing market was/is nuts. So all the cool people started moving away, then the tech booms and people renting apts who only live here part time and airbnbs. Also the government is not really trying that hard to fix much of anything.	Neutral								1	Bar/floral	Fully in-person		GGP. Trax. SFMOMA. The panhandle. Ocean Beach.	Pretty good, considering how most of the rest of the country handled it. Also information was patchy so every day was evolving protocols it seemed.	After getting vaccinated	A few times a week	At least in my neighborhood, it’s beginning to be a good mix of locals, workers, and tourists. Most important is the sense of community we have in the upper Haight. Still quite a number of people who have lived here since the 60s/70s, it’s nice to see.	Still get shivers when I see our cityscape coming over the Golden Gate Bridge. She’s beautiful and ever changing, I remain optimistic but we need cooperation in government and London Breed to get out of office.
9	San Francisco	Haight Ashbury	39	0	White, cisgender, assigned female at birth, able-bodied, Queer	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No			Grad School					No, but I decided to stay		I'm in love with this city.	Before Covid		No	Extreme wealth inequality, corrupt and inefficient use of public resources, lack of affordable housing and wraparound services, increased militarization of police, surveillance state		Neutral								1	I own a small civic design consultancy that's a certified local business entity in San Francisco	Hybrid	Home	Ginza sushi, Burma Kitchen, Shizen (my favorite restaurant)other small business/family-owned restaurants, golden gate park, Trax (my girlfriend works there), all	Appropriate response, led the country in what to do, I felt safe	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	I love not owning a car; haven't owned one in 12 years, I love all the parks in the City and the proximity to the ocean, I love municipal composting and that we have a recycling plant and a culture that values it, I love public transit, walkability and live music, I love being part of the re-emergence of downtown SF where I rent an office space	I just navigated about 8 different piles of feces on the sidewalk in the mission. For a place known as the innovation capital of the world, it is immoral how we let people suffer. I very much dislike the discourse around housing and that more housing needs to be built when 60,000 corporation-owned units sit empty. It's embarrassing how painfully slow our public processes are, and that leaders in City Hall are so afraid of doing anything that would compromise their power or positions or, God forbid, compromise their ability to receive a pension. I am ashamed of how recklessly our public funding is misused, and do not feel proud of how so-called progressives fail to address the escalating crises our residents, housed and un-housed, face on a daily basis.
10	San Francisco	Corona Heights	29	1	Married	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job				Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	No	No			Neutral								0		Hybrid		Playgrounds (Duboce, Dolores)		After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Weekly
11	San Francisco	Mission	42	0	Cis straight white Millennial with a mostly able body	$145,000-200,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Nope, I've been here my whole life!	Job	Grad School					Yes	1		Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Software (and some hardware) engineering	Hybrid	Mission	Dolores Park, Golden Gate Park, Elixir	Should have had mandatory vaccination	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	15 minute city, Vision Zero, public transit	The declining rents and the long overdue death of luxury crap downtown feel like major net positives from the pandemic
12	San Francisco	Nob Hill	32	0	partneree	$75,000-104,999	Neutral	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job									Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		affordability, friends moving away, feeling less safe getting around (walking and car/bike being targeted for theft)	Neutral								1	nonprofit conservation	Hybrid	home or coffee shop or park	Parks, music venues, workout classes, bars or restaurants	not sure	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	safety	Not to sound like a republican, but it feels like those of us trying to stay here and work in public good are hemorrhaging money, while organized criminals can take in $$$$ from crime with zero punishment, meanwhile my banged up car gets both the catalytic converter stolen and a $200 ticket bc i was too exhausted to understand the conflicting parking signs
13	Oakland	Rockridge	29	0	Single Gay cis Male	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	No, but I just got here	No		Job		Friends		Intuition/feeling of possibility					After Omicron									Negative		The great awakening of the fucked up systems of America and the world		0	Outdoor Recreation	Hybrid	Home or local coffee shop	The Alley for Trivia, Hiking in east bay hills or Yosemite or sierra nevadas or Marin headlands, rec ultimate frisbee league in Berkeley	Wasn’t here pre and post Covid to compare	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily		The weather is impeccable and people are friendlier here than where i moved from (Seattle).
14	Oakland	South Prescott	39	0	Male, White, Straight, Partnered	$200,000-$300,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Yes				Negative		Most of my friend group has turned into homebodies						0	Tech	Hybrid	Oakland	Temescal for food, JLS for wine/beer, Bay Trail for biking, Great Walkway / JFK Promenade for walks with friends	Good at first, but we should have invested in permanent outdoor dining and social places like Santa Barbara did, instead we invested in cops	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	The main way my friends and I get around on public transit has been defunded so it is harder to get around Also, walking and biking has gotten more dangerous with our poorly designs roads and cars	I wish people would leave their house and explore the bay area first hand because the fear inducing media is not the reflecting reality of how wonderful the bay is
15	Oakland	Rockridge	33	0	Heterosexual, Jewish, able bodied	$200,000-$300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		Always affordability issues, crime	Neutral								1	Technology	Hybrid	Home	Running east bay regional trails, happy hour at two pitchers, friends apartments	Too hyper vigelent	After getting vaccinated	Weekly	Affordability	Recall Pamela price
16	Oakland	Mosswood	36	0	Black	$200,000-$300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job									Before Covid	Yes				Negative		Less social						0	Tech	Hybrid	Home	Bar	Leading with caution	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	Politics
17	Oakland	Cleveland Heights	40	0	White partnered bisexual neurodivergent	$0-44,999	Very dissatisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	No				Friends							Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	No	I’m older now		Negative		Covid fractured my community to an extent, and we haven’t coalesced as strongly after.						0	Construction	Fully in-person		Lake Merritt, Grand lake theater, Thai Lao Indian restaurants	too hyper-vigilant and it hampered recovery	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	Car exhausts have gotten (intentionally) louder. (Eg Dodge Hellcats everywhere). Trash, encampments, and poop are omnipresent. Traffic laws are not enforced: cars drive without plates, with fully blacked out windshields, running red lights while pedestrians are in the crosswalk. Car break-ins are common.	Addressing historic and current systemic injustices is crucial. But that work takes visionary thinking, with long timelines to implement. If your only solution is to not enforce existing laws, public nuisance becomes rampant and quality of life goes downhill. It could be argued that it’s better for the wounds of a toxic society to be exposed rather than hidden under bandages, and I think that very well may be true, but it makes me not want to live here anymore.
18	Oakland	Temescal	39	0	Male, black, mixed	$105,000-144,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					After Omicron									Neutral				0	Film	Hybrid	Home or co working spaces	Music venues, Joaquin miller		I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week
19	Oakland	Bushrod	53	1	Queer , Assyrian, trans family	$105,000-144,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Nope, I've been here my whole life!					Intuition/feeling of possibility	I was raised in the bay				Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	No	I was raised here		Negative		It showed me people’s true colors						1	I teach locally	Fully in-person		I go to friends houses	They should still require masks	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	Daily	?
20	Oakland	Uptown/Downtown	35	0	Straight white male	$75,000-104,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes			Friends	Family						Before Covid	Yes				Both			I met my wife in may 2020 online					1	Local government	Hybrid	Home	Hiking in the east bay regional parks, bars and restaurants downtown, temescal, rock ridge or Berkeley	Fine	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	Cost of living	I love the Bay Area and the relentless negative media coverage bothers me. I almost always feel safe walking in Oakland
21	Oakland	The Jewel Box	36	0	36, female, white, single, queer, able-bodied	$75,000-104,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, the main factor			Negative		People moved away; I was laid off; going outside and being social feels more challenging now and crowds seem more annoying						0	Public health	Hybrid	At home	Walks around my neighborhood with friends, hang at my house, go to restaurants in the 94609 area code		After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week
22	Oakland	Rockridge	37	0	White single wk	$0-44,999	Somewhat dissatisfied	Yes	Yes	No		Job		Friends		Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Yes				Both			Allowed me to work from home, foster dogs, get a place with a garden Most friends moved away, felt lonely					0	Used to work in Tech	Fully remote	Home	Friends backyards restaurants on college Ave	Safe but friends got exclusive by being obsessed with bubbles (who is in who is out)	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week
23	San Francisco	Castro	35	0	White, male, straight, transplant, married, able-bodied	$145,000-200,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No							Partner started school here				Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Nonprofit & technology	Fully remote	Mostly home, sometimes WeWork	Runs in SF, breweries like BareBottle, dim sum in the Richmond, pickleball in McLaren, hikes in Redwood Regional, camping in Marin and San Mateo	Good on general public health, very bad on schools (took too long to reopen)	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	I love the Bay. I want more housing so everyone can live here.	We really need more housing. Every kind of housing.
