Item — HN Reader

I dislike how transplants tend to broadly paint the East Bay. It isn't a cheap region either.

Most blue collar labor types living in the East Bay are in the Alameda County flatlands (parts of Newark, parts of Fremont, inner city Oakland, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Albany) or North Contra Costa County (Pittsburg, Antioch, Richmond).

But most of the unskillled labor underclass you see in the Bay Area cities tend to drive in/Bart in/ACE in from San Joaquin Country, Sonoma County, or Monterey County.

It's definitely cheap in comparison to San Francisco. It's more expensive than most of the country, sure.

And yes some parts of the East Bay are expensive, especially the neighborhoods on the hills or Piedmont/Claremont and further inland like Walnut Creek or Orinda etc. But let's be real, most of the East Bay is one big suburban wasteland.

There are a lot of folks living in East Oakland (with roommates, often) who work in SF restaurants.