I keep my 30 foot sailboat in Alameda despite living in Santa Rosa.
My daughter has said “Dad, there must be closer places to keep your boat. Why not San Rafael?
It’s a fair question, but has a rational answer. Simply put, The Oakland Estuary is the driveway to some of the best sailing in the world. I’d rather drive 90 minutes to a boat that is already in the heart of the water where I want to sail then have to plow through hours of undesirable chop just to get where I want to be.
Besides, Alameda’s not bad and the marina is very nice. The only two price tags are the 90 minute drive and the 15 seconds I’m forced to spend on Oakland surface streets each direction.
We are in peak storm season and find ourselves in yet another lengthy series of downpours. Motorcyclists take advantage of this down time by tinkering on their bikes in warm, brightly lit garages. Couch Potatoes are gonna Couch Potato and sailors drive through Hell or high water to check on their boats. So, that’s what I did.
The drive there was a non -event. My time on the boat wasn’t particularly noteworthy either.
As I was returning home and had just exited the tube under the Estuary that deposits me in Oakland for my mandatory 15 seconds I found myself as the lead car at a red light. I could see 980 from there…..I was so fucken close.
I was literally thinking about all the headlines I read each day about the unregulated anarchy that exists in Oakland when…… WHAMM!!!!
I got drilled from behind.
I hopped outta my freshly wounded Honda and walked back to my new acquaintance, while being pelted by the pouring rain. That was “insult to injury #1. I glanced at his freshly smashed front bumper and predictably found no license plate. A quick stroll to the ass end of his rig displayed the same “This space for rent” vacancy where a license plate should be. In the place of license plate bolts (intended on securing nothing at all) were the fake rifle bullets so commonly seen bristling all over our local Bro-Dozers and the occasional obnoxiously loud Mustang or Charger.
I leaned in toward his car and Dude doesn’t even budge, but cracks his window just enough to communicate. He was in his 30’s, had a myriad of neck and facial tattoos and a ski beanie rising up on his head like a Smurf hat. I noticed a child seat in the rear which was unoccupied. I thought that was good. In the front seat next him was an enormous woman I can only presume is Baby Mama….with an infant in her lap. I thought that was bad.
I approached the slivered window and found myself having to almost shout over the increasing sounds of a crying baby combined with road and weather noise. I simply said “What the fuck, Man?”.
He replied, "I didn’t see the red light. I didn’t expect you to stop.”
I said “Whatever, I guess this is the license and insurance part”
He looked straight at me and said matter of factly “I ain’t got none of that shit, Bro.”
I glanced at my wrinkled but otherwise drivable car, looked back at him, shrugged and said “it is what it is, Man.”
I then hopped back into my bent but still trusty Honda and pointed us home feeling violated and a $500 deductible lighter, but grateful to be able to leave rainy Oakland under my own power at all.
My daughter asked me why I didn’t call the police. I said “Oakland PD doesn’t respond to their murders. There’s no fucken way they’d show up for a non confrontational white guy in a non-injury fender bender…..I mean C’mon….Next question.”
It did, however, force me to once again reflect on the utter lawlessness in that city and the obvious malignant issues it has that will take generations to correct…. if we were able to start today.
That guy has zero fear driving around the streets of Oakland with no attempt at any form of license plate, responsibility or accountability.
And why should he? That town has so many bigger fish to fry. That poor city has been in various forms of political and financial purgatory for my entire 63 laps around the sun. I don’t know why I expect anything different during….
My 15 seconds in Oakland.
probably had tatoos and a neckgaiter too . 
by the way he was cursing at the scene, fully grown man (taller bigger and older than me), I knew something is wrong with him.