24	Oakland	Temescal	57	1	57, male, heterosexual, divorced, partially disabled	$0-44,999	Somewhat dissatisfied	Yes	No, but I just got here	No					Family						After Omicron									Negative		Health, hesitancy to socialize etc		0	Conservation Society of California	Fully in-person		No	NA	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	A few times a week	Fear of rising crime	I've lived here just short of a year. I love the Temescal area of Oakland but am VERY concerned of the rising, bold, and unchecked increasing crime in the area and Oakland in general.
25	San Francisco	Laurel Heights	28	0	Biracial partnered cis-woman!	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No			Grad School	Friends				Yes	0		Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Neutral				0	Grad student life babyyyy	Hybrid	Home, ocassionally a random cafe	Restaurants and bars on Clement St. and in Pac Heights (Breck's, Blue Danube, Stein's), art centers in downtown SF (for shows & concerts), disc golf & explorations in GGP, jogs in the Presidio, bars and cafes near Berkeley campus (Baker & Common, Freehouse), East Bay breweries (Gilman, Fieldwork)	I really appreciated that many areas of the Bay continued to mask long after other parts of the country had given up. It helped me to feel safer when my COVID anxiety was still high. I wish there was more of a masking culture still today, but that isn't so much for my behalf as for others I know who are immuno-compromised and stressed. However, I think reopening and encouraging folks to get back to an in-person way of life has been the right move.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	I spend a lot of my social time visiting friends in different neighborhoods (Dogpatch, North Berkeley, Oakland Hills). I hate driving here, yet also have a deep resentment for the dysfunction and cost of cross-bay public transit. I'm extremely homesick even after three years, and just starting to feel like I might be planting substantive roots, maybe?	Growing up on the east coast, California feels alien to me in many ways. The culture, the fashion, the weather, the flora, the fauna, the trees and birds are all unfamiliar. The visibility of human suffering, namely the housing and drug crises, also feels distinct from how things are swept under the rug in other cities I've lived in (which is not to say that I think things are necessarily worse here, just more visible). The level of natural beauty of this area is perhaps unparalleled, yet I often find it hard to appreciate because of the pressures that living here has put on my mental and emotional health. I don't know how to feel about things, I guess....
26	San Francisco	Inner RIchmond	28	0	Male, white latino, bi, partnered, able-bodied	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat	Somewhat	No			Grad School			Intuition/feeling of possibility		Yes	1		Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Negative		used to spend some time here and the city doesn't feel like it has recovered, still feels sleepy/dead		0	tech, loosely	Fully remote	home	dogpatch games, Golden Gate Park, home!	ineffective, focused on the wrong things	After getting vaccinated	Weekly	dysfunctional public transit	easy to forget the amazing things about living here because more than most other places it feels like everyone wants to hate it - something about it having more potential makes the bad things feel horrible instead of just things you deal with
27	Oakland	Cleveland Heights	36	0	Male, immigrant from Eastern Europe	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No				Friends		Intuition/feeling of possibility	Activism				Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	No	Economic and ideological warfare		Neutral								1	Academia	Fully in-person		First Friday, Bike Party, tea party at Lake Merritt, underground shows/raves	I have no particular issue it. I've moved on. I have other more pressing reasons to worry about my health.	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	Loss of culture due to sudden steep increase in local wealth and real estate investment preceded the pandemic, which sealed the deal.	All these covid questions make me think this is a much older flyer than it looked.
28	Oakland	Downtown	37	0	Female, white, single, bisexual but mostly straight	$200,000-$300,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No		Job									Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Software (tech)	Fully remote	My house, local coffeshop, local WeWork, and sometimes at friends’ houses	The most common place is at people’s homes — go over and hang out, dinner party, house party, movie night, music singalong night. I also like to go to workout with friends or go for a walk with friends. Specially locations: workout at Funky Door in Berkeley, walk around Lake Merritt, hang out after Melo Melo Kava Bar. I also like to go to The Center SF for events. I like New Parkway for movies and some of the community events.	Took it seriously and did the best they could. Trusted science.	I never regularly masked indoors	A few times a week	It’s nice to be with lots of people in similar age and life stages - we have established careers, but not sure if we’re having kids or not. Some coupled, some not. Many somewhere on the queer spectrum.	It feels like a playground — if you keep your eyes open, you can get hooked into a whole world of events - co-ops, Take 5 parties, sex parties, burning man camps. It also feels unaffordable - all of us here and only so many houses to go around. I wish we built more apartment buildings in the city. The old homes are great, but when you have more people, you need denser housing. I’ve lived in my apartment for 11 years because rent control helps me afford my life. Overall, I feel like I can live the life I want here, but I don’t think that’s a given for everyone. I’m grateful that this is a drug-positive, hippy-leaning world that also has the heart of the software industry, since that’s my industry. I can have my professional life and my personal life and both are satisfying to me here.
29	Berkeley	San Pablo Park	37	0	Male, White, Straight, Living with partner	$75,000-104,999	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat	Yes	No		Job									Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Financial services	Fully remote	Home office	Trivia at Buck Wild every Wed., the Kingfish, Gilman brewing, Fieldwork, Cato's, Mad Oak, we hike all over, probably Tilden most frequently	The hypervigilance made sense but went on way too long, I don't believe masks do much. GF disagrees :)	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	I feel like I'm going crazy with these politicians not prosecuting crime, cops not chasing people, and judges letting off repeat offenders over and over. I know the ideological foundation behind it but they're so wrong. That's by far the most annoying thing about the Bay. Also the A's belong here and Thao could've done more, but that's obvious.	A lot of folks in the Bay love to talk shit about the rest of the country, it's pretty sad. I'm originally from Sacramento, and despite it being 90 miles away, people here really like to look down their noses at Sacramento for some reason...and then they all move there. Anyway, I'm tired of people around here acting like we've got it all figured out compared with other places. Also go Kings.
30	Oakland	Chinatown	29	0	Mexican American, single, able-bodied, bisexual	$75,000-104,999	Neutral	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job									Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Negative		Because of Covid it's been harder to meet people, and some of the businesses I had previously enjoyed before I moved up here closed down. I don't think this is unique to Oakland but Oakland is struggling and it's because city government lacks the vision to make it easier for small businesses to thrive, improve public transit, and just make the city feel welcoming. It wouldn't take a lot to make small changes, like close streets to cars and open them up for small vendors and people to enjoy.		1	Policy	Hybrid	Home	I go to Bike Party, found some queer bike groups, hang out by the lake a lot, it's expensive here so I try to do walks, picnic, and bike rides along the Bay Path Trail, stuff that's free and my friends and I can get outside of our homes and just relax together.	I'm still worried about getting Covid. The city has made bad decisions that not just affect how people interact with each other and their risk with Covid, such as taking away parklets, closing the slow streets program, not investing in public spaces - but these things are vital for City life outside of Covid. We don't have many places we can relax without spending a lot of money, feel safe, and just be about. We need these places to foster community and a sense of belonging/pride.	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	A few times a week	Oakland has a lot of potential, I feel like I can personally grow here, but the city makes it so hard for people to just fucking breathe. We don't need much. I don't want people to give up on Oakland. I love it here. I don't want to leave.	Shoutout to every person that is trying to make this city better and fuck the police for not doing their jobs and making it worse for all of us.
