The Merritt neighborhood (aka Eastlake or East Lake) is a neighborhood in the San Antonio District on the southeast side of Lake Merritt.
It's mostly a residential neighborhood with a few main thoroughfares passing through (East 18th St., International Blvd., 12th St.) and a nice park. Of course, it also borders the Lake, which is delightful.
It's got a mix of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities with southeast asian folks, black folks, white folks, and latino folks living here.
An affordable senior housing center is currently under construction at the corner of 2nd Ave and East 15th Street.
Neighborhood Name
As is the case with many Oakland neighborhoods, there is disagreement over the name and borders of this neighborhood. Google Maps labels it Merritt (although it extends east to 6th Ave.)1. Wikipedia calls it Eastlake/East Peralta (while also indicating that the neighborhood used to be called East Peralta) and also has a separate neighborhood called Merritt2. Google Maps also has a separate neighborhood listed as East Peralta3. The website Nabewise lists this neighborhood as Merritt and the map on that site roughly mirrors the map above4.
Based on living there for a year, no one ever had any idea what I was talking about when I said that I lived in either Merritt or EastLake, but consistently, everyone knew exactly where I meant when I said "I live by the lake, down there by that taco truck." Indeed, Tacos Mi Rancho is the arrow in the very heart of this neighborhood (if the neighborhood was a dragon or a mythic spectral deer).
History
Occupy Oakland May 1st General Strike passing through Merritt (source)
I guess this was a fancy area on the east side of the lake originally? Railroads or streetcars (not sure!) went down 12th St. from downtown to East Oakland, so there was that. Boy, this section needs work...
Landmarks
Businesses
Restaurants
- Merritt Restaurant and Bakery
- Double D BBQ
- Pho Anh Dao
- Tacos Mi Rancho
- Green Papaya Deli
- The Rockin' Crawfish
- Portal Restaurant
- Wiener Werks
Grocery Stores
Other
Places of Worship
Data
Pages tagged “merritt”
