I don't care about V-Nasty's opinion specifically, but just speaking on Oakland in general...
I find it bizarre how so many people seem to act like the entire city of Oakland is some horrible ghetto place. Yeah, there are some "bad" neighborhoods here, but there are also bad neighborhoods in San Francisco and every other big city everywhere. There are many nice/average neighborhoods here in Oakland too... plenty of shopping, parks, restaurants, bars/pubs, and other nice places to go...
Rockridge, Temescal, Lake Merritt, Lakeshore/Grand Lake, Piedmont Ave, Jack London/Uptown, Montclair, the hills/Mills College area.... oh, and the Golden Gate Shopping District is also an up-and-coming area with some nice shops/businesses... Chinatown is cool too; some good places for Dim Sum and shopping... And to be honest, I don't think Fruitvale is so bad either, it's really not that different from the Mission District in SF which everybody loves.
Anyway, the point is, there's plenty to do in Oakland. The whole "no there there" thing is nonsense.