31	Oakland	Lakeside	33	0	33, Male, White, Straight, Partnered	$45,000-74,999	Neutral	Yes	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes			Friends							Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Neutral				0	Social Work	Fully in-person		N/A	As good as it could be I guess	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Daily	N/A	The Bay Area is the best place on the planet
32	Berkeley	Lorin District / South Berkeley	35	0	Latinx, queer but cis presenting, married, limiting mental health disabilities but still able to maintain a lucrative tech career. I lived here also for about a decade when I was low income and struggling	$105,000-144,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No							I moved here for someone I just met when I was drifting. Maybe a mix of the last two				Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		This question is so big for me that it's overwhelming, but in a nutshell, I feel it's mostly becoming a playground for affluent techies who couldn't give less of a fuck about the people living here who work shitty service jobs, the homeless and mentally ill folks, and generally people with different experiences. Those folks are generally living precariously and getting pushed out. Mainstay institutions that serve those folks (providing cheap food or services) getting pushed out too	Negative		On me personally, basically nothing is open late anymore. I have a circadian rhythm disorder so this means more days with less sleep or scrambling						0	I'm techie scum working remotely for a company in Texas	Fully remote	Home	Friends homes, the UC Berkeley campus, telegraph and downtown Berkeley area, Albany bulb, sometimes Dolo Park in SF	Not safe enough and I'm still worried about getting COVID or giving it to others, but I'm glad I'm here and not elsewhere where things were/are less safe	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	Daily	I feel that the fixation on dangerous homeless folks and mentally ill folks and criminals and drug users is overstated. Property crime is getting worse because people are desperate. I wish people would react differently to vulnerable people in crisis. I'm glad there are still people here who fight on the behalf of vulnerable folks -- of course many of these people are themselves vulnerable. I feel the bay is trending more right wing, mainly because the folks it's hospitable for are largely high income transplants from historically more conservative areas who had a high paying salary immediately out of college. I love the bay but I also hate it, or more specifically I hate what's happening to it and the people I love	Oops, sorry I've been leaving that all over the place in this survey. Hopefully some of it is helpful Generally I feel very grateful to live here. I think the circumstances in which I came here, secured housing, and maintained in despite being broke and enduring crisis after crisis leads me now to continually have this feeling of noticing my feet on the ground here, noticing that I am here and have been here and will continue to be here, and have love and support around me, and I'm incredibly grateful for it
33	Oakland	Rockridge	46	1	white, married, cis-gendered	$145,000-200,000	Somewhat dissatisfied	Yes	Yes	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	No	No	I moved here 23 years ago when I was 22 years old. The factors that made me enjoy life here at 22 probably still exist, I'm just not looking for fun bars and coworkers who want to hang out and proximity to cool restaurants and music, etc now.		Negative		I lost my job						1	tech	Hybrid	at home	Mostly we socialize with other families with kids at our kids schools at their homes. Or does going to a kids' birthday party and chatting with the other parents count as socializing? We do go hiking in Tilden and Chabot frequently.		After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	This survey seems very focused on how covid changed my satisfaction with my Bay Area experience, but I've now had decades of experience here. The quality of the schools and raising children amidst homeless encampments and constant crime has had more of an impact on my satisfaction with living here, but I am in a very particular life stage. I feel fortunate that covid shut-downs happened while my children were in preschool, because the specific way that OUSD handled school closures around covid were particularly harsh.	I lost my job in tech during the pandemic. After 20 years, I feel like I just can't bring myself to go back into that douche-y bro culture. But I also don't know how to go from making $150K a year (that I truly don't think I actually deserved) to a "normal" job doing the same work that would maybe pay $60K. I feel very stuck here, entrenched in a community of people I enjoy and am attached to and spoiled by the weather. But I suspect that life doesn't have to be this hard.
34	Other	El Cerrito	28	0	Nonbinary, Black, queer, gay, lebsian, trans, autistic, partnered	$0-44,999	Very satisfied	Somewhat	Yes	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Yes	Job									Before Covid	No	No	I don't work at that job anymore		Negative		Left my industry, lost friends, got more anxious, mental health decreased						0	In school right now, was in theater, now going to be an OT	Fully in-person		I don't go out to socialize because everything is unmasked	Not safe enough	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	Daily	None
35	San Francisco	Lower haight	36	0	White, dyke, non-binary, non-disabled, student, middle class	$45,000-74,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No			Grad School					Yes	1		Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Clothing retail	Hybrid	Home	Mission (mother, el Rio) and soma (the eagle)	Better than some places worse than others?	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	I don't own a car and don't feel like I need to. I never want to have children and I think I could happily live in sf forever.	I love sf and it's not for everyone. If you don't love it, you shouldn't try to force yourself to. It's too hard a city to stay in if you arent head over heels for it.
36	Oakland	Temescal	29	0	Partnered, female, moved from Brooklyn	$105,000-144,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No		Job									Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Neutral				0	Film	Hybrid	At home	Gym, parks, movies, bar, restaurants	More cautious than elsewhere which I like	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	Husband is public defender so I’m more tolerant of crime if balanced with a lively community which I feel like I get here
37	San Francisco	Noe Valley	31	0	Cis female, pansexual but not really interested in cis males, single, able bodied, black	$145,000-200,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	No, but I just got here	No		Job				Intuition/feeling of possibility					After Omicron									Negative		Want to build community, covid concerns always a consideration. I've contracted it twice attending events.		0	Healthcare	Fully in-person		I go to queer parties, mango, soul lovely, queer in Oakland events.	Still worried about covid, could probably do more	I still do but don't plan to indefinitely	Daily
38	San Francisco	Potrero Hill	24	0	none	$75,000-104,999	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat	No, but I just got here	No		Job									After Omicron									Neutral				1		Hybrid				I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Daily
39	San Francisco	SoMa West	32	0	trans woman, white American, bisexual, single, disabled	$0-44,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No		Job				Intuition/feeling of possibility	College				Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		homelessness, crime, and drug addiction	Negative		My therapist didn’t see me in person for years. I became a shut in. Now I have high cholesterol and have gained 60 pounds.						0	I am unemployed.			Le Marais Bakery*, The Roxie, Hotel Biron, Rocket Sushi, Castro Country Club, Japantown, Most Holy Redeemer, Dolores Park, The Punchline, Le Merais	It was good in the beginning. The pandemic ended about a year before people let down their guard, however.	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a month	It’s like I’m basically a cis person here. Sometimes I get funny looks in other areas. When I land at SFO, I feel this palpable sense of belonging, ownership, comfort, and peace.	I am often amused by what people who’ve never been here believe about the city. It’s like I live in Bad Atlantis or something. I love it here. It’s so beautiful and peaceful. I just wish I had more money, and I wish the art kids would come back and fill the streets again.
40	Other	Pleasant Hill, near Camelback	25	0	Queer, lesbian, white, Russian, single, able-bodied, working class	$45,000-74,999	Neutral	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Nope, I've been here my whole life!						N/A				Before Covid					Negative		I feel like the time in my life where I would've been exploring and making connections during college were instead spent inside my home, and it really limited my experience of the bay and the world in general						0	Consulting	Hybrid	At home	Downtown Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek for shopping and dining, briones and Mt Diablo parks for nature/hiking.	It feels spotty, like some people do take it seriously and a lot of others don't and it's sometimes confusing to see that contrast.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Weekly	I'm not sure if it's relevant but I feel more averse to public transport like BART even though I used it frequently and enjoyed it before COVID	I feel lucky to live here but simultaneously disconnected. I feel like I don't know where to go or what to do to make friends and form a community, but maybe that also means I haven't been looking in the right places.
41	Palo Alto	Near San Antonio shopping center	28	0	White, bi, nonbinary, disabled in a chronic pain way	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job									After Omicron									Negative		the hell zone of possibility of getting sick means I don’t go to as many activities as I’d like to, hard to find covid conscious friends		0	Academic research	Fully in-person		NO WHERE	Not safe enough and I’m still worried about getting covid	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	Daily
42	Oakland	Lake Merritt	71	0	Single white man	$145,000-200,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No		Job									Before Covid	Yes				Negative		disruption of economy and normal events						0	law	Fully in-person		A's baseball games; hikes on UC Berkeley campus	not safe enough; didn't shut down soon enough, hard enough, or long enough	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	cultural amenities; favorable climate; politically liberal; ethnically diverse
43	Berkeley	Northside	30	0	White, female, lesbian, gender nonconforming, nonbinary/trans, disabled	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No			Grad School					Yes	1		Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	No	Capitalism and liberal capture of radical movements		Negative		People died and my coop had financial troubles and it was/is lonely						0	Computer science	Hybrid	At home	Bars, campus events	Not safe enough but better than other places	I still do but don't plan to indefinitely	Weekly
44	Berkeley	Live Oak Park	74	1	74 year old married female .	$145,000-200,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No							Inherited a house from a sibling				Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, the main factor			Negative		Lost community feeling. Lost cultural events. Lost comfort level being with others.						0	Retired	Fully remote	Retired	Live Oak Park Tai Chi and yoga. Epworth Community church for concerts, Tai Chi and meditation classes.	Decent. Lots of vaccines available and many takers as early adopters.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	Zoomed programs have replaced lot of going out. It is so great to tour museums, hear concerts, take yoga classes without having g to transport myself in the crazy traffic in Berkeley!	I wish the whole world would be as open- minded as Berkeleyites! I am SO sorry that Berkeley will be increasing its housing which will make the sidewalks, the driving, the parks and the restaurants way too crowded!
45	San Rafael	Lucas Valley	28	0	28, genderqueer, white, bisexual, partnered, able-bodied, student	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat	No, but I just got here	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes		Grad School					Yes	1		After Omicron									Neutral				0	Art conservation	Fully in-person		Japantown, Ocean Beach Cafe (non-alcoholic bar), all of the museums and movie theaters	I was not here until late 2023 but I am surprised that so few are wearing masks here	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Daily		I like it here (and grew up here) but I will unfortunately never be able to move here permanently due to the high cost of living, and I think many people are in the same boat
46	Oakland	Emeryville	32	0	White, male, married	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job									Before Covid	Yes				Both			Positive: allowed me time to write my grad school thesis/connect more with close circle of friends					0	Education	Fully in-person		Joaquin Miller Park, Kona Club, friends houses, soccer pick ups	Loved the heavy restrictions and thoughtfulness of those of different demographics and backgrounds who were more prone to contracting COVID	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	None	Pricey
47	San Francisco	Mission	25	0	Genderqueer, white, pansexual, married, partnered, disabled	$75,000-104,999	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat	Somewhat	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Negative		Hard to make friends. Less events and things happening. Have to negotiate Covid responsibilities with new friends/lovers.		0	Chemistry	Fully in-person		I host my own art events thru DIY Museum. Eli’s mile high club. El rio. Parties by specific promoters (popperz, fake and gay, vitamin 1k). Concerts. Dolores park.	Spineless. SF does not care about disabled people or disabling more people. I’m glad we still have parklets, at least. There should be far more mask mandates and more information from the city/county about community responsibility, keeping others safe, and why covid is not the same as the cold/flu	I still do but don't plan to indefinitely	Daily	Navigating nightlife thru covid is very difficult. In the queer community, nightlife is a huge method of connection and a lot of these spaces fail to take any covid precautions. It is isolating.
48	San Francisco	Noe Valley	33	0	Non-binary, white, bi, partnered, able-bodied, college educated, low income	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Yes	Job			Family	Intuition/feeling of possibility					Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Both			Good:Cheaper rent made it possible to find a place, job security (work in healthcare), lots of people into doing outdoor things together. Bad: hard to make new friends, not comfortable engaging in kink scene/party scene which prior to Covid was a big draw of SF, it often feels like the only people around are either so poor they’re on the brink of destitution or rich in that they’re part of the owning class. People in the middle are scarce, most live in the east bay or farther away.	1	Trans health care, which is not really a thing except in New York and Bay Area	Fully in-person		Cat club, the uptown (rip), mother, El rio, moby dicks, spike’s	Not safe enough, still worried about getting Covid- I want to do indoor things but just still mask- most people have stopped masking	I still do but don't plan to indefinitely	Daily	Being visibly lgbtq is harder in other areas, I feel like where I am living and working I can walk around without being worried about misogyny or transphobia much/feel comfortable presenting how I want without much street harassment
49	Berkeley	Southside	25	0	Trans woman. Bi. Poly. Partnered.	$105,000-144,999	Very satisfied	Somewhat	Somewhat	No		Job		Friends			Romantic partner				Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	No	Hard to say. Having good job has turned out to be harder than expected. Mostly life is hard in some ways but very good overall.		Negative		Less in person interactions. People wear masks all the time. A lot of vibrant community that used to exist is significantly reduced, though still exists some and is coming back.						1	AI Safety	Fully in-person		Friend's houses in Berkeley and Oakland. East Bay Fusion. Berkeley Contra and Circle Left. SF MoMA.	Too vigilant, also just, insane. Like not making the right tradeoffs, it's more complex than "too much or too little". But also definitely way too much.	After getting vaccinated	A few times a week	Public transit is huge for me and a big reason I live here. As is living in a dense area near many people I like a lot.	I think the people here are really pretty special in a lot of ways.
50	Oakland	Near the lake	25	0	Partnered, disabled, non-binary femme, DID, autistic, ace spec	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No					Family						Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		I've never been really tethered to a place, tend to roam.	Both			Positives: got out of toxic situations, figured out gender. Negatives: Lost the thread of what I want in life.					0	Insurance	Fully remote	At home!	I usually stay home due to disabilities. Though sometimes I like to explore the neighborhood.	I was very disconnected from the world due to the toxic place I was in so I didn't notice as much.	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	Monthly	Life in the Bay always feels like a weird quilt of different intersections between the people who live in certain cities, the places they work, and the different separations of their personal adventures. It's very much a jigsaw and less a cohesive whole.
51	San Jose	Santa Clara	24	0	nonbinary transmasc, Filipino, partnered monogamous, able-bodied, transplant from MN	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	No							closing the distance in a long distance relationship				Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Negative		It's been difficult to make friends and find community. Most of my friends are located in SF and east bay, and I havent really found anyone around South Bay. it's also been harder to find in person events and mutual aid volunteering opportunities near me			Writing/Editing	Fully remote	At home	White Horse Bar in Oakland, Sour Cherry comics in SF, Silver Sprocket in SF, Mission Dolores park	I still mask in public. it's been a toss up on whether events ask for masking. Current handling of the pandemic isn't safe enough to me.	I still do but don't plan to indefinitely	A few times a week		Traffic here is terrible and the public transit infrastructure isnt much better. i wish there were more frequent and more affordable trains/buses so i could go anywhere anytime. why does Bart stop their routes so early?? thanks for making the survey!
52	San Francisco	Non Hill	25	0	Transgender + non-binary, student, local activist	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes						This is my home, my other moves have all been temporary				Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		Gentrification, cost of living, housing shortage	Negative		Businesses closed, connections weakened						0	gig and temp work (full time student)	Fully in-person			Not enough support to the poorest residents or to small businesses	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Daily	Queer and transgender community.
53	San Francisco	Rincon Hill	26	0	nonbinary white gay able-bodied	$0-44,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Nope, I've been here my whole life!						never left				Before Covid	Yes				Both			time to think (positive) and grow more deeply connected to the bay (where i grew up). hard to see businesses close due to covid					0				wherever my friends from my sports teams are going (often spots in SF)		I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Daily	it’s sometimes hard being someone who grew up here and never left surrounded by mostly people who have moved here for specific reasons. ive found it hard to listen to people complain about the weather and say things like “ugh i hate the rain, the weather is one of the reasons we pay so much to be here” (implying that the bay area’s actual weather doesn’t live up to their expectations of “california weather”). especially because i like the rain and think the weather here is so nice & the fact that lots of other people want to live here too makes it feel like i’ll always have trouble affording to live here
54	San Jose	West side	31	0	Gay partnered, trans	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes				Family						Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Negative		Less events, gigs, hard to meet people		0	Art	Hybrid	Home	Furry convention San shoe convention center. Shows at playback studios (now closed), orifice (now closed), The ritz, Rickshaw (sf), events at Silver Sprocket (sf), sf zine fest, BAQZF, ebabz, others. My work/social life is the same	The whole country should have had better. The bay seems OK. Many of the events I go to(zine fairs, conventions) still require masking. Some zine fest organizing can be difficult because of misguided precautions, like renting a smaller space just because there’s one air purifier or something instead of a bigger space with windows. Punk shows don’t require it but nobody is getting shamed for masking or not.	I still do but don't plan to indefinitely	A few times a month	I’m car free and it’s not easy. If the bart would come to DTSJ my life would change. I travel to SF/East bay frequently to work art gigs but I really wish there were more opportunities in SJ. We start them and they get snuffed out	I love the bay, San Jose is dope, but I wish DIY could thrive in a bigger way. It’s hard watching venues and events get snuffed out. I can only afford to live here because I live in my boyfriends moms house. But I’m glad I don’t live in LA.
