With apologies to Mr. Tony Bennett—sure he may have left his heart in San Francisco—but anyone who’s been in Oakland for more than two beats leaves a bit of their soul there. That goes for the greater East Bay, from (alphabetically) Alameda, Albany and Berkeley all the way to Union City—under the right conditions, something spiritual happens to you here that changes you. Moments, even small ones, can feel epochal to one’s own personal timeline.
Here’s one of mine: We were at Frog Park, where Rockridge gives way to Temescal. My son was a toddler, maybe 18 months. He was enjoying a lollipop, which somehow made its way free of his fingers and onto the sandy ground. He looked up at me, mostly perplexed, but I knew the tears would soon well in his eyes. So, I picked up the sucker, put it in my own mouth to rid it of the grit, germs and who knows what else, and gave it back to him. A couple other parents who witnessed the moment nodded their quiet acknowledgment that I’d indeed taken one for Team Howell. That’s precisely when the mysteries and vagaries of being a relatively new father suddenly became a lot less mysterious and vague.
And that’s the experience of living in the East Bay in a nutshell. It’s chaotic, noisy and gritty, but in an instant, it can clarify what it means to be human, invested and present. It welcomes you into its stunning mosaic of inclusivity, diversity, eclecticism and community and reflects the best experiences that can be had on Earth. As such, the East Bay is a home for everyone—a place to be oneself to the fullest. And, indeed, we have the best of the best here—hence, the focus of this issue—The Best of the East Bay.
It’s all in here: You, our readers, have spoken. And as Billie Joe Armstrong from our own Green Day once crooned, “It’s something unpredictable / But in the end it’s right / I hope you had the time of your life.”
