[gojomo]

All good info, except I think the "(most) places" overstates how "gritty" the East Bay is. There are more poor neighborhoods than on the peninsula and valley, yes, but also plenty of everything else as well – it's expansive and diverse in every dimension.

(The areas a Berkeley student is likely to live are more urban/dense than many a suburban – or Australian – newcomer might be familiar with, but still far from 'inner-city' conditions. The prevalence of panhandlers/streetdwellers is likely to be the most notable 'grittiness', in SF/Berkeley/Oakland, for people who haven't seen it before.)

[dotBen]

North of San Jose, its only East Palo Alto that comes to mind as an area of crime/danger/social issue - and frankly EPA has been massively cleaned up and gentrified since Ikea was built.

Oakland remains a dangerous city, with large 'no go' areas after dark (and even some during the day). Yes there are some nice parts, Piedmont is very trendy and Berkeley is pretty mellow. But you can't deny there remains some very serious issues in large parts of the East Bay.

[gojomo]

...but still not "most" places in the East Bay. (And though it may be a statistical anomaly, for homicides in 2011 so far SF is running even with Oakland, and San Jose almost as many.)

Edit: Corrected; at first I wrote that SF and SJ each had more than Oakland, but the actual numbers seem to be SF-11, O-11, SJ-10... if the rate continues, each will have a much worse year than last year.