55	Oakland	Rockridge	35	1	Male, White, Straight, Married, Able-bodied	More than $300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No		Job		Friends							Before Covid	Yes				Both								0	Tech	Fully remote	Home	Friends houses, restaurants, parks like Colby Park, hiking like Claremont Canyon & Sibley. Harder to socialize with young children	Fine	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week
56	Oakland	Emeryville	32	0	Female, white, cis gender, married, able bodied, currently pregnant	$145,000-200,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job					Partner job				Before Covid	Yes				Both			Positive: made deeper connection with neighbors (pod mates) Negative: work from Home últimately not helpful for work life balance or community building					0	Public relations	Hybrid	Home	Hiking at Tilden, out to eat in rockridge, Oakland,	Very safe - much appreciated	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week		Cost of housing feels prohibited to being settled long term
57	Oakland	Temescal	37	0	Male, engaged	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No							Desire to explore the west coast				After Omicron									Neutral				0	Structural Engineering	Fully remote	CoWork- Temescal Works	Piedmont Ave restaurants, Sibly Volcanic for hikes	neutral	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Weekly	Nature	Crime in this area (car theft specifically) is out of control. The leadership of the city of Oakland is close to non-existing when in comes to a countability for this systematic collapse a of comunal safety program. Resources are in dire need to fund law enforcement assets to reduce crime.
58	San Francisco	Inner Sunset	31	0	White, female, partnered, able-bodied	$75,000-104,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Yes				Both			I think covid brought my boyfriend and I closer and forced me to slow down and appreciate small things. But it also kept me away from family for longer than I wanted. It also negatively impacted my field and many of the neighborhoods I care about (the tenderloin specifically)					0	Housing policy/affordable housing and community development	Hybrid	My home	Friends homes, Golden Gate Park, neighborhood bars and restaurants on the west side, soccer at Beach Chalet, concerts	I think it’s been decent, I appreciate that some people still wear masks on public transit and I try to do the same.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	I live very close to my friends, I have a car, I have rent control, I live in a two income household with no kids, my partner and I both work in the public/non profit sector and our jobs connect us deeply to the city and it’s goings on which positively impacts our experience here, to an increasing degree I feel a part of San Francisco as opposed to some who just lives here.	My quality of life here is as good as it’s ever been. It is hard for me to imagine leaving without compromising on some of the things I enjoy most (eg spending time with friends, access to nature, good food, meaningful engagement in policy/politics (both in my work and personal lives). The list could go on…
59	San Francisco	Lower Haight	31	0	Cis male, white, gay, single	More than $300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job		Friends		Intuition/feeling of possibility					Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Neutral				0	Management consulting	Hybrid	Home	Friends homes, parks (Mission Dolores, Golden Gate Park), outer sunset bars, fillmore street	Not sure -- haven't really paid attention	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily
60	Oakland	Temescal	32	0	Woman, married, white, transplant	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job									Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Negative		It was hard to build momentum early on -- there were very few opportunities to create new memories with people (sitting distanced or masked in a park doesn't count to me).		0	Career services/HR	Fully remote	Home	Lots of hiking - Tilden, Claremont Canyon, Redwood Regional; out to eat in Temescal, Rockridge, Piedmont Ave (no regular go tos); friends' houses, mostly in the East Bay but occasionally in SF	Neutral; covid prevention measures didn't impact my life too significantly. I was going to make the choices I wanted to make to stay safe and sane regardless of what was happening across the bay if that makes sense.	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	It's expensive! This is the primary barrier to a sustainable life here for me.	I love my life in California, the Bay, and specifically the East Bay. Glowing gratitude for the small things that make my life so wonderful here: weekday hikes, weekend camping, jawdropping flora on every corner, farmers' markets that I just love...the list goes on. Rant: to make it a 10, I would need to feel a) that there is a stable financial future here for me and b) that public effort and legislative policies support unhoused people and actually care about their livelihoods and futures. As an individual, I do my best to donate, volunteer, and show kindness to people in hard positions, but individual action is simply not enough, and I'm really tired of both regular and powerful people growing immune/complacent to the dire straits of unhoused neighbors. The lack of humanity is so staggering I can't really put words to it.
61	Oakland	Grand Lake	30	0	30, male, hapa, single, able-bodied, likes cats	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat	Somewhat	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Yes			Friends	Family	Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Yes				Positive	It allowed me to stay home and learn new skills to change my career trajectory							0	3d/design/adtech	Fully remote	Home office	Food nearby (Dona, taste of thai, lion dance cafe, mr green bubble), see a show (fox theater, mostly shows in sf tho) drive out to a hiking spot (redwoods by chabot), take a ferry to SF, walk to rose garden and pet the cats, walk around piedmont, or walk around lake merritt	Unfortunately inevitable	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	I live near my parents which is important to me as they age.	I appreciate how you phrased these questions, you're a talented writer. I don't have much to say. I like living here, all things considered.
62	Berkeley	North Berkeley	28	0	Cis-woman, White, Queer, Jewish, single, able-bodied	$0-44,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No			Grad School					Yes	1		After Omicron									Neutral				0	Social Work	Fully in-person		bartavelle, lovely's are spots i've frequented in the past. tilden to hike locally. berkeley rose garden	i came after omicron. i've felt pretty safe and am not especially worried about getting covid. the bay feels more masked than other areas i've spent time in, which i'm fine with and often mask in grocery stores still.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Daily	I think that's it!	I'm so conflicted about the Bay! On the one hand, it's idyllic—beautiful, three fun cities to explore (SF, Berkeley and Oakland), proximity to even more beauty. It's incredibly expensive but the quality of life is much higher than NYC, in my opinion, depending on what's important to you (obviously Subway>BART). Being from the East Coast, I do find myself gravitating toward people from the East Coast or who have spent time there. Being connected to Berkeley as a grad student gave me some community right away. My first year was rough in a lot of ways.
63	Oakland	Temescal	66	1	Married, very able-bodied, Ph.D., love visual arts, live with husband and dog, . .	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat dissatisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No				Friends	Family						Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		Primarily it was becoming less safe to live here and this increasingly impacted most of the activitues I enjoy	Negative		I no longer feel as connected to why I live here; lock-downs impacted many businesses and many are gone . . .						0	Design (visual arts)	Fully in-person		Hiking: Claremont Preserve, Tilden, Sibley, Redwood, Briones. IKEA Cafe, Market Hall for coffee, pastry etc outside, Fourth Street (Berkeley) eateries	Severe lock-downs very damaging	I still do but don't plan to indefinitely	A few times a week	The weather and the incredible East Bay Regional Park system encourage outdoor activities. If we move I will miss these regional parks and possibly more than anything else. I love the many beautiful gardens and varied architecture. I also cherish the Oakland Symphony. Being close to beaches and not too far from the Sierra Mountains is nice.	I just mentioned a few things I love such as beaches nearby, regional parks, symphony, great food. What I dislike more than many other negative things is the crime which causes me to feel increasingly unsafe. And I miss all the small businesses I loved that closed due to Covid lock-downs and violent demonstrations. Overall, people are not friendly. For example, when I greet someone walking by my home I am so pleased when they smile and return the greeting partially because often when I greet someone with a simple "Hello," I am completely ignored.
64	Other	Alameda	28	0	A	More than $300,000	Very dissatisfied	Somewhat	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Yes						A				Before Covid	No	No	Progressive policies are sending the Bay Area into a 3rd world cesspool		Neutral								0	A	Fully remote	Home office	Never Oakland like I use to. Not worth the hassle of being robbed or having to fix a bipped window	Too neurotic	Other	A few times a month	Your questions are way too Covid centric. The Bay Area started sucking well before Covid	Looking forward to retirement when I’ll take my wealth to another area where failed progressive policies and excuse making politicians are not celebrated.
65	Oakland	Montclair/piedmont pines	34	0	Female, partnered	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Negative		Covid felt like fake life and that feeling didn't turn off like a light switch, so it's been hard to remember that this is real life and I shouldn't just be treating it like a nice little break/purgatory. I guess hard to compare myself and surroundings from the before times		0	Restaurants/design/craft	Hybrid	Kitchen table	A lot of dinner parties at my place, coffee shop dates with friends (but not as often as I like) hikes in the skyline parks	I don't really know. I think I was mostly on board with the level of strictness. I mostly did what I was told in terms of mask stuff and went with the flow	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	I think this place is really special, but I feel like I don't have enough time (or make enough time) to really make use of it—both the outdoor stuff and also the great people I've met—because it's so expensive and I feel like I need to spend so much time working or I get really guilty. Maybe that's a me problem though. I also do get pretty disappointed and exhausted by the crime/car theft stuff. It's just shitty and makes it harder to get excited about the community vibe	Mm I know there is so much interesting stuff and people here and I feel so grateful when I peel things back to reveal that—laney college for me has been such a gift and a vault of cool people I wouldn't have met otherwise, but I definitely don't feel like I engage enough or am on the pulse of this place the way I have felt other places and it's tough to know if that's me, covid, the bay.
66	Oakland	Near the top of Piedmont Ave one block away from Piedmont	61	0	Female, white, single, heterosexual, homeowner, graduate degree, able bodied	$200,000-$300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes				Family						Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	No	Crime is a concern in certain areas. I feel safe in my neighborhood though as well as other areas of the East Bay.		Positive	Allowed me to work remotely full time and not commute into SF. More personal time available.							0	Financial services	Fully remote	Home office	Friends’ houses, dog walking in various neighborhoods (Rockridge, Piedmont, North Berkeley, Claremont, etc)	I thought it was handled well. I felt safe. I tend to be more introverted so didn’t miss seeing people regularly. Did a lot of zoom and phone calls and meeting outside.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	I grew up here (SF) and returned after college many years ago. Even with the crime and homelessness, I’d never move out of the Bay Area.	I’m generally very happy living here and try not to get caught up in the negative. I own a house, have a good job and good health, and have solid financial resources, so I feel quite fortunate.
67	Oakland	Temescal	45	1	Married woman	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat dissatisfied	Yes	Yes	No		Job	Grad School					No, but I decided to stay		Made a life here. Job payed more here. My husband was already settled here.	Before Covid	Yes				Negative		The streets are filthy. There are way more homeless people now. A lot of my favorite businesses and restaurants went out of business						1	Healthcare	Fully in-person		Lake Merritt, piedmont area, meet up to drink coffee at timeless with friends, walk the Berkeley marina.	It’s the same as most cities.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Daily
68	Oakland	Piedmont Avenue	61	0	Female	$75,000-104,999	Very dissatisfied	Somewhat	Somewhat	No							relationship				Before Covid	No	No	police shortage		Neutral								0	retired	Fully remote	retired	to friends' houses	awful, homelessness and crime shot up	After getting vaccinated	A few times a week
69	Oakland	Adams Point	77	1	Partnered, housed solo	$0-44,999	Neutral	Yes	Yes	No				Friends							Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	No	Crime		Negative		Less communal activity, closed businesses						0	Retired: graphics/marketing			Piedmont adult school, Zoom, Tilden, Oakland hills, Freeform dance venues in Oakland & Berkeley, Shambala Cafe	Pretty reasonable, though I have tended toward more vigilance.	After getting vaccinated	A few times a week	Weather!, diversity of people, multitude of activities, spiritual communities, farmers’ markets	Have lived and worked in Oakland for decades and love it, but have become wary and cautious, and less out in streets and stores, and sadly rarely at Lake Merritt anymore because of crime.
70	Oakland	Rose Garden	50	0	SWF	$145,000-200,000	Somewhat dissatisfied	Somewhat	Somewhat	No		Job									Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	No	Crime, criminals, lack of law enforcement, lack of punishment		Negative		Still have to wear masks at work						0	Health-care	Fully in-person		Nowhere in Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont or Rockridge due to crime, I patronize restaurants and parks and stores in Orinda and Lafayette	Way overboard, too much lockdown, endless masks	Other	Daily	Car break ins, muggings, lack of safety reducing quality of life	Can't wait to leave CA, just here to payoff debts. Will never live in a liberal area again due to lack of police and allowance of crime and blight
71	Oakland	Temescal	40	1	Married female	$200,000-$300,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No					Family						Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Film	Fully remote	Writer	Homes of friends	Very safe	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	Access to cool programs, museum, talks, performances and strong feeling of community
72	Berkeley	Central	45	0	Race	$45,000-74,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes				Family						Before Covid	Yes				Positive	Long vacation							1	Oakland zoo	Fully in-person		Zoo	We killed it	Other	Daily	Expensive	Love it or leave it
73	Oakland	temescal	38	0	Partnered	More than $300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No					Family	Intuition/feeling of possibility	Undergraduate				Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								1	Tech	Hybrid	Anywhere	Temescal brewery, mother tongue coffee, walks in Temescal, runs in Oakland hills	Reasonably appropriate	After getting vaccinated	Daily	Diversity of people, diversity and quality of food, weather	The most disappointing things about living in the Bay Area right now are homelessness and crime. In the past I have advocated for a more hands off approach to homelessness, but it’s clear this isn’t working. And I can’t help but feel that rampant homelessness contributes to a feeling of lawlessness that lowers the barriers for the kinds of crime we most commonly see.
74	Oakland	Upper Rockridge	39	1	Married, hetero, female	More than $300,000	Somewhat dissatisfied	Somewhat	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes	Job			Family						Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Healthcare	Hybrid	Diablo area	For drinks/dinner - The Claremont, Lamorinda, WC	On par with most coastal cities	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	High cost of living, high taxes, terrible elected officials	Was easier to live here in the 80’s and 90’s. People are angry, not nice, selfish, and not sociable. All the new transplants ruined the local small town culture. Sf is not accessible due to crime and traffic. Shit place to live unless you have family.
75	Oakland	Temescal	old	0	female	$45,000-74,999	Very dissatisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	No		Job									Before Covid	No	No	destruction of cities by current democratic politicians		Negative		media-created polarization around vaccine and masks ideologies, BLM riots, increased crime and tolerance of crime, increased prices and cost of living due to theft and illegal immigration, closure of many small businesses,						1	healthcare	Fully in-person		local restaurants with outdoor seating	a complete disaster - in particular, the vaccine mandates.	Other	A few times a week	I used to love living here but cannot wait to get out at my earliest opportunity
76	Oakland	Mosswood	49	0	Non-binary /partnered/ able bodied	$75,000-104,999	Very dissatisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	No		Job									Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		It was always a bit dangerous in certain areas of the neighborhood. It wasn’t safe to take BART or to walk at night.	Negative		Most of my friends moved out of state. They were a huge part of what we considered community here.						1	Medical: specific to the Bay	Hybrid	At home	Recently out of the Oakland area. To Richmond or El Cerrito to pubs or restaurants there. We try different places all the time	I had Covid 3 times and it made me almost die twice. It made me very careful and anxious about getting it again. Oakland took a long time to catch up to the rest of the Bay in testing /vaccinations and safety precautions.	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	Weekly	I will say that rising crime and some very recent dangerous situations in our neighborhood has made it necessary to get to know your immediate neighbors. Where we once would have just waved cordially to one another, we now share our numbers and report any suspicious activity. It is a good thing that has come out of a challenging situation. Now our neighbors are looking for other places to move due to rising crime.	I said a bit preciously, but when I moved here seven years ago, we could walk around the neighborhood and drive places nearby to walk our dogs. There were street fairs and the whole neighborhood would come out for family friendly fun. It’s been very hard to watch our city decline over the last four years, much of it definitely came around the pandemic, but now that it is waning, the sheer amount of people who are houseless has grown so much. They have been stealing our mail, stealing items from our home ( all reported to the police) and have been calling me and my partner disparaging slurs and threatening harm. In the last two weeks it’s gotten so bad that even we were talking about moving, though financially it’s not feasible right now. I want to love Oakland. I really do. But we sadly don’t feel safe here anymore.
77	Oakland	Emeryville	81	1	Make White Straight Married (46 years)	$105,000-144,999	Somewhat satisfied	No	Somewhat	No		Job									Before Covid	Yes				Negative		Six days in hospital isolation						0	Government (Retired)	Fully in-person		Bay Street movie/ Ole’s Waffle House / Redwoid Park	Not quite good enough, but close	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	Transportation / Handicap Access	Homelessness / criminality / graffiti / potholes - whole place is visibly decaying and getting worse
78	Oakland	West Oakland	61	0	Single, Black, heterosexual	$200,000-$300,000	Very dissatisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No		Job									Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Negative		Not well-connected to work or peers		0	Philanthropy	Fully remote	Home	Out to eat, hikes (Point Isabel, Albany Bulb, Tilden Park, Marin)	Fine	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	I am constantly in fear for my safety. It makes me sad that businesses are closing and suffering.	I’m tied here because I own property. Ultimately I think it’s a good thing, but I’m waiting until I can sell it and leave city life.
79	Berkeley	South Berkeley	28	0	female, single, able-bodied	$75,000-104,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No			Grad School					No, but I decided to stay		didn’t want the hassle of moving, like my neighborhood and roommates, job allows me to work remotely	Peak Covid (Feb 2020 - Feb 2022)									Neutral				0	State government	Hybrid	Home	Gilman brewing, San Pablo park, cafe colucci, Sibley volcanic		I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week		Although I like living here, I may move to Sacramento for the following reasons: 1) proximity to work, 2) cost of living, 3) less risk of vehicle or other property damage
80	Berkeley	Tunnel Road	33	0	Asian, married, cis, able bodied, employed	$105,000-144,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Nope, I've been here my whole life!						Never moved for extended period of time				Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								1	Museum	Hybrid	Home	Too many to name. Around town, around the Bay	Just right, speaking as someone who does not own a business, does not have kids in school, and was able to stay employed	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	This is home, nothing more needs to be said	People need to chill, goddamn. We live in a metropolitan urban area. There are rich people, there are poor people. Stop obsessing over the news, put your phone down, and go really be a member of your community and connect with people. If you have privilege, be grateful and humble, and have some compassion for those who don't.
81	Oakland	Adam's Point	61	1	Single	$45,000-74,999	Neutral	Yes	Yes	No					Family						Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	No	Lack of consequences for crime.		Neutral								1	Elementary before, aftercare teacher	Fully in-person		Peets Lakeshore, lake merritt	Good	After getting vaccinated	Daily	Bike to bus commute rocks, cultural/food
82	Oakland	Santa Fe	30	0	White, Jewish, female, married, straight	$145,000-200,000	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Nope, I've been here my whole life!				Family						Before Covid	Yes				Both			Positive: hiked all over the bay, took up hobbies, got two kitties, re-evaluated my relationship with work, took daily walks and really got to know my neighborhood Negative: people are quicker to anger and far more polarized, inflation has made my life SO much more expensive, general loneliness.					0	Apparel	Hybrid	Home	Redwood regional, Joaquin Miller, Tilden, my house, Jupiter beer, Hoi Polloi	Hindsight 20/20? Probably too vigilant. But I can’t exactly blame our elected officials for not wanting to, like, die.	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	None	This is still a wonderful place to live. Yes, there’s crime. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, there are homeless people. Yes, there are people with whom I do not share politics. There are things that are frustrating about any place, and I’m kind of tired of the “Oakland is broken” narrative. It seems like most people just want to complain and are looking to win arguments rather than make positive change.
83	Oakland	Crocker Highlands	37	1	Female, married	$105,000-144,999	Neutral	Yes	Yes	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Nope, I've been here my whole life!		Grad School		Family			No, but I decided to stay		The Bay is my home	Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	No	Crime, anarchy, untreated mental illness, drugs, homelessness		Neutral								0	Health care	Fully in-person		Staying at home with our baby, Golden Lotus	Hyper-vigilant about COVID and permissive of crime and utter lawlessness	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	Crime	I’ve lived in the Bay my whole life, public school edu thru 2 grad programs. Crime is rampant without any public official accountability, and the pervasive lack of safety is gutting the Bay lifestyle RIP
84	Oakland	Rockridge	39	1	No	$145,000-200,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No					Family						Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Management	Hybrid	Home		Too lax, ceded to anti-maskers and anti-vaxers	I still do but don't plan to indefinitely	A few times a week		The worst part of living in the Bay is the growing right wing dogwhistles, largely organized on websties like Nextdoor
85	Berkeley	Gourmet Ghetto	59	1	Male, married	More than $300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No			Grad School					No, but I decided to stay		Good jobs, great climate, outdoor recreation	Before Covid	Yes				Negative		Caused a lot of amenities to close						0	Startups	Fully in-person		Tilden/Wildcat, Joaquin Miller, Marina, Albany Bulb, restaurants in the Gourmet Ghetto, our house	Schools should have opened far sooner. It was absurd how long they were closed. During the early weeks of the pandemic (March/April), my kids and I would play outside on a deserted street with an occasional passerby and would get lots of dirty looks even though we stood on the opposite side of the street while the person passed. It was ridiculous.	After getting vaccinated	Daily	Outdoor activities	I consider myself pretty liberal, as is my spouse. We think the current progressive agenda being pushed in our area has reached the absurd. Progressive policies regarding policing are complete and utter failures, and are dangerous. Both my spouse and I support means of getting criminals into mainstream society so they aren't a drag economically. But progressives think you free repeat offenders first while imagining some airy fairy rehab program that might come into being sometime. Create the programs first and make sure they work, obviously! I'm also tired of the taxes that are never enough and don't deliver much. I spent quite a bit of time correcting the square footage registered with the city to reduce our square footage based taxes, but Berkeley refuses to voluntarily correct all the errors. The proper response is to use the county recorded area, instead of the secretly recorded Berkeley sq ft - which almost no one knows about! The excessive focus on identity has moved beyond the ridiculous. There is much eye-rolling among my peers. The Berkeley city council spends too much time on performative nonsense.
86	Oakland	Adams Point	78	1	White, female, divorced and widowed	$45,000-74,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes						social connection				Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Retired RN	Fully in-person		Walk in neighborhood, Church, Bus rides to shop on Piedmont Ave	Easy, very little resistance from deniers	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a month	Cultural and racial diversity. I see homeless people daily.	I lived in San Francisco for 4 years, loved it but moved back Oakland to be close to family. Lived in Santa Fe NM after I retired, but didn't related to the culture there. Lived in Berkeley when I was a student at UC ( transfer student at age 25). After 3 years I left and told myself I'd never go back. Way, too "my way or the highway".
87	Oakland	Temescal	53	0	Caucasian, cía female, ambulatory disability, Jewish, newly single (yay!), queerish, urbanite, empath	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Yes		Grad School		Family	Intuition/feeling of possibility		No, but I decided to stay		I graduated, liked the art & music & local activist scenes I am a part of plus lots of family here	Before Covid	Yes				Negative		I work in culture, we had to shut down public events for 3 years … everyone broke & exhausted now						0	Arts & Culture, voter protection, civic engagement	Fully remote	In the back of a storefront below my apt	Oeste, new parish, the stork, ybca, DF Moma, OMCA, the Albany Bulb, Berkeley Marina, Temescal Pool, banana yoga, five flavors herb shop, Noise Pop, 7 West	Better than most	I still do and don't intend to ever stop	Daily	Bicycle culture ❤️🚲
88	Oakland	Piedmont Ave Rose Garden area	49	0	Single Male Irish Scottish descent, recently separated	$105,000-144,999	Very dissatisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	No				Friends							Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	No	Crime is out of control, like I've never seen in the 27 years I've lived in Oakland.		Negative		Many friends moved, urban downtowns are not vibrant anymore since most people are working from home which has helped with the closure of many restaurants and shops.						0	IT Support	Hybrid	At home	Music venues, Ivy Room, Stork Club, Elis Mile High Club	Well done	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	Crime	Are you still live Oakland but am now looking for a way out and ready to move. The mayor and city council are clueless. I've considered myself liberal, progressive, and always voted Democrat my entire life but the "housing first" and social services as a priority over law enforcement is currently not working. The experiment needs to change.
89	Oakland	NOBE	65	1	Female XX, single……you cannot change sex, just plastic surgeries	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat dissatisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	No							Weather				Before Covid	No	No	Crime		Negative		Social it changed,inflation and crime are horrid						0	Real Estate	Hybrid	Home	Restaurants and parks	They should never had mandated rules, COVID is not scary, they have used it as a way to control people and sell drugs	I never regularly masked indoors	A few times a week		Horrified at the crime here
90	Oakland	Maxwell Park	41	1	Married cis female	$200,000-$300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Yes	Job									Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	Yes, but life here was already trending that way		General safety, more inequality	Neutral								0	Education	Hybrid	HOme	Museums like Oakland Museum of CA; playgrounds with my son esp Dimond Park	Good. I think it was one of the safest places to be at the worst time	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a week	n/a
91	Oakland	Near kaiser	40's	0	Woman	$75,000-104,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Yes				Negative		Didn't covid have a negative affect on everyone's life? It sucked all around						0	Mental health	Fully in-person		Redwood regional, emmeryville marina, point pinole regional shoreline, all the resturants	Fine	Other	Daily	Oakland has amazing and vibrant community
92	Oakland	Temescal	51	0	white	$75,000-104,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No						Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	Yes				Positive	work from home. new job. Many people that didn't want to live in bay area but did so for work left.							0	Pharma	Hybrid	Home office		Excellent. Overly cautious ended up helping us a lot compared to other parts of country.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	Weather is the best. Diversity in my life is the most important. Having neighbors from all walks of life is unbeatable. I don't have much in possessions so crime isn't really high on my mind because I don't have a fancy car, jewelry, clothes, etc.	It's gotten so expensive and my partner and I have had to adjust quite a bit. I'm lucky to have a good apartment with decent rent but it's always a fear that we will have to find a new place at some point and will have to move out of Oakland or to a more dangerous neighborhood.
93	Oakland	Rockridge	36	1	Female, white, straight, married, able bodied, home owner	More than $300,000	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No				Friends							Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	No	Getting older, having kids		Positive	My husband and I both started working from home which has been amazing for having kids. We also got a good deal on our house because we bought it during peak lockdown.							0	I'm a psychologist	Fully remote	Home office	Mostly someone's home or neighborhood walks. We often go to redwood regional, sometimes Sibley or chabot.	I really appreciated being in a place that took precautions longer than most places.	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a month	We love our neighbors and how often we run into people we know when we go for walks around the neighborhood. We feel spooked by the increase in crime, and I don't think I know anyone who hasn't been impacted at least a little (eg car window broken). Mostly we care about the violent crime and muggings in the middle of the day. But other than this, we love the neighborhood, love running errands on foot, love college Ave and all the shops and restaurants. We try to shop locally as much as possible and tip well because the businesses have been through a lot and we want them to stay!	Recently someone was mugged on our street on a Sunday afternoon, and it made me think about whether there is anywhere else I'd rather live. But despite the crime, I can't imagine anywhere else I'd rather live. I think it's partly the relationships we've developed with our neighbors but also I love the general feel of the neighborhood. It's vibrant and the weather is amazing. I hope it gets a little safer soon.
94	Oakland	Highland Park	44	1	Male 44 married	$45,000-74,999	Neutral	Somewhat	Somewhat	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Nope, I've been here my whole life!	Job		Friends	Family						Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	No	Lived here my whole life. Couldn’t live anywhere else.		Neutral								0	Medical	Fully in-person		We do hike at different trails in the Bay. We take the kids to the Oakland Zoo, Fairyland, local parks, south shore shopping center, anywhere they may have fun in the sun.	Poor when it came to the moratorium. Many small landlords foreclosed due to tenants abusing the system.	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	Crime is at an all time high. If we don’t tackle the problem head on with urgency, I will be the first to light a candle light vigil for the city of Oakland.	I’ll keep this brief. I’ve been living in Oakland for nearly 25 years. Being raised in quiet and safe Marin county, it was a culture shock at first. But I’ve learned to adapt and appreciate this city and all that it offers. I also met my wife here 20 years ago. She was born and raised here. Our love for Oakland and the Bay runs deep. Every time after a long trip whether it’s beautiful Florida or paradise in Hawaii, there’s no better feeling than the smell of Oakland/Bay Area air when we land. This is Home and always will be. However regardless of what happens to Oakland from here on out, we are inevitably leaving. Before I end this my biggest hope for the city of Oakland is change. The change of leadership and laws to make Oakland a better and safer place because Oaklanders deserve better.
95	Oakland	Bushrod	37	0	Latine, female, partnered, able-bodied	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No					Family		College				Before Covid	Yes				Neutral								0	Mental health	Hybrid	Home	Hiking in Redwood Regional, Point Reyes, Briones, Tilden, Drake’s, Market Hall on Rockridge, Bombera restaurant, Coyote Hills Regional Park, Grand Lake Farmers Market, Sonoma downtown, Cline Family Cellars, Wildcat Canyon, Standard Fare restaurant, Third Culture bakery, Doña	It was an adequate response, I felt safe enough	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	A few times a week	I have the means to take many vacations outside the Bay Area. I have rent control which allows me a lot of freedom to feel stable in my housing.	Anywhere where people are attracted to live to enrich themselves (high salaries working in tech), and not to create community or because they particularly care about an area, you will have issues. High income inequality breeds distrust and breaks down the fabric of a community. When people who originally moved here to make money end up settling here and don’t consider anybody’s interests but themselves, we have communities that once used to feel safe because everyone used to look out for each other to now one where that is rare and becomes about protecting one’s own resources from the house in front of you who is clearly poorer than you or feeling on guard because now you’re being seen as unwanted in the neighborhood you grew up in because you’re not in the same economic class as everyone buying up the homes around you.
96	Oakland	West Oakland	43	1	married caucasian female	$105,000-144,999	Neutral	Yes	Yes	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Nope, I've been here my whole life!	Job									Before Covid	Yes				Negative		People have moved away, but that was also pre covid						0	I'm a stay at home mom	Fully in-person		East Bay Regional Parks, Tacos Oscar, Emeryville Public Market, Albany Bulb	ok	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	Daily	I take my kids to school in a diffrent neighborhood	Oakland and West Oakland is definitely dirtier than it was 10 or 12 years ago. There is trash everywhere. Each time I go downtown or to Lake Merritt, I worry about my car window getting smashed. This used to bother me quite a lot, but lately I've accepted it. If I were a business owner, I would be very worried and upset. Oakland always has had challenges, but I hear the sentiment "I've lived here since the 1960's/70's/8o's and it's never been this bad!" all the time.
97	Oakland	Piedmont Avenue	60	1	Married, parent, retired, recently disabled, PhD, mother of two adults, white, fiercely proud to call Oakland home 30+ years	$105,000-144,999	Very satisfied	Yes	Yes	No					Family						Before Covid	Less so, but I'm optimistic	No			Neutral								0	Retired from education	Hybrid	Home	Jack London square, piedmont avenue	Adequate	I never regularly masked indoors	A few times a week	Kindness of strangers	Parking anywhere in the Bay Area has gotten so difficult. In general, people who live here are tolerant and caring. It feels a bit more like crime has encroached .... I wouldn't live anywhere else. Raising two kids here (now amazing adults) has shown me the importance of living with a huge variety of people.
98	Berkeley	ELMWOOD/ROCKRIDGE/BATEMAN	51	0	i live alone	$145,000-200,000	Somewhat dissatisfied	Yes	No, and it's been awhile since I got here	Yes, but I grew up in a much different part than where I currently live	Yes	Job		Friends		Intuition/feeling of possibility					Before Covid	No	No	born and raised bay area and have never felt this afraid to walk outside in broad daylight until now — crime has me in anxiety. i miss feeling safe is this beautiful community.		Neutral								1	Aerospace - satellites	Fully remote	At home	Baker & Commons, 5 Tacos, Inn the Wood, Mrs Dalloways. Too afraid to hike here, prefer Mt Tam	WE DID GREAT	I never regularly masked indoors	Monthly	Missing the feeling of safety THE MOST. Businesses leaving, sports teams leaving. Are we a dying city? I used to be proud to live here. Now when I travel internationally, I just say I’m from California. i used to proudly say The SF bay area :(	thanks for asking - i hope good comes from this.
99	Oakland	Adam’s point	27	0	27	$45,000-74,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Somewhat	Yes, and I live near where I grew up	Yes				Family						After Omicron									Both			I got really close with friends after Covid, It made me more distant from family.	0	I’m a teacher	Fully in-person		Lake Merritt, Korean BBQ, bowling	It varies	I still mask occasionally when I know a lot of people who are getting Covid	Weekly
100	Other	Piedmont-Dracena Park	59	0	White straight single able bodied female	$75,000-104,999	Somewhat satisfied	Yes	Yes	No							Moved away from home which was Central Valley				Before Covid	Sort of, but a pale imitation of what once was	No	Crime, lawlessness, lack of safety, homelessness		Negative		No negative effects on me specifically but places changed due to crime, drugs, homelessness and so many businesses closed and didn’t reopen						0	Retired	Fully remote	Home	eat out-Pomella, Zachary’s, Sfizio, drinks at Graduate, Kingfish, Crogans; classes from Piedmont Adult school and rec dept, walk dogs in Dracena Park, visit Mulberry’s or Pete’s, Montclair farmers market, Alameda antique faire, drive to SF where I used to live to see friends	Pretty good under circumstances	After Omicron passed/after mask mandates mostly stopped	A few times a month	Nice weather here, great neighbors where I live	Fortunately, I live in one of the better areas with non Oakland police coverage and less crime. However, I go out less, change how I dress ie no jewelry etc when venturing into Oakland and don’t go out after dark It’s sad that the politicians and police defunding etc has damaged Oakland and many surrounding